Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820Cook, Sherburne Friend
History
Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820
Cook, Sherburne Friend
California -- Discovery and exploration; California -- History -- To 1846 -- Sources; Central Valley (Calif.)
[23] This spot is difficult to locate according to the description.
However, 6 leagues upstream from the vicinity of Ripon or Riverbank
barely reaches the limestone bluffs just below Knights Ferry. Certainly
no place lower on the river could possibly provide the physical
characteristics demanded by the account. These bluffs are not very high
but are unquestionably precipitous. Without heavy equipment an invader
would be hard put to scale them. As an alternative one must go far into
the foothills beyond the Calaveras-Stanislaus County line. Not only
is this distance greater than is indicated by Muñoz but also the
description lacks any indication that the party had really entered
the mountains. The best guess is the vicinity of Knights Ferry.
[24] There is some controversy concerning the ethnographic affinity of
the natives living in this area. Kroeber thinks they were Yokuts. He
mentions as Yokuts groups (Handbook, p. 485) "the Tawalimni, presumably
on Tuolumne River, which appears to be named from them; the Lakisamni
... rancheria at Dent's or Knights Ferry on the Stanislaus...." Schenck
(1926, p. 141) says, under the caption _Taulamne_: "The villages
Taulamne and Taualames are both definitely placed, the former on an
inaccessible rock on the Stanislaus river in the foothills, the latter
at the ford of the San Joaquin just below the mouth of the Tuolumne
river.... This seems to establish the region between the lower Tuolumne
and Stanislaus rivers as Taulamne territory." Kroeber on his map of the
region (Handbook, pl. 37) draws the line between Miwok and Yokuts at the
county boundary, near which the village of Taulamne seems to have been
situated. Hence the inhabitants may have been either Miwok or Yokuts.
The villages higher up the river mentioned by Muñoz must have been
Central Miwok.
It is noteworthy that Muñoz makes no mention of villages on the lower
Stanislaus within the very favorable environment created by the oak
forest. Villages were seen on the Tuolumne but were deserted. It is
highly probable that a similar series existed on the Stanislaus but
by 1806 had been abandoned. The only village mentioned by name in the
supplementary list is Tahualamne.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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