Editors (Berkeley): R. L. Olson, R. F. Heizer, T. D. McCown, J. H. Rowe Volume 16. No. 3. pp. 81-130 (continued 2)
Reading edition
With regard to the Pitch group Goddard (1924) shows that the subtribe tokya-kiyahan had 15 villages. In fourteen of these he found 66 house pits, an average of 4.72 per village. At tciancot-kiyahan there were 16 villages, 7 of which had 35 house pits, or an average of 5.0. Todannan-kiyahan had 6 villages but the area was incompletely examined and there were probably more. The area of tcocat-kiyahan was not seen at all but there is certainly no reason why they should not have had at least 6 villages. At four houses per village the total, surely an underestimate, would be 172 and at 6.0 persons per house the population would be 1,032.
For the entire Wailaki the indicated population is then 3,347 (or rather 3,350), a figure much in excess of previous estimates but justified by the data presented by Goddard and Merriam.
Wailaki ... 3,350
ATHAPASCAN TOTAL ... 15,450
THE YUKI
THE COAST YUKI
The Coast Yuki have been the subject of an admirable ethnographic study by Gifford (1939), who has assembled substantially all the data extant in modern times pertaining to families and villages. He shows very clearly that this tribe occupied its villages only in a transitory manner, that it had summer beach camps and inland winter settlements. To quote Gifford's words concerning the point (p. 296):
I use the terms camp, hamlet, and village interchangeably in this paper. No site seems to have been occupied the year around. All were more or less temporary. The presence of an assembly house marked the more frequently occupied sites.
Hence it is necessary to examine Gifford's compilation of sites with as much care as possible in order to determine how many villages can properly be ascribed to the tribe.
It is also made clear in Gifford's paper that each of the eleven Coast Yuki groups had its own headman and ceremonial house. Each group had a frontage of seacoast together with a strip of territory which extended inland to the eastern limit of the tribe. Within this territory the group moved about with considerable freedom.
The following is a digest of the inhabited sites for the eleven groups. The groups are numbered (but the names omitted) in the order in which they appear on pages 296 to 303 of Gifford's paper.
1. One village is mentioned but no camp sites. For the group, therefore, the maximum number of sites occupied at any given time must be one.
2. Two "hamlets" are given by name. Since these are quite close together and in the same terrain, it may be assumed that two sites were simultaneously occupied.
3. Here are mentioned three camp sites and two villages (Esim and Melhomikem), one with 7-9 houses and the other with 8 houses. There was also a village which had been settled after the coming of the white man, with 6 houses. It appears clear that aboriginally there were two semipermanent sites and a number of temporary settlements.
4. For this group Gifford mentions one beach village by name, one inland village, name unknown, and three camp sites. Although the beach and inland villages may not have been simultaneously occupied, the existence of three additional camp sites implies more people than would be contained in a single settlement at one time. Hence it is reasonable to regard the group as consisting of at least two village units.
5. There was one inland village with 6 houses (Onbit), one beach village (Lilpinkem) and one camp site with 8 houses. In view of the single camp site we have to regard the group as having one site occupied at a given time.
6. Here was one winter village and one beach village with no camp sites mentioned. Thus we may count one occupied site.
7. For this group there are known two villages, two hamlets, and one camp site, all with names. One hamlet had 3-4 houses and one village had 5 houses. Since there is no information on the location of the villages we may count all four.
8. Three hamlets are mentioned by name.
9. Two villages are mentioned by name.
10. One village mentioned.
11. One village mentioned.
The irreducible minimum number of villages therefore totals 20. It is quite probable that some of the other sites might be or ought to be counted but, since the evidence concerning them is equivocal, they will not be included. The house counts for seven sites average 6.3 and since we are here dealing with informants' memories of inhabited houses, not house pits, this number need not be reduced. With respect to family number, the Yurok value of 7.5 is probably too high. For the type of culture characteristic of the Coast Yuki the more conservative value of 6.0 is probably better. This yields a population of 756, or approximately 750. It is difficult to see how this estimate could be reduced.
Coast Yuki ... 750
THE YUKI PROPER
Although the Yuki were a populous and important tribe, and although Kroeber, in the Handbook, devoted three chapters to their culture, they have been the subject of but one special study. Quite recently G. M. Foster (1944) resurveyed their ethnography and worked out their village organization in some detail. He utilized informants who were in their seventies during the period of 1935 to 1940 and who thus were born no earlier than 1860. Since the social and political organization of the Yuki was completely disrupted during the 'fifties, particularly at Round Valley, it is remarkable that Foster was able to secure so much apparently quite accurate detail. It is true that certain specific items of information derived by Kroeber from his informants of thirty or thirty-five years earlier are more reliable than the comparable data of Foster, nevertheless the over-all coverage by the latter is more complete. Foster's account will therefore serve here as the basis for a computation of population.
There were eight major subdivisions or subtribes, the spelling of whose names and the precise boundaries of whose territories are slightly differently presented by Kroeber and Foster. Merely for convenience the description of Foster is followed here. Of the eight subtribes the most numerous and most important were the Ukomnom, who inhabited most of Round Valley. Next in importance were the Witukomnom directly to the south. Most of Foster's work was devoted to these two groups.
With respect to village organization Kroeber brought out the basic fact that the tribe was organized by communities, rather than separate and wholly independent villages (1925, pp. 161-162).
The community always might and usually did embrace several settlements.... If designated it was referred to by the name of the principal village. This place name therefore designates at one time a cluster of several little towns and on other occasions one of these towns.
Foster went one step further and clarified the internal organization of the community. He showed that within each cluster there was always a principal village of relatively large size called the nohot with a constellation of small hamlets or, as he usually puts it, "rancherias" immediately adjacent. The former he likens to a host and the latter to a group of parasites. The nohot might contain as many as twenty-five houses and as many as 150 inhabitants. There might be anywhere from "2 to 6 to 8" rancherias per nohot. (See p. 176.) It is therefore possible, for certain subtribes, to obtain some idea concerning population from the list of inhabited places remembered by Foster's informants, particularly since Foster usually specifies what type of village is meant. This list is quite complete for the Witukomnom and the Ukomnom and partially so for the Tanom. Kroeber (1925, pp. 163-164) gives parallel data for a part of the Ukomnom, which can be to some extent brought into concordance with Foster's list.
The question of local population is difficult because in only one instance does Foster mention a specific figure: the largest nohot, which he says contained 25 houses and 150 people. It is of interest that elsewhere he states that the typical Yuki house would hold 4 to 8 persons. Thus he appears to accept without reservation a family number of 6. Now of course the average nohot was smaller and must have been intermediate between the maximum possible with twenty-five houses and the smaller villages which must have contained four or five. The halfway point is fifteen, a number which may be accepted with a fair degree of confidence. The nohot population would then be taken as ninety. The parasitic village or rancheria was definitely smaller. It could not have approached 15 houses yet by far the greater number of rancheria's must have had more than one or two. A reasonable compromise would be 4 houses and 25 inhabitants. With respect to the number of these hamlets per community the indefinite "2 to 6 to 8" may be set at four. Hence the community may be regarded as having on the average 190 inhabitants during pre-invasion times. There is no clear evidence to justify a larger estimate and on the other hand the whole context of both Kroeber's and Foster's discussion gives the impression of a group approaching 200 persons in number. This is somewhat but not materially greater than the mean number for the 22 subtribes of the Wailaki according to Goddard's data. That value was 153 and the subtribe among the Wailaki appears to have been very similar to the community among the Yuki.
For the Witukomnom Foster lists 15 places, of which 9 are designated as nohots and 6 as "small." Two points are apparent. First, the informants of Foster were recalling the important villages which they had seen or been told about but had forgotten the minor sites, hence the great preponderance of nohots. In the second place, it is unnecessary for purposes of calculation to know the names or the number of the peripheral "parasitic" rancherias if we know the primary towns, the nohots, for, knowing a nohot, we know a community. Thus we may immediately set the population of the Witukomnom as at least 1,710 persons. If the informants gave incomplete data, then the number would be higher.
For the Ukomnom Foster lists 38 place names, most but not all of which lay in Round Valley. Of these 6 are specified as nohots. This would yield as a first approximation a population of 1,140. But for the Ukomnom we have some help from Kroeber. Many of Foster's remaining places are designated merely "rancheria," since his informants could remember no further details. For one of them, Kroeber says that there was a dance house present, which makes the site a nohot instead of a rancheria. Kroeber's group B includes the village of Pomo, which is not mentioned by Foster. This was the seat of a head chief, and therefore a nohot. In addition, Kroeber includes in this group 6 villages in Williams Valley. Foster says regarding "Flint Valley," by which he is evidently referring to the same locality, that his informants could remember no villages. This seems to be an instance where Kroeber's earlier informants could recall villages which Foster's later ones had forgotten, for there is no ground for doubting the accuracy of Kroeber's work. There is no implication that any of these sites was large, hence they may be regarded as the small type of village with about 25 persons apiece. We can therefore count 8 nohots plus 6 rancherias, which gives a population of 1,670 for the entire group.
A further check on the Ukomnom is provided by Foster's map of Round Valley (p. 158). In the valley proper he shows 37 inhabited villages, of which 25 are named and 12 are unnamed. Of the former, 7 are known to have been nohots. Taking the nohots at 90 persons and the other sites at 25 persons, one gets a total population of 1,380. A balance of 300 is by no means excessive for Williams Valley and the peripheral hills. Incidentally, this figure for Round Valley yields a density of roughly 45 persons per square mile, one which surpasses any other in California but one which is quite in accord with all the accounts of early settlers and explorers.
The Tanom, living on the Eel River to the northwest, are credited by Kroeber with six "divisions," the names for which he gives. Foster lists also six names, which he says are "probably districts named after the principal rancheria" (p. 159). There is no doubt that both authors are referring to communities or, as Kroeber calls them, "political units." Hence at 190 persons their aggregate population would have been 1,140.
For the other five subtribes we have very little direct information. Among the Huitinom Foster knows of two nohots and two rancherias, all at considerable distances from each other. The country was rugged but the area large and served by Black Butte Creek, a fishing stream with several tributaries. Two nohots and two rancherias would indicate a minimum of 330 people. It would not be excessive to place the number at 400.
