FOUR DIRECTIONS INSTITUTE

The Indian population of California at the time of the arrival of the Spanish has long been a matter of dispute. Estimates range from 133,000 up to several hundred thousand. Popular modern estimates approximate 310,000, but these estimates are unreasonable and inconsistent with the empirical historical evidence. A.L. Kroeber(1) estimated the California Indian population in 1770 at 133,000. Many subsequent authorities have disputed Kroeber’s numbers as being too low, particularly in southern California. Considering these estimates, which may well be valid, would increase the total to only about 149,000(2).

The bulk of the California population inhabited the Pacific slope, the approximately 100,000 square mile region west of the Sierra Nevada and the Mojave Desert. This would mean a population of 1.5 persons per square mile, matching the Pueblo region of the New Mexico, and that of the Pacific northwest as the most dense in what was to become the United States.

Comparatively speaking, the one million square mile eastern woodlands of the United States had only a 400,000 population at the time of European arrival, or 0.4 persons per square mile.

Even though the peoples of the eastern woodlands lived on arable land, almost all farmed corn, beans, and squash, and game was relatively plentiful, the telltale grounds for the disparity between them and the Pacific hunter/gatherers was an obvious one ... war and peace respectively. Eastern woodlands demographic ratios varying from 1½ to 4 adult females to one adult male per ethnie and the necessary existence of polygamy was the effect of the constant state of war that existed. Whole states like Kentucky (translates to land of the bloody ground in Cherokee) were virtually uninhabited. It was a war zone.

The people of California were relatively peaceful and, for the most part, monogamous. Adult male and female populations were relatively equal. The males of the population were not being killed off by constant wars. And, all of California was inhabited, save the inhospitable regions of the Mojave Desert and high Sierras.

The number of villages in California was a known, and there was a viable size for those villages depending on the terrain. Amount of available food sources within a reasonable distance from a village determined its size. By far, the largest villages were coastal, and the smallest were in the marginal desert regions. All except coastal villages ranged in size from 40 to 200. This is true for the entire Pacific slope of the United States. The numbers that fall within the 149,000 estimate for California are consistent with the remainder of the Pacific slope and therefore reconcile. (See the individual ethnies in this module for their respective populations)

Indian populations began decreasing immediately with the onset of Spanish colonization. Tens of thousands were indentured to the 21 missions. Adherence to the strict discipline of the missions did not protect the neophytes from abuse by the Spanish military. Failure to adhere to the strict discipline of the mission ensured the wrath of the Spanish military. Many died from the punishment, others escaped to starve or be killed. Indian women were sequestered from Indian men. Many women became forced concubines of the Spanish military as priests looked the other way. Many Indian women who had Spanish sired pregnancies aborted their unborn children if possible and some others killed them later. European introduced diseases took their toll ... smallpox, diphtheria, pneumonia, influenza, measles. Few Indian babies being born, diseases, and the deadly wrath of the dominant Spanish reduced Indian population by 40,000 by the time they were expelled by the Mexicans in 1821.

The Indians of California saw no improvement in the transfer of power. Even more Indians were immediately indentured to powerful feudal Mexican land barons reaching into the central valley and north of the Sacramento River. Indian fugitives were hunted down by the Mexican military and many massacred. Large cattle enterprises consumed traditional Indian lands destroying food sources. Another 10 to 20 thousand Indians lost their lives during the Mexican rule of more than two decades.

Americans began to filter into California during the Mexican rule and when one discovered gold in 1848, thousands soon poured over the Sierras in search of instant wealth. The surviving Indian ethnies lived along the rivers ... where the gold was, or at least, where it was thought to be. Indian by Indian, family by family, village by village, they were driven from their lands by force. Some were shot, others poisoned, many were burned out, others simply fled for their lives or in search of ever waning food supplies. Gold mining operations created silt and mercury filled rivers and streams. Fish died and water became undrinkable.

War was declared on the ethnies that resisted White encroachment. The Mariposa War, the War of Tulare Lake, the Modoc War, and countless other campaigns were unleashed as legal genocide. Indian populations decreased to approximately 15,000 by 1880. The Americans had killed another 70 to 80 thousand Indians in just 30 years.

During the early dominance of the Americans, most of the surviving Indian ethnies were placed on reservations. The abuse did not end, but genocide, for the most part, did. Indians finally became citizens in 1924 but few were allowed to vote until after World War II. Nonetheless, the population of California Indians has steadily increased since 1880. In addition, there has been an enormous migration of Indians into the state from other states as well as Mexico. The largest such group, the Mixtec, are relatively recent migrants from the area of Oaxaca, Mexico and number in excess of 50,000.

