The Aboriginal Population of the San Joaquin Valley, California Part 1

The Aboriginal Population of the San Joaquin Valley, California.

by Sherburne F. Cook.

INTRODUCTION

Ecologically the great central valley of California forms a single unit. Nevertheless it is convenient for the purposes of this paper to divide the entire area into two portions, north and south. The vast expanse from Red Bluff to the Tehachapi is too extensive to cover demographically in a single exposition. Moreover, the northern tribes, the Wintun and Maidu, are physiographically clearly segregated from the southern by the northern extension of San Francis...o...b..y and the delta of the rivers. Hence we shall consider here only those peoples south of the Sacramento and American River watersheds.

The area possesses definite natural limits but its exact boundaries must be to some extent arbitrary. On the north the line has already been indicated: the south bank of the upper Bay and the Sacramento River as far upstream as a point five miles below the city of Sacramento and thence easterly along the El Dorado--Amador County line into the high mountains. This follows Kroeber's tribal boundary between the Maidu and the Sierra Miwok. On the west the line starts northeast of Mt. Diablo and follows the western edge of the San Joaquin Valley to the Tehachapi Mountains. On the east we include the Sierra Nevada as far as was reached by permanent habitation on the west slope. The southern extremity is represented by the crest of the Tehachapi.

The region designated embraces the territory of the Plains and Sierra Miwok, the Yokuts, the Western Mono, the Tubatulabal, and the Kawaiisu.

From the standpoint of habitat the area is diversified since it extends from the swampy valley floor through the oak country of the lower foothills into the transition life-zone of the middle alt.i.tudes.

Perhaps an ecological segregation would be desirable. Such a procedure, however, would cut across tribal boundaries and make an accurate evaluation of population difficult. On the accompanying maps, areas are delineated, and numbered, primarily for convenience of reference. At the same time they conform as closely as is feasible with the natural subdivisions of the territory marked out by river valleys, lakes, plains, and mountains. It should be stressed that they do not necessarily coincide precisely with the areas occupied by specific tribes or groups of tribes.

The demography of the central valley is rendered still more complex by the fact that the contact with the white race took place in a series of steps rather than by a single overwhelming invasion. In central Mexico, or to a somewhat lesser degree in northwestern California, aboriginal life continued relatively untouched until there occurred a rapid and catastrophic occupation of the entire territory. As a result, the population was affected in a uniform manner throughout and a sufficiently clear line can be drawn between aboriginal and postcontact conditions. In the central valley the white influence was very gradual, beginning at or near the year 1770 with the entrance of the Spanish missionaries along the coast and the infiltration of a very few foreigners into the valley. The volume of invasion increased slowly over the next three decades, but the effect was intensified by the escape of numerous mission neophytes into the valley. The years after 1800 saw repeated incursions by the coastal whites who overran the floor of the valley from the Sacramento River to Buena Vista Lake.

Meanwhile the foothill and mountain tribes were permitted to remain fairly intact. With discovery of gold, however, these groups lost their immunity and were rapidly destroyed. Therefore, even though we oversimplify, we may say that the aboriginal population persisted in the valley proper up to 1770, in the lower foothills up to roughly 1810, and in the higher foothills and more remote canyons of the Sierra Nevada up to 1850.

Our sources of information cover only the period during which the demographic status of the natives was undergoing change. No written record exists that describes conditions as they might have been found prior to 1770. The only possible subst.i.tute would be an examination of the habitation sites left from prehistoric times, but archaeological research in the area has not yet progressed to the point where an adequate quant.i.tative estimate of population is available. There are three primary bodies of data to which we have access, all falling within the historical period between 1770 and 1860.

The first of these derives from the serious effort on the part of the Americans, who between 1848 and 1852 were entering the region in large numbers, to determine the quant.i.ty of natives surviving in the central valley. This task was performed by such men as Sutter, Bidwell, and Savage, together with several Indian commissioners, and army officers sent out by the government. To their reports may be added the statements contained in the local county histories published in the era of 1880 to 1890, as well as in many pioneer reminiscences.

A second major source of information consists of the ethnographic studies made within the past fifty years, among which should be mentioned the works of Kroeber, Merriam, Schenck, Gayton, and Gifford.

These investigators depended princ.i.p.ally upon informants who were elderly people in the decades from 1900 to 1940. Their memories, together with their recollection of what had been told them by their parents, carry back, on the average, to the period of the American invasion or just before it. Hence their knowledge of truly aboriginal population would be valid for the hill tribes only; yet data derived from them for that region is probably more accurate than can be obtained from the general estimates made by contemporary white men.