The Suksaltatamnom lived to the northeast on the headwaters of the South Fork Eel River, close to the Pitch Wailaki. They are all dead and nothing whatever is known of their villages. Their number may be tentatively placed at 400, since in all other respects their habitat resembled that of the Huitinom.
On Onkolukomnom lived to the southeast in a large area centering around Lake Pillsbury. There are none left but Foster thinks (p. 160) "they are undoubtedly numerous." Certainly they must have exceeded the two preceding subtribes and an estimate of 600 should not be too much.
The Lalkutnom and the Ontitnom lived close together south and west of Round Valley. Regarding the former Foster says there were "a number of nohots and rancherias." If we allow four to be "a number" and assume that the rancherias were all subordinate to the nohots, the population would have been 760, a not excessive estimate. The Ontitnom, as far as Foster could determine, consisted of one nohot or, let us say, 200 persons.
Yuki proper ... 6,880
THE HUCHNOM
This important subdivision of the Yukian stock lived along the South Eel River and its affluents from a point below the junction with Outlet Creek to the head of Potter Valley, at which region they merged with the Pomo. They were a river people, with their villages all placed on the banks of the Eel and one or two of the larger tributaries.
The original modern ethnographic account of the Huchnom was by Barrett (1908), whose description of villages is accepted almost verbatim by Kroeber in the Handbook (pp. 202-203). A more recent account, derived from one informant, is given by Foster (1944, pp. 225 ff., App. 1).
Barrett describes and shows on his map 13 villages, of which 11 are on the Eel and 2 on Tomki Creek. Of the former 5 are located close together along the boundary between the Huchnom and the Northern Pomo. This territory is shown on Foster's map as being within the confines of the Pomo; hence some confusion might arise, were it not that both Barrett and Kroeber are very positive in ascribing the sites to the Huchnom, not the Pomo. Barrett's map is undoubtedly more accurate for this area than Foster's.
Barrett calls all these "old village sites," as opposed, for example, to modern inhabited villages. He makes no distinction as to size. Kroeber in taking over Barrett's list refers to them as "main settlements." Foster states (p. 227) that "village organization and society in general were about like the Yuki." Hence it could be inferred that the 13 places were all of the nohot type, and thus that a total population of 2,470 is implied.
This may not, however, be entirely justified. Kroeber says settlements not communities and Barrett says villages. Reference therefore may have been to individual dwelling places not to groups or constellations. Foster begs the question entirely by referring merely to the work of the previous investigators as "ample." On the other hand, if the Huchnom organization was similar to that of the Yuki, as Foster avers, then at least some of the names mentioned must have been community capitals, or nohots, the smaller villages peripheral to which have been forgotten.
We have a few additional items which are helpful. The northernmost village, cipomul, is said by Foster's informant to have been the residence of a "captain." Hence it was a principal village or nohot. Three villages are stated by Barrett (and so shown on his map) as having been located on both banks of the Eel River. Such extension suggests a size greater than that of a small parasitic hamlet, whether or not they may be regarded as nohots. Moreover the distribution of Barrett's sites along the river is interesting. According to his map, the line of 11 villages along the stream, disregarding minor meanderings of the latter, extended about 40 miles. From the northern border and going upstream there are 6 villages in the first 25 miles, the minimum distance between any two being 3 miles. Since the usual distance between a primary village and its satellites among the Yuki, according to Foster, is not more than a mile or two, none of these 6 settlements can have been of the secondary type. The cluster of 4 named towns along the 5 miles of river at the extreme south were quite close together, and not more than 2 of them may have been of this type. At the headwaters to the extreme east there was one definitely isolated village, which may be placed in the larger category, as may also the two sites on Tomki Creek. Of the 13 places given by Barrett there is therefore reason to believe that at least 11 were of the nohot variety.
Indirect confirmation of this conclusion comes from comparison of the Huchnom village distribution with that of the subtribes of the Yuki proper. The Tanom had 6 nohots scattered along approximately 20 miles of the Eel River and the Witukomnom had 4 or 5 along some 15 miles of stream valley. The Huchnom territory was about 270 square miles and, judging roughly from the maps of Foster and Barrett, the Tanom and the Witukomnom areas were approximately 200 square miles each. The Tanom possessed at least 6 nohots and the Witukomnom 9 (Foster's data). Hence the average area covered per nohot would be 33 for the Tanom and 22 for the Witukomnom. If we allow 11 primary villages or nohots for the Huchnom the average area covered by each would be 25, entirely within the same range. Now the character of the terrain for the three groups did not differ in any essential respect. Hence there is no reason to suppose that the population density of the Huchnom, computed on a riparian or area basis, was any less than that of the other two subtribes. Furthermore I can see no evidence pointing to a smaller individual community or village population among the Huchnom. Eleven nohots or village constellations would yield a total population of 2,090, or approximately 2,100, an estimate somewhat smaller than the one given previously but one which I can find no reason for further reducing.
Some confirmation of the figure derived from village data is contained in the survey of Heintzelman (1855). He mentions as one of his principal divisions the Bi-lo-ki, a name which is the same as Balokai. The latter were the Pomo of Potter Valley, according to Kroeber and also Barrett (p. 128). This group, Heintzelman says, included 3,000 persons. However, he breaks them down into six smaller divisions and says that "these Indians reside between Clear Lake and the heads of Eel, Russian and Trinity Rivers." The six divisions are: Tar-toos, Si-dam, Po-ma Pomes, Si-mas, Di-no-kis, and Du-che-calla-os. The Si-dam and Po-ma Pomes are undoubtedly Potter valley Pomo. The Si-mas, according to a personal communication received from Dr. Barrett, are probably Yuki from the region of the headwaters of the South Eel River (the tcimaia mentioned in the Ethnogeography of the Pomo, 1908. p. 247). The Di-no-kis and the Du-che-calla-os Dr. Barrett is unable to identify. The Tar-toos are undoubtedly Huchnom (see Barrett's monograph, 1908. p. 256; also confirmed by personal communication). Their number is given by Heintzelman as 1,600. This value, for 1855, bespeaks an aboriginal population not far from 2,000. Hence again the ethnographic method is supported by the estimate of the contemporary observer.
Huchnom ... 2,100
YUKI TOTAL ... 9,730
THE ATHAPASCANS AND THE YUKI
If we total all the Yukian divisions, including the Coast Yuki and the Huchnom, we get 9,730 persons. Similarly, the Athapascan tribes collectively give 15,450. The combined total is 25,180. Some of the groups, such as the Tanom and Huchnom, may have been overestimated, but this will be compensated by underestimates for other groups, such as the Onkolukomnom. If we accept as valid the published ethnographic data of Barrett, Kroeber, Foster, and Gifford, together with the manuscript material of Merriam, it is very difficult to fix the population of the Athapascan and Yukian stocks at a figure much below 25,000.
In this connection it is interesting to consider the estimates of Heintzelman, because his figures for the Kato and for the Huchnom have been shown to conform in general to those derived from village lists.
Many of Heintzelman's Indian names cannot now be identified and his localities are frequently vague and obscure. However, a reasonably clear line can be drawn between the Pomo and those tribes living north of the Pomo.
The first five groups mentioned in the report are unequivocally Pomo. Then come the "Bi-lo-ki, Po-mes" with the six divisions previously mentioned called Tar-toos, Si-dam, Po-ma Pomes, Si-mas, Di-no-kis, and Du-che-calla-os. The Si-dam and Po-ma Pomes are Potter Valley Pomo. The Tar-toos are Huchnom. The Si-mas are probably southeastern Yuki. The Di-no-kis and Du-che-calla-os cannot be identified by Dr. Barrett (personal communication) and are therefore probably not Pomo. Since the whole group was said by Heintzelman to reside "between Clear Lake and the heads of Eel, Russian and Trinity Rivers" these two unidentified divisions may be ascribed to the Yuki. The numerical aggregate of the four Yukian divisions is 2,450.
Following the Bi-lo-ki on Heintzelman's list are the Me-che-pomas who inhabit the east part of Kinamoo Valley and the "Eel River Mountains," 40 miles northeast of the proposed site, i.e., Fort Bragg. Covelo is almost exactly 40 airline miles northeast of Fort Bragg. Barrett (1908, p. 249, fn.) says that the Pomo name for Round Valley is maca-kai, and quotes another variant, Me-sha-kai. In a personal communication he states his belief that Round Valley is here referred to. Along with the Me-che-pomas Heintzelman lists the Be-dar-ke-sill, which he says are found in the south part of Trinity County and the north part of Mendocino County, 50 miles from Fort Bragg. Since the name cannot be identified, the people may be allocated on the basis of location alone to the southern part of the Wailaki. The aggregate population of these two groups is given as 2,100.
The next seven names on Heintzelman's list are the Car-toos, Ba-tims, Kab-in-a-toos, Kon-ispilla, Koss-ill-man-u-pomas, Kam-ill-el-pomas, and So-as. These are all stated to be north of the selected site, Fort Bragg, with the most remote tribe 35 miles away. In his textual statement Heintzelman says that he went up the coast as far as Cape Mendocino, but from his times and distances it appears more likely that he reached approximately the Mendocino-Humboldt County line before turning eastward and going inland. This would bring him just about 30 or 40 miles above Fort Bragg.
It has already been pointed out that the first two names of this group. Car-toos and Ba-tims, refer to the Kato. Dr. Barrett thinks that the third name, Kab-in-a-toos, may possibly be the Kabenapo of Clear Lake. He says (personal communication):
We know that the Lake people visited the coast. Perhaps Heintzelman encountered some of these kabenapo over on a salt-gathering expedition to some point on the coast north of Fort Bragg.
If Barrett is correct, then this tribe must be excluded from the present enumeration. The Kon-is-illa cannot be traced, yet the name has definite similarity to the Coast Yuki name (Pomo form) Kabesillah, as given by Kroeber in the Handbook (p. 212). Koss-ill-man-u-pomas cannot be identified, but Barrett says that Kam-ill-el-pomas is the same as kamalal pomo, a name given by the Pomo to the Coast Yuki (1908, p. 260). The term So-as is thought by Barrett to refer to the village sosatca in Sherwood Valley.
