The Aboriginal Population of the San Joaquin Valley, CaliforniaCook, Sherburne Friend
History
The Aboriginal Population of the San Joaquin Valley, California
Cook, Sherburne Friend
Indians of North America -- California -- San Joaquin Valley; San Joaquin Valley (Calif.) -- Population
Rodriguez found among the Hoyima as a whole 87 to 107 live horses (27
captured, 60-80 in the wilderness), which were presumably about to be
killed and eaten, together with 100 animals already slaughtered. The
total thus reached approximately 200. The question now is pertinent:
how much food can be obtained from 200 horses? If we assume that each
of these relatively light range animals weighed 800 pounds, we may
deduct about 25 per cent to account for bones, hide, certain of the
viscera, and other inedible parts, leaving 600 pounds which the Indians
could and did consume. The aggregate is 120,000 pounds of meat. If this
meat was dried and preserved, according to general practice, it was
sufficient to supply 329 persons the equivalent of one pound of fresh
meat per day for one calendar year. If it had to be consumed
immediately or within a few days, and if every man, woman, and child
ate 20 pounds apiece, it was adequate for 6,000 people. If the entire
tribe, not merely one rancheria, divided the meat into equal shares,
and if the tribe numbered 1,000 persons, then the share of each
individual amounted to 120 pounds. Whether these figures are strictly
accurate is irrelevant. They merely emphasize that a quite sizable
group must have been concerned. We may therefore regard the Hoyima as
being as large a tribe as the Pitcache, and estimate that the
population was at least 1,000.
The remaining two tribes in the valley proper, as listed by Kroeber and
others, were the Heuchi and the Chauchila. They occupied the north bank
of the Fresno River and the distributaries of the Chowchilla River. The
ethnographic data include no more than one or two villages for each
tribe. The Heuchi are referred to by Rodriguez, who says that the
rancheria of the "Jeuche" was completely deserted. However, since it
was the principal tribal village, it must have contained at least 200
persons. The Chauchila were also noticed by Rodriguez, who says that at
"Chausila" he "captured" 142 people and "killed many." If we concede
that as many escaped as were captured or killed, there must have been
fully 400 in all.
The Nupchenches, although they are merely mentioned as a possible tribe
by Kroeber (Handbook, p. 485) and are doubtfully recorded by Schenck
(1926), occupied an important position in the early nineteenth century.
Indeed, the failure of Kroeber and Schenck to consider them seriously
makes it necessary to set forth in some detail the information about
them contained in the Spanish reports.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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