These two types of information, contemporary American accounts and modern ethnographic material, can thus be used to supplement and check each other for the era of 1850.

For conditions in the valley before 1840 we have to depend almost exclusively upon the historical records left by the Spanish and Mexicans. These consist of a series of diaries, reports, and letters, by both laymen and ecclesiastics, together with baptism lists and censuses from the coastal missions. This array of doc.u.ments is to be found in the ma.n.u.script collections of the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley.

It will be clear from these considerations that the population of the San Joaquin Valley can be determined with some degree of accuracy at two stages in the history of the region. The later period is at the point of intense occupancy by the Americans, at or near the year 1850, for here may be brought to a focus the data from both contemporary counts and the research of modern ethnographers. The earlier is for the epoch just preceding the entrance of the Spanish into California, or just before 1770. To a.s.sess the population at this period it is necessary to bring to bear information from all sources, American and Spanish, and to utilize all indirect methods of computation which may be appropriate. As a matter of historical interest, as well as to provide a background for the estimate of aboriginal population, the state of the natives in the period of the Gold Rush will be first examined.

THE POPULATION OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY IN APPROXIMATELY 1850

CONTEMPORARY ESTIMATES AND COUNTS FOR THE ENTIRE REGION

General estimates for the population of the San Joaquin Valley during the period 1848 to 1855 were made by several individuals. James D.

Savage, one of the earliest settlers in the Fresno region, stated in 1851 that the population from the Tuolumne River to the Kern River was from 50,000 to 55,000. Elsewhere he modified these figures considerably (Dixon, MS, 1875) and reported the total from the Cosumnes to the Kern as 18,100, of which 14,000 were from south of the Stanislaus River.

James H. Carson, another pioneer, said in 1852 that "the Indians of the Tulare Valley number nearly 6,000. About half this number inhabit the mountains.... The other portion inhabit the plains along the rivers and lakes."

In 1852 the Indian commissioner, O. M. Wozencraft, estimated for the area lying between the Yuba and the Mokelumne rivers a total of 40,000 inhabitants. He quotes old residents as saying that four years previously (i.e., in 1848) the population for the same area had been 80,000. At about the same time another agent, Adam Johnston (1853), estimated all the Sierra and valley tribes as being 80,000 strong (including both Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys). In general magnitude these figures correspond to those given by Sutter for the region bounded by the Yuba, the Stanislaus, the Sacramento, the San Joaquin, and the line of the foothills: 21,873 (Sutter, 1850). Sutter's value definitely represents conditions prior to 1847. Meanwhile H. W.

Wessels reported in 1853 that from the Stanislaus south there were 7,500 to 8,000 persons. In the same year G. W. Barbour, another commissioner, referred to the reservation Indians as "seven or eight thousand hungry souls." In 1856, agent T. J. Henly put the aggregate population of the Fresno and Kings River reservations plus Tulare, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Calaveras, and San Joaquin counties as 5,150 (Henley, 1857).

It is evident that the foregoing data represent two distinctly different types of estimate: broad generalization based largely upon subjective impression and applying to the years preceding 1847, and more narrow semi-estimate derived during the years subsequent to 1849 from some attempt to make an actual count. The figures obtained from the first method are certainly too high, particularly for the period centering around 1850. On the other hand, it may be possible that the other method yielded figures which were too low.

Some check on the reliability of the estimates supplied by the various commissioners and agents may be obtained from two sources, neither of which const.i.tuted a direct attempt to a.s.sess population. These comprise reports submitted concerning (1) vaccinations and (2) distribution of blankets.

During the summer of 1851 Dr. W. M. Ryer was employed to vaccinate those Indians in the San Joaquin Valley who could be persuaded to undergo the operation. Each month Dr. Ryer submitted a voucher specifying the number of Indians vaccinated during the preceding thirty days and also mentioning the tribes and areas covered. These vouchers are included with other doc.u.ments in Senate Executive Doc.u.ment No. 61, 32nd Congress, first session, 1852 (pp. 20 to 23). Some question might be raised concerning the accuracy of the figures, but there is no indication in the correspondence of the period of irregularity or dishonesty. Dr. Ryer claimed that he had vaccinated, from the Stanislaus to the south sh.o.r.e of Lake Tulare, 6,154 persons.

