The Aboriginal Population of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, CaliforniaCook, Sherburne Friend
History
The Aboriginal Population of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, California
Cook, Sherburne Friend
Indians of North America -- California; Indians of North America -- Statistics
Nevertheless, San Francisco did not get all the natives, because Santa
Clara was much closer and was active during the same period
Unfortunately we cannot determine the village of origin for these
neophytes, since the baptism book (according to Pinart's transcript)
allocates the individual converts to rancherias, not according to the
native names of the latter, but by corresponding Saint's names, which
must have been applied, Mexican fashion, by the local missionaries Only
after 1801 did Santa Clara change its system, and of course by this time
no heathen Indians remained locally.
San José was founded and began conversions in 1797. The baptism book
here has the converts identified according to general area, not specific
village. There are six such regions, or categories: "Palos colorados,"
"de la Alameda," "del Estero," "del Norte," "del Este," "del Sur." Of
these the first three are evidently local and in the region now being
discussed: (1) the redwoods back of Oakland and San Leandro; (2) Alameda
Creek and adjacent plain; (3) the shore of the Bay directly west of the
mission. The conversions, 1797-1802 inclusive, from these three areas
were respectively 31, 170, 130, indicating that San Francisco and Santa
Clara had by no means completed the conquest.
_Area 2. The coast from Richmond to Carquinez Strait._--That this strip
was held by the tribal group known as Huchiun (Cuchillones, Juchillones)
has been supported by the accounts of Amador (diary of 1797) and of
Abella (diary of 1811). The latter writer, it will be remembered,
renamed the Point of the Huchines, Point San Pablo, a name which it
retains today. The point of the Abastos or Aguastos became
Point San Pedro. The Abastos, it may be pointed out, were neither
Costanoan nor resident on the east side of the Bay. They lived on the
Bay shore of Marin County, as is abundantly evident from the San
Francisco baptism records.
The Huchiun are mentioned by Chamisso and by Choris (Mahr, 1932) in
1816, jointly with various other North Bay tribes. Chamisso says that
the Utschíun, together with the Guyment, Olumpalic, Soclan, and Sonomi,
all speak the same language, a manifest error. Choris repeats the
mistake. Arroyo de la Cuesta gives a Huichun vocabulary and says (1837;
MS p. 21) "Karquin and Huichun is one language--Saclan is another,
entirely distinct." The Huchiun are noted in the San Francisco records
first in 1787 (Tuchiun) and subsequently repeatedly until 1809, although
they never appear in the San José record. Apparently San José derived
converts from the east rather than from up coast.
The exact limits of the Huchiun are doubtful. Amador spent a night
somewhere near Richmond and then went north to find them. Abella
associates them closely with Point San Pablo, and implies that their
land reached as far as the strait. We may tentatively draw their
boundary between Rodeo and Crockett.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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