1. Athabascan Boundaries--Kroeber vs. Baumhoff 162 2. Athabascan Boundaries--Baumhoff 162 3. Athabascan Boundaries--Merriam vs. Baumhoff 163 4. Athabascan Boundaries--Various authors vs. Baumhoff 163 5. Villages and Tribelets of the Eel Wailaki and the North Fork Wailaki 168 6. Villages and Tribelets of the Pitch Wailaki 177 7. Presumed Nongatl Villages in the Bridgeville Region 180 8. Lassik Villages in the Alder Point Region 180 9. Nongatl Villages on Yager Creek 182 10. Nongatl Villages in the Blocksburg Region 182 11. Villages of the Lolangkok Sinkyone 186 12. Villages of the Shelter Cove Sinkyone 190 13. Place Names of the Lolangkok Sinkyone 192 14. Villages and Tribelets of the Mattole 197 15. Villages of the Chilula Whilkut, North Fork Whilkut, and Kloki Whilkut 204 16. Villages of the Mad River Whilkut, the South Fork Hupa, and Kloki Whilkut 208 17. Villages of the Hupa and South Fork Hupa 211 18. Yuki "Tribes," according to Eben Tillotson (App. II) 228 CALIFORNIA ATHABASCAN GROUPS BY MARTIN A. BAUMHOFF INTRODUCTION In 1910 C. Hart Merriam, already well known as a naturalist, came to California and began the study of California ethnography which was to occupy him for the rest of his life. Almost every year from then until his death in 1942 Merriam spent about six months in the field, talking to Indians and recording their memories of aboriginal times. All this field work resulted in an immense collection of data on the California Indians, most of which has never been published (see Merriam's bibliography in Merriam, 1955, pp. 227-229). In 1950 the greater part of Merriam's field notes was deposited at the University of California, with the intention of making them available for study and publication. One volume of papers has already appeared (Merriam, 1955), and the present study is part of a continuing program. The California Athabascans were selected as the first group for study at the suggestion of A. L. Kroeber, the reason being that the Athabascans have been and still remain one of the least known aboriginal groups in the State. This is not because they were conquered early and their culture dissipated, as is true of the Mission Indians; there were scarcely any whites in the California Athabascan area before the 1850's. Indeed, as late as the 1920's and '30's there were many good Athabascan informants still available. The reason for the hiatus in our knowledge lies in an accident in the history of ethnology rather than in the history of California.