precisely at the spot where Moraga in 1806 had recorded no less than
seven. All of these must have been obliterated during the intervening
twenty-six years, striking testimony to the devastation being wrought
among the open valley peoples. But from the junction of the Merced and
the San Joaquin rivers, along the main axis of the valley the villages
were numerous, some of them containing 50 to 100 houses or at least 250
to 500 people.
What happened to these villages is graphically told in Warner's own
words.
On our return, late in the summer of 1833, we found the
valleys depopulated. From the head of the Sacramento to the
great bend and slough of the San Joaquin, we did not see
more than six or eight Indians; while large numbers of their
skulls and dead bodies were to be seen under almost every
shade-tree near water, where the uninhabited and deserted
villages had been converted into graveyards; and on the San
Joaquin River, in the immediate neighborhood of the larger
class of villages, which, in the preceding year, were the
abodes of a large number of those Indians, we found not only
graves, but the vestiges of a funeral pyre. At the mouth of
King's river we encountered the first and only village of
the stricken race that we had seen after entering the great
valley.
This was the pandemic of 1833, concerning which, in comparison with
some accounts, Warner's description is a model of conservatism.
It is evident that a combination of circumstances prevents us from
making an adequate assessment of the aboriginal population of the lower
Merced River and adjacent segments of the San Joaquin. Our density
figure is about half the expected value. If we had the full facts, we
could perhaps double the estimated population. Under existing
conditions we can feel reasonably sure of the value given for the area
between the Mariposa and the San Joaquin rivers.
MARIPOSA-SAN JOAQUIN ... 19,000
_______________________________
THE SOUTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
The southern end of the valley, beyond Tulare Lake and the Kaweah
River, can best be considered in three parts. The first is the foothill
strip from the Kaweah to the Tejon Pass, which was inhabited by the
Yokuts tribes Koyeti, Yaudanchi, Bokninuwad, Kumachisi, Paleuyami, and
Yauelmani (maps 1 and 2, area 1G). The second comprises the lower Kern
River together with the former Buenavista Lake basin. This area was
held by the Yokuts tribes Hometowoli, Tuhohi, and Tulamni. The third
includes the peripheral fringe of relatively high foothill and mountain
country of the southern Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi and was inhabited
by non-Yokuts people: Tubatulabal, Kawaiisu, Kitanemuk, and the Tokya
branch of the Chumash (maps 1 and 2, areas 1A to 1E).
Only the Koyeti are described by the Spanish authorities hitherto
consulted. Moraga mentions the rancheria Coyahete with a population of
400 in 1806. Estudillo in 1819 found a rancheria, which he called
Arroyo de Copaipich, with 200 and one called Canyon Agspa with 400
people. The latter may perhaps be Moraga's Coyahete. If so, the tribe
had a population of at least 600 in 1819, but it must have suffered
some decline prior to that year. Latta's informants were able to
remember 8 villages. Moreover, the tribe was oriented ecologically
toward the Kaweah delta and oak forest, although it was actually
situated on the lower Tule River. Thus an estimate of 800 persons would
not be too much for the precontact period. The Yaudanchi on the upper
Tule River also, according to Kroeber and to Latta, had 8 villages and
covered considerably more territory than the Koyeti. Hence the same
population may be ascribed to them. The Bokninuwad were evidently a
smaller group, since Kroeber reports for them only two villages and
Latta none. It would not be safe to allow them more than 200 persons.
If we do so, then the tentative estimate for the three tribes must be
put at a total of 1,800.
For the remainder of the territory held by the Yokuts there are only
two documentary references, the diaries of Garces in 1776 and Zalvidea
in 1806. Both these writers give population data which have been
subject to considerable controversy.
For the Buenavista region the four pertinent villages are mentioned by
Zalvidea and are as follows:
Village
and Tribe Houses Men Women Children Total
_________ ______ _____ _____ ________ _____
Malapoa
(Tulamni) ... 29 22 8 59
Buenavista
(Tulamni) ... 36 144 38 218
Sisipistu
(Hometwoli) 28 50-60 ... ... ...