All these groups are clearly stated by Heintzelman to lie north of Fort Bragg. Nevertheless, in view of the possibility that Kab-in-a-toos may represent Clear Lake inhabitants and that the So-as may be a village in Sherwood Valley, and hence be Pomo, these two divisions may be omitted from consideration. The remainder may with considerable safety be ascribed either to the Coast Yuki, the Kato, or perhaps the Sinkyone on the coast above the Yuki. The total for the five divisions is 1,700 persons.
The next five names on Heintzelman's list are quite definitely Northern Pomo. Then come, as the last two tribes, the Ki-pomas and the Yo-sol-pomas. The former were said to inhabit Kinomo Valley, 40 miles from Fort Bragg, and the latter to live on the coast 50 miles north of Fort Bragg. According to Barrett, the Ki-pomas are probably the Kai Pomo of Powers (1908, p. 279, fn.). If so, they lived not in Kinomo Valley (Round Valley) but in the area between the headwaters of the South Fork of the Eel River and the Middle Fork of the Eel. Thus they must have been Athapascan, whether Kato, Sinkyone or Wailaki, it is now impossible to say. The Yo-sol-pomas are probably the Yu-sal Pomo of Powers, who were an Athapascan people near Usal, on the coast above Westport (see Barrett, 1908, p. 260).
The Ki-pomas and the Yo-sol-pomas had a combined population of 2,200. Thereafter Heintzelman says: "From the Yo-sol-pomas to Eel River on the north, and east to the ridge from Humboldt to Kin-a-moo Valley there cannot be less than four thousand...." The area thus delineated is very ambiguous. It may be taken roughly, however, as embracing—according to the general map in Kroeber's Handbook—the southern third of the territory of the Mattole and Sinkyone, together with that of the Kato and the Wailaki. To this must be added the region which includes all branches of the Yuki.
The population estimates based upon the village lists of the ethnographers are as follows: one-third the Sinkyone, 970; one-third the Mattole, 400; the Kato, 1,100, the Wailaki, 3,350; and the Yuki as a whole, 9,730. The general total is 15,550. By comparison Heintzelman's figure for approximately the same area is 12,450. Considering the imponderable and unassessable factors involved in both computations the correspondence is remarkably close, particularly in view of the fact that Heintzelman was not in the region until 1855, at which time the population was by no means aboriginal.
THE POMO
From a poverty of ethnographic material with the more northerly tribes we pass to an embarrassment of riches with the Pomo. (Barrett, 1908; Gifford, 1923, 1926; Gifford and Kroeber, 1937; Kniffen, 1939; Stewart, 1943). The first major study was that of Barrett in 1908. Barrett's principal contribution was a painstakingly compiled list of Pomo tribes, villages, and camp sites as recalled by his informants during the years 1903 to 1906. However he missed the significance of the Pomo community style of social organization with its implications for evaluation of village size and importance and hence probable population. Moreover, many of his place names have since been shown to be wrongly applied. His work remains therefore chiefly valuable as a compilation and check list against more recent and more critical work.
Gifford's two papers (1923, 1926) stand as models of investigation of a single social unit, the village of Cigom. They are useful in a wider sense as a point of departure and a basis for comparison with other communities, particularly in the Clear Lake region. The work of Gifford and Kroeber (1937), although primarily dealing with cultural matters, contains much pertinent information concerning the sixteen communities investigated together with several paragraphs pertinent to the population problem.
Kniffen (1939) made a careful study of the geographical and ecological status of certain selected groups: the Clear Lake area, the Kacha of Russian River, and the Coast Pomo. Steward (1943) reviewed the boundaries and villages of all groups except a few on Clear Lake, using also the ecological approach.
When one attempts to establish what were the Pomo community groups and chief villages, he encounters a great deal of divergence of opinion on detail among these investigators, due largely to differences among informants. Without extensive field work, which might in fact now be impossible, many of the discrepancies cannot be resolved. On the whole, the later students appear to have come closer to the truth and are probably more reliable.
CLEAR LAKE POMO
Gifford said (1937, p. 122) that there were 11 communities on Clear Lake. Kniffen reorganized them to make 12, after which Stewart returned to a count of 11. This last number, therefore, may be accepted as final. Each of them consisted of a single principal village of considerable size. A classical example is Cigom. Other inhabited spots within the community area have usually been recognized but whether they were permanent or shifting villages or camp sites usually is not clear. For this reason the population has been discussed by ethnographers since Barrett simply on the basis of the group, without much reference to the number of sites known to have existed. The single exception I would make to this procedure is to take account of the number (not necessarily the names and location) of the villages known to have possessed assembly houses, since the presence of these implies some degree of permanence. A community with one capital village and several such accessory sites would, other things being equal, create the presumption of a larger aggregate population than a community with a capital village and one or no subsidiaries.
There is a more definite population estimate for the Clear Lake region than we have for many other native groups. L. L. Palmer in his History of Napa and Lake Counties (1881), cites figures for the aboriginal population of the Clear Lake communities which he obtained from an informant who could well remember the days before the advent of the white man. These figures have been subject to some disparaging criticism by more modern students. The chief objection advanced is that the book is one of the many county histories which appeared as commercial ventures in the 1880's and which, on the whole, were very carelessly written. Palmer, however, as his text shows, was much interested in the fate of the natives and took considerable pains to secure informants who could give him data. There is no ground for impugning either his honesty or his competence. Moreover, it is difficult to see why informants seventy years ago should be any less reliable than they are now. Hence I can see no reason for not accepting his figures as they stand, subject to the limitations of his informant's knowledge.
With regard to those limitations it should be noted that the informant was a native of the Kulanapo community on the west side of the lake. He should therefore have had closest acquaintance with his own people and the adjacent group, the Habenapo. His figure for the Kulanapo was 500, a value which Kniffen attacks on the ground that Palmer's informant intentionally exaggerated the importance of his own group. This is a wholly gratuitous assumption and inconsistent with the fact that, since more was known at that time about the west-shore people, his figures could easily have been checked, had they been widely at variance with the facts. In the second place, the figure for the Habenapo was given as 300. Now Barrett (1908, p. 194) quotes even more specifically from Palmer:
The Hoo-la-na-po (Kulanapo) tribe was just below the present site of Lakeport.... At one time there were two hundred and twenty warriors, and five hundred all told in the rancheria. They are now reduced to sixty. Sal-vo-di-no was their chief before the present one, Augustine.
If we are going to discredit the testimony of the chief concerning his own village thirty years previously, we had better throw out along with it the information secured from septuagenarians who have to recount at second hand what their forefathers told them.
Some confirmation of Palmer's figure for the Habenapo is given by Barrett (1908, p. 195), who mentions a statement from the Report of the Commissioner for Indian Affairs in 1858 referring to the Lupillomi. The latter in turn are identified by Barrett as the Habenapo. The Commissioner said: "Upon the Lupillomi ranch, near Clear Lake, there are some three hundred Indians." Although by 1858 there may have been some reduction and mixing of population, the identity is striking.
Although the figures of Palmer's informant may be relied upon for his home territory at the southwestern corner of the Lake, for the north, east, and southeast shores he may have been inaccurate, being less familiar with those sections. The chief evidence for such a conclusion lies in the discrepancy between his figure for Cigom and that secured by Gifford after a meticulous and exhaustive examination of every individual who had lived in the village. Palmer's figure is 160 whereas Gifford's is 235. Thus Palmer's informant clearly underestimated, by a ratio of 2 to 3. Hence it is not unreasonable to increase Palmer's figures for the communities remote from the area of his informant.
If we ignore for the moment Palmer's data and neglect individual differences between communities, it would be possible to take Gifford's figure of 235 for Cigom as representing the average for a Clear Lake community. The population of the area would then be 2,585. Let us, however examine the eleven communities individually (following Stewart's outline, 1943, App. 1, pp. 57-59).
1. Bachelor Valley and Tule Lake. Stewart gives Cinal as the principal village with Homtcati and Xaro as villages with assembly houses. In his text on page 41 he says that these villages plus Mamamamau "were occupied under the leadership of one chief." Hence there were at least three secondary or subsidiary "occupied" villages. In addition, in footnote 30 to page 41 he points out that Kniffen had set apart a portion of the area under the name of Yobotui. Kniffen (1939, p. 368) gives the Yobotui the status of an independent group and shows a principal village under that name on his map. The group, whether single (Stewart) or compound (Kniffen), was clearly of quite large size. This is in line with Palmer, whose informant gave a population of 120 for most of the group but set apart Yobotui with an additional 150. Stewart's group, with two possible main and two or three subsidiary villages, is credited by Palmer with 270 people. Since the area lay in the extreme north, this estimate may be raised, in conformity with the Cigom case, by 50 per cent, making 405.
2. Scott's Valley. There were two groups here just prior to white settlement. The first was designated as the Boalke, Boilkai, or Yimaba, with one principal village Karaka (Stewart) or two "significant winter villages," Noboral and Karaka (Kniffen). Palmer's informant said they had 180 people and, since they lived near him, his figure may be accepted without change. The other group were the Komli, which are placed as a separate group by Stewart. All authorities agree, however, that they were Russian River natives who in relatively recent times migrated to Scott's Valley. Palmer says they had 90 people, a reasonable figure. The total for the two groups is thus 270.
3. Upper Lake. Here was a well defined group, with only one village, Xowalek. The History of Lake County gives them 150, which because of the distance from Lakeport may be increased to 225.
4. Another group in the same vicinity was the Danoxa, with a principal village of the same name plus either two or three villages with assembly houses. Palmer says they had 100 inhabitants, which may be increased to 150. From the number of villages it might be supposed that Danoxa was larger than Xowalek. But in giving the figures Palmer's informant may have confused the two groups; 375 seems a reasonable value for the two together.
