The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California Part 11

SOUTHWESTERN POMO

This group, consisting princ.i.p.ally of the Kacia of Stewart's Point, has already been discussed under the Central Pomo.

SOUTHERN POMO

In this area lived five large groups, named variously by different students, centering around Dry Creek, Cloverdale, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, and Sebastopol. The Pomo residue, mentioned by Barrett, and others who survived in Alexander Valley are here omitted since they may be more appropriately considered as contributing to the predominantly Wappo population. Likewise, the village of Wilok, east of Santa Rosa, is probably considered more satisfactorily in conjunction with the neighboring Wappo.

Modern ethnographic data are of little value for estimating the population of the Southern Pomo, however carefully it may have been secured. The Spanish and Mexican missionaries, accompanied by the military, entered the area certainly before 1820 and by the year 1835 the Southern Pomo had been relocated in the missions, conscripted for labor, or carried off by disease. Shortly after 1840 the Americans began to appear and as a result the original village pattern was completely disrupted. Hence it is relatively useless to compute population from the sites which in recent years have been remembered by Indian or white informants. Merriam, following Barrett, lists about 80 village names but in very few instances endorses Barrett's findings by subscribing his initials. To attempt any detailed a.n.a.lysis of these sites would serve no useful purpose whatever.

It is clear from the opinions expressed by Kroeber and Stewart that the Southern Pomo exhibited the same general type of social organization as the Central Pomo, namely, a splitting into subtribes with each of the latter inhabiting a single, large main village. Several of these have been reasonably well identified, some by modern ethnographers and some by the early missionaries and civil contemporaries. There are 15, the existence of which is sufficiently well a.s.sured. They are as follows:

1. Amalako Dry Creek Stewart 2. Amako Cloverdale Stewart, Merriam 3. Makahmo Cloverdale Stewart, Merriam, Kroeber 4. Amatio Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam 5. Kale Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam 6. Mukakotcalg Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam 7. Wotokkaton Healdsburg Merriam, Kroeber 8. Tsoliikawai Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam 9. Batiklechawi Sebastopol Merriam, Kroeber 10. Masikawani Sebastopol Stewart, Merriam 11. Hukabetawi Santa Rosa Merriam, Kroeber 12. Kabetsiuwa Santa Rosa Stewart, Merriam 13. Gualomi Santa Rosa Mission records, Merriam 14. Chichiyomi Santa Rosa Mission records, Merriam 15. Levantoyome Santa Rosa Mission records, Merriam

If each of these fifteen villages had a population of only 300 Indians, a low value considering the huge congregations in the Ukiah-Hopland region, the total for the Southern Pomo could be set at 4,500.

There is a little contributory evidence to be obtained from the mission records. These doc.u.ments, which are to be found in the Bancroft Library of the University of California, include baptism records for the missions of San Rafael and Solano, those which drew upon the Pomo for converts. Up to 1834 there had been baptized 268 persons from Levantoyome, 90 from Gualomi, and 44 from Chichiyome. Conversions in peripheral areas like that of the Southern Pomo were always far from complete, particularly at the end of the mission period. Many of the natives were killed in the incessant skirmishes and ma.s.sacres of the time, many were enslaved directly by rancheros, many died of disease, but by far the greatest number simply fled the approach of the white man. It is quite reasonable to suppose that not more than one-third of the natives were ever actually brought into the missions for conversion. This would mean an average of 402 persons for the three subtribes or villages just mentioned, Levantoyome, Gualomi, and Chichiyome. Extended to the entire 15 known princ.i.p.al villages, the total would be 6,030.

A second possible method consists of area-density comparisons. The over-all density in the sum of the Potter Valley, Calpella, and Ukiah areas can certainly have been no greater than that originally existing in the region of the Southern Pomo, for of all the Pomo subdivisions the southern group possessed the most favorable habitats and the most prolific food supply. The population found for the three northern areas mentioned above was 5,090 and the area according to Stewart (pp. 57-59) was 585 square miles. The density was thus 8.70 persons per square mile. The corresponding value for the Clear Lake Pomo is 7.34. The area of the Southern Pomo, including the five groups discussed here was 745 square miles. At the northern density of approximately 8 persons per square mile the population would have been 5,960.

The two methods employed therefore yield essentially similar results and make possible the estimate of 6,000 persons for the Southern Pomo.

According to Alexander Taylor (1860-63, Ser. I, folio page 5) Captain 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 Canon 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 (ma.n.u.script ent.i.tled "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 a.s.sembled, 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 a.s.signed 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 Francis...o...b..y the Coast Miwok were thoroughly and completely brought into the missions. Beginning, as indicated above in 1783, gentiles from the north sh.o.r.e 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 const.i.tuted 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 diminis.h.i.+ng 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 s.e.xes 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 a.s.sessed 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 Francis...o...b..y.

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.