Yaguelame
(Yauelmani) ... 92 ... ... 300
From even casual inspection it is apparent that Zalvidea did not see
the complete population of any one of these villages and that many of
the inhabitants had been removed by previous expeditions or were in
hiding. The village of Malapoa is small but presents no serious
demographic discrepancies. The number of children was low, but as has
been pointed out in a previous discussion Zalvidea was counting as men
or women everyone over the age of seven years. The children, calculated
according to his method, amounted to 13.5 per cent of the total.
At Buenavista he found only 36 men to 144 women, an incredible
situation unless most of the men had fled or had been killed. Under
normal conditions the number of men should at least approximately equal
that of the women. Therefore in order to reconstruct the probable
population we are forced to assume the presence of at least 144 men.
This gives a total of 326 persons of which 8.6 per cent would have been
children. For the other two villages only the number of men is given,
no doubt the men actually seen. Indeed at Yaguelmane Zalvidea "counted"
the 92 men he specifies. Significantly, however, he counted men "from 7
to 40 years" and infers that the village had a population of 300. If
for Yaguelmane we allow 10 per cent of children seven years old or
younger the adults would number 270. If the sex ratio were near unity,
then, with 92 men 40 years or younger, there must have been 47 men over
that age and 135 women of all ages. If the same ratios are applied to
Sisipistu with 55 men from 7 to 40 years of age, the population would
be 180. This figure is quite consistent with the number of houses, 28,
for the number of persons per house would then be 6.43. The four
villages (Malapoa, Buenavista, Yaguelame, and Sisipistu) consequently
must have had populations of 59, 326, 300, and 180 respectively. The
average of the four is 191 persons.
Since there are no other historical data pertaining to the lake region,
it is necessary to utilize the village lists of Kroeber (1925) and
Latta (1949). These investigators, through their informants, have
located 3 villages for the Hometowoli, 1 for the Tuhohi, 3 for the
Tulamni, and 2 for the Yauelmani of the lower Kern River, making 9 in
all. As suggested with respect to other areas the number of villages
was undoubtedly as great in 1806 as in 1840 or 1850. Hence we can be
assured of at least 9 in 1806. For size it is proper to use Zalvidea's
average of 191 inhabitants, thus giving as the population of the
Buenavista basin 1,720.
For the southern foothills we must rely upon the diary of Garces.
Gifford and Schenck (1926) discuss this document at length, concluding
(p. 21) that the population actually seen by Garces north of the slopes
of the Tehachapi was 750 and that the total population "south of the
Tule River" was 1,000 to 1,500. Since the present writer must differ
from these authors, it is worth while to review once more the evidence
furnished by the Garces account. In so doing the exact route of the
explorer must be made plain.
On May 1, 1776, having previously descended the southern mountains to
the valley floor, Garces broke camp:
Having gone one league northwest I came upon a large river
which made much noise, at the outlet (al salir) of the
Sierra de San Marcos and whose waters ... flowed on a course
from the east through a straitened channel.
(Coues, ed., 1900, pp. 280-281). The river of course was the Kern and
the spot was without question the point at which the river suddenly
breaks out onto the plain from its canyon. The water was here swift
("made much noise"). It literally "sallied forth" from the mountains,
and its course from the east was through a narrow channel. This place
is about 14 miles east-northeast of Bakersfield on California State
Highway 178.
Garces then went downstream "a little way" and found a rancheria (no.
1) on the right bank. After going a little way farther he saw a
rancheria (no. 2) on the left bank and another (no. 3) "to the west."
He went downstream no more than 2 or 3 miles, otherwise, as was his
invariable custom, he would have specified his distances in leagues.
Three rancherias can therefore be located on the Kern between the last
abrupt slope of the eastward hills and just below the mouth of
Cottonwood Creek. These correspond on the map to Kroeber's villages
Altau and Shoko of the Paleuyami and Konoilkin of the Yauelmani,
although the actual identity is by no means assured.
After crossing the river with difficulty Garces struck northwest "and a
little north" for 3 leagues. This brought him to a stream where there
was a rancheria (no. 4). From a point 3 or 4 miles below the entrance
of the Kern River canyon a line running northwest by north extends
diagonally about 7 miles across T28S, R29E to reach Poso Creek near the
northern boundary of the township.
