With its reputation already established as the most accessible and engaging California survey text currently on the market, the new eighth edition of California: A History brings the history of the Golden State completely up to date – from its original inhabitants through the present.
Along with updates, revisions, and expanded coverage of numerous issues that have shaped California’s past, this new edition features a revealing discussion of a recent – and uniquely Californian – social trend the authors call “Silicon Beach,” or the important interconnectedness among Hollywood, social media, and Silicon Valley. Also covered are recent developments relating to California’s immigration, energy, environment, and transportation concerns. Numerous maps, photographs, and new graphic features serve to enhance clarity and ensure that this classic text remains vibrant and topical. California: A History offers illuminating insights into the full sweep of significant events and peoples that shaped the lengthy and complex history of a state that has become synonymous with the American dream.
Andrew Rolle is the Cleland Professor Emeritus of History at Occidental College and a Research Scholar at the Huntington Library. He has written more than twenty books on California, the American West, ethics, and psychohistory. One of his books, The Immigrant Upraised (University of Oklahoma, 1970), won the Commonwealth Award for nonfiction.
Arthur C. Verge is Professor of History at El Camino College, Torrance, where he was the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award. He has written extensively on California culture. Among his works is Paradise Transformed: Los Angeles During the Second World War (Kendall Hunt, 2001).
Eighth Edition
Eighth EditionRolle and
California
California A History
Andrew Rolle Arthur C. Verge
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This eighth edition first published 2015 © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Edition history: Harlan Davidson (1e 1963, 2e 1969, 3e 1978, 4e 1987, 5e 1998, 6e 2003, 7e 2008)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rolle, Andrew F. California : a history / Andrew Rolle, Arthur C. Verge. – Eighth edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-118-70104-1 (pbk.) 1. California–History. I. Verge, Arthur C. II. Title. F861.R78 2015 979.4–dc23 2014018389
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: San Francisco cable car © Vito Palmisano / Getty Images Cover design by Simon Levy
Set in 10/12.5pt Minion pro by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
1 2015
v
Contents
Chapter 3 Exploring Baja and Alta California 21
Chapter 4 Colonizers of the Frontier 32
Chapter 5 Missions, Presidios, and Pueblos 40
Chapter 6 California and Its Spanish Governors 47
Chapter 7 Exploration and Foreign Interference 51
Chapter 8 Arcadia 58
Chapter 10 Infiltration and Revolt 73
Chapter 11 On the Eve of American Rule 79
Chapter 12 Trappers, Traders, and Homeseekers 85
Chapter 13 American Conquest 98
Chapter 14 Gold 107
Chapter 16 Social Ferment 125
Chapter 17 A New Culture at the Golden Gate 133
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vi Contents
Chapter 19 The Messy Land Problem 150
Chapter 20 California and the Union 156
Chapter 21 Ships and Rails 165
Chapter 22 Agricultural and Urban Growth 171
Chapter 23 Discrimination and Accommodation 182
Chapter 24 Crushing or Saving the Indians? 191
Chapter 25 Labor, the Farmers, and the New Constitution 202
Chapter 26 California Culture, 1870–1918 207
Chapter 27 Progressive Politics 221
Chapter 28 Material Urban Growth 232
Chapter 29 Water, Conservation, and Agriculture 245
Chapter 30 Labor in an Industrial Age 254
Chapter 31 The Depression Years 261
Chapter 32 Twentieth-Century Culture 273
Chapter 33 Sports and Leisure 293
Chapter 34 Wartime Setbacks and Gains 301
Chapter 35 World War II and Its Aftermath 310
Chapter 36 The Beleaguered Sixties 322
Chapter 37 Environmental Realities 333
Chapter 38 From Reagan Conservatism to “Governor Moonbeam” 347
Chapter 39 A New Ethnicity 354
Chapter 40 From the Great Recession to the Rise of Silicon Beach 363
Chapter 41 Glowing Past Versus Troubled Future 369
Appendix The Governors of California 380 Index of Authors in Selected Readings 386 Subject Index 399
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vii
Figures
