While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
California, Indians of. The Indians of California are
among the least known groups of natives of North America.
Those along the coast s. of San Francisco were brought under Spanish missionary
influence in the latter part of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th
centuries. Some tribes, however, were not known even by name until after the
discovery of gold and the settlement of the country in 1849 and subsequently.
The Californians were among the least warlike tribes of the continent and
offered but little resistance, and that always ineffectual, to the seizure of
their territory by the whites. Comparatively few of them are now on
reservations. The majority live as squatters on the land of white owners or of
the Government, or in some cases on land allotted them by the Government or even
bought by themselves from white owners. Their number has de creased very rapidly
and is now probably about 15,000, as compared with perhaps 150,000 before the
arrival of the whites.
Physically, the California Indians, like other tribes of the Pacific coast, are
rather shorter than the majority of those in eastern North America. In many
cases they incline to he stout. Along the coast, and especially in the s. they
are unusually dark. The most southern tribes approximate those of the Colorado
r. in physical type and are tall arid short-headed. The native population of
California was broken up into a great number of small groups. These were often
somewhat unsettled in habitation, but always within very limited territories,
and were never nomadic. The dialects of almost all of these groups were
different and belonged to as many as 21 distinct linguistic families, being a
fourth of the total number found in all North America, and, as compared with the
area of the state, so large that California must probably be regarded as the
region of the greatest aboriginal linguistic diversity in the world. Three
larger stocks have found their way into California: the
Athapascan in the N. and
the Shoshonean and
Yuman in the s. The remainder are all small and purely
Californian.
This diversity is accompanied by a corresponding stability of population. While
there have undoubtedly been shifting of tribes within the. state, they do not
appear to have extended very far territorially. The Indians themselves in no
part of the state except the extreme s. have any tradition of migrations and
uniformly believe themselves to have originated at the spot where they live. The
groups in which they live are very loose, being defined and held together by
language and the topography of the country much more than by any political or
social organization; distinct tribes, as they occur in many other parts of
America, do not really exist. The small village is the most common unit of
organization among these people.
Culturally, the California Indians are probably as simple and rude as any large
group of Indians in North America. Their arts (excepting that of basket making,
which they possessed in a high form) were undeveloped; pottery was practically
unknown, and in the greater part of the state the carving or working of wood was
carried on only to a limited extent. Houses were often of grass, tule, or brush,
or of bark, sometimes covered with earth. Only in the x. w. part of the state
were small houses of planks in use. In this region, as well as on the Santa
Barbara ids., wooden canoes were also made, but over the greater part of the
state a raft of tules was the only means of navigation. Agriculture was nowhere
practiced. Deer and small game were hunted, and there was considerable fishing;
but the bulk of the food was vegetable. The main reliance was placed on numerous
varieties of acorns, and next to these, on seeds, especially of grasses and
herbs. Roots and berries were less used.
Both totemism and a true gentile organization were totally lacking in all parts
of the state. The mythology of the Californians was characterized by unusually
well developed and consistent creation myths, and by the complete lack not only
of migration but of ancestor traditions. Their ceremonies were numerous and
elaborate as compared with the prevailing simplicity of life, but they lacked
almost totally the rigid ritualism and extensive symbolism that pervade the
ceremonies of most of America. One set of ceremonies was usually connected with
a secret religious society; another, often spectacular, was held in remembrance
of the dead.
With constant differences from group to group, these characteristics held with a
general underlying uniformity over the greater part of California. In the
extreme x. w. portion of the state, however, a somewhat more highly developed
and specialized culture existed, which showed in several respects similarities
to that of the N. Pacific coast, as is indicated by a greater advance in
technology, a social organization largely upon a property basis, and a system of
mythology that is suggestive of those farther x. The Santa Barbara islanders,
now extinct, appear also to have been considerably specialized from the great
body of Californian tribes, both in their arts and their mode of life. The
Indians of s. California, finally, especially those of the interior, living
under geographic conditions very different from those of the main portion of the
state, resemble in certain respects of culture the Indians of Arizona and New
Mexico. See Mission Indians.
(A. L. K.)
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
