Part 11 (1/2)

SOUTHWESTERN POMO

This group, consisting princ.i.p.ally 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 a.n.a.lysis 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 a.s.sured. 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 doc.u.ments, 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 ma.s.sacres 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Canon 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 (ma.n.u.script ent.i.tled ”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