After passing the night at the rancheria mentioned (no. 4), Garces went
straight north for 4-1/2 leagues. On the way he went by some deserted
rancherias. These villages were not temporarily deserted, with the
inhabitants in hiding. They were "rancherias despobladas," that is,
permanently depopulated or abandoned. It is interesting to speculate on
the cause of this phenomenon, for the depopulation can have been due
only to intertribal warfare or disease. We know nothing of any native
wars of sufficient magnitude to have destroyed several whole villages.
On the other hand, as Garces himself later points out, Spaniards had
already penetrated the region. Pedro Fages was in the southern valley
in 1772 on his way to the Colorado and Garces found at least one
deserting soldier living with the Indians. It is quite possible that
decline of population had already begun as early as 1776.
After traveling 4-1/2 leagues Garces found another rancheria (no. 5),
at which he spent the night of May 2-3. This must have been somewhere
near the hamlet of Woody at the southern boundary of T25S, R29E. On May
3 he moved another 2-1/2 leagues, still north, to reach the White River
near or slightly to the west of the village of White River in T24S,
R29E. Here he camped at a rancheria (no. 6) of 150 souls. On May 4,
having reached his farthest point north, he visited another rancheria
(no. 7) half a league east. At rancheria no. 6 he found an Indian who
was a fugitive from the coast and also heard that two Spanish soldiers
had been killed for molesting Indian women. The contact with the whites
was therefore clearly established. Stephen Powers (1877), who was in
the San Joaquin Valley in the decade of 1850 says that "on White River
there are no Indians, neither have there been any for many years." Here
again is an indication of depopulation at a very early date.
On May 5 Garces started to retrace his steps southward, reaching at
2-1/2 leagues the previous rancheria (i.e., no. 5). From here he must
have diverged somewhat eastward of his northbound trail for at 2
leagues he saw another rancheria (no. 8) "to the east" which he had not
seen on the way up. This probably was toward the eastern side of T26S,
R20E. Then, he says, he went southeast 3 leagues to Poso Creek. This
would put him on Poso Creek near the center of township T27S, R30E, a
point about 9 miles airline above his place of crossing on May 2. Here
he found a rancheria (no. 9), the chief of which told him about another
rancheria (no. 10) to the east where a Spanish renegade lived with an
Indian wife. The following day, May 6, he started out again south or
southwest and got lost in the hills of upper Poso Creek. In these hills
between Poso Creek and the Kern River he found another rancheria (no.
11) of "more than 100 souls." This was probably in the northern part of
township T28S, R30E. Finally on May 7 he reached the Kern 1 league
above his first crossing. His first crossing had been accomplished 2 or
3 miles below the mouth of the canyon hence he must have come out very
close to the mouth. He then went downstream to the rancheria where he
had crossed (no. 1) but he did not stop here. He continued down the
river for 2 leagues to a rancheria he had not seen before (no. 12) and
which had "some 150 souls."
Two leagues downstream from rancheria no. 1, or about 3 leagues below
the mouth of the canyon would have put him at a point roughly 5 to 6
miles east-northeast of Bakersfield, not at the site of the city, as is
supposed by Coues (1900, p. 299). On May 8 he went 3 leagues
south-southwest, then turned and traveled 6 leagues southeast and east
to the Tehachapi. These distances and directions plotted on the map
place him just at the mouth of Tejon Creek.
To summarize the rancherias mentioned: Garces saw four villages on the
Kern in territory of the Paleuyami or Yauelmani (nos. 1, 2, 3, 12), six
on Poso Creek or minor watercourses to the north thereof (nos. 4, 5, 8,
9, 10, 11), all Paleuyami, and two on White River (nos. 6, 7) in the
territory of the Kumachisi.
The size of these villages has been subject to some debate. Garces
cites two with 150 persons and one with 100, but Gifford and Schenck
think that he specifies population only for the largest places. The
other nine would therefore be smaller. These authors, however, put the
average village size at about 60 (750 people in 12 villages).