5. Clear Lake, east. Gifford's value of 235 may be accepted without further comment for Cigom.
6. Lakeport. The status of the Kulanapo has already been discussed. Palmer's figure of 500 seems reasonable.
7. Kelseyville. The Habenapo are assigned a population of 300.
8, 9, and 10. Lower Lake. The three groups inhabiting the entire region of the southeast were the Kamdot, Elem, and Koi. Each had a principal village plus from two to four others with assembly houses. They are in the same terrain with and appear to be quite similar to Cigom. Palmer gives for the three a total population of 390, which, if increased by 50 per cent, would mean 585. If, on the other hand, we regard them as being of the same character as Cigom we could multiply 235 by 3 and get 705.
A curious contributory bit of evidence can be derived from Gifford's study of land ownership in this area (1923). Gifford shows that the ownership of property at Cigom was communal but at Kamdot, Elem, and Koi, it was a family matter. He lists very carefully the exact ownership of the tribal real estate. There were 22 tracts belonging to the village of Cigom but 85 belonging to families of Elem, 38 to families of Koi, and 57 to families of Kamdot. From this we can derive the minimum number of families for these places, for the tracts were simultaneously owned by different families. Using a factor of 6 persons per family the population of Elem would be 510. In this connection it is of interest that Gifford during the same investigation found that two subsidiary villages were occupied simultaneously with the main village. Thus he states (p. 86): "A second mainland overflow village, which was once contemporaneously inhabited with insular Elem and mainland Behepkobel, was Mucokol...." (Emphasis mine.) A principal village the size of Cigom or larger plus two accessory villages of only 100 each would bring the population to 435. Thus there can be little doubt that Elem had fully 500 inhabitants. On the basis of family number the figures for Koi and Kamdot would be respectively 228 and 342, or, say, 230 and 340.
According to the data above the total population of the Clear Lake basin was 3,155, which may be rounded off to 3,150. When Kroeber originally formulated an estimate of the population of the Pomo communities, based largely upon Barrett's study, he set the average per community at 100. Later (Gifford and Kroeber, 1937, p. 119) he reduced the probable number of communities and reset the population limits at 75-300. with a likely average of 200. The average we get here is 287, considerably larger than Kroeber would allow. However, all the available evidence seems to support the conclusion that, for the Clear Lake region at least, the community size was somewhat larger than stated by Kroeber.
A puzzling secondary question is what disposition to make of the Lileek, the small Wappo group associated with the Habenapo. These people came very late and settled among the Habenapo, probably after the effect of the white invasion farther south had begun to be felt. Palmer's informant said there were about 100 of them. They might be added to the Habenapo but, in view of the doubt concerning their origin and history, it is perhaps best to disregard them entirely.
Clear Lake Pomo ... 3,150
NORTHERN POMO
For the remainder of the Pomo we have no such clearly defined body of knowledge as for the Clear Lake group. Thus it is necessary to consider each subdivision or subtribe separately. As a preliminary step, however, it is desirable to discuss the problem of house and family number in so far as it relates to the Pomo.
In Gifford's analysis of Cigom we possess a remarkably thorough treatment of the demography of a single village, one which may be taken as representative of the entire tribe, with the exception of the portion lying along the coast. At Cigom Gifford found 47 social groups or families and 235 persons. The mean is 5.0 persons per family. However this figure represents the period of 1850 and immediately thereafter, when the Clear Lake population had already for several years suffered from contact with the whites. Hence the aboriginal value must have been higher. Indeed Gifford's study gives an amazing picture of the demographic dissolution of the Pomo in the mid-nineteenth century.
Among the 47 families there were 57 persons who were described as "son" or "daughter" and were obviously at or below the age of puberty at the period the informants were recalling. This means only 1.21 children per family, far below the minimum number (2.0) necessary for replacement. Clearly the population was declining rapidly at that time. If there were 1.21 children and the family number was 5.0, the average number of adults was 3.79. For simple equilibrium or stability, such as we must assume existed in pre-white times, at least 3 children must be found in every family. Thus with 3.79 adults there would have to have been a family number of 6.79 or say, 6.80 merely to maintain the population. Considering the relative richness of the environment and the quite elaborate culture of the Pomo an average of 7.0 is by no means excessive for the aboriginal Pomo.
That the Clear Lake Pomo were in a deplorable state at the time described by Gifford is attested by the statements of his informants concerning the subsequent fate of the 57 children mentioned in the text. Of these, 29, or 50.9 per cent, "died young." Such a tremendous child mortality is quite consistent with our entire picture of the postcontact decline in Indian population but is wholly at variance with any reasonable concept of aboriginal conditions.
At Cigom Gifford found 20 houses, mostly of the multiple type so common among the Pomo. Three of the houses held 4 families, three held 3, twelve held 2, and two held 1. The average is 2.35 families per house or, in terms of persons, 11.75 per house. This is of course based on the 1850 value of 5.0 persons per family. If we admit an aboriginal number of 7.0 persons per family, then the number per house becomes 16.45 instead of 11.75.
In his study of Redwood Valley Kniffen (1939, pp. 373-380) puts the population at 125 and the number of houses at 12. This would mean 10.4 persons per house, quite close to Gifford's value for Cigom in or near 1850.
In his chapter on the Pomo Stephen Powers (1877) described the village of Senel (Sanel, Shanel) in the Russian River valley (p. 168 and map). He shows on his map 104 houses and 5 assembly houses. The houses were large and contained according to his estimate 20-30 persons each. This estimate seems much too high. However, on other grounds he puts the former population at 1,500 inhabitants, a figure which is arrived at entirely independently by an informant of Stewart (1943, p. 45). Indeed Stewart comments with reference to Powers that "my population estimate and description closely approximate his." This means for 104 houses a mean of 14.42 occupants.
The average of the three sets of data available give 13.76 persons per house, a figure which may be rounded off at 14.0 in view of the probability that Kniffen's estimate is a little low. It is noteworthy, furthermore, that neither Gifford nor Powers gives any indication that all the houses in the villages respectively studied were not simultaneously occupied. Indeed, with the multifamily system it is difficult to see how they could stand deserted for a considerable period of time.
The Potter Valley groups.—Stewart paid particular attention to the Potter Valley groups and determined the central or capital villages to have been Canel, Sedam, and Pomo. Stewart also says that, whereas Canel was the main village in its area, Yamo was the most populous. Sedam was one of the largest villages in the valley and Pomo was somewhat smaller. By comparison with the Clear Lake towns it is appropriate to consider the three principal towns (including Yamo with Canel) as having approximately 200 inhabitants each, or 600 in all. The next question concerns peripheral or outlying villages, of which there were certainly a considerable number. Stewart says that the Canel were "distributed" among 12 villages (including Yamo). Moreover "my informant (JSm) insisted that these villages were all occupied at the same time ... each having a 'curing' sweathouse; however all were under one chief, and there was only one ceremonial or 'devil' house" (p. 40). Barrett (1908, fn. 129, p. 142) says his informant called three of these villages camps only. At the same time Barrett lists 9 villages, excluding Kachabida and Canekai, 6 of which correspond to villages of Stewart. Merriam lists 10 villages, only one of which is in addition to those of Barrett or Stewart. Although there is some overlap, it seems clear that there were at least 12 villages apart from Canel, Sedam, and Pomo. Of these Yamo has already been considered. Kachabida, mentioned by Barrett and Merriam, was one of those which migrated to the Clear Lake region shortly before 1850 and must therefore be excluded, since its people have already been counted among the Clear Lake Pomo.
Canekai lay several miles to the northeast in the hills. It is simply shown by Stewart on his map as lying in the territory of Sedam. Merriam, however, calls it a "small tribe," the shanel-kaah, and cites Gibbs (1860), who mentioned the group under the name of the Shanelkaya. Evidently a fair-sized village or minor subtribe once existed in the area. At least 100 persons must be ascribed to it.
Deducting Yamo, Kachabida, and Canekai and three of Stewart's villages which Barrett said were camp sites there remain 11 villages supported by the word of at least one of the three above-mentioned authorities. Five are given by all three of them, 4 by two of them and 2 by one alone. It is safe therefore to allow 10 villages in addition to the 5 already accepted (i.e., Canel, Sedam, Pomo, Yamo, and Canekai). Concerning the size we have no data but they must all have been relatively small. Three houses each would seem a reasonable estimate, yielding at the Pomo rate of 14 persons per house 42 inhabitants for each village or 420 for the aggregate. Thus, counting 600 for Canel, Sedam, Pomo, and Yamo, 100 for Canekai, and 420 for the balance, we get 1,120 as the best estimate for the Potter Valley subtribes.
Calpella and Redwood Valleys.—This area is divided by Stewart into two subtribes, the Masut of Calpella and the Katca of Redwood Valley. This course is also followed by Kniffen who made a special investigation of the Kacha (Katca). On the other hand Merriam included both groups in his tribe, the Mah-soo-tah-ka-ah (his manuscript entitled "Northern Pomo").
The Kacha tribe all lived in the village given as Kacha by Kniffen and as Kabelal by Barrett, Merriam, and Stewart. Kniffen says "there must have been about 125 people in the valley...", but gives no supporting data. He does, on the other hand, mention that the village had 12 houses (1939, p. 375). At the aboriginal Pomo number of 14.0 there should have been 168 instead of 125 inhabitants. It is quite possible that Kniffen was thinking in terms of the early 1850's and hence made a low estimate. It appears to the present writer that 170 is preferable.
Masut is given by Barrett and Stewart as a village but by Merriam as a tribe. Another village near by, Chom-cha-de-lah (Merriam) or Chomchadila (Powers, Kroeber) is admitted by Stewart and in fact given as the main village in his appendix (p. 57). Stewart also adds two villages, Diskabel and Kobida. It is evident that there were several villages closely clustered together. Stewart thinks there were four. Of these Masut and Chom-chah-de-lah were apparently large and the others perhaps small. We may allow 150 each for the larger ones and 50 each for the smaller, making 400 in all.
The village of Matuku lay in the same territory. This is given the status of tribe by Merriam but was involved in the migrational movements between the Calpella region and Clear Lake. Hence its population is difficult to evaluate. Perhaps 100 persons will be adequate.
In near-by Coyote Valley lived the tribe called by Powers the Shodokaipomo. This seems to be the general name for the subtribe and perhaps also for one of their villages (Barrett and Merriam). In addition, Merriam, following Barrett, lists Shah-chahm-kah-oo (called Shashamkau by Kroeber). Powers (1877) in commenting on this group has this to say: "Mr. Christy states that there were between three hundred and four hundred (people) when he arrived." Since there is no specific reason to doubt Mr. Christy's word, we may set the population of the subtribe at 350. The total for the entire area is 1,020.