Figure 1.1 Anza-Borrego Desert State Park 4 Figure 1.2 Joshua Tree National Monument 6 Figure 2.1 Mono home 13 Figure 2.2 Hupa in ceremonial dance costume 16 Figure 2.3 Hupa female shaman 16 Figure 3.1 Cabrillo National Monument 22 Figure 3.2 The Golden Hind 27 Figure 4.1 Monterey coastline 35 Figure 4.2 Mission San Juan Bautista 36 Figure 5.1 Mission San Luis Rey 42 Figure 6.1 Mission San Juan Capistrano 49 Figure 7.1 Fort Ross 55 Figure 8.1 Native American rancho worker 60 Figure 11.1 Pío Pico 81 Figure 12.1 Kit Carson dimestore novel cover 86 Figure 12.2 Two Donner Party survivors 95 Figure 13.1 John C. Frémont 99 Figure 13.2 Los Angeles,.1857 104 Figure 14.1 The Devil’s Golf Course 112 Figure 14.2 “A Sunday’s Amusement in the Mines” 114 Figure 14.3 Mormon Island Emporium advertisement 116 Figure 15.1 The Great Seal of 1849 122 Figure 16.1 Vigilantes in San Francisco 128
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viii List of Illustrations
Figure 17.1 North Beach, San Francisco, ca. 1860 136 Figure 17.2 Hopkins and Stanford residence, San Francisco 137 Figure 17.3 Crocker and Colton mansions, San Francisco 137 Figure 18.1 Placer miner, ca. 1890 142 Figure 18.2 Wells Fargo Office, ca. 1866 144 Figure 18.3 Southern California mines by stagecoach 146 Figure 19.1 Old ranchos of L.A. County 151 Figure 20.1 African American placer miner at a sluice 159 Figure 20.2 Leland Stanford 160 Figure 21.1 Chinese construction workers at “Cape Horn” 168 Figure 22.1 Vicente Lugo ranch house, 1892 172 Figure 22.2 Orange pickers, ca. 1895 174 Figure 22.3 Harvesting in San Fernando Valley, ca. 1900 176 Figure 23.1 Keppler anti-Chinese cartoons 185 Figure 23.2 Chinese butcher shop in San Francisco 186 Figure 24.1 Wi-ne-ma, or Tobey Riddle, and Modocs 194 Figure 24.2 San Francisco Bulletin correspondent McKay 196 Figure 24.3 “Indians Welcome, Indian Land” logo, Alcatraz 198 Figure 26.1 Charlotta Bass 208 Figure 26.2 Yosemite’s El Capitan 215 Figure 26.3 Market Street, San Francisco 216 Figure 27.1 San Francisco earthquake damage 225 Figure 27.2 Displaced San Francisco residents 225 Figure 27.3 San Francisco graft prosecution defendants 227 Figure 27.4 Hiram Johnson 228 Figure 28.1 Hotel del Coronado 233 Figure 28.2 Broadway, Los Angeles, 1889 236 Figure 28.3 Early filming at Santa Monica 239 Figure 28.4 Treasure Island dedication ceremony, 1937 242 Figure 29.1 John Muir 247 Figure 29.2 Imperial Valley, 1941 249 Figure 29.3 Giant redwoods 251 Figure 30.1 Destruction of Los Angeles Times building 257 Figure 31.1 Migrant mother and baby 263 Figure 31.2 Civilian Conservation Corps workers, 1933 266 Figure 31.3 Aerial view of San Simeon 269 Figure 32.1 “The Grapes of Wrath” 276 Figure 32.2 Dawn of movie making 280 Figure 32.3 “Birth of a Nation” 282 Figure 32.4 J. Paul Getty Museum 289
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List of Illustrations ix
Figure 33.1 Tiger Woods 296 Figure 33.2 Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh 298 Figure 34.1 Evacuation sale, San Francisco 302 Figure 34.2 Tagged Japanese American boy 304 Figure 34.3 Douglas Aircraft plant wartime workers 306 Figure 34.4 Newspaper seller, August 14, 1945 308 Figure 35.1 Freeway 311 Figure 35.2 Pacific Electric Railway 312 Figure 35.3 B-1 bomber 315 Figure 35.4 Earl Warren 316 Figure 35.5 Richard Nixon 317 Figure 36.1 Joan Baez and Bob Dylan 323 Figure 36.2 Robert F. Kennedy and Cesar Chavez 328 Figure 36.3 First Lady “Lady Bird” Johnson 330 Figure 37.1 Los Cerritos Shopping Mall 334 Figure 37.2 Flood control and conservation 336 Figure 37.3 Water tunnel through the Tehachapi Range 337 Figure 37.4 Mount Shasta 341 Figure 37.5 Global climate change at Venice Pier 344 Figure 37.6 Wind farm 344 Figure 38.1 Ronald Reagan 349 Figure 38.2 Jerry Brown 350 Figure 39.1 Antonio Villaraigosa 355 Figure 39.2 Los Angeles riots, 1992 357 Figure 41.1 Nancy Pelosi and Arnold Schwarzenegger 373 Figure 41.2 Venice Beach pot shop 378
Maps
Map 1.1 California topography 2 Map 2.1 Major native linguistic groups 10 Map 3.1 Early Spanish voyages 24 Map 4.1 Spanish North America 34 Map 5.1 California Missions 44 Map 12.1 Early explorers of the West 1826–1831 87 Map 12.2 Early explorers of the West 1833–1844 88 Map 12.3 Early trails of the West 89 Map 12.4 Early transport routes of the West 90 Map 13.1 War with Mexico 101
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x List of Illustrations
Map 14.1 Main routes to the gold fields 109 Map 37.1 Counties of California 339 Map 37.2 Major routes of California 343 Map 39.1 Los Angeles and vicinity 360
Tables
Table 2.1 California’s native population 15 Table 41.1 GDP in selected countries and California 374
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xi
Preface
Like its predecessors, this eighth edition of California: A History is designed to serve the general reader and students alike. Since its original publication in 1963, the work has enjoyed great popularity, having been read by well over 100,000 readers. The book’s aim is to recount the state’s history from its origins to the present in an engaging manner while seeking a balance between conflict- ing viewpoints.