Return to Class Main Page	*Module 1: Glossary*	*Module 2: Literatures*	*Module 3: Education*	*Module 4: Cultures*

*Module 5: History*	*Module 6: Today*	*Module 7: Curriculum*	Module 8: Seminar	*Exit class*

1.	A.L. Kroeber. Bulletin 78 of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, 1925; republished Handbook of the Indians of California, Dover Publications, Inc. 1975
2.	Heizer, Robert F. ed. California: Handbook of North American Indians. Smithsonian Institution P, 1978.

Chungichnich	Villages	Pop./Village	Year 1700	Year 1800	Year 1900	Year 2000
Cahuilla	36	222	8,000	8,000	1,300	2,800
Chumash	69	145	10,000	9,000	100	1,500
Cupeno	2	375	750	750	200	200
Diegueno	53	57	3,000	3,000	700	2,500
Gabrielino	46	109	5,000	4,000	50	50
Juaneno	8	125	1,000	500	50	50
Kamia	2	150	300	300	0	0
Kitanemuk	5	150	750	700	50	50
Luiseno	44	227	10,000	6,000	1,000	2,600
Serrano	20	75	1,500	1,500	100	350

Total Chungichnich	305	132	40,300	33,750	3,550	10,100

Kuksu	Villages	Pop./Village	Year 1700	Year 1800	Year 1900	Year 2000
Cahto	20	25	500	500	100	600
Coast Yuki	29	17	500	500	0	0
Costanoan	46	152	7,000	3,000	50	250
Huchnom	13	38	500	350	0	0
Maidu	102	88	9,000	9,000	1,100	1,700
Mattole	?	?	1,200	400	50	100
Miwok	170	65	11,000	9,000	1,100	1,500
Pomo	75	107	8,000	8,000	1,300	2,400
Wailaki	22	123	2,700	1,900	200	400
Wintu	60	200	12,000	12,000	1,000	3,200
Yanan Tribes	25	60	1,500	1,500	50	0
Yokuts	99	181	18,000	18,000	550	1,500
Yuki	7	285	2,000	2,000	100	100

Total Kuksu	668	109	73,900	66,150	5,600	11,750

Northwest California	Villages	Pop./Village	Year 1700	Year 1800	Year 1900	Year 2000
Chilula	18	28	500	500	50	0
Chimariko	7	36	250	250	0	0
Eel River Tribes	?	?	2,000	2,000	100	500
Hupa	26	34	1,000	1,000	500	2,200
Karuk	36	75	2,700	2,700	1,000	2,300
Shasta	27	70	1,900	1,900	500	400
Wailaki	22	123	2,700	1,900	200	400
Whilcut	4	125	500	500	50	100
Wiyot	20	60	1,200	1,000	150	250
Yurok	53	47	2,500	2,500	700	2,300

Total Northwest Calif.	213	62	15,250	14,250	3,250	8,450

*Transition Cultures*	Villages	Pop./Village	Year 1700	Year 1800	Year 1900	Year 2000
Achomawi	6	500	3,000	3,000	1,300	1,500
Atsugewi	4	75	300	300	50	50
Esselen	6	125	750	500	50	50
Kawaiisu	6	83	500	400	150	50
Salinan	15	133	2,000	1,800	50	50
Tubatulabal	5	200	1,000	1,000	100	100

Total Transition Cultures	42	180	7,550	7,000	1,700	1,800

*Distinctly Californian*	Villages	Pop./Village	Year 1700	Year1800	Year 1900	Year 2000
Sub-Total	1228	112	137,000	121,150	14,100	32,100

*Dream*	Villages	Pop./Village	Year 1700	Year 1800	Year 1900	Year 2000
Chemehuevi	7	143	1,000	900	400	150
Halchidhoma	1	1,500	1,500	500	0	0
Kohuana	2	750	1,500	0	0	0
Mojave	2	1,000	2,000	2,300	950	3,300
Yuma	2	1,000	2,000	2,800	350	3,900

Total Dream	14	571	8,000	6,500	1,700	7,350

*Great Basin*	Village	Pop./Village	Year 1700	Year 1800	Year 1900	Year 2000
Koso	4	38	150	150	100	100
Modoc	16	38	600	600	0	0
Paiute, Northern	77	32	2,500	2,500	1,000	3,500
Paiute, Southern	3	50	150	150	50	50
Shoshoni, Western	?	?	500	500	200	500
Washoe	3	166	500	400	100	100

Total Great Basin	103	43	4,400	4,300	1,450	4,250

*CALIFORNIA*	Villages	Pop./Village	Year 1700	Year1800	Year 1900	Year 2000
TOTAL	1,365	109	149,400	131,950	17,250	43,700