There are for the Calpella-Redwood Valley region 8 reasonably well authenticated villages, as follows:
Kabelal (Barrett, Merriam, Stewart)
Masut (Barrett, Stewart)
Chom-cha-de-lah (Powers, Barrett, Merriam, Stewart, Kroeber)
Matuku (Barrett, Merriam, Stewart)
Shodo-kai (Barrett, Merriam, Powers)
Shah-chahm-kah-oo (Barrett, Merriam, Kroeber)
Diskabel (Stewart)
Kobida (Stewart)
Of these five may be regarded as principal villages and hence large; the others may have been small. The average for all together is 127 persons per village. If we allow 175 persons for each of the larger ones, we must assume 50 for the smaller. These figures seem of the correct order of magnitude.
Willits Valley.—The tribe inhabiting Willits Valley extended from the inland valleys clear to the coast. Stewart makes it clear, however, in contradistinction to Barrett, that they had no permanent villages actually on the coast before they moved in that direction ahead of the American advance to the north. The Northern Pomo thus, unlike the Coast Yuki, lived a long distance inland and traveled to the seashore only as occasion demanded from time to time.
Stewart lists 9 village sites: Mitom, the principal village; Tsamonda, a small village; Nabo; Talel, with 8 dwelling pits; Tsaka, with 8 pits; Bakau; Cotsiu; Kacebal; and one of unknown name. He says that there is no evidence that all these were occupied at the same time, but "several must have been occupied simultaneously because five were occupied by the parents of Indians still living."
Much light is thrown on the situation in Willits Valley and adjacent areas by the work of Merriam (in the manuscript "Northern Pomo"). Merriam splits the natives into three dialectic subgroups: the But-kow-hah-po-mah of upper Outlet Creek, the Sho-jul-po-ma of eastern Little Lake Valley, and the Met-tum-mah of Willits Valley proper.
The But-kow-hah-po-mah had a principal village But-kow-hah-chut-te, corresponding to Stewart's Bakau plus "3-4 rancherias." If we allow 150 for the main village and a possible 25 each for the outlying rancherias, we get 250 for the group. This seems quite reasonable for a small, somewhat isolated subtribe.
The Sho-mul-po-mah had for a principal village Sho-tse-yu-chut-te, which is mentioned by Barrett and corresponds to Stewart's Cotsiu. In addition, Merriam cites from Barrett 6 other villages, 4 of which he confirms as villages. One of these, Tah-nah-kum-chut-te, he says contained a sweathouse having a capacity of 200 people. According to a principle enunciated by Powers (p. 168), but which is of somewhat doubtful validity, the capacity of a sweathouse or assembly house is equivalent to one-third of the population. Thus the Sho-mul-po-mah might have had 600 people. However, if we allow that the principal village, by analogy with Kasha, had 175 and that each of the villages of Barrett which were confirmed by Merriam had 4 dwelling houses each (i.e., 56 people) then the population would be computed at 400.
In the Mitom region Merriam is very explicit. He mentions Me-to-mah-chut-te, which corresponds to Stewart's Mitom, and says that it was the "name applied by Me-tum-mah to all their villages in Metumki of Little Lake Valley. There were 4 important permanent winter villages containing about 600 people." These 4 villages were, according to Merriam: Cha-bo-cha-kah-chut-te, Po-ka-hil-chut-te, She-o-kah-lau-chut-te, and Tsah-kah-chut-te. The last corresponds to Stewart's Tsaka. Of the first village he says it contained 40 to 50 house pits. This must be excessive for it would mean a population of 560 persons in this village alone. Stewart says that Tsaka had 8 pits, or 112 persons. If we reduce the count for Cha-bo-cha-kah-chut-te to 300 instead of 560, we can still accept Merriam's figure of 600 for the group of four.
We still have to account for Kah-be-shal-chut-te of Barrett and Merriam (Stewart's Kabecal), Tsam-mom-dah-chut-te of Barrett and Merriam (Stewart's Tsamonda). Nabo of Merriam and Stewart (also mentioned by Gibbs). and Talel of Stewart. Talel and Nabo may have been part of the Mitom complex but Tsamonda and Kabecal are too distant. If Tsamonda was small, as Stewart says, we may allow 50 inhabitants. Kabecal must have contained at least 100.
For the entire area, including all three of Merriam's linguistic groups, we get a population of 1,650 inhabitants.
Sherwood Valley.—In this valley lived the Mato or Mato-poma of Stewart, or the Mah-to-poma of Merriam, whose permanent villages were inland but who ranged a large territory extending to the coast. According to Stewart there were three minor divisions of the group, with three permanent villages, Mato, Kabedile, and Kulakau, each of which had its own chief. On no other evidence would we be justified in ascribing 200 persons to each subgroup. Stewart says (p. 33): "The best guesses of my informants placed the primitive population at about 500 persons, half of them in the main village of Mato." That would give 250 to Mato and 125 each to Kabedile and Kulakau. This estimate appears too low, particularly since the informants were all born in the 1860's, twenty years after the first contact with the white man.
Merriam (in his "Northern Pomo," together with a separate manuscript entitled "Sherwood Valley rancherias") transcribed and checked Barrett's village list. As was his custom he initialed in ink those names which he confirmed by independent investigation, leaving unmarked those for the existence of which he considered he had no certain evidence. For Sherwood Valley he gives 25 names. Of these, 3 were taken from Barrett without confirmation, leaving 22. Seven of the latter are given by Merriam alone, in addition to those appearing on Barrett's list. Merriam mentions Mah-to-chutte and also Ma-chah-tah, each of which he says was a "big rancheria." It is very probable that these were variants of the same name or were parts of the same village. Hence they may be combined as representing Stewart's Mato. Merriam also mentions Kah-ba-de-la-chut-te and Kah-baht-be-dah-chut-te, which appear to be variants for Stewart's Kabedile. Also included are Bo-shahm-koo-che (Bocamkutci), Cha-bo-tse-y-chut-te (Kabotsiu), and Tan-nah-shil-chut-te (Tanacil), all of which are stated by Stewart (p. 35) to have been parts of Kulakau. This reduces Merriam's effective list to 17.
Mato is stated by Merriam to have been a "big rancheria." This is in line with Stewart's impression that the village contained at least 250 persons. This number may therefore be accepted without much hesitation. Kabedile (or Kah-baht-be-da-chut-te) is said by Merriam to have had 30 to 40 house holes. He also mentions the fact that the Mexicans perpetrated a massacre here in 1846, in the course of which 25 were killed and many children stolen for slaves. If we take the lower limit mentioned for houses and reduce one-third, we still get a probable 20 houses, which at 14 persons per house gives a minimum population of 280 persons. Stewart gives Kulakau and the three villages considered to be parts of it equal rank with Mato and Kabedile. Merriam says of Cha-bo-tse-y-chut-te (Kobotsiu) that it was a "big village." Hence we may safely ascribe 250 persons to the town.
Merriam adds certain comments on the villages. Boo-tah-kah-chut-te had a "big round house." Che-ah-po-y-chut-te was of "fair size but no roundhouse." She-ko-ki-chut-te consisted of "two big rancherias and roundhouse." The other 10 villages are listed merely by locality without additional information. We encounter here a clear instance of the perplexity which pursues us throughout the Pomo area. We must accept either the combined word or Barrett and Merriam that there were numerous subsidiary villages inhabited in Sherwood Valley during aboriginal times or the word of Stewart that there were not. At this point it must be emphasized again that by 1840 the Northern Pomo had been invaded by Spanish-Mexicans from the San Francisco Bay region and their aboriginal social order had been partially disrupted. Furthermore, we know that they had been exposed to serious inroads by disease, such as the great smallpox epidemic of the 1830's. In particular, that of 1837, the so-called "Miramontes epidemic," began at Fort Ross and is known to have seriously involved the Russian River Valley. There is much reason to believe, therefore that the population decline began by 1830, with its accompanying shifting and consolidation of villages. Both Barrett and Merriam did their field work among the Pomo from 1900 to 1910, say as an approximate date 1905. A seventy-year-old informant at that time could thus actually remember the year 1840. But a similar individual in 1935 could remember of his own knowledge only to 1870. He would have to draw on second- and third-hand information imparted by his forefathers. As Stewart (p. 29) says of one of his Sherwood Valley informants his "father's father told JMc of 'old times'." It is hardly to be expected that an old man could very accurately transmit population data secured as a small boy at his grandfather's knee. For these reasons I think Merriam's village names cannot be discarded, unless specific evidence proves that they are errors. They must be accepted as villages which at one time were inhabited. There remains of course the possible contingency that some of these places had been abandoned before the advent of the first white influence or that they were spots inhabited for a short time during the upheaval accompanying the American invasion. Since there is no conceivable way in which we may ascertain the true facts in detail, perhaps some arbitrary correction is desirable. Consequently the following procedure is suggested: estimate the population on the basis of all the Merriam names, then reduce by one-third. Such a method should take care of all instances of temporary villages, camp sites etc.
Applying the above principles, we may assign 150 inhabitants to Boo-tah-kah-chut-te ("big roundhouse"), 50 to Che-ah-po-y-chut-te ("fair-sized but no roundhouse"), and 200 to She-ko-ki-chut-te ("two big rancherias and roundhouse"). Two houses, or say 30 persons, may be allocated to the other 10 sites of Merriam. The total would then be 700, which, reduced by one-third, gives as a final value 470.
For the Mato-pomo as a whole the population figure is 1,250. It is difficult to see how a much lower figure could be set for the area.
For the Northern Pomo collectively there has been derived a population estimate of 5,040. It is of interest to compare this figure with the values cited by Heintzelman.
This officer listed eight names which can be indentified as falling within the group being discussed. They are as follows.