A somewhat smaller area was covered by four of the eighteen treaties concluded by commissioners McKee, Barbour, and Wozencraft[1] with the California tribes in 1851. These four treaties may be designated A, B, C, and N, following the order in which they are presented in the Senate Report. Under the agreements, one of the commodities which were to be furnished to the Indians by the government was blankets. The tribes included under treaties A, B, and C were to receive a total of 3,000.

In treaty N (as also in several other treaties not concerned with this area) it was stated that the Indians were to receive one blanket apiece for every person over fifteen years of age, and presumably this ratio was employed universally in the issue of blankets. Under the conditions existing at that time it may safely be a.s.sumed that the persons over fifteen years of age const.i.tuted at least 80 per cent of the total population. Therefore the three treaties first mentioned (A, B, and C) must have covered 3,750 individuals. Regarding the group embraced by treaty N it is explicitly stated that "they may number ... some 2,000 to 3,000." If we take the mean, or 2,500, then the total for the area is 6,250.

The area included under the four treaties extended actually only from the Chowchilla River to the south sh.o.r.e of Lake Tulare and the Kern River, whereas the territory covered by Ryer during his vaccination tour began with the Stanislaus. Within the treaty limits he vaccinated 4,449 persons. The discrepancy between his total and that of the treaties poses no difficulty since it is apparent that, as would be expected with any primitive group, fewer individuals consented to be vaccinated than made known their desire to receive gifts of blankets.

Hence the figure derived from potential blanket distribution is probably closer to the actuality than the vaccination figure. If, accordingly, we correct Ryer's report of 1,705 persons vaccinated _north_ of the Chowchilla River to conform to the ratio found south of that stream, we get 2,398. If we add this to 6,250 the total is 8,648 for the entire strip from the Stanislaus to the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley.

In summarizing general estimates and counts we may discard the very high values submitted by Wozencraft, Johnston, and Sutter on the grounds that they were either mere guesses or applied to an earlier period than that which we are considering. There are left the following figures, which seem essentially valid.

Ryer and the treaties (1851) 8,648 Wessels (1853) 7,500-8,000 Barbour (1853) 7,500-8,000 Henley (1856) 5,150

Since the wastage of native population in the valley was exceedingly rapid during the decade of the 'fifties, these figures are remarkably consistent. As a preliminary value, therefore, based upon the best general estimates, we may set the population in 1851 at 8,600.

a.n.a.lYSIS BASED UPON RESTRICTED AREAS

Further examination and correction are now in order. It will be noted that the estimates above do not include the area traversed by the Cosumnes, Mokelumne, and Calaveras rivers. Moreover, the federal agents confined their calculations to those natives who voluntarily or otherwise were incorporated in the local reservation system. That many Indians were overlooked, not only in the more remote foothills, but also in the valley itself cannot be doubted. In order to a.s.sess the population in greater detail as well as to introduce new sources of information it will be advantageous to break up the entire region into smaller units and consider these units one by one.

STANISLAUS AND TUOLUMNE RIVERS

We may begin with the watersheds of the Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers, since for this area reasonably complete information is available (see maps 1, 5, and 6, areas 7 and 9.) On May 31, 1851, the Daily Alta California reported the treaty made with tribes of this region and stated that they were 1,000 strong. This treaty (treaty E in the California Treaties) covered the courses of the two streams as far as their junction with the San Joaquin, on the one hand, and an indeterminate distance into the hills, on the other. Ryer vaccinated in the area during June of the same year and submitted a bill for 1,010 operations. He specifies 6 bands, rancherias, or tribes which were predominantly Siak.u.mne and Taulamni, a fact which implies that he confined his attention princ.i.p.ally to the inhabitants of the valley and the lower foothills. In the preceding discussion it was pointed out that Ryer's figures are probably too low and that a correction should be introduced. If the same ratio is used as before, the value becomes 1,420.

Adam Johnston, in a statement published in 1853 includes a map (Johnston, 1853, p. 242). Along the rivers shown on this map he has placed figures for population. According to him there were 900 Indians on the Stanislaus and 450 on the Tuolumne, or a total of 1,350. These are distinctly noted as reservation Indians and hence would not have included the entire population. Four years later, H. W. Wessels reported for the same area only 500-700 persons (Wessels, 1857). These were the Indians left on the reservations.

