Martin A. Baumhoff

“ The available stream miles of fishing may seem insufficient material on which to base estimates of fish resources and unquestionably it would be desirable to have some idea of the fish population per mile of stream in order to estimate the food value of the resources available to the people. ”

“ The Whilkut terrain and culture is certainly more nearly like the region outside Hoopa Valley than inside it, so we are scarcely justified in estimating more than 5 houses per village.
On this basis we get a total of 345 houses for the Whilkut. Both Kroeber and Cook use the Yurok figure of 7.5 persons per house in calculating the population of this group. This figure may well be too high, and perhaps it should be more nearly the same as the estimate for the southern groups, but since I have no concrete evidence to support such a contention, I have also used the Kroeber and Cook figure. ”

“ When there is a complete village count, I have excluded from consideration known summer villages, villages not on main salmon streams, and other villages of doubtful status. Even so, the villages run about one per mile along the salmon streams and the possibility presents itself of movement from site to site, perhaps in response to varying fishing conditions. If this was the practice, then the population estimates might have to be reduced by half or even more. ”

“ Only a single woman survives.
The tribe on the south, from Wilson Creek to Klamath River, is called Tah-che-ten-ne and Tet-le-mus (Polikla) .
The tribe immediately east of the Cheet on the Oregon side of the California-Oregon boundary is called Ka-Ka-sha. Another name, Choo-ne, also was given but I am in doubt as to whether or not the same tribe was meant. The Ka-ka-sha live near Waldo on the north side of the Siskiyou Mountains and speak a language widely different from that of the Hah ́-wun-kwut. They are said to be lighter in color than the coast Indians. ”

“ The question of whether the fishing-mile estimates yield shorter confidence intervals than the area estimates brings up an entire range of problems pertaining to economy, settlement pattern, and the like. The obvious interpretation of the shorter confidence intervals would be that the economy of the people in question depended more on fish and fishing than on the general produce over the whole range of their territory. ”

“ The Kato are the southernmost of the California Athabascans (see pl. 11, e for a view of Kato territory) . They are surrounded on three sides by Yukian peoples and consequently resemble culturally the peoples of Central California rather than those of Northwestern California. The name Kato appears to be of Pomo origin and it was first thought that the Kato language was a dialect of Pomo (Powers, 1877, p. 147) . It was not until 1903 that Goddard showed their Athabascan affinity (Goddard, 1903b) .
Information on the ethnogeography of the Kato is derived from several sources. ”

“ But Goddard does not say what period his figures represent, so I propose to follow a line of reasoning similar to that of Cook but to use different figures. The number of houses for 6 villages in 1851 is reported by Gibbs (see map, pl. 9) . We may compare these to the 1870 population estimates as given by Kroeber (1925a, p. 131) . If we adjust for male attrition by calculating population as twice the female population, or 640 (see table 1) , we get a density per house of 7.8, exactly the same figure that Cook gets. ”

“ Kato: The reason Kato population is being estimated in gross rather than from ethnographic data is that Goddard (1909, p. 67) obtained a list of more than 50 villages which are not available for calculation.
Bear River: Here the lack of information is due simply to the fact that it was not collected. There have been several informants living until recently (see Nomland, 1938) .
Lassik: There was at least one good informant living until recently (Essene, 1942) , but Merriam worked with her only briefly. Goddard evidently recorded a number of villages from this group, but his notes are lost. ”

“ The elevation of their lands is everywhere over 2,000 feet and in places rises to 4,000 or 5,000 feet. Because of the elevation there is a good deal of snow in the mountains surrounding the valley and this fact may have somewhat isolated the Hupa from their Athabascan neighbors during the winter months, although it is known that they were in close contact with some of the Whilkut.
The fish resources of the Hupa territory also constituted an important distinction. The Trinity is the only river in the Athabascan area in which there is both a spring and a fall run of salmon. ”