Any history of California must do justice to the Indian peoples, the first inhabitants of the land, and then to Spanish and Mexican colonialism, both of which shaped the past and continue to influence the present. The historian also must chronicle those dramatic, sometimes violent, changes that began after the American conquest of the province. Today, especially, Californians face great challenges as the nation’s most diverse and populous state, having surpassed 38 million residents in 2013.
Enormous social and material changes continue to test the state as well. Legislative battles remain over how best to educate and employ the state’s diverse peoples – and how to pay for all of it. This eighth edition incorporates these developments in a historical context, pondering implications for the future. Likewise, those sections of the book devoted to women, the environment, immi- gration, education, crime, sports, energy, and transportation have been expanded.
An avalanche of writing, especially about contemporary California, often verges upon sociology rather than history. Much of this emphasis concerns minority groups who have outgrown that label. An updated chapter examines those changes as does an entirely new chapter that outlines the impact of the Great Recession and the rise of new technologies and start-up companies in its wake. The appearance of new works on the many aspects of California history is reflected in updated chapter bibliographies and, as always, this edition fea- tures a separate index of authors listed in these sections. Additionally, new maps, charts, and photographs are provided.
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xii Preface
Professor Arthur Verge remains as co-author of this new edition. Among those persons who have been helpful in its preparation are my long-time editor and friend, Andrew Davidson, as well as Larry Kocher, Galal Kernahan, Charles Johnson, Professors Robert T. Smith and William Doyle, and Milton Slade and Selena Spurgeon.
A. R.
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California: A History, Eighth Edition. Andrew Rolle and Arthur C. Verge. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
1
1
The name California brings to mind extremes in both geography and climate. The state’s variety is overwhelming. Its mountains are the highest in the conti- nental United States outside Alaska. Its redwood forests comprise the oldest and tallest trees alive. Its high surf and sandy beaches lie in sharp contrast to its  bleak deserts. The state’s rains, floods, and wildfires can be catastrophic. Its droughts, too, are severe, its legendary earthquakes highly destructive.
In 1906, over 3,000 people were killed in a San Francisco earthquake. That catastrophe left a quarter of a million persons homeless. Since then, California has repeatedly experienced major quakes that resulted in the loss of life and property. In addition to its world-famous San Andreas Fault, it has a great many other underground faults, known and unknown.
California offers virtually every climatic, geologic, and botanical combination. These range from the wettest to the driest weather; sandy soil in its deserts and rich loam in the Central Valley. Mount Whitney (14,496 feet) is the second- highest peak in the United States. Bad Water in Death Valley (282 feet below sea level) is the lowest point in North America. In 2012, the World Meteorological Organization declared that Death Valley holds the highest recorded temperature in history, a stunning 134 degrees that was taken on Greenland Ranch, on July 10, 1913. In the summertime, the Central Valley’s temperature rises to well over a sweltering 100 degrees. Yet, in half an hour one can travel into the San Francisco Bay area, fogbound at less than 50 degrees. In midwinter, the orange groves of southern California lie in valleys framed by distant snowy peaks.
California’s literature expresses all this distinctive regionality. It underlies the “local color” of the short stories of Bret Harte, the wit of Mark Twain’s tall tales, the humanity of John Steinbeck’s novels, as well as the celebration of nature in
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2 California’s Distinctiveness
the stark poetry of Robinson Jeffers. In architecture, the fusion of its Spanish heritage and tastes of the New Englanders who arrived next produced the Monterey-style house, with its balconies, adobe walls, red-tiled roof, and white-washed woodwork. Such variety lies at the heart of California’s past and present.
Map 1.1 California topography.
3California’s Distinctiveness
No other American state would, standing alone, comprise its own nation. California ranks third in size, but first in population. By 2013, the state surpassed 38 million inhabitants. The 14 counties that make up southern California are nearly as large as all six New England states combined, and are larger than Illinois, Iowa, or Alabama. More people live in Orange County than in Montana. There is a great disparity of population within the state’s 58 counties. The Los Angeles area, with some 10 million residents, stands in contrast to tiny Alpine County, with only 1,200 inhabitants.