At about the same period, James D. Savage gave as his opinion that there were 2,500 people on the Stanislaus and 2,100 on the Tuolumne (Dixon, MS, 1875). In their report in 1853 Barbour, McKee, and Wozencraft refer to a statement by a chief named Kossus that under his jurisdiction were 4,000 persons and 30 rancherias from the Calaveras to the Stanislaus. Although these two estimates are widely at variance with those submitted by the officials, it must be remembered that both Savage and Chief Kossus may have been referring to a somewhat earlier date and that both included bands and settlements higher up the rivers than was actually reached by the commissioners. Hence, although the figure of over 4,000 is likely too high, 1,000 to 1,500 may have been too low.

With respect to the strictly lowland tribes there is but little doubt that by the year 1852 the northern Yokuts lying between Stockton and Modesto had practically disappeared. Thus the first state census, taken in 1852, showed only 275 Indians remaining on the lower Stanislaus.

George H. Tinkham states that in the same year there were only 10 families (perhaps 50 persons) left from the tribe which formerly had inhabited the region between the Calaveras and the Stanislaus and had extended eastward along the latter stream as far as Knights Ferry (Tinkham, 1923). The valley plains can consequently account for no more than approximately 350 persons and it must be a.s.sumed that almost all the remaining natives were living along the border of the foothills and higher up in the mountains.

One item of some significance is the discussion of the Tuolumne River tribes by Adam Johnston, written in the year 1860, definitely after the Gold Rush period. He says there were six chiefs in command of six rancherias, the names of which he gives. These rancherias "contain from fifty to two hundred Indians, men, women and children." One of these bands, the Aplache, "resided further in the mountains," from which one may infer that the other five were also in the mountains. At an average of 125 per band, or rancheria, this means 900 people whose existence was known to Johnston as late as 1860. An equivalent number can be a.s.sumed for the Stanislaus, or 1,800 in all.

The ethnographers have given us an imposing list of villages for the area under consideration, derived entirely from modern informants.

There are three of these lists, those of Kroeber (1925), Merriam[2], and Gifford,[3] which merit careful scrutiny. Kroeber's (p. 445 of the Handbook) includes 49 names, which he says are of villages "that can be both named and approximately located." Merriam's "Mewuk List" has 28 names of places located on the Stanislaus and Tuolumne. Gifford shows 49 villages which he says are "permanent," in addition to perhaps twice that number of "temporary" villages and camps. Gifford's list is probably the most carefully compiled of the three. The geographical location is indicated by counties but since his field of observation embraces Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, it coincides territorially quite exactly with the other two lists.

Certain villages are recorded by all three investigators, others by two of them, and some by only one. Concerning the existence of the first two groups there can be little, if any, doubt. Of those appearing on only one list some question might be raised. On the other hand, the care and conservatism exhibited by all three ethnographers makes it very difficult to doubt the essential validity of their data. The discrepancies are clearly due to the differences between informants and the high probability that no single informant could recall all the inhabited places over so large an area.

I have tabulated below the number of villages according to river system and according to occurrence in the lists mentioned.

Stanislaus Tuolumne __________ ________

Kroeber, Merriam, and Gifford 8 13 Kroeber and Merriam 2 3 Kroeber and Gifford 6 5 Kroeber only 6 8 Gifford only 5 12 Merriam only 1 1 ____ ____

Total 28 42

We have therefore 70 reasonably well authenticated villages in the hill area traversed by the two rivers. With regard to the number of inhabitants, further data are provided by Gifford. His informant gave for each permanent place an estimate of the number of persons present in the year 1840. Gifford secured his material in approximately the year 1915 from a man very old at the time. If the informant was then seventy-five years of age, he must have been born in 1840. Hence he could scarcely be expected to remember population figures from a date much earlier than his childhood. The names and location of the villages themselves were at least semipermanent and could have been derived from the informant's parents even if not from his own memory. Hence it is probable that the figure furnished to Gifford more nearly represents the number of inhabitants in 1850 than in 1840. The average value for all 49 villages is 20.8 persons. Yet 7 villages are stated to have held 15 persons, 11 villages 10 persons, and 3 villages 5 or less persons.

Such a condition argues a rapidly declining population, for no normal aboriginal settlement is likely to have contained less than 20 inhabitants. Gifford's average of 21 persons per village must, however, be accepted as representing the closest we can get to the value for the period of 1850. This means a population of 588 for the Stanislaus and 882 for the Tuolumne. The total is 1,470 for the foothill region.

Between 300 and 400 may be added to account for scattered remnants along the lower courses of these rivers and on the San Joaquin itself, or 1,800 for the entire area under consideration.