1. Si-dam. This is sedam of Barrett (1908, p. 141) and of Stewart (1943, p. 41), located in Potter Valley.
2. Po-ma Pomes. This is pomo of Barrett and Stewart, likewise in Potter Valley.
3. Kal-il-na-pomas. This group was located between Martoo (Sherwood) and Metumki (Little Lake) valleys and is possibly equivalent to kalal-nokca, a village below Ukiah (Barrett, personal communication). However the habitat specified by Heintzelman does not support Barrett's surmise. The group undoubtedly lived much to the north of Ukiah.
4. She-bal-na-pomas. These were in Sherwood Valley and are referred to by Barrett (1908, p. 147, fn.) as the Shi-bal-ni Pomo.
5. Calli-tal-pomas. Dr. Barrett is unable to identify the name but the people lived in the same vicinity as the tribes mentioned previously. It is possible that they may have been the kabelal of Stewart (1943. p. 39).
6. Yo-pomas. Dr. Barrett thinks (personal communication) that this term may signify Yo kai pomo ("south valley people") who would have lived near Ukiah. But Heintzelman states that they lived between Kinomo (Round) Valley and Martoo (Sherwood) Valley, and hence must have been Northern Pomo.
7. Maa-to-ma-pomas. With regard to these people Dr. Barrett writes me as follows: "Possibly refers to Little Lake or Willits Valley people mtomkai, or bitomkai (1908, p. 128, fn.), or to mitoma, on a knoll in the town of Willits (ibid., p. 145)." The latter hypothesis appears the more probable (Stewart, 1943, p. 36 ff., discusses this subtribe at length). Heintzelman adds the information that the Maa-to-ma-pomas are divided into seven tribes, of which the Sho-he-shas are the most numerous. Barrett (1908, p. 146, fn.) thinks that the latter people are the Chow-e-chak of M'Kee. Heintzelman further says that the territory covered extends from Metumki (Little Lake) Valley to the coast.
8. So-as. Barrett considers (personal communication) that this name refers to the village of sosa-tca, in Sherwood Valley (cf. 1908, p. 147).
Irrespective of conflicts in terminology it appears that Heintzelman fairly well covered the area usually assigned to the Northern Pomo under the eight designations just listed. His total population value is 5,350, slightly greater than but very close to the estimate derived from ethnographic data (i.e., 5,040). This close correspondence will be seen as specially significant when we come to examine his report on the Central and Southern Pomo.
Northern Pomo ... 5,040
CENTRAL POMO
Ukiah.—In the Ukiah area are included four of Stewart's subtribes: the Yokaia of Ukiah Valley, the Ciego of Largo, the Cokoa of Hopland, and the Yobakeya of Echo. There are all consolidated by Merriam in his manuscript entitled "Tribe List of Yo-ki-ah Pomo" and will be considered together.
Stewart is very positive that these four tribes all lived in one central village. He says regarding the Yokaia: "Although several villages are given by Barrett for this area, there is no doubt that during the winter months the population was concentrated in one main village" (p. 43). Regarding the Cokoa: "Politically, as well as geographically, the Cokoa resembled the Yokaia. Both had a single central village of importance where the population was concentrated" (p. 43). Merriam credits Barrett with 37 village names, to which he adds none himself. Of the 37 he confirms only 13. Since the other 24 of Barrett are doubtful, they may be excluded. Of Merriam's 13 Stewart says specifically that three were camps not permanent villages. Two, Kah-chi-o (Katcayo) and Shah-na-na-oo (Caneneu) were proved by Stewart to have existed only subsequent to the white invasion. One may belong to the Booneville tribe and another is a tribal, not a village, name. Four, Kah-ka-eu (Cokadjal). Ko-lo-ko (Koloko), Lema (Ciego), and Shanel (Canel) were the main villages, as stated by Stewart. There remain unaccounted for only Bok-shah (Barrett's Bokca), regarding which Merriam says it had a sweathouse and was "practically permanent," and Katch-a-wah-low. Merriam's conclusions thus coincide to a remarkable degree with those of Stewart and justify the assumption that, where the two investigators clearly differ, considerable weight should be given to Merriam's account.
The largest of the four main villages was Canel, or Shanel. Comment has already been made upon the fact that both Stephen Powers' and Stewart's informants, proceding from entirely different premises, reached the conclusion that the town had a primitive population of 1,500. This figure therefore, however incredible, must be accepted. It is noteworthy in passing that if we apply the family number of 14 to the 104 houses shown by Powers on his map of the town, the population is computed at 1,456, almost identical with the other estimates.
For the Yokaia, originally settled at Cokadjal, Stewart says: "The population ... has been variously estimated at from 500-1,000 persons...." Since such estimates are likely to be somewhat low, and in view of the size of Canel, we may take the upper limit, 1,000 inhabitants.
The status of Lema (Ciego) is dubious. Stewart says the people had no chief and the tribe was composed of "soldiers." The town was very well known at the time of white occupation, however, and must have held at least 150 persons.
The Yobakeya at Koloko were also warlike and Stewart calls them a "small group." But he also says that one of his informants told him there were about 60 survivors of the tribe in his youth (approximately 1865). This fact argues an aboriginal membership of at least 300 persons.
For the Yo-ki-ah linguistic subdivision of the Northern Pomo as presented by Merriam the collective population is thus estimated at 2,950.
Point Arena.—The Point Arena area is a large territory comprising 300 square miles along the coast. Stewart designates its occupants the Bokaya and includes three subtribes centering in the villages of Kauca, Pdahau, and Lacupda. Merriam separates two groups, the Bo-yah, which included Kauca and Pdahau, and the Kan-no-ah, or the Lacupda people ("Tribe List of Bo-yah" and "Tribe List of Kan-no-ah").
One of Stewart's informants, a woman born about 1880, said that the aggregate population was 380. This appears much too low. Merriam lists 29 villages, of which many are taken from Barrett without confirmation. On the other hand Stewart says (p. 48) regarding Pdahau: "there is no doubt that other villages were occupied contemporaneously with it, although it was impossible to get the exact status of all the sites mentioned by Barrett." Hence the acceptance of some of Barrett's and Merriam's villages must be considered.
Merriam's list includes Stewart's three main villages. It also includes Itcetce and Kodalau, which Stewart says were settled after the American occupation. Merriam also gives the following, some of which are on Barrett's list:
1. Kah-bim-mo ("permanent village")
2. Kah-sha-lem ("permanent village, large town. Inhabitants moved many years ago to Cha-cha. Used as slaves by man named Shoemaker.")
3. Kah-sil-shah-ko ("acorn camp and winter rancheria")
4. Kah-ya-a-lin ("acorn camp and winter rancheria")
5. Kup-pish-ko ("permanent village")
6. Shah-dah ("permanent village")
7. We-chahl (of the Kan-no-ah, "very large permanent village")
The remaining 17 village names are credited to Barrett without comment or confirmation.
Suppose we accept the values put on Pdahau, Kauca, and Lacupda by Stewart's informant, i.e., respectively 200, 100, and 80. Then we should allow 150 each for Merriam's "large" villages, nos. 2 and 7 above. The other five were apparently small and may be conceded 30 persons each. Of the final 17 sites it will be fair to admit the probably simultaneous existence of two-thirds of them, or let us say 12, at the rate of 30 persons per village. The total for the area then becomes 1,190 inhabitants. Using Stewart's figure of 300 square miles for the area the density would thus be 3.97 persons per square mile or less than Gifford found for the Coast Yuki. Such an estimate seems extremely conservative.
Booneville and Yorkville.—In this area are found the Pdateya of Booneville, which Stewart puts among the Northern Pomo, and the Danokeya of Yorkville. The corresponding names used by Merriam are the Lah-ta and the Ta-bo-ta. Very little is known of either group. Stewart mentions the village of Lemkolil near Booneville and Late and Maboton in the Yorkville region. Merriam gives Barrett's list (in his manuscript entitled "Ta-bo-ta and Lah-ta") without comment. For the Ta-bo-ta there are 10 villages and for the Lah-ta 9. Since we have absolutely no other leads we may assign the three main villages 100 inhabitants each, and deduct one-third from the remainder to allow for Barrett's nonpermanent sites. There would then be 10 presumptive villages with 30 persons each, or 300 for all of them. The total population for the two groups together would then be 600.
Stewart's Point.—The tribe at Stewart's Point is known as the Kacia (Stewart) or the Kah-chi-a (Merriam, manuscript entitled "Tribe List of Kah-chi-a pomo"). Also included are Stewart's Yotiya of the Southern Pomo, a group for which I find no account in Merriam's notes.
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.
For the Athapascan and Yukian peoples, as well as for the Northern Pomo, a marked correspondence could be observed between the two sets of data, even though entire identity could not be achieved. For the Central Pomo, on the other hand, there is a striking disparity: the Heintzelman estimate reaches only one-third the value obtained from ethnographic sources. Since Heintzelman could reach his maximum accuracy among the relatively well known Central Pomo, as opposed to the remoter northern groups, we cannot ascribe his low count to ignorance or carelessness on his part. The most reasonable explanation is that the Central Pomo had already by 1855 suffered a reduction in population of from one-half to two-thirds of the aboriginal level. Such an hypothesis is entirely consistent with all we know of Mexican and American settlement in Sonoma and southern Mendocino counties and, furthermore, tends to lend support to the much higher figures reported by Heintzelman for the more northerly tribes.
Central Pomo ... 6,220
SOUTHWESTERN POMO
This group, consisting principally of the Kacia of Stewart's Point, has already been discussed under the Central Pomo.
SOUTHERN POMO
In this area lived five large groups, named variously by different students, centering around Dry Creek, Cloverdale, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, and Sebastopol. The Pomo residue, mentioned by Barrett, and others who survived in Alexander Valley are here omitted since they may be more appropriately considered as contributing to the predominantly Wappo population. Likewise, the village of Wilok, east of Santa Rosa, is probably considered more satisfactorily in conjunction with the neighboring Wappo.
Modern ethnographic data are of little value for estimating the population of the Southern Pomo, however carefully it may have been secured. The Spanish and Mexican missionaries, accompanied by the military, entered the area certainly before 1820 and by the year 1835 the Southern Pomo had been relocated in the missions, conscripted for labor, or carried off by disease. Shortly after 1840 the Americans began to appear and as a result the original village pattern was completely disrupted. Hence it is relatively useless to compute population from the sites which in recent years have been remembered by Indian or white informants. Merriam, following Barrett, lists about 80 village names but in very few instances endorses Barrett's findings by subscribing his initials. To attempt any detailed analysis of these sites would serve no useful purpose whatever.
