J. B. R. Cooper, an American, went to Santa Rosa as early as 1827.
Apparently following his statements Taylor says "it was estimated" that
2,000 Indians lived in Sonoma Valley and 1,500 in Santa Rosa Valley. In
another place (Ser. I, folio page 3) Taylor states that "when Capt.
Cooper settled the Molino Rancho, in Santa Rosa Valley, in 1834, there
were living in his neighborhood as many as 2,000 Canimares." The latter
term refers of course to the southeastern portion of the Southern Pomo.
We should not accept these pioneer estimates of Indian population
without examination and qualification. Neither should we reject them,
equally uncritically, as automatically exaggerated and mendacious, and
hence worthless. It is quite likely that Cooper knew more about the
number of Indians on his ranch than any other white man, at the time or
since. It is relatively unlikely that Cooper had any motive for
propagating a completely false report. On the other hand, it is wholly
possible that Cooper may have been inaccurate or careless in his count.
Nevertheless the Cooper estimate is quite in conformity with our other
sources of population information.
It was stated previously that 402 baptisms are on record from three
rancherias in the Santa Rosa area. To these may be added 220 others
whose names are clearly Pomo in character, making a total of 622. At
the rate of three aboriginal inhabitants to one baptism in this region,
the territory concerned--and this is very close to Cooper's home--would
have contained 1,866 people. The mission data thus in general support
Cooper's figure.
Cooper says that in 1834 there were "in his neighborhood" 2,000
Canimares. Since the Molino ranch embraced the region north of
Sebastopol and west of Santa Rosa, his "neighborhood" may be considered
as including the Sebastopol and Santa Rosa groups of the Southern Pomo,
leaving the Healdsburg, Cloverdale, and Dry Creek groups beyond his
horizon. The estimates cited by Taylor refer rather ambiguously to the
period between 1827 and 1834, let us say roughly 1830. The earliest
Pomo conversions which are recognizable from the mission records were
at San Rafael in 1820. These Pomo had therefore been subjected to
intense missionization for at least ten years prior to Cooper's
appearance. The population consequently must have been seriously
depleted when he first saw the Santa Rosa Valley.
If we disregard entirely the factor of depletion and accept Cooper's
1834 estimate of 2,000 Canimares around Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, we
may allow an equivalent population for the other three Southern Pomo
provinces. This yields a total of 5,000. If we attempt to make any
correction for depletion, we very quickly reach the figure already
arrived at by other methods, viz., 6,000.
That a comprehensive population reduction was in progress throughout
the era of 1820 to 1850 and later is attested by the report of Major
Heintzelman. His figure for the Northern Pomo, it will be recollected,
was definitely within the range of the population determined from
ethnographic data. His value for the Central Pomo was only one-third of
that computed by other methods, and the discrepancy was accounted for
on the basis of the decline in numbers from the first white contact to
1855, the year of Heintzelman's trip. At the end of his report he makes
the statement that "south of the Canyon of the Russian River there are
about eight hundred indians." In other words, the Southern Pomo (which
all lie south of the canyon) had dwindled to no more than 800. The
converse may also be maintained. Since Heintzelman had a very good
check on the population of the well-settled south and since, according
to all known testimony, the attrition among the Indians of this area
had been appalling during the preceding 30 to 40 years, it follows that
the original population must have been very much greater than that
conceded by Heintzelman. Hence a level of several thousand may be
accepted.
_Southern Pomo ... 6,000_
NORTHEASTERN POMO
This little tribe, living on the border of the Sacramento Valley, has
never been investigated thoroughly. Barrett (1908) listed 13 rancherias
but Merriam's informants (manuscript entitled "Sho-te-ah or Northeastern
Pomo Tribe and Villages") allowed only 7. At 50 persons per village
this would indicate a population of about 350.
_Northeastern Pomo ... 350_
SUMMARY
The figures advanced here give the Pomo as a whole a population of
20,760 individuals. This is three times Kroeber's estimate but
conforms to the general level found in this review of the Northwest
California tribes.
_POMO TOTAL ... 20,760_
THE COAST MIWOK
According to the maps shown by Barrett (1908) and by Kroeber (1925),
the Coast Miwok occupied an area of approximately 885 square miles in
Marin and southern Sonoma counties. A projection of the Pomo value of
8.0 persons per square mile would give 7,080 for the Coast Miwok, a
result which appears much too high.