“ It is evident that this territory was disputed, for it was the scene of several of the wars involving the Wailaki, the Kato, and the Yuki (Kroeber, 1925a, p. 165; 1925b) . Kroeber obtained a detailed list of place names in this area from a ta'no'm Yuki, whereas Merriam's Wailaki information is only of a most general nature. For this reason I have given the territory to the Yuki. ”

“ For the number of houses per village we have also a considerable body of information, but here we are faced with a slightly different problem. It often happens that we know, from ethnographic information or from archaeological reconnaissance, how many house pits there are in a village site but do not know how many of the houses which these pits represent were occupied simultaneously. In the present paper it has been assumed that four-fifths of the house pits represents the number of houses in the village occupied at any one time. ”

“ It appears to this writer that a somewhat more satisfactory method of estimation would be based on simple linear regression theory. It is a fact that pertinent relationships in population studies can often be expressed in terms of simple exponential functions or in linear combinations of logarithms. Thus we might propose a relationship such as the following:
population = a + b (ln area)
or
population = a + b (ln fishing miles)
where a and b are constants to be determined and ln is the logarithm to the base e. ”

“ A few are also given by Merriam. In the list the source is indicated by (G) for Goddard, (M) for Merriam. Merriam's notes contain, besides the village names, a list of place names on the Eel and on South Fork, running from Scotia to south of Garberville (see pp. 191-193, map 13) . In areas where Merriam's material can be compared with Goddard's these place names nearly all turn out to be village names. It seems likely therefore that, in other areas also, nearly all are village names. In calculating population (see p. 216) , I have occasionally used these to augment the village count. ”

“ Former village of importance on a flat of about 2 ac., near the creek level on the E side. Four house pits were found on the N side of the flat and four others in a row about midway of the flat. Two other pits, one of them near the creek, were probably sweathouses. The flat is called "Sweathouse Flat" by white people. This village is considered by the Hupa the last of the villages of the xōilkûtyīdexoi, or Chilula. It was the last toward the S from which Indians were allowed to witness the Hupa dances. The Chilula also seem to accept this as their boundary. ”

“ The Nongatl are almost entirely confined to the drainages of the Van Duzen River and upper Mad River. Their culture is the least known of any group in northwestern California. Merriam evidently did not work in their area although he recorded a few of their words given him by George Burt's wife. George Burt was a Sinkyone, but his wife was born and raised near Bridgeville. Goddard recorded some villages for this group, whose names are given below. Nomland worked with someone from the Nongatl in 1928 (Nomland, 1938, p. 9) , but her results have not been published. ”

“ It is therefore clear that we must accept either 7.5 persons per house or 10 persons per house as the population density for both the Hupa and the Yurok, and the question becomes one of comparing the reliability of the figures given for the Yurok with those given for the Hupa. ”

“ The root is burned and the smoke wafted around to make the house more plentiful. It does not grow on Bull Creek or South Fork Eel River but grows on Rainbow Mountain and some of the other high ridges. The root is highly prized.
The Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) is called kah-ko ́. He is a bad bird. If he flies close to a person, the person will faint. ”

“ In the division of the territory west of the Hupa Merriam differs radically from Kroeber and Goddard, although all three scholars divide the area between two groups. Kroeber and Goddard call the northernmost group Chilula, an anglicization of the Yurok word tsulu-la meaning "Bald Hills people," and the southern, Whilkut, from the Hupa word hoilkut-hoi meaning "Redwood Creek people" or "upper Redwood Creek people." ”

“ An exception would be the Trinity River and its tributaries, the only streams in the Athabascan area with both spring and fall runs of salmon. In other streams there is only a fall run.
The lists that follow include data, not only for the six tribes previously discussed (Wailaki, Pitch Wailaki, Mattole, Lolangkok Sinkyone, Hupa, and Whilkut) , but also for the Nongatl, Kato, Shelter Cove Sinkyone, Lassik, and Bear River groups. The fish species is recorded, when it is known; when our source gives no identification of species, however, the generic term is used. ”

