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
This account deserves comment on several grounds: with relation to
Viader's visit of the previous year and the baptisms at San Francisco
it is evident that whereas the southern extension of the Tarquines'
habitat, whatever its size, had been swept clear prior to 1810,
nevertheless the tribe persisted on the estuarine islands in truly
large numbers. Moreover, since there is evidence of no more than one
rancheria on the south shore, it appears that the territory in that
region allotted by Schenck to the tribe is too large and should be
restricted to a small area of the southeastern corner of Suisun Bay.
With respect to population, Abella's figures are quite credible. It has
been suggested that one of the huge houses found in this region could
accommodate 9 persons without difficulty. Then the large village should
have had 540 inhabitants. Allowing 24 houses for the other villages
seen, 216 persons should be added, making a total of 756, a figure not
far from Abella's guess of 1,000.
The final reference to the tribe occurs in the diary of Duran. During
the night of May 22-23, 1817, he went up the main channel of the San
Joaquin, in T3N, R4E, and passed the Tauguimenes on the _left_, that is
to say, on the _east_ bank. Schenck thinks that the group covered the
entire strip from Pittsburg to the east bank of the main river
_contemporaneously_. Now it has been pointed out as probable that the
southwestern outliers were missionized, or pushed back into the swamps,
as early as 1801. It is equally possible that the island communities
described by Abella in 1811 were pushed, in the next five or six years,
off the islands altogether and clear back eastward to the far bank of
the main river. Of considerable significance is the fact that whereas
both Viader and Abella mention the Tarquines as being in the estuary
region, Duran, who covered this area thoroughly, is completely silent
with regard to their presence. It is highly unlikely that, had there
been any of the tribe left in their former habitat, he would have
failed to note them.
The details are very obscure but the main outlines of events in the
first three decades of the nineteenth century can be perceived.
Aboriginally and perhaps till nearly 1800, there was a dense population
of natives extending from Port Costa along the southern shore of Suisun
Bay and up the rivers for fifteen miles beyond Antioch. Among them
were included tribal groups, or rancherias, called Aguastos, Chupunes,
Ompines, Julpunes, and Tarquines, belonging very likely to different
ethnic and linguistic stocks. Under the pressure of the Spanish
military power, which was the real force behind missionization,
portions of these groups were exterminated, other segments gave ground
and shifted habitat, and occasional remnants persisted in the old
localities. Thus each visitor in turn found a different geographical
organization, until the entire native society was obliterated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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