It is clear from the opinions expressed by Kroeber and Stewart that the Southern Pomo exhibited the same general type of social organization as the Central Pomo, namely, a splitting into subtribes with each of the latter inhabiting a single, large main village. Several of these have been reasonably well identified, some by modern ethnographers and some by the early missionaries and civil contemporaries. There are 15, the existence of which is sufficiently well assured. They are as follows:
1. Amalako Dry Creek Stewart
2. Amako Cloverdale Stewart, Merriam
3. Makahmo Cloverdale Stewart, Merriam, Kroeber
4. Amatio Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam
5. Kale Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam
6. Mukakotcalg Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam
7. Wotokkaton Healdsburg Merriam, Kroeber
8. Tsoliikawai Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam
9. Batiklechawi Sebastopol Merriam, Kroeber
10. Masikawani Sebastopol Stewart, Merriam
11. Hukabetawi Santa Rosa Merriam, Kroeber
12. Kabetsiuwa Santa Rosa Stewart, Merriam
13. Gualomi Santa Rosa Mission records, Merriam
14. Chichiyomi Santa Rosa Mission records, Merriam
15. Levantoyome Santa Rosa Mission records, Merriam
If each of these fifteen villages had a population of only 300 Indians, a low value considering the huge congregations in the Ukiah-Hopland region, the total for the Southern Pomo could be set at 4,500.
There is a little contributory evidence to be obtained from the mission records. These documents, which are to be found in the Bancroft Library of the University of California, include baptism records for the missions of San Rafael and Solano, those which drew upon the Pomo for converts. Up to 1834 there had been baptized 268 persons from Levantoyome, 90 from Gualomi, and 44 from Chichiyome. Conversions in peripheral areas like that of the Southern Pomo were always far from complete, particularly at the end of the mission period. Many of the natives were killed in the incessant skirmishes and massacres of the time, many were enslaved directly by rancheros, many died of disease, but by far the greatest number simply fled the approach of the white man. It is quite reasonable to suppose that not more than one-third of the natives were ever actually brought into the missions for conversion. This would mean an average of 402 persons for the three subtribes or villages just mentioned, Levantoyome, Gualomi, and Chichiyome. Extended to the entire 15 known principal villages, the total would be 6,030.
A second possible method consists of area-density comparisons. The over-all density in the sum of the Potter Valley, Calpella, and Ukiah areas can certainly have been no greater than that originally existing in the region of the Southern Pomo, for of all the Pomo subdivisions the southern group possessed the most favorable habitats and the most prolific food supply. The population found for the three northern areas mentioned above was 5,090 and the area according to Stewart (pp. 57-59) was 585 square miles. The density was thus 8.70 persons per square mile. The corresponding value for the Clear Lake Pomo is 7.34. The area of the Southern Pomo, including the five groups discussed here was 745 square miles. At the northern density of approximately 8 persons per square mile the population would have been 5,960.
The two methods employed therefore yield essentially similar results and make possible the estimate of 6,000 persons for the Southern Pomo.
According to Alexander Taylor (1860-63, Ser. I, folio page 5) Captain J. B. R. Cooper, an American, went to Santa Rosa as early as 1827. Apparently following his statements Taylor says "it was estimated" that 2,000 Indians lived in Sonoma Valley and 1,500 in Santa Rosa Valley. In another place (Ser. I, folio page 3) Taylor states that "when Capt. Cooper settled the Molino Rancho, in Santa Rosa Valley, in 1834, there were living in his neighborhood as many as 2,000 Canimares." The latter term refers of course to the southeastern portion of the Southern Pomo.
We should not accept these pioneer estimates of Indian population without examination and qualification. Neither should we reject them, equally uncritically, as automatically exaggerated and mendacious, and hence worthless. It is quite likely that Cooper knew more about the number of Indians on his ranch than any other white man, at the time or since. It is relatively unlikely that Cooper had any motive for propagating a completely false report. On the other hand, it is wholly possible that Cooper may have been inaccurate or careless in his count. Nevertheless the Cooper estimate is quite in conformity with our other sources of population information.
It was stated previously that 402 baptisms are on record from three rancherias in the Santa Rosa area. To these may be added 220 others whose names are clearly Pomo in character, making a total of 622. At the rate of three aboriginal inhabitants to one baptism in this region, the territory concerned—and this is very close to Cooper's home—would have contained 1,866 people. The mission data thus in general support Cooper's figure.
Cooper says that in 1834 there were "in his neighborhood" 2,000 Canimares. Since the Molino ranch embraced the region north of Sebastopol and west of Santa Rosa, his "neighborhood" may be considered as including the Sebastopol and Santa Rosa groups of the Southern Pomo, leaving the Healdsburg, Cloverdale, and Dry Creek groups beyond his horizon. The estimates cited by Taylor refer rather ambiguously to the period between 1827 and 1834, let us say roughly 1830. The earliest Pomo conversions which are recognizable from the mission records were at San Rafael in 1820. These Pomo had therefore been subjected to intense missionization for at least ten years prior to Cooper's appearance. The population consequently must have been seriously depleted when he first saw the Santa Rosa Valley.
If we disregard entirely the factor of depletion and accept Cooper's 1834 estimate of 2,000 Canimares around Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, we may allow an equivalent population for the other three Southern Pomo provinces. This yields a total of 5,000. If we attempt to make any correction for depletion, we very quickly reach the figure already arrived at by other methods, viz., 6,000.
That a comprehensive population reduction was in progress throughout the era of 1820 to 1850 and later is attested by the report of Major Heintzelman. His figure for the Northern Pomo, it will be recollected, was definitely within the range of the population determined from ethnographic data. His value for the Central Pomo was only one-third of that computed by other methods, and the discrepancy was accounted for on the basis of the decline in numbers from the first white contact to 1855, the year of Heintzelman's trip. At the end of his report he makes the statement that "south of the Cañon of the Russian River there are about eight hundred indians." In other words, the Southern Pomo (which all lie south of the canyon) had dwindled to no more than 800. The converse may also be maintained. Since Heintzelman had a very good check on the population of the well-settled south and since, according to all known testimony, the attrition among the Indians of this area had been appalling during the preceding 30 to 40 years, it follows that the original population must have been very much greater than that conceded by Heintzelman. Hence a level of several thousand may be accepted.
Southern Pomo ... 6,000
NORTHEASTERN POMO
This little tribe, living on the border of the Sacramento Valley, has never been investigated thoroughly. Barrett (1908) listed 13 rancherias but Merriam's informants (manuscript entitled "Sho-te-ah or Northeastern Pomo Tribe and Villages") allowed only 7. At 50 persons per village this would indicate a population of about 350.
Northeastern Pomo ... 350
SUMMARY
The figures advanced here give the Pomo as a whole a population of 20,760 individuals. This is three times Kroeber's estimate but conforms to the general level found in this review of the Northwest California tribes.
POMO TOTAL ... 20,760
THE COAST MIWOK
According to the maps shown by Barrett (1908) and by Kroeber (1925), the Coast Miwok occupied an area of approximately 885 square miles in Marin and southern Sonoma counties. A projection of the Pomo value of 8.0 persons per square mile would give 7,080 for the Coast Miwok, a result which appears much too high.
A careful collection of former village sites through modern informants has never been possible, even at the beginning of the present century, because Marin County was infiltrated by the Spanish and the Indian life was thus disrupted at a very early date. Indeed the first recognizable Coast Miwok baptism was at San Francisco in 1783. Barrett and Kroeber have assembled, to be sure mainly from the tradition handed down to informants by their ancestors, a quite impressive list of villages. Barrett (1908, pp. 303-314) gives 36, and Kroeber on his map (1925, p. 274) shows 42. If we arbitrarily assigned a population of 100 each, we would have a total of approximately 4,000, probably somewhat too high a value. The difficulty is that we have no clear means of gauging the size of the typical Coast Miwok village, since no informants have been able to give a precise figure and since the terrain occupied by this tribe is different from that held by the Pomo to the north.
Even though the investigation of villages yields no very fruitful results, the Mission records for the Coast Miwok provide a quite adequate solution of the problem.
Unlike any other tribe north of San Francisco Bay the Coast Miwok were thoroughly and completely brought into the missions. Beginning, as indicated above in 1783, gentiles from the north shore were brought in small numbers to the Mission Dolores for conversion. In 1817 San Rafael was established, and within a few years the missionaries had made a clean sweep to the coasts of the bay and the ocean and had begun to penetrate north to the vicinity of Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. Meanwhile a considerable number of converts had been taken to San Jose, and subsequently some found their way to Sonoma. Fortunately we have the baptism records, or their equivalent, of all these missions.
Identification of the Coast Miwok can be made in most of the records (1) by the year and the location (e.g., the year 1817 at San Rafael); (2) by village names identical with or similar to those listed by Barrett and by Kroeber; (3) by linguistic affinities (such as the prefix echa- or the suffix -tamal); and (4) by subsidiary notes in the records indicating geographical location. Deleting all really doubtful cases we have the following numbers of baptisms
San Francisco 896
San Rafael 916
Solano 48
San Jose 162
The total is 2,020 persons.
A baptism at any of the four missions constituted a net withdrawal of one person from the native community, since all converts from the immediate vicinity of the missions could be easily kept at the mission establishment or could be recaptured without difficulty if they escaped. Hence the total baptism number must very closely approximate the total population of the area over a period of forty years. But the wild population was undoubtedly decreasing owing to other causes from, say, 1790 to 1830. The presence of the Spanish soldiers or missionaries always introduced diseases and caused disruption of native society to such an extent that the death rate outran the birth rate. Hence the new converts were being drawn from a diminishing population.
Another factor is fugitivism. Intimate contact with the white man for a long period taught the native what to expect in the missions and on the ranches. Consequently there always was a fraction of the Indian community which eluded the best efforts of the missionaries and which made good its escape beyond the periphery of Spanish and Mexican influence. Many of these natives never returned to their original homes. Still other sources of attrition were the kidnaping of adults for labor on the ranches during the 1820's and the promiscuous killing of all sexes and ages during the frequent armed encounters between white men and red men.