Deducting 400 for the three rancherias specified, the average of the
other nine would be 39 which seems much too low. If Zalvidea's figures
are any criterion, the villages on the Kern should have averaged at
least 100 inhabitants, and it must be noted that Garces found two
rancherias in the hills with 150 and 100 persons respectively. Thus it
seems reasonable to allow an average of 100 rather than 60. If so, the
population seen by Garces was in the vicinity of 1,200.
Now it is evident that Garces did not see all the villages in the
region. He covered about 10 or 12 miles of the Kern below the canyon, a
good deal of upper Poso Creek, and perhaps 5 miles of White River. He
never reached the lower stretches of the rivers at all. It is fair to
assume that there were as many rancherias which he did not see as there
were seen by him. If so the estimate of the population should be
doubled, making 2,400.
One secondary piece of evidence is at hand. Garces saw 8 villages of
the Paleuyami (6 in the hills, perhaps 2 on the Kern). Now Zalvidea in
1806 says that the Pelones (Paleuyami) had at that time 13 rancherias.
Allowing for shrinkage in the intervening thirty years, this is twice
the number seen by Garces.
We may at this juncture have recourse to river mileage estimates. It
was found previously (p. 36) that for the Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced,
Mariposa, and Chowchilla there was in 1850 0.34 village per mile of
stream, with the Chowchilla having the lowest value, 0.20 village. For
the Merced and the Kings rivers below the foothills in the first years
of the nineteenth century it was calculated that there were on the
average 65 persons per river mile. Assuming that the average village
size was 150 inhabitants, there would have been 0.44 village per river
mile. The southern streams were probably more sparsely inhabited than
those just mentioned. Hence it is reasonable to apply the factor found
for the Chowchilla, 0.20 village per mile, to the White River, Poso
Creek, and the Kern River. There are about 150 miles of stream in these
systems east of a line running from Porterville to Bakersfield, a line
which Kroeber takes as the approximate westward limit of the foothill
tribes. This means a probable 30 villages. If the average of 100
persons per village is used, as suggested above, this means a
population of 3,000. The direct documentary approach thus gives 2,400
and the indirect method 3,000. A fair figure would be the mean of the
two, or 2,700.
The peripheral hills on the southeast and south were held by several
tribes. The entire upper Kern River, above the present village of
Bodfish, belonged to the Shoshonean group, the Tubatulabal (area 1E).
Kroeber thinks they may have reached a population of 1,000, which seems
a reasonable figure. From the Kern and Walker's Pass south to Sycamore
Creek (area 1D) were the Kawaiisu, a tribe, according to Kroeber, of
500 persons. In the southeastern corner from Sycamore Creek to Poso
Creek were a few Yauelmani and the Kitanemuk. Pastoria Creek and Alisos
Creek were occupied by a northward extension of the Alliklik, and from
Alisos Creek westward to Bitter Water Creek were found the Tokya group
of the Chumash.
For the groups beyond the Kawaiisu there are no population data of any
kind. Even Kroeber fails to make an estimate. If we say 1,000 for them
all in aboriginal times it will be a pure guess, but one which may be
somewhere near the truth in view of the extent and character of the
terrain involved. The total for the peripheral region would then be
approximately 2,500 and that for the southern end of the valley as a
whole 6,920, or in round numbers 6,900.
SOUTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY ... 6,900
_____________________________________
THE NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
The remaining portion of the Yokuts-Miwok territory lay in the valley
and foothills north of the Merced River. This area (see maps 1 and 5,
areas 8-13 inclusive), particularly the delta of the San Joaquin and
Sacramento rivers, was entered relatively early by the Spaniards and by
the year 1820 had been almost completely swept of its native
population. The names of many whole tribes have been lost and the exact
locations of many others are now almost impossible to ascertain. Of
village names only those few are known to us which were preserved,
often by chance, in the mission records and accounts of expeditions.
Several attempts have been made to reconstruct the aboriginal human
geography but none has been entirely successful. Kroeber's account,
which accompanies his discussion of the Plains Miwok and northern
Yokuts in the Handbook of California Indians, is manifestly incomplete.
