tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">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

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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 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 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