Although for the Coast Miwok the above-mentioned causes of loss cannot be assessed numerically with any approach to accuracy, nevertheless their total effect must have been considerable. As a purely arbitrary but essentially reasonable guess we may say that they produced a one-third reduction in the net aboriginal population. Then, if the remaining two-thirds was baptized, the initial value would have exceeded 3,000. This is twice the figure selected by Kroeber (1925, p. 275) who says that "the Coast branch may have numbered 1,500." Yet it is difficult to see how, with a total baptism count of over 2,000, the aboriginal level could have been any lower than 3,000.
COAST MIWOK ... 3,000
THE WAPPO AND THE LAKE MIWOK
These two ethnic groups are combined, together with the small corner of the Wintun living in the lower Napa Valley, in order to complete this survey of the area north of San Francisco Bay.
Direct area comparisons between the territory here concerned and that held by the Pomo and the Coast Miwok can lead to only very tentative conclusions. If we use the region delineated by Barrett (1908) on his large-scale map, the peoples mentioned above occupied approximately 950 square miles of land surface. The density of population was reckoned for the Pomo at 8.0 per square mile and that for the Coast Miwok, with a population estimated at 3,000, comes to 3.4. The equivalent estimates for the Wappo and Lake Miwok would be respectively 7,600 and 3,260. There are no grounds for immediate decision whether either is too high or too low. Consideration of the character of the terrain is not very helpful since the Wappo-Lake Miwok habitat resembled that of the Pomo in some respects and that of the Coast Miwok in others. We must therefore turn to other devices.
In contrast to the Coast Miwok the Lake Miwok and the Wappo have been the subjects of ethnographic studies of direct value to the population problem, particularly those of Barrett (1908) and of Driver (1936). In considering these data, and also those furnished by the mission records, it will be desirable to split the region into six small areas along the lines indicated by the map given by Kroeber in the Handbook (1925, pl. 27, opp. p. 172). Hence we have (1) the Lake Miwok, (2) the Western Wappo, (3) the Northern Wappo, (4) the Central Wappo, (5) the Southern Wappo, and (6) the Wintun of Napa Valley. As a starting point we may select the Western Wappo.
The names and the location of the villages differ widely as presented by the three investigators of the area. The confusion is rendered even more profound because Barrett in his terminology takes account of the Pomo occupancy of Alexander Valley in the early years of the nineteenth century, whereas Merriam and Driver ignore, not only the presence of the Pomo, but also the names applied by them to settlements. On the other hand, Driver's study is the most thorough of them all and for this reason alone may well serve as the basis for consideration of population. Driver lists (1936, pp. 183-184) 10 places which he calls "permanent towns." Of these, one is located outside Alexander Valley and hence may be disregarded; two are cited as of "unknown" location and thus had better be disregarded also. There remain seven, all of which Driver places on his map (p. 182). They are set forth below, together with the names given by Merriam and Barrett which cannot be reconciled with those of Driver.
Kotico-mota (Driver). Koticomota is mentioned by Barrett (1908. p. 271) as having been taken from the Pomo by the Wappo and occupied by them. Probably the largest town in Alexander Valley.
Nets-tul (Driver). This village is not mentioned by Barrett under this name, although it is located near Barrett's Cimela and Koloko. Its existence, however is confirmed by Merriam who calls it Net-tool.
Owotel-peti (Driver). This was located near the two preceding villages on the east bank of the Russian River, in the vicinity of Barrett's Cimela and Koloko. Driver mentions two summer camp sites, the people of which lived here during the winter. Its status seems assured.
Pipo-holma (Driver). This was the northernmost village in the valley. Barrett says (p. 271) this was an aboriginally Wappo town and took the lead in the war with the Pomo.
Tsimitu-tso-noma (Driver). Driver says that this was a "small town" with no sweathouse, and that the people sweated at Unutsawaholma. The name was not known to either Barrett or Merriam and it is quite possible that it was a summer camp, or a temporary site, or merely a suburb of one of the other villages. Its existence as a permanent settlement is open to some doubt.
Unutsawa-holma-noma (Driver). This town also is not listed under the given, or any similar, name by Barrett or by Merriam. However, in view of the exhaustive study made of it by Driver its existence is indisputable. It may be represented by the Cimela or Koloko of Barrett.
Osoyuk-eju (Driver). This is the only village shown by Driver as lying west of the Russian River. Barrett gives no similar name but Driver reaffirms its active existence by the mention of a summer camp site the people of which lived in Osoyuk-eju in the winter.
Holko-mota (Driver). This is given by Driver as a camp site and probably is identical with Holko-a-cho, which is called a rancheria by Merriam. Driver's opinion is to be followed and the place should be regarded as a summer camp.
Hut-mitul (Driver). A camp site.
Nuya-hotsa (Driver). A camp site.
Tcano-nayuk (Driver). A camp site.
Ts'awo-tul (Driver). A camp site.
Tico-mota (Driver). A camp site.
Halio-wahuk-holma (Driver). A camp site.
Walma-pesite (Driver). A camp site.
Ko-tish-hal (Merriam). Listed by Merriam as a rancheria, but we have no further information concerning it.
Too-la-chil-le (Merriam). A rancheria, but no further information.
Cimela (Barrett). The Southern Pomo name is ossokowi. This village was formerly occupied by the Pomo but the Wappo took possession after the war. It undoubtedly corresponds to one of the villages placed by Driver at approximately the same spot on the east bank of the Russian River.
Koloko (Barrett). This village was said to have been located near Cimela. Regarding it the following quotation from Barrett is decisive (p. 272): "In addition to these villages along Russian River which were occupied by the Wappo, names of four other sites were obtained which, as far as can be learned, were not occupied by the Wappo but were occupied by the Southern Pomo before the Wappo took possession of this section, and for which only Pomo names could be obtained." It is clear therefore that the village as such had disappeared prior to the knowledge of Driver's informants, if indeed these villages had ever been occupied by the Wappo.
Malalatcali (Barrett). See Koloko.
Acaben (Barrett). See Koloko.
Gaiyetcin (Barrett). See Koloko.
From this list there emerge six villages as certain. Driver's Koticomota, Netstul, Owotelpeti, Pipoholma, Unutsawaholma, and Osoyukeju. Of these Osoyukeju, on the west bank of the river, may be regarded as having replaced Barrett's three villages, Malalatcali, Acaben, and Gaiyetcin, which evidently did not survive Pomo occupancy. Driver and Barrett agree with respect to Koticomota and Pipoholma. Netstul, Owotelpeti, and Unutsawaholma may be considered to have replaced Cimela and Koloko. The status of Tsimitutsonoma, as indicated above, is dubious, in spite of the fact that Driver's informants gave it as a permanent town. In view of the doubt it is better to omit it from consideration.
Directing our attention now to the six sure towns of Driver, we find in his paper some very pertinent data with regard to their size and demographic characteristics. The sizes and house numbers given on page 183 (Driver, 1936) are:
Koticomota: "large town"; 2 sweathouses.
Netstul: "large town"; 40 houses; 1 sweathouse.
Owotelpete: 40 houses; 1 sweathouse.
Pipoholma: 40 houses; 1 sweathouse.
Unutsawaholmanoma: 1 sweathouse; 11 houses in 1870; 17 houses "formerly."
Osoyukeju: "small town"; 1 sweathouse.
Before discussing the house numbers in detail we should call attention to Driver's analysis of the village Unutsawa-holma-noma. This analysis (1936, pp. 201 ff.) he says is based upon "concrete genealogical census data of about the year 1870." There can therefore be no argument concerning the validity of the figures he presents. He found, in brief, that in this village there were 11 houses, containing 21 families and 92 persons. The occupants per house ranged from 4 to 21 with an average of 9, the families from 1 to 6 per house with an average of 2 (actually 1.91), and the persons per family averaged 4.5 (actually 4.38).
When we examined Gifford's figures for the Clear Lake Pomo village of Cigom we found 5.0 persons per family, 2.35 families per house, and 11.75 persons per house. The similarity between the two sets of values, derived by different investigators independently, is clearly significant. Moreover, the slightly smaller numbers discovered by Driver at Unutsawaholma are explicable on the basis of the later date (1870) taken as the base line. At any rate there can be no doubt that the two villages were remarkably alike in composition of population.
In computing aboriginal population at Cigom and the surrounding country it was pointed out that Gifford actually was dealing with a declining population and that, if the aboriginal state were to be conceived properly, his figures would have to be increased. For this reason the family number was set at 7 instead of 5, which raised the number of persons per house to 16.45. Because of other evidence the latter value was reduced to 14.0.
For Driver's village the same considerations must apply. However, since the family number was found to be 4.38, rather than 5.0 the aboriginal value may be put at 6 instead of 7. Then, if the number of families per house is 1.91, the average persons per house would be 11.5, a figure which there is no strong reason for changing. It now appears that, if Unutsawaholma "formerly" had 17 houses, with 11.5 persons per house, the "former" population would have been approximately 195, or in round numbers 200.
Returning the matter of houses, Driver says (p. 184) that his informants "estimated" the number, but he thought the estimates were too high. (The number for the village of Unutsawaholma was evidently known exactly.) I think we have to concede Driver's point but we still do not know how great was the exaggeration. We note that Unutsawaholma with 17 sure houses "formerly" had 1 sweathouse but no designation "large" or "small." Of the two "large towns" one had 2 sweathouses and the other had 1 sweathouse and 40 ordinary houses. The same numbers were assigned to two other villages but they were not called large or small. The one called "small" had 1 sweathouse. The village, therefore, with 1 sweathouse and 17 other houses, but not designated either large or small, may be taken as approximately intermediate. The small town may be assigned half this number, or 8 houses. Those with 40 estimated houses, but not called large, may be assigned 25 houses each. Netstul, a "large town" with 40 houses and 1 sweathouse, may be given 30 houses, and Koticomota, a "large town" with 2 sweathouses, may be given 35 houses. This is a purely arbitrary arrangement but it must come somewhere near fitting the facts.