A careful collection of former village sites through modern informants
has never been possible, even at the beginning of the present century,
because Marin County was infiltrated by the Spanish and the Indian life
was thus disrupted at a very early date. Indeed the first recognizable
Coast Miwok baptism was at San Francisco in 1783. Barrett and Kroeber
have assembled, to be sure mainly from the tradition handed down to
informants by their ancestors, a quite impressive list of villages.
Barrett (1908, pp. 303-314) gives 36, and Kroeber on his map (1925, p.
274) shows 42. If we arbitrarily assigned a population of 100 each, we
would have a total of approximately 4,000, probably somewhat too high a
value. The difficulty is that we have no clear means of gauging the
size of the typical Coast Miwok village, since no informants have been
able to give a precise figure and since the terrain occupied by this
tribe is different from that held by the Pomo to the north.
Even though the investigation of villages yields no very fruitful
results, the Mission records for the Coast Miwok provide a quite
adequate solution of the problem.
Unlike any other tribe north of San Francisco Bay the Coast Miwok were
thoroughly and completely brought into the missions. Beginning, as
indicated above in 1783, gentiles from the north shore were brought in
small numbers to the Mission Dolores for conversion. In 1817 San Rafael
was established, and within a few years the missionaries had made a
clean sweep to the coasts of the bay and the ocean and had begun to
penetrate north to the vicinity of Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. Meanwhile
a considerable number of converts had been taken to San Jose, and
subsequently some found their way to Sonoma. Fortunately we have the
baptism records, or their equivalent, of all these missions.
Identification of the Coast Miwok can be made in most of the records
(1) by the year and the location (e.g., the year 1817 at San Rafael);
(2) by village names identical with or similar to those listed by
Barrett and by Kroeber; (3) by linguistic affinities (such as the
prefix _echa_- or the suffix -_tamal_); and (4) by subsidiary notes
in the records indicating geographical location. Deleting all really
doubtful cases we have the following numbers of baptisms
San Francisco 896
San Rafael 916
Solano 48
San Jose 162
The total is 2,020 persons.
A baptism at any of the four missions constituted a net withdrawal of
one person from the native community, since all converts from the
immediate vicinity of the missions could be easily kept at the mission
establishment or could be recaptured without difficulty if they
escaped. Hence the total baptism number must very closely approximate
the total population of the area over a period of forty years. But the
wild population was undoubtedly decreasing owing to other causes from,
say, 1790 to 1830. The presence of the Spanish soldiers or missionaries
always introduced diseases and caused disruption of native society to
such an extent that the death rate outran the birth rate. Hence the new
converts were being drawn from a diminishing population.
Another factor is fugitivism. Intimate contact with the white man for a
long period taught the native what to expect in the missions and on the
ranches. Consequently there always was a fraction of the Indian
community which eluded the best efforts of the missionaries and which
made good its escape beyond the periphery of Spanish and Mexican
influence. Many of these natives never returned to their original
homes. Still other sources of attrition were the kidnaping of adults
for labor on the ranches during the 1820's and the promiscuous killing
of all sexes and ages during the frequent armed encounters between
white men and red men.
Although for the Coast Miwok the above-mentioned causes of loss cannot
be assessed numerically with any approach to accuracy, nevertheless
their total effect must have been considerable. As a purely arbitrary
but essentially reasonable guess we may say that they produced a
one-third reduction in the net aboriginal population. Then, if the
remaining two-thirds was baptized, the initial value would have
exceeded 3,000. This is twice the figure selected by Kroeber (1925, p.
275) who says that "the Coast branch may have numbered 1,500." Yet it
is difficult to see how, with a total baptism count of over 2,000, the
aboriginal level could have been any lower than 3,000.
_COAST MIWOK ... 3,000_
THE WAPPO AND THE LAKE MIWOK
These two ethnic groups are combined, together with the small corner of
the Wintun living in the lower Napa Valley, in order to complete this
survey of the area north of San Francisco Bay.
Direct area comparisons between the territory here concerned and that
held by the Pomo and the Coast Miwok can lead to only very tentative
conclusions. If we use the region delineated by Barrett (1908) on his
large-scale map, the peoples mentioned above occupied approximately 950
square miles of land surface. The density of population was reckoned
for the Pomo at 8.0 per square mile and that for the Coast Miwok, with
a population estimated at 3,000, comes to 3.4. The equivalent estimates
for the Wappo and Lake Miwok would be respectively 7,600 and 3,260.
