Geography 417
California for Educators
Lesson One
California’s Native People

California Standards
•	Standard 4.2-4.3
•	the major nations of California Indians
•	geographic distribution
•	economic activities
•	Legends and religious beliefs
•	how they depended upon, adapted to and modified the physical environment by cultivation of land and sea resources
•	Are these the things you would chose? 
Web Link
•	California History On-Line
•	http://www.californiahistory.net/Native_1.htm

Native Americans
•	Or is it Indian?
•	Cultural Hegemony and Indians
•	Consider the issue of the Indian Mascot
Cultural Iconography (fig)
Cultural Iconography (fig)
Indians Arrive in North America
•	Bering Land Bridge (4 Holocene Ice Ages)
•	10,000 - 50,000 Y.B.P. 
•	Following herds? On foot? By boat?
•	Earliest sites under water?
Bering Land Bridge 
How do we know about them?
•	No written history: oral traditions only.
•	Spanish Mission records
–	Critique of Missionary records?
•	Estimated population of 130,000-300,000 at time of Spanish arrival
•	Highest population density of any “non-agricultural” area in the world at the time
•	Archaeological Evidence:
–	Housing and village remains
–	Middens
Distribution
•	In every area of the state but concentrations highest along the coast.
•	 Early Californians appear to have been very successful up and down the coast.
•	Why do you think the Coastal Indians were most abundant?
California Indian Tribes (map)
Language
•	Diversity of tribes: 135+ dialects and at least 6 distinct language families. 
•	http://www.csupomona.edu/~mwallen/ant320/images/califorinanativeamericanlanguages.jpg
•	Why do you think there would be so many dialects and language families in an area so small? 
•	Most of the languages extinct today, although preservation efforts are underway.
Economy and Agriculture
•	 Hunting and Gathering, with exception of Cahuilla, Yuma and Mojave agriculturalists along Colorado River.
•	Western irrigationists have been credited with helping early Mormon groups survive.
•	Acorns were the major staple crop. 
•	Abundant and more nutritious than wheat.
•	Plenty of game and fish.
Local Indians
•	Gabrielinos (Tongva) survived on the rich ecology surrounding the Los Angeles river: pronghorn antelope, salmon, steelhead trout, grizzly bears.
•	Chumash- Malibu and Central CA
•	Cahuilla – San Bernadino 
Warfare
•	rare, little evidence for weapons or warfare
Villages
•	 kinship groups of <130 people
Religion 
•	shamanism/animism
Dress
•	Minimal, not unlike Californians today.
•	Importance of ceremonial dress, especially among northern tribes.
•	Pomo headress
Miwoks at Home (fig)
Housing Types
•	Various reflected natural environment
Maidu Lodge (figure)
Art 
Columbian Exchange
•	Animals: Horses, Pigs(Old World), 
•	Plants: potatoes, corn, tobacco, tomatoes, chile peppers (from New World); wheat, rice (from Old World) 
•	Diseases: Smallpox, Measles, Syphillis, Influenza
•	By 1911 there were about 20,000 Native Americans left in California.
•	Slavery and Genocide: Spanish mission slavery, organized killings of Indians in 19th century, slave labor in America until 1870s
Humboldt Indian Massacre 1 of 3
“ The Indians are killing stock of the settlers in the back country and will continue to do so until they are driven from that section, or exterminated. Wednesday they killed two head of stock belonging to the brand of Larrabee…” 	Humboldt Times, 2/25/1860
	Within days over two hundred elderly men, women, and children were slain during a series of night raids on Indian Island conducted by “some of the prominent men of the county.” Weapons of choice were knives and axes, useful for their silence. The white “owner” of the island, a Mr. Gunther, was barely awakened. 
Humboldt Indian Massacre
“ …what a sight presented itself to our eyes. Corpses lying all around, and all women and children, but two. Most of them had their skulls split. One old Indian, who looked to be a hundred years old, had his skull split, and still he sat there shivering. “ 
		Robert Gunther, white owner of Indian Island, recounting his discovery of the massacre.
	
Humboldt Indian Massacre

“For the past four years we have advocated two - and only two - alternatives for ridding our country of Indians: either remove them to some reservation or kill them…the bloody demonstrations on Indian Island…is proof that the time is arrived when either the pale face or the savage must yield ground.” 
		Humboldt Times, March, 1860

•	There is no public acknowledgement of the Indian massacre to this day in Humboldt County.
•	There is virtