The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California Part 12

_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 a.s.sured.

_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 a.n.a.lysis of the village Unutsawa-holma-noma. This a.n.a.lysis (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 a.s.signed 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 a.s.signed half this number, or 8 houses. Those with 40 estimated houses, but not called large, may be a.s.signed 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.

On this basis we have six villages with a total of 140 houses and an average of nearly 23. This would mean an aboriginal population of 1,610 persons. If we were to admit no declining population in 1870 but if we allowed that Unutsawaholma, with 17 houses, was of average size in aboriginal times, the value would still be 1,010 for the population of Alexander Valley.

Driver states, in conjunction with his village list, "these certainly not all inhabited at the same time." His opinion may be justified but he cites no evidence in its support, and the circ.u.mstantial data brought out with respect to each village separately does not indicate that discontinuance of habitation occurred very long ago. It is true that Alexander Valley was the scene of a minor intertribal war in the early years of the nineteenth century, as the result of which the Pomo were driven out by the Wappo. In the confusion there may have been some s.h.i.+fting of inhabitants and reconst.i.tution of villages, with the consequence that the population came to include both racial elements.

Nevertheless, the data presented by Driver imply a total number of inhabitants, at one time, of fully 1,610. If Barrett's eighth village, Tekenantsonoma, on Sulphur Creek, is allowed 70 inhabitants, the total is raised to 1,680.

The Northern Wappo and the Lake Miwok form the next natural division.

It is preferable to treat these two groups together, and more or less in defiance of strict tribal limits, because the precise boundary between the Wappo and the Lake Miwok has never yet been determined to the entire satisfaction of ethnographers and because the racial affiliation of certain villages is still open to doubt. Bypa.s.sing the ethnographic problem, therefore, we may consider the area south of Clear Lake, which includes the headwaters of Putah Creek and upper Pope Valley. The region embraces a rough triangle, the apices of which are the modern villages of Lower Lake, Pope Valley, and Middletown.

The ethnographic sources consist of the works of Merriam, Barrett, and Kroeber. Merriam covered what he considered to be the Lake Miwok in a ma.n.u.script ent.i.tled "Tu-le-yo-mi Tribe List" and the pertinent Wappo villages in a ma.n.u.script ent.i.tled "Yukean." Barrett (1908) devoted several pages to the Wappo (pp. 274-278) and to the Lake Miwok (pp.

314-317). Kroeber's discussion in the Handbook was based largely upon these authorities but he later amplified his views in his paper (1932, pp. 366-369) on "The Patwin and Their Neighbors." Since all three investigators have contributed village lists, it will be necessary to examine them in detail. Previously, however, one particular problem requires brief mention.

Within the area of the Lake Miwok and Northern Wappo there was once a village or a pair of villages, the names and locations of which have been the source of much controversy. Barrett (1908, p. 273) mentioned "_loknoma_, from lok, goose, and noma, village, or _lakah-yome_ ... at a point about three-quarters of a mile northeast of Middletown...."

Continuing the discussion at some length, Barrett finally suggests the possibility that these people lived on the Locollomillo Rancho in Pope Valley.

Kroeber (1932, p. 366) found an informant who distinguished between Loknoma and Lakah-yomi as two separate towns, both near Middletown.

Kroeber remarks: "Apparently the two 'capitals' Lok-noma and Lakah-yomi stood close together, while their territories stretched apart, a condition for which there is precedent." On his general map (1932, back cover) he places Lok-noma almost at Middletown in Northern Wappo territory and Lakah-yomi just to the north in the realm of the Lake Miwok.

Meanwhile Merriam, in his "Tu-le-yo-mi Tribe List," specifies two rancherias. One is called Al-lok-yo-me-po-goot and is in Pope Valley, whereas the other, at Middletown, is Lah-ki-yo-me-po-goot. Merriam, furthermore, reinforces his distinction by citing numerous Spanish synonyms which he collected from the mission records. Thus for Al-lok-yo-me-po-goot he mentions Alacyomi, Aloquiomi, Alocyome, and Aloqui. For Lah-ki-yo-me-po-goot he gives Laoquiomi, Laoquio, Locollomillos, Laknomah, Locnoma, and Locolomne. The presence or absence of the initial letter _a_ appears to have been the deciding criterion, according to those who wrote in Spanish.

On the whole it is probable, as Kroeber concluded, that two towns are involved. One undoubtedly was near Middletown. The other may have been near by, as stated by Kroeber, or it may have been in Pope Valley, as suggested by Merriam. Fortunately we are not called upon to make a decision since, for population estimates, it becomes irrelevant where the exact locations were. The evidence is adequate that there were in fact two important villages, of very similar name, lying within the consolidated territory of the Lake Miwok and the Northern Wappo.

We may now examine the village lists of Merriam, Barrett, and Kroeber.

All references to Kroeber are to his monograph of 1932.

_Al-lok-yo-me-po-goot_ (Merriam). Refer to preceding discussion.