There are no grounds for immediate decision whether either is too high
or too low. Consideration of the character of the terrain is not very
helpful since the Wappo-Lake Miwok habitat resembled that of the Pomo
in some respects and that of the Coast Miwok in others. We must
therefore turn to other devices.
In contrast to the Coast Miwok the Lake Miwok and the Wappo have been
the subjects of ethnographic studies of direct value to the population
problem, particularly those of Barrett (1908) and of Driver (1936). In
considering these data, and also those furnished by the mission
records, it will be desirable to split the region into six small areas
along the lines indicated by the map given by Kroeber in the Handbook
(1925, pl. 27, opp. p. 172). Hence we have (1) the Lake Miwok, (2) the
Western Wappo, (3) the Northern Wappo, (4) the Central Wappo, (5) the
Southern Wappo, and (6) the Wintun of Napa Valley. As a starting point
we may select the Western Wappo.
The names and the location of the villages differ widely as presented
by the three investigators of the area. The confusion is rendered even
more profound because Barrett in his terminology takes account of the
Pomo occupancy of Alexander Valley in the early years of the nineteenth
century, whereas Merriam and Driver ignore, not only the presence of
the Pomo, but also the names applied by them to settlements. On the
other hand, Driver's study is the most thorough of them all and for
this reason alone may well serve as the basis for consideration of
population. Driver lists (1936, pp. 183-184) 10 places which he calls
"permanent towns." Of these, one is located outside Alexander Valley
and hence may be disregarded; two are cited as of "unknown" location
and thus had better be disregarded also. There remain seven, all of
which Driver places on his map (p. 182). They are set forth below,
together with the names given by Merriam and Barrett which cannot be
reconciled with those of Driver.
_Kotico-mota_ (Driver). Koticomota is mentioned by Barrett (1908.
p. 271) as having been taken from the Pomo by the Wappo and
occupied by them. Probably the largest town in Alexander Valley.
_Nets-tul_ (Driver). This village is not mentioned by Barrett under
this name, although it is located near Barrett's Cimela and Koloko.
Its existence, however is confirmed by Merriam who calls it
Net-tool.
_Owotel-peti_ (Driver). This was located near the two preceding
villages on the east bank of the Russian River, in the vicinity of
Barrett's Cimela and Koloko. Driver mentions two summer camp sites,
the people of which lived here during the winter. Its status seems
assured.
_Pipo-holma_ (Driver). This was the northernmost village in the
valley. Barrett says (p. 271) this was an aboriginally Wappo town
and took the lead in the war with the Pomo.
_Tsimitu-tso-noma_ (Driver). Driver says that this was a "small
town" with no sweathouse, and that the people sweated at
Unutsawaholma. The name was not known to either Barrett or Merriam
and it is quite possible that it was a summer camp, or a temporary
site, or merely a suburb of one of the other villages. Its
existence as a permanent settlement is open to some doubt.
_Unutsawa-holma-noma_ (Driver). This town also is not listed under
the given, or any similar, name by Barrett or by Merriam. However,
in view of the exhaustive study made of it by Driver its existence
is indisputable. It may be represented by the Cimela or Koloko of
Barrett.
_Osoyuk-eju_ (Driver). This is the only village shown by Driver as
lying west of the Russian River. Barrett gives no similar name but
Driver reaffirms its active existence by the mention of a summer
camp site the people of which lived in Osoyuk-eju in the winter.
_Holko-mota_ (Driver). This is given by Driver as a camp site and
probably is identical with Holko-a-cho, which is called a rancheria
by Merriam. Driver's opinion is to be followed and the place should
be regarded as a summer camp.
_Hut-mitul_ (Driver). A camp site.
_Nuya-hotsa_ (Driver). A camp site.
_Tcano-nayuk_ (Driver). A camp site.
_Ts'awo-tul_ (Driver). A camp site.
_Tico-mota_ (Driver). A camp site.
_Halio-wahuk-holma_ (Driver). A camp site.
_Walma-pesite_ (Driver). A camp site.
_Ko-tish-hal_ (Merriam). Listed by Merriam as a rancheria, but we
have no further information concerning it.
_Too-la-chil-le_ (Merriam). A rancheria, but no further
information.
_Cimela_ (Barrett). The Southern Pomo name is _ossokowi_. This
village was formerly occupied by the Pomo but the Wappo took
possession after the war. It undoubtedly corresponds to one of the
villages placed by Driver at approximately the same spot on the
east bank of the Russian River.
_Koloko_ (Barrett). This village was said to have been located near
Cimela. Regarding it the following quotation from Barrett is
decisive (p. 272): "In addition to these villages along Russian
River which were occupied by the Wappo, names of four other sites
were obtained which, as far as can be learned, were not occupied by
the Wappo but were occupied by the Southern Pomo before the Wappo
took possession of this section, and for which only Pomo names
could be obtained." It is clear therefore that the village as such
had disappeared prior to the knowledge of Driver's informants, if
indeed these villages had ever been occupied by the Wappo.
_Malalatcali_ (Barrett). See Koloko.
_Acaben_ (Barrett). See Koloko.
_Gaiyetcin_ (Barrett). See Koloko.
From this list there emerge six villages as certain. Driver's
Koticomota, Netstul, Owotelpeti, Pipoholma, Unutsawaholma, and
Osoyukeju. Of these Osoyukeju, on the west bank of the river, may be
regarded as having replaced Barrett's three villages, Malalatcali,
Acaben, and Gaiyetcin, which evidently did not survive Pomo occupancy.
Driver and Barrett agree with respect to Koticomota and Pipoholma.
Netstul, Owotelpeti, and Unutsawaholma may be considered to have
replaced Cimela and Koloko. The status of Tsimitutsonoma, as indicated
above, is dubious, in spite of the fact that Driver's informants gave
it as a permanent town. In view of the doubt it is better to omit it
from consideration.
Directing our attention now to the six sure towns of Driver, we find in
his paper some very pertinent data with regard to their size and
demographic characteristics. The sizes and house numbers given on page
183 (Driver, 1936) are:
Koticomota: "large town"; 2 sweathouses.
Netstul: "large town"; 40 houses; 1 sweathouse.
Owotelpete: 40 houses; 1 sweathouse.
Pipoholma: 40 houses; 1 sweathouse.
Unutsawaholmanoma: 1 sweathouse; 11 houses in 1870; 17 houses
"formerly."
Osoyukeju: "small town"; 1 sweathouse.
Before discussing the house numbers in detail we should call attention
to Driver's analysis of the village Unutsawa-holma-noma. This analysis
(1936, pp. 201 ff.) he says is based upon "concrete genealogical census
data of about the year 1870." There can therefore be no argument
concerning the validity of the figures he presents. He found, in brief,
that in this village there were 11 houses, containing 21 families and
92 persons. The occupants per house ranged from 4 to 21 with an average
of 9, the families from 1 to 6 per house with an average of 2 (actually
1.91), and the persons per family averaged 4.5 (actually 4.38).
When we examined Gifford's figures for the Clear Lake Pomo village of
Cigom we found 5.0 persons per family, 2.35 families per house, and
11.75 persons per house. The similarity between the two sets of values,
derived by different investigators independently, is clearly
significant. Moreover, the slightly smaller numbers discovered by
Driver at Unutsawaholma are explicable on the basis of the later date
(1870) taken as the base line. At any rate there can be no doubt that
the two villages were remarkably alike in composition of population.
In computing aboriginal population at Cigom and the surrounding country
it was pointed out that Gifford actually was dealing with a _declining_
population and that, if the aboriginal state were to be conceived
properly, his figures would have to be increased. For this reason the
family number was set at 7 instead of 5, which raised the number of
persons per house to 16.45. Because of other evidence the latter value
was reduced to 14.0.
For Driver's village the same considerations must apply. However, since
the family number was found to be 4.38, rather than 5.0 the aboriginal
value may be put at 6 instead of 7. Then, if the number of families per
house is 1.91, the average persons per house would be 11.5, a figure
which there is no strong reason for changing. It now appears that, if
Unutsawaholma "formerly" had 17 houses, with 11.5 persons per house,
the "former" population would have been approximately 195, or in round
numbers 200.