“ This list appears to be a substantially complete count from Horseshoe Bend south, but it is clear that neither Merriam nor Goddard visited the area north of this, and the village count suffers as a result. There are about 16 river-miles south of Horseshoe Bend, including both the main Eel and North Fork, and there are 49 main villages on this stretch, yielding an average of 3.1 per river-mile. If we apply this figure to the 7 river-miles above Horseshoe Bend, we get 21.7 villages for that stretch rather than 5, as given by ethnographers. ”

“ Talked with several Indians at Blue Lake. The boundary between the Pah-te-waht [Wiyot] of Lower Mad River, and the 'Hoil ́-kut or Ho-il-let-ha of Redwood Valley lies along North Fork of Mad River near its mouth, between Korbel and Blue Lake. The Pah-te-waht I saw today live on Mad River at Blue Lake (on south edge of town) , while the Hoi-let'ha live on the extreme northeast beyond the town and cemetery.
Merriam's second visit there was in 1918 and the following quotation is from the California Journals for August 11, 1918. ”

“ Shamans were important among the Bear River people and probably among the other Athabascans as well. They might be either men or women; most often they were women, men being thought less powerful. The first signs of a shaman's power came in childhood, the visible signs being, for example, excessive drooling in sleep. If the childhood omens were proper, the training began about the age of twelve, under the direction of an older shaman, the main ceremony being a series of dances performed on five successive nights. ”

“ III. Goddard says that there was a tribelet on the west side of the Eel whose territory was bounded on the north by Natoikot Creek and extended south to a point opposite the mouth of North Fork. His name for this group is taticcokaiya. Merriam's name for the group in this general area is tah-chis ́-tin ke-ah-hahng. He does not give any boundaries for them. ”

“ Whilkut, a name used by these people for themselves, according to Merriam, and derived from the prairies that occur on upper Redwood Creek. The Mad River Whilkut would be the group in the drainage of Mad River from the mouth of North Fork as far up as Bug Creek above Iaqua Buttes. ”

“ The Wailaki, the southernmost group of Athabascans on the Eel River, are as little chronicled as most of the Athabascan groups. As far as geography and language are concerned we have very good information (Goddard, 1923a; 1923b) , but there is very little general ethnography. Kroeber was able to devote to them only a little more than three pages in the Handbook (1925, pp. 151-154) , and we know scarcely more today. ”

“ The herb-gathering and salmon-fishing activity lasted until the spring rains ended in April or May, when the people left their villages on the salmon streams and scattered out into the hills for the summer. Usually only a few families would stay together during the summer, while the men hunted deer, squirrels, and other animals and the women gathered clover, seeds, roots, and nuts. ”

“ The sample used by Kroeber and Cook is so small that an estimate based on it of the average number of house pits per village is liable to considerable error. If we look at the figures for some of the surrounding groups, we find an estimate of 11 houses per village for the Hupa in Hoopa Valley, 4.5 for the Hupa outside the valley, 4 for the Wailaki, 4.5 for the Wiyot (Cook, 1956, p. 102) , and 5.4 for the Lolangkok Sinkyone. ”

“ In March, 1950, the University of California assumed custodianship of an extensive collection of original and secondary data referring to California Indian ethnology, made by Dr. C. Hart Merriam and originally deposited with the Smithsonian Institution. Since that time the Merriam collection has been consulted by qualified persons interested in linguistics, ethnogeography, and other specialized subjects. ”

“ Wild Tobacco does not grow along the coast and is not used.
The Wood Sorrel (Oxalis) is used for poultices.
Leaves of the narrow-leaf Iris (Iris macrosiphon) are used for cord and nets and are much better than the leaves of the broad-leaf species.
MATTOLE
The Mattole occupied the drainage of the Mattole River below the mouth of Upper North Fork and the coast from Davis Creek south to Spanish Flat.
The village lists of Merriam and Goddard provide a complete picture of the Mattole settlements but almost nothing is known of them aside from this. ”

“ Food was most plentiful at this season, and the places visited varied with the abundance of different crops. If a certain crop was good, the Indians would spend more time that summer in the area where the crop grew best. ”