Merriam's paper on the Mewan Stock of California (1907) is helpful, but
probably the best work of the modern investigators is that of Schenck
(1926). The early nineteenth-century accounts for this region are also
less satisfactory than for the central and southern parts of the San
Joaquin Valley. Moraga's record is useful only for the Tuolumne River,
and the delta is covered only by Abella and Duran. It is true that both
Sutter and Gatten give figures for villages south of Sacramento but
their information pertains only to the badly depleted natives of the
'forties. Hence their censuses are of little value for assessing the
aboriginal condition.
One source not available for other areas is the mission records. The
converts from the delta and lower San Joaquin Valley were brought
almost exclusively into the San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Clara
missions. The baptism books of these missions have been preserved, and
two copies have been made. The first, of the San Francisco Mission, was
made by A. Pinart in 1878 and is at present in the Bancroft Library in
Berkeley. The other records, copied by S. R. Clemence in 1919, include
the records of all three missions and are now to be found, in typed
form, among the manuscripts in the file of C. H. Merriam. The baptism
books set forth the name and village of origin of every native in the
mission, as well as the date of baptism. Newly converted gentiles are
readily distinguished from infants born in the mission itself, since
the origin of the latter is ascribed to the mission and not to a
village. In addition to the names of villages, not all of which can be
located with certainty, the dates of baptism constitute almost
conclusive evidence. If the baptisms from San Francisco and Santa Clara
are tabulated by village and date, it is very clear that the villages
of local tribes were cleaned out before the year 1805. At this point an
entirely new set of names appears, most of which are undoubtedly in the
Tulares. Hence, if the name of a village does not correspond to any now
known to ethnographers and no baptisms are reported from it prior to
1805, the conclusion is warranted that the village was actually
situated in the central valley. The same assumption may be made with
somewhat less certainty concerning the San Jose records. This mission
was founded in 1797 and its earliest converts were drawn from the
Costanoan tribes on the east shore of San Francisco Bay. The reduction
of this region may not have been complete by 1805 and Tulare Indians
were coming in by that year. Hence there is a chance of overlap. This
source of error, however, may be excluded for all practical purposes if
no doubtful village which continued to furnish converts after 1810 is
included in the list, for the reduction of the Costanoans was certainly
complete by that time.
Concerning village size various items of information are available. In
the diary of Ramon Abella in 1811 he mentions that the Cholbones had
three rancherias with a population of 900, or 300 per rancheria. That
of the Coyboses had 180 and that of the Tauquimenes 200 men and 60
houses. The population of the latter tribe, if we apply the ratio found
by Zalvidea at the southern end of the valley, should be 650. This
ratio, it will be remembered, is based on Zalvidea's statement that he
counted as men all males between the ages seven and forty. If, on the
other hand, we assume that Abella referred to all males except small
children and further that the sex ratio was unity, the adults would
have numbered 400 and, if 15 per cent of the village were children, the
total would be approximately 470. However, in the northern end of the
valley we have much more solid data with which to work than at the
extreme south.
The baptism records of the missions of San Jose and Santa Clara to
which reference is made above include for each gentile village a
breakdown of men, women, and children. These data have been already
discussed in connection with the rancherias on Lake Tulare and it has
been shown that, if proper correction is made for the sex ratio, men
and women each contributed 41.8 per cent of the population and children
16.4 per cent. It is clear that in the north the Franciscans employed
their standard system of calling children all persons under the age of
ten years (not seven years) and including as males all men above the
same age. Zalvidea's system was used only by himself. Consequently, a
village with 200 men would have contained 563 persons in all.
For the village of the Tauquimenes with 60 houses the average would
have been 9.38 persons per house. That this number is not excessive is
demonstrated by the account of the village of Chuppumne contained also
in Duran's diary. This rancheria had 35 houses, some of which were 40
to 50 paces in circumference. Since a pace is roughly a yard the
diameter of such a house would be 43 feet, amply sufficient to
accommodate 9 persons. Chuppumne would thus have had a population of
315. Duran also mentions a rancheria of the Ochejamnes which had 40
houses, or 360 inhabitants.