Returning the matter of houses, Driver says (p. 184) that his
informants "estimated" the number, but he thought the estimates were
too high. (The number for the village of Unutsawaholma was evidently
known exactly.) I think we have to concede Driver's point but we still
do not know how great was the exaggeration. We note that Unutsawaholma
with 17 sure houses "formerly" had 1 sweathouse but no designation
"large" or "small." Of the two "large towns" one had 2 sweathouses and
the other had 1 sweathouse and 40 ordinary houses. The same numbers
were assigned to two other villages but they were not called large or
small. The one called "small" had 1 sweathouse. The village, therefore,
with 1 sweathouse and 17 other houses, but not designated either large
or small, may be taken as approximately intermediate. The small town
may be assigned half this number, or 8 houses. Those with 40 estimated
houses, but not called large, may be assigned 25 houses each. Netstul,
a "large town" with 40 houses and 1 sweathouse, may be given 30 houses,
and Koticomota, a "large town" with 2 sweathouses, may be given 35
houses. This is a purely arbitrary arrangement but it must come
somewhere near fitting the facts.
On this basis we have six villages with a total of 140 houses and an
average of nearly 23. This would mean an aboriginal population of 1,610
persons. If we were to admit no declining population in 1870 but if we
allowed that Unutsawaholma, with 17 houses, was of average size in
aboriginal times, the value would still be 1,010 for the population of
Alexander Valley.
Driver states, in conjunction with his village list, "these certainly
not all inhabited at the same time." His opinion may be justified but
he cites no evidence in its support, and the circumstantial data
brought out with respect to each village separately does not indicate
that discontinuance of habitation occurred very long ago. It is true
that Alexander Valley was the scene of a minor intertribal war in the
early years of the nineteenth century, as the result of which the Pomo
were driven out by the Wappo. In the confusion there may have been some
shifting of inhabitants and reconstitution of villages, with the
consequence that the population came to include both racial elements.
Nevertheless, the data presented by Driver imply a total number of
inhabitants, at one time, of fully 1,610. If Barrett's eighth village,
Tekenantsonoma, on Sulphur Creek, is allowed 70 inhabitants, the total
is raised to 1,680.
The Northern Wappo and the Lake Miwok form the next natural division.
It is preferable to treat these two groups together, and more or less
in defiance of strict tribal limits, because the precise boundary
between the Wappo and the Lake Miwok has never yet been determined to
the entire satisfaction of ethnographers and because the racial
affiliation of certain villages is still open to doubt. Bypassing the
ethnographic problem, therefore, we may consider the area south of
Clear Lake, which includes the headwaters of Putah Creek and upper Pope
Valley. The region embraces a rough triangle, the apices of which are
the modern villages of Lower Lake, Pope Valley, and Middletown.
The ethnographic sources consist of the works of Merriam, Barrett, and
Kroeber. Merriam covered what he considered to be the Lake Miwok in a
manuscript entitled "Tu-le-yo-mi Tribe List" and the pertinent Wappo
villages in a manuscript entitled "Yukean." Barrett (1908) devoted
several pages to the Wappo (pp. 274-278) and to the Lake Miwok (pp.
314-317). Kroeber's discussion in the Handbook was based largely upon
these authorities but he later amplified his views in his paper (1932,
pp. 366-369) on "The Patwin and Their Neighbors." Since all three
investigators have contributed village lists, it will be necessary to
examine them in detail. Previously, however, one particular problem
requires brief mention.
Within the area of the Lake Miwok and Northern Wappo there was once a
village or a pair of villages, the names and locations of which have
been the source of much controversy. Barrett (1908, p. 273) mentioned
"_loknoma_, from lok, goose, and noma, village, or _lakah-yome_ ... at
a point about three-quarters of a mile northeast of Middletown...."
Continuing the discussion at some length, Barrett finally suggests the
possibility that these people lived on the Locollomillo Rancho in Pope
Valley.
Kroeber (1932, p. 366) found an informant who distinguished between
Loknoma and Lakah-yomi as two separate towns, both near Middletown.
Kroeber remarks: "Apparently the two 'capitals' Lok-noma and Lakah-yomi
stood close together, while their territories stretched apart, a
condition for which there is precedent." On his general map (1932, back
cover) he places Lok-noma almost at Middletown in Northern Wappo
territory and Lakah-yomi just to the north in the realm of the Lake
Miwok.