The province’s natural wealth once lay unexploited. The melting snows of the Sierra rushed down unharnessed rivers into the sea. Underground reservoirs of petroleum lay untapped. Gold, shining on the bottoms of mountain streams, awaited the picks and shovels of Yankee miners. Magnificent timber stands stood untouched. But, rather quickly, the missions and ranchos gave way to vineyards and orange groves. Next came oil derricks, aircraft factories, steel mills, residential subdivisions, Hollywood film-making, and the technology in the Silicon Valley.
Urban development has overwhelmed a state whose shoreline spans the Pacific seaboard for 1,200 miles. The length of California is 824 miles while its width reaches 252 miles. The chief surface features are two mountain chains that traverse almost the entire length of the state. Its Central Valley lies between the mountains of the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada. The combined San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, 400 miles long and 50 miles wide, constitute one of the great granaries of the world. Because farmers can raise crops during three growing seasons instead of the usual one, California remains the nation’s top agricultural state.
It is more accurate to speak of California’s “climates” than to refer to a single weather pattern. Scores of specialized microclimates frequently recur. What is usually thought of as “California climate” prevails mostly south of San Francisco to the Mexican border, and between the Coast Ranges and the Pacific Ocean. In these regions the seasons drift by mildly, almost unperceived. The heat of the day is fanned by prevailing westerly winds. Climatic comfort is usually maintained by foggy “veloe” clouds.
What Californians call “winter” evokes laughter in other parts of the country. The state’s coastline is cooled by a meteorological process known as “upwelling,” wherein warm winds swirl inward from a northwesterly direction even as pre- vailing currents bring cold ocean water from the depths up to the surface. When the warm air meets the cold surface water, condensation forms. Then fog and low clouds sit over the ocean, creeping inland at night and retreating seaward toward dawn. During the course of the day, heat radiating off the California landmass helps to dissipate this fog.
Although more than half the state’s residents live in southern California, most of the raw materials and 90 percent of the fresh water lie in northern California.
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4 California’s Distinctiveness
Annual rainfall in the northwest corner of the state, above Eureka, reaches 110 inches, making the area a virtual rain forest. Precipitation in the Central Valley is heavier at Sacramento and Stockton than at other cities farther south, including Fresno and Bakersfield. At San Francisco, the average annual rainfall is nearly 23 inches; at San Luis Obispo it falls to 19 inches, and to less than 15 inches at Los Angeles. In San Diego, near the Mexican border, rainfall generally amounts to only 10 inches per year. Precipitation, the heaviest from November to April, averages only 6 inches at Bakersfield and as little as 1 or 2 inches in desert areas.
The Coast Ranges partly control California’s weather. In the winter, North Pacific storms crash down on those mountains. Rain clouds push through their canyon gaps into the Central Valley. Most fast-moving storms, however, break up along the Sierra crest. Below the eastern Sierra, the scorching temperature sometimes rises to 130 degrees in Death Valley, where there is hardly any veg- etation. In the bleak volcanic area of northeastern California, a rocky topogra- phy also limits agriculture and ranching.
In northern California, annual floods can be especially severe. Since the Gold Rush era, Sacramento, Stockton, Oroville, and Marysville have repeatedly
Figure 1.1 Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, east of San Diego. In the foreground are chollo cactus. Courtesy of Lynne Blanton.
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5California’s Distinctiveness
endured winter inundations. Paradoxically, one of the most serious flood threats exists in semi-arid southern California, where burned-out chaparral provides poor cover for unstable mountain watersheds.
This wide range of climate makes possible a great variety of vegetable and floral products. Almost every plant, tree, or shrub that grows in temperate zones, and many indigenous to the tropics, can be grown somewhere in  California. The state also is known for its unique forms of vegetation, especially its giant sequoias, which have their roots deep in the ancient past. Along with the bristle-cone pines of the White Mountains, these monarchs of the forest may well be the oldest living things on Earth. Sequoias now standing reached their prime at the time of Christ. Their age may be 5,000 or more years. Sequoias are virtually immune to diseases that afflict other trees, and their tannic bark is practically resistant to fire. Most “big trees” that have perished have been the victims of human ravages, lightning strikes, or fierce storms.
The gnarled Monterey cypress, a picturesque denizen of the seacoast, grows along a rugged section of the Monterey shoreline. These trees, clinging precariously to promontories like Cypress Point, are totally exposed to Pacific storms. Over the years heavy winds have twisted them into fantastic forms, and yet they survive. Similar in tenacity are the rugged Torrey pines hugging the coastline above San Diego.
