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THE ABORIGINAL POPULATION
OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY,
CALIFORNIA


BY
S. F. COOK


ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECORDS

Vol. 16, No. 2




UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
ANTHROPOLOGICAL RECORDS

Editors (Berkeley): R. L. Olson, R. F. Heizer, T. D. McCown, J. H. Rowe
Volume 16, No. 2, pp. 31-80
6 maps

Submitted by editors October 8, 1954
Issued July 11, 1955
Price, 75 cents


University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles
California

Cambridge University Press
London, England


Manufactured in the United States of America




CONTENTS

                                                                  Page

Introduction                                                        31

The population of the San Joaquin Valley in approximately 1850      33
    Contemporary estimates and counts for the entire region         33
    Analysis based upon restricted areas                            34
        Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers                              34
        Merced River, Mariposa Creek, and Chowchilla River          35
        The Cosumnes, Mokelumne, and Calaveras rivers               36
        The Fresno and the upper San Joaquin rivers                 36
        The Kings and Kaweah rivers                                 38
        The Tulare Lake basin                                       40
        The Tule River, the Kern River, and the Buenavista Basin    40

The aboriginal population                                           42
    The Tulare Lake basin                                           42
    The Kaweah River                                                45
    The Merced River                                                48
    The Kings River                                                 49
    The Upper San Joaquin, Fresno, and Chowchilla rivers and
        Mariposa Creek                                              50
    The Southern San Joaquin Valley                                 54
    The Northern San Joaquin Valley                                 56
    The Miwok Foothill Area                                         68

Summary and conclusions                                             70

Appendix                                                            71

Bibliography                                                        72


MAPS

1. The San Joaquin Valley from the Cosumnes River
      to the Tehachapi                                  facing page 74

2. Habitat areas 1A-2: the southern Yokuts and
      peripheral tribes                                             75

3. Habitat areas 3A-4C: the basins of the Kaweah
      and Kings rivers                                              76

4. Habitat areas 5A-6B: the Yokuts, a part of the
      Mono, and the  southern Miwok                                 76

5. Habitat areas 7A-14: the northern Yokuts, central
      and northern Miwok                                            77

6. The Lower San Joaquin River and Delta areas                      78




THE ABORIGINAL POPULATION OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

BY

S. 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 Francisco Bay 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 <DW72>. 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 altitudes.
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 substitute 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 quantitative 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 quantity 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 principally 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 documents is to be
found in the manuscript 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 assess 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 constituted a direct attempt to assess 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 documents in Senate Executive Document 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 shore 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 assumed that the persons over
fifteen years of age constituted 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 shore 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.


ANALYSIS 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 assess 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 Siakumne and Taulamni, a fact which implies that he
confined his attention principally 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 assumed 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
assumed 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.

To summarize, we have the following estimates for the
Stanislaus-Tuolumne watershed at or about the year 1851:

     Savage (perhaps before 1851)        4,600
     Chief Kossus                        4,000
     Daily Alta California, 1851         1,000
     Vaccinations by Ryer                1,420
     Adam Johnston's estimate, 1853      1,350
     Adam Johnston's estimate, 1860      1,800
     H. W. Wessels, 1853                   600
     Village lists                       1,800

The crude numerical average is about 2,070 but since the best of the
above estimates, the village lists, shows no more than 1,800, it will
be preferable to set 2,000 as a fair approximation.

          STANISLAUS-TUOLUMNE... 2,000
         