The Aboriginal Population of the San Joaquin Valley, California Part 6

In the fall of 1832 there were a number of Indian villages on King's River, between its mouth and the mountains: also on the San Joaquin River from the base of the mountains down to and some distance below the great slough. On the Merced River from the mountains to its junction with the San Joaquin there were no Indian villages; but from about this point on the San Joaquin, as well as on all of its princ.i.p.al tributaries, the Indian villages were numerous; and many of these villages contained from fifty to 100 dwellings.

It is noteworthy that Warner saw no villages on the lower Merced, 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 cla.s.s 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 circ.u.mstances prevents us from making an adequate a.s.sessment 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 Pa.s.s, which was inhabited by the Yokuts tribes Koyeti, Yaudanchi, Bokninuwad, k.u.machisi, 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. .h.i.therto 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 doc.u.mentary 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 a.s.sume 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 s.e.x 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 a.s.sured 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 doc.u.ment 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 ident.i.ty is by no means a.s.sured.

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 towns.h.i.+p.

After pa.s.sing 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 f.a.ges 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 towns.h.i.+p 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 towns.h.i.+p 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 k.u.machisi.

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 a.s.sume 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. a.s.suming that the average village size was 150 inhabitants, there would have been 0.44 village per river mile. The southern streams were probably more spa.r.s.ely 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 doc.u.mentary 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 Pa.s.s 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 a.s.sessing 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 ma.n.u.scripts 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 const.i.tute 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 a.s.sumption 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 sh.o.r.e of San Francis...o...b..y. 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 a.s.sume that Abella referred to all males except small children and further that the s.e.x 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.