California’s skies were once darkened by flocks of geese, ducks, and other migrating birds that wintered there. Although the indigenous wildlife has been seriously depleted, 400 species of mammals and 600 varieties of birds still make the state their home. From the horned toad and desert tortoise to the bobcat, weasel, and black-tailed deer, California’s fauna is as diversified as its other natural features. In the wilderness, coyotes, mountain lions, and wolverines still roam. Once common, Bighorn mountain sheep and Wapiti (commonly known as elk) are now rare, and the grizzly bear is extinct. The California condor and sea otter have barely escaped extinction.
Geologically, California is still young. The 400-mile-long Sierra scarp, formed by processes known as uplifting and faulting, and the Cascade and Klamath ranges in the north are all in youthful stages of development. The California coastline, pushed up out of the Pacific’s depths at Points Pinos and Lobos, as well as at Cape Mendocino, is a rocky one, with headlands jutting out to sea. This coastline, unlike the eastern shore of the United States, is geologically one of emergence, rather than submergence; in fact, the entire Pacific shoreline is sharply uplifted. This geologic pattern has produced few navigable rivers or harbors comparable to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. With the exception of San Diego Bay in the south, San Francisco Bay in the middle, and Bodega and Humboldt Bays (both lesser estuaries) in the north, California has few natural harbors.
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6 California’s Distinctiveness
In past geologic ages, stupendous changes shaped the contour of California. Its two principal mountain chains, the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges, were titanic upheavals from beneath the Earth’s crust. The fiery origin of the Cascade Mountains to the northeast is revealed by their lava formations and extinct cinder cones. One supposedly dead volcano, Lassen Peak, came back to life in 1914, spouting out a mass of hot mud and ash that devastated everything in its path. At intervals, Lassen floats a pen- nant of smoke from its summit, as if to warn that its inner fires still smolder. Seething geysers and hot sulphur springs – safety valves for subterranean heat and pressure – testify that underlying fires are far from extinguished at Calistoga and Geyserville in the Napa Valley.
Glaciers, changes of weather and temperature, volcanic and chemical action, running water, successive earthquakes – all have shaped the mountains of California. The Yosemite Valley is a symbol of California’s vanishing wilder- ness. Its glacial U-shaped chasm is lined with perpendicular walls, out of which cascades the magnificent Bridalvale Waterfall.
Continuous earth tremors have also altered geography. The sheer precipice of the eastern Sierra, facing Owens Valley and Nevada, drops 10,000 feet below Mount Whitney. It provides a striking example of a vertical fault caused by earthquakes. Seashells, whale bones, and beach boulders are to be found on mountaintops far above the present level of the sea, proof that ages ago ocean waves washed against the base of the Sierra Nevada range.
Figure 1.2 Joshua Tree National Monument. Courtesy of Lynne Blanton.
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7California’s Distinctiveness
Prehistoric California went through numerous transitions of climate, includ- ing both arctic cold and tropical heat. A few small glaciers still exist in the Sierra range as mementos of the last ice age. As for the tropical past, it is locked into the asphalt beds at Rancho La Brea, now a municipal park in Los Angeles. During the Tertiary Age, the quaking, sticky surface of this prehistoric swamp became a death trap for animals and birds long since extinct. The blackened skeletons of creatures caught in these tar pits furnish evidence of the kinds of animal and plant life that once existed in the region. Museum dioramas can only suggest an era of huge mammoths, camels, horses, saber-toothed tigers, dire wolves, and ground sloths that once roamed through primeval forests. Carbon-dating has established the age of animal and mineral remains taken from La Brea at more than 28,000 years.
California’s remoteness long kept it isolated. Visitors had to cross the Pacific Ocean, only to risk a dangerous landing on the craggy shore, or traverse an unex- plored continent, unfordable rivers, waterless deserts, and rugged mountain peaks covered with snowfields. When the explorer John Charles Frémont entered the remote province in 1844, his expedition narrowly escaped death in the icy Sierra Nevada. Two years later a group of overland emigrants known as the Donner Party lost half its members in these same mountains. Similarly, Death Valley acquired its name from desperate “overlanders” who perished in that unforgiving inferno.
California’s actual “discovery” by Europeans came by sea. That event occurred relatively late in human history, partly because, as mentioned, it was not that easy to reach its shores by boat. In 1542, Spain’s mariners, after repeated voyages, finally sighted that distinctive and still unexplored “terrestrial paradise at the left hand of the Indies.”
The region’s human story actually begins with the Native peoples whom the invading Spaniards encountered.
