Chapter V: Part 5

Menefee's principal contribution, however, is a rough computation of the surviving Indian population in 1843. This estimate occurs nowhere else to my knowledge, and I think was no doubt secured by Menefee through personal interviews with early settlers. He says (1873, p. 18) that there were 50 to 100 Indians on the Bale rancho, 400 at Caymus rancho, 600 at Salvador rancho, a "large number" at Soscol. Amplifying this count, he says: "It was the custom of the Indians to establish their rancherias upon the grants of the early settlers, in order to gain a livelihood by occasional labor." Also: "These were in some sense permanently fixed and residing constantly in one place. Besides these there were thousands of nomads, who roamed the valleys and mountains...."

Menefee also describes the destruction of an Indian community, the Callajomanas. This time it was a group of white ranchers from Sonoma Valley who became incensed at stock depredations, came to the village, and slaughtered 300 Indians--according to Menefee--as they emerged from a sweathouse. Whether this tale is confused with the account of Yount on the Caymus tragedy is difficult to say. The circumstances and the number of Indians involved may well be garbled, but that some such incident took place is highly probable.

If we now confine the area in question to Napa Valley, as all these persons clearly intended, we are dealing with the Central Wappo, the Southern Wappo, and the Wintun on Napa River. The best guess from the mission records for the population is about 1,800. To allow an area of 15 by 40 square miles and the maximum Pomo density of 8 persons per square mile would yield a population of 4,800. Yount said, according to Clark, as transmitted by Camp (1923, p. 56), that the valley "swarmed" with not less than 8,000 people in 1843. Yount, by way of Hittell and Menefee (1873, p. 19), put 10,000 to 12,000 from Napa to Clear Lake and 3,000 or "perhaps twice that number" in Napa Valley alone. It is clear that Yount was not a very accurate reporter and in default of actual knowledge made a broad guess. Yet I doubt greatly if Yount would have put the number in thousands--no matter how many--if there had actually been only a few hundred or a few score Indians in the country at the time of his arrival. The presence of a number approximating his low guess, 3,000, is not out of line with probability.

Let us turn to Menefee. His figures for 1843 were organized according to ranches. Furthermore let it be noted that, according to his explicit statement, the aboriginal village organization had broken down utterly, and the Indians were living in new places in conformity with new economic and social requirements. No wonder modern informants frequently cannot look past the period of upheaval and give us a clear picture of untouched aboriginal life before the white man came!

Regarding the accuracy of the figures, specifically the three items for which literal numbers are given, it can be said again, as was pointed out with reference to J. B. R. Cooper, that a ranch owner should have known roughly how many Indians were living in his own back yard. If we refuse to accept these estimates, then we had better be prepared to reject most historical testimony. We may then base our calculation on 75 Indians for the Bale ranch, 400 for the Caymus ranch, and 600 for the Salvador ranch. The Juarez and the Higuera ranches contained a "large number." Since the largest number actually given is 600, we may with safety consider that 300 would represent a "large number." A "still larger number" could reasonably be 400. The total then becomes 2,075. Menefee, however, is careful to state that this included only the Indians who were "in some sense" permanently located, and puts the unattached number in the "thousands." The latter can of course be scaled down drastically. Hundreds would be a good substitute, with a possible total of one thousand. The outcome then is that the Indian population of Napa Valley as a whole in 1843 was about 3,000, or identical with Yount's minimum estimate.

What was, now, the population aboriginally? The mission baptisms are of no use to us since the Indians in 1843 included most of the ex-neophytes in the area. That there had already been a profound reduction at that time is unquestioned. The north shore of the Bay had been subject to military, clerical, and civilian incursion since the beginning of the century. Lethal epidemics had swept over the country repeatedly. Massacre and slaughter had been the rule rather than the exception. Indeed, the open valley through Sonoma and Napa up to Calistoga had suffered more seriously than any other area except perhaps the delta of the Sacramento River. A population reduction from the aboriginal level by one-third prior to 1843 would not be out of line with the apparent facts.

The estimates for the period 1840-1845 derived from Yount, Hittell, and Menefee included the Central Wappo with the more southern groups. For the Central Wappo the ethnographic sources and the mission records indicated an aboriginal population of 450 or 500. However, it is probably advisable to disregard this small division as a separate entity and include it with the remaining Wappo and the Suscol Wintun. If we then take Yount's minimum estimate of 3,000 for the Napa Valley south of Mt. St. Helena and if we assume a one-third decrease in numbers from aboriginal times to 1843, the final estimate for the area becomes 4,500.

The figure just derived is of course considerably greater than would be indicated by either the ethnographic village lists or the mission baptism records, but it must be conceded that the two last methods of approach are inadequate for the situation existing in the Napa Valley. On the other hand for a population of 4,500 and an area of 600 square miles, the density would be 7.5 persons per square mile, or very close to the value arrived at for the near-by Pomo.

We have found by ethnographic derivation 1,680 persons for the Western Wappo and 1,800 for the Northern Wappo and Lake Miwok together. Thus the total for the Lake Miwok, the Wappo, and the Suscol Wintun as a whole becomes approximately 8,000.

_WAPPO, LAKE MIWOK, AND NAPA VALLEY WINTUN ... 8,000_

SUMMARY OF ESTIMATES

For convenience of reference the population estimates presented in the foregoing text are tabulated as follows:

Yurok 3,100
Wiyot 3,300
Karok 2,700
Hupa 2,000
Tolowa 2,400
Athapascans
Chilula 800
Mattole 1,200
Whilkut 1,300
Kato 1,100
Lassik 1,500
Nongatl 3,300
Sinkyone 2,900
Wailaki 3,350
-----
Total 15,450

Yuki
Coast Yuki 750
Yuki proper 6,880
Huchnom 2,100
-----
Total 9,730

Pomo
Clear Lake Pomo 3,150
Northern Pomo 5,040
Central and Southwestern Pomo 6,220
Southern Pomo 6,000
Northeastern Pomo 350
-----
Total 20,760

Coast Miwok 3,000
Wappo, Lake Miwok, Napa Valley Wintun 8,000
------

GRAND TOTAL 70,440

BIBLIOGRAPHY

_Abbreviations_

AA American Anthropologist, Menasha, Wis.
BAE-B Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution,
Bulletin
UC University of California Publications, Berkeley and Los
Angeles
-AR Anthropological Records
-IA Ibero-Americana
-PAAE American Archaeology and Ethnology

Barrett, S. A.

1908. The Ethno-Geography of the Pomo and Neighboring Indians.
UC-PAAE, Vol. 6.

Bledsoe, A. J.

1885. Indian Wars of the Northwest. San Francisco.

California, State of

1860. Majority and Minority Reports of the Special Joint Committee
on the Mendocino War. Appendix to Journals of the Assembly of the
Eleventh Session of the California Legislature, 1860.

Camp, C. L.

1923. The Chronicles of George C. Yount. In Calif. Hist. Soc.
Quarterly, 2: 3-66.

Cook, S. F.

1943. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White
Civilization: I. UC-IA No. 21.

Driver, H. E.

1936. Wappo Ethnography. UC-PAAE 36: 179-220.

Drucker, Philip.

1937. The Tolowa and Their Southwest Oregon Kin. UC-PAAE 36:
221-300.

Foster, G. M.

1944. A Summary of Yuki Culture. UC-AR 5: 155-244.

Gibbs, George.

1860. Journal of the Expedition of Colonel Redick M'Kee ... in
1851. In Henry R. Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, 3:
99-177.

Gifford, E. W.

1923. Pomo Lands on Clear Lake. UC-PAAE 20: 77-92.

1926. Clear Lake Pomo Society. UC-PAAE 18: 287-390.

1939. The Coast Yuki. Anthropos, 34: 292-375.

Gifford, E. W., and A. L. Kroeber

1937. Culture Element Distributions: Pomo. UC-PAAE 37: 117-254.

Goddard, P. E.

1903. The Life and Culture of the Hupa. UC-PAAE 1: 1-88.

1914. Notes on the Chilula Indians of Northwestern California.
UC-PAAE 10: 265-288.

1923. The Habitat of the Wailaki. UC-PAAE 20: 95-112.

1924. The Habitat of the Pitch Indians, a Wailaki Division. UC-PAAE
17: 217-225.

Heintzelman, H. P.

1855. Report dated San Francisco, Nov. 17, 1855. Original in U.S.
National Archive, Office of Indian Affairs, Record Group no. 75,
Letters Received, California, 1855. Enclosure to Doc. no. H 1100.

Hittell, J. S.

1860. Notes on Napa Valley. In the Hesperian Magazine. 4: 53-61.

Kniffen, F. B.

1939. Pomo Geography. UC-PAAE 36: 353-400.

Kroeber, Alfred L.

1925. Handbook of the Indians of California, BAE-B 78, Washington,
D.C.

1932. The Patwin and Their Neighbors. UC-PAAE 29: 253-423.

1936. Karok Towns. UC-PAAE 35: 29-38.

Loud, L. L.

1918. Ethnogeography and Archaeology of the Wiyot Territory.
UC-PAAE 14: 221-436.

Menefee, C. A.

1873. Historical and Descriptive Sketch Book of Napa, Sonoma, Lake
and Mendocino ... Reporter Publishing House, Napa City, Calif.

Merriam, C. Hart.

Dates uncertain. Village Lists. Manuscripts in the possession of
the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.

After the decease of the late C. Hart Merriam his heirs generously
made available to the Department of Anthropology of the University
of California, Berkeley, a large and valuable collection of Dr.
Merriam's notes on California Indians. Among these papers are to be
found complete and very carefully recorded lists of villages for
most of the California tribes, drawn not only from published
sources but also from original information secured from informants
on the scene. Much material, otherwise unavailable, has thus been
secured. These documents are referred to in this text simply as the
Village Lists of C. Hart Merriam or are cited by Merriam's own
manuscript title. They are undated and a formal bibliographical
reference in most cases cannot be given.

1905. The Indian Population of California. AA 7: 594-606.

M'Kee, John.

1853. Minutes Kept by John M'Kee, Secretary on the Expedition from
Sonoma, through Northern California. 33rd Cong. spec. sess. Sen.
Ex. Doc. no. 4, pp. 134-180.

Nomland, G. A.

1935. Sinkyone Notes. UC-PAAE 36: 149-178.

1938. Bear River Ethnography. UC-AR 2: 91-126.

Nomland, G. A., and A. L. Kroeber

1936. Wiyot Towns. UC-PAAE 35: 39-48.

Palmer, L. L.

1881. History of Napa and Lake Counties. Slocum, Bowen and Co.,
San Francisco.

Powers, S.

1877. Tribes of California. Contributions to North American
Ethnology, Vol. 3.

Stewart, O. C.

1943. Notes on Pomo Ethnogeography. UC-PAAE 40: 29-62.

Taylor, A. S.

1860-1863. The Indianology of California.

Published as a series of articles by the California Farmer. The
entire series has been clipped and pasted in a bound volume
available at the Bancroft Library, Berkeley.

Waterman, T. T.

1920. Yurok Geography. UC-PAAE 16: 177-314.

1925. Village Sites in Tolowa and Neighboring Areas of Northwestern
California. AA 27: 528-543.

<pre id="pg-footer">