The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of CaliforniaCook, Sherburne Friend
History
The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California
Cook, Sherburne Friend
Indians of North America -- California; Indians of North America -- Statistics
Stewart has made a particularly exhaustive study of this group and
states that the population range extended from 800 to 1,200 persons.
Merriam gives 82 names of villages. Stewart makes it quite clear that
aboriginally the Kacia had no permanent settlements on the coast
itself. All their villages were at least four or five miles inland,
except Mitini and Powicana. We must delete therefore all the coastal
villages of Barrett and Merriam except the two mentioned. This
immediately removes 27 names, leaving 55. Of these, 16 are mentioned by
Stewart as "villages which were occupied more or less permanently" (p.
50). Five of them had assembly houses. Of the remaining 39 sites, 30
are confirmed by Merriam from Barrett's list or are given by him in
addition to Barrett. If we consider that the larger, known population
of the villages such as Mitini balances errors in Merriam's list and
the mean number of persons per village was 30, then the total for the
group is 46 times 30, or 1,380. To this should be added, according to
Stewart, 100 for the Yotiya, making 1,480 in all. This is somewhat, but
not excessively, greater than Stewart's estimate.
For the Central Pomo as a whole we may turn once more to the record
left by Heintzelman. For the area here being considered he lists five
tribes.
1. _Uk-a-is._ These are stated to be located "above the canyon of
the Russian River," and are obviously the villages grouped around
Ukiah. A discussion of the Yokaia is given by Stewart (1943, pp.
43-45).
2. _Sinals._ This term clearly refers to the village of Shanel,
already mentioned with respect to population.
3. _Bo-kas._ These were located "in the vicinity of Fort Ross" and
included no doubt the Bokeya of Point Arena as well as the
survivors around Fort Ross.
4. _Ta-bi-tas._ These were "in Anderson's Valley" and refer to the
inhabitants of the village Tabate (Kroeber and Stewart) or to the
group called the Pdateya by Stewart.
5. _Bo-i-os._ These were located "south of Booldam River on the
coast," in other words south of Big River near the boundary between
the Northern and Central Pomo.
Since the region of Ukiah, Hopland, Booneville, Point Arena, and Fort
Ross was well explored and even extensively settled by 1855, it is
entirely probable that Heintzelman recorded all the existing natives of
the area. Regardless of terminology the five names above leave no
important fraction of the territory unaccounted for. Heintzelman's
total for the population is 2,100, a figure which should be compared
with the value of 6,220 obtained through the use of village lists,
together with house and family number.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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