Selected Readings
For descriptions of the geologic and natural wonders of California see Roderick Peattie, ed., The Pacific Coast Ranges (1946) and Peattie’s The Sierra Nevada (1947); Allan Schoenherr, A Natural History of California (1992); Alfred Runte, Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness (1989); John McPhee, Assembling California (1993); Jeffrey F. Mount, California Rivers and Streams (1995); David Hornbeck and Phillip Kane, California Patterns: A Geographical and Historical Atlas (1983); Warren A. Beck and Ynez D. Haase, Historical Atlas of California (1973); David W. Lantis, Rodney Steiner, and Arthur E. Karinen, California: Land of Contrast (1963); G. H. Geschwind, California Earthquakes (2001); Robert Tacopi, Earthquake Country (1964); and Philip L. Fradkin, The Seven States of California (1995).
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8 California’s Distinctiveness
Early general histories include Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California (7 vols. 1884–1890); Theodore H. Hittell, History of California (4 vols. 1885–1897); Zoeth S. Eldredge, ed., History of California (5 vols. 1915); Charles E. Chapman, History of California: The Spanish Period (1921); and Robert Glass Cleland, History of California: The American Period (1922), which preceded his From Wilderness to Empire (1944) and California in Our Time (1947).
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California: A History, Eighth Edition. Andrew Rolle and Arthur C. Verge. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
9
2
Over the course of thousands of years, California’s original inhabitants had fashioned a harmonious adjustment to their environment. Yet, nineteenth- century observers claimed that they did not compare favorably with other tribal groups in North America. Nevertheless, their routine included the production of baskets with intricate designs, acorn-leaching operations, and the skillful chipping of flint into useful tools. Furthermore, some of the groups, among them the Hupa and Yurok, practiced sophisticated rituals.
It is difficult to generalize about California’s many different tribal groups. Isolated from other North American Indians by rugged mountains and bleak deserts, Native Californians lived close to the soil within an uncomplicated culture. Favored by ample supplies of acorns and abundant game and seafood, but lacking metal tools, they never developed organized agriculture. Similarly, their fine basketry work may explain why they rarely made pottery, with the exception of groups in the Owens Valley and along the lower Colorado River. In such a culture, one’s livelihood revolved around gathering food as well as hunting and fishing, as opposed to sow- ing, planting, and harvesting crops. Therefore, instead of labeling the life ways of California Indians as simplistic, it is more accurate to speak of their traditional cultures as realistic. Theirs was a practical social system adapted to their environ- ment that functioned successfully and remained intact for thousands of years.
Today’s anthropologists maintain that the first Americans (perhaps hunting mammoths) crossed from Siberia over a land bridge in the Bering Sea. Some 20,000 years ago, terrain, exposed during low sea levels, may have made this approach possible. The ancient bones of “Laguna Man” are about 17,000 years old. Flint chips from another site near Calico have been dated as about 20,000 years in age. A link between California’s Indians and Asian natives has
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10 The Native Americans
been verified. Recent DNA studies match those of the coastal Chumash with ancient remains from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America!
More than 10,000 words and grammatical forms used by California natives resemble those employed in remote parts of Siberia. These language linkages suggest that the first humans to reach the Pacific coast of North America were
Map 2.1 Major native linguistic groups. Adapted from A. L. Kroeber, Handbook of the Indians of California (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78, Washington, D.C., 1925), Plate I.
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11The Native Americans
Mongolians. California’s Penutians, who lived north of Monterey, appear to have arrived only 3,000 years ago. In addition to Asian linguistic similarities, their domestic practices and religious beliefs resembled those of tribal societies in far-off Siberia.
Most of California’s Indian natives were of sturdy stock and they lived long lives as well. Chief Solano of the Suisunes, for whom Solano County is named, was six feet seven inches tall. Sam Yeto, Mighty Hand, as he came to be called, was hardly dull-witted. His followers speedily picked up the Spanish language from the missionaries. They also quickly learned how to read music and even to sing religious chorals in Latin. They were, however, generally resistant to working in the fields, having no background in organized agriculture.
California’s missions were built by Indian laborers under the direction of the Franciscan friars. Controversy has arisen among historians over the missionaries’ treatment of natives, as if the Indians were children in need of punishment for their sins. Yet the missionaries taught the natives new trades, including carpentry and weaving. In a short time, the Indians also became excellent horseback riders and cattle herders, even though they had not previously possessed domesticated livestock, including horses.
Traditionally, basket-making lay largely in the hands of the women, who were also expert in dressing skins and fashioning rushes into bedding mats. Coastal Indians built dugout canoes with no better tools than wedges of elk horn and axes fashioned from mussel-shell blades. The natives’ household utensils included stone mortars, with which they ground acorns and other seeds. They used horn knives and flat spoons or paddles to stir acorn gruel. The Indians also used looped sticks for cooking meat in baskets lined with red-hot stones, as well as nets made of vegetable fiber to catch fish or carry small objects. They also made attractive wooden trays and bowls.
The first sound one likely heard upon approaching an Indian village was the pounding of pestles in mortars. Natives sometimes mixed pulverized acorns with bits of dried salmon and whole nuts, which became basic provisions during winter. Before acorns could be consumed, they had to be hulled and parched, with the tan- nic acid leached out in a basket-pot or a sand basin. Next, they boiled the sweetened ground acorn meal. The Shastas roasted moistened meal, while the Pomo and other groups mixed red earth with their meal and baked it; the resultant product could be eaten immediately or stored for later use. These original Californians also ate the boiled green leaves of certain plants and roasted roots. The Indians distilled no intoxicating beverages, but they induced inebriation by smoking or chewing wild tobacco. Jimson weed was their equivalent of marijuana.
The Indians generally constructed simple dwellings, the designs of which varied in accordance with the local climate. In northwest and central California, some homes lay halfway below the ground, their sides and roofs consisting of broad slabs of wood. These dwellings kept the inhabitants warm in cold weather
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and cool on hot days. The Klamath River tribes sometimes constructed shelters out of bark and redwood planks. Among the Chumash, houses consisted of poles drawn together in a semicircle and tied at the top with reeds. Thatched with grass, foliage, or wet earth, such dwellings were well suited to the mild climate of the Santa Barbara coastline.
Along the Pacific coast, the natives had few weapons other than small bows and arrows and flint-tipped lances. When hunting large animals, they made up for a lack of better armament by employing clever strategies. In order to draw near enough to big game to kill it, they donned disguises fashioned from the heads and upper parts of skinned animals. They also set out decoys to attract birds within arrowshot. They also coordinated game drives, herding the wild animals past hunters lying in ambush. They also employed the less common practice of running down deer in human relays, until the quarry fell to the ground from exhaustion. The Indians also constructed pits and traps to catch even larger or more dangerous game. Nevertheless, they relished as foodstuffs small animals such as wood rats, squirrels, coyotes, crows, rabbits, lizards, field mice, and snakes. Cactus apples and wild berries too formed part of their diet.
Some tribelets ate snails, caterpillars, minnows, crickets, grubs (found in decayed trees), slugs, fly larvae (gathered from the tops of bushes in swamps), horned toads, earthworms, grasshoppers, and skunks (the latter killed and dressed with all due caution). Seafood and shellfish formed an important part of the diet of coastal inhabitants. Others fished inland along northern rivers in which great schools of salmon spawned. Nature, in addition to furnishing the Indians with food, also provided them with basic clothing. When weather per- mitted, the men went naked except for moccasins or crude sandals. Farther north, they fashioned snowshoes from animal skins. If temperatures plummeted, the Indians donned rabbit or deerskin cloaks and skin blankets. Some women wore skirts made of tule grass or aprons of animal skin. In cold weather they employed capes of deerskin or rabbit fur or simply covered their breasts with furs, including those of the otter and wildcat. Some groups painted their faces and bodies in intricate patterns; others braided decorative seashells into their hair. For ceremonial occasions both sexes donned elaborate headdresses of feathers and beads. Northern peoples wore basketry hats, while those of the central region bound their heads with hairnets.
Another source of pride among certain groups was the craftsmanship of their watercraft, which the males handled with dexterity and skill. Small boats included tule balsas, or reed rafts, made out of woven river rushes. These were poled or paddled along inland waters, as were plank canoes, the burned- or chopped-out trunk segments of large trees. While the men engaged in hunting and fishing, the women and older children hunted small animals, gathered acorns, scraped animal skins, fashioned robes, hauled water and firewood, wove baskets, barbecued meat, and even constructed dwellings. Yet it is
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misleading to label the men as lazy; they simply became specialized in their roles. Among the Hupa the males made bows, arrows, nets, and pipes, dressed hides, and used dry sticks to start fires.
Dancing was not only a social amusement but an important part of highly structured ceremonies. There were special dances to honor the newborn child, the black bear, the new clover, the white deer, and the elk. Other dances wel- comed visitors. Additionally there was a dance of peace and one of war, for which young men painted themselves and dressed in plumes and beads. Dancing also took place during separate puberty rites for boys and girls. The Yurok held a first-salmon dance at the mouth of the Klamath River. The Hupa, in addition to staging a first-eel ceremony, also celebrated an autumnal first-acorn feast.
Singing became spirited when a group celebrated by chewing or smoking jimson weed, the narcotic effects of which were noted. Some religious rituals, such as those of the Toloache cult, used music as an adjunct to narcotics. Accompanied by the hum of the bull roarer (a slat of wood swung at the end of a thong), chanting and singing might go on late into the night.
Among other types of celebrations were those during which participants boasted about the fine huts they had built or the victories their warriors had
Figure 2.1 Mono home. In front of this typical winter shelter is an assortment of  burden-baskets and winnowing trays. All the utensils pictured were used by the inhabitants of this home alone. Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-49232).
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won. All such achievements were intoned aloud by wizened elders in lengthy orations, to which onlookers listened in solemn silence. Celebrating crowds did not gorge themselves, usually eating abstemiously.
Some tribes held a special ceremony each summer to memorialize the dead. This ritual included building a large fire into which clothing, baskets, and other possessions were thrown as offerings to the departed. Young men then danced in a circle around the fire, accompanied by the rattle of a melancholy chant of mourning. Organized mourning for the dead by close relatives was practiced by nearly all tribes. This entailed smearing one’s face with a wet paste mixed from the ashes of the deceased. The mourners usually kept this facial covering on until it wore off, perhaps as long as a year. Many tribes practiced cremation; a few tribes buried their dead.
Many Indian customs might seem strange to us today. In northwestern California, for example, a wife could be purchased for strings of shell money or deerskins. In fact, a man was disgraced if he secured a wife for little or nothing. Polygamy was practiced by males who could afford more than one wife. Some of the men were inveterate gamblers who would risk their last possession, including their wives. A guessing-game was popular, as were other games of chance involving the placing of stone pebbles under seashells. In ball games, and in leaping, jumping, and similar matches, the contestants accepted defeat with the same good sportsmanship that they displayed in victory.
Governed by lineage and quite precise social patterns, each family was a judici- ary system unto itself. The bodies of adolescent boys and girls were painted by shamans who acted as temporary guardians, or “spirit helpers,” during their rites of passage into adulthood. At all times obedience to elders was stressed. There was no fully systematic punishment for crime. Although atonement for injuring another was expected, some offenses could be excused by recompense. A mur- derer might buy himself off by paying the family of the deceased in skins or shells.
Because the local natives spoke approximately 135 different dialects, a strict political or tribal system was not universal. One should, therefore, avoid use of the term tribe. Except for a minority of well-defined tribes or tribelets, including the Yumas and some of the Indians of California’s northwest coast, the basic political unit was the village community settlement. The Spanish called these village units rancherías, which composed loosely-knit confederations of several hundred per- sons, within each of which were smaller clans identified by individual totems. A ranchería had a leader who received a strict deference. One can apply the term chief only loosely. The child of a male or female chieftain stood to inherit a family’s power, but only if he or she demonstrated similar leadership talents.
California’s Indians were not generally nomadic, unlike those who lived on the western plains of the North American continent. A clan’s boundaries were quite well defined. One who trespassed beyond a local boundary line might pay with his or her life. Mothers, therefore, were careful to teach their children the
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specific landmarks of their family or tribal areas. These lessons were often imparted via a singsong enumeration of certain stones, boulders, mountains, trees, and other landmarks beyond which it was dangerous for a child to wander. Controversies between families, sometimes over the abduction of women, or concerning access to food sources, were occasionally severe. Rock fights might break out over access to acorn groves or salmon streams. One of California’s northern counties, Calaveras (or skulls) was named after a river along the banks of which the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga found whitened skulls.
Natives revered their “medicine man,” for he claimed the ability to cure illnesses. One method which he employed was to recite an incantation before placing the end of a hollowed-out wooden tube against the body of the patient. After pretending to suck out the “cause” of the disease – a sliver of bone, a sharp- edged flint flake, or a dead lizard or other small animal that he had previously secreted in his mouth – he spat it out for all to see. His success, in fact, depended partly upon his ability to fabricate entertaining, sometimes fantastic, stories. Notwithstanding the pretenses of these practitioners, the medicine men did have a working knowledge of the medicinal properties of herbs, roots, and other natural remedies, which they used to the benefit of their patients.
Table 2.1 California’s native population.1
Pre-1542 300,0002
1769–1822 100,000 1870 30,000 1880 16,277 1890 16,624 1900 15,377 1910 16,371 1920 17,360 1930 19,212 1940 18,675 1950 19,947 1960 39,014 1970 91,018 1980 198,275 1990 285,270 2000 308,5713
1 Population census statistics are muddled by changing criteria. Indians were not included in census data before 1890. Early data are approximate. Later figures include in-migration from other areas. 2 Only 133,000 to 150,000 according to A. L. Kroeber. The larger figure is based upon Sherburne F. Cook’s estimate of 310,000. 3 Includes some Yumas, who also live in Arizona. The figure is also confused by Chicanos being numbered as Indians.
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Figure 2.2 Hupa Indian in ceremonial white deerskin dance costume. Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-101260).
Figure 2.3 Hupa female shaman from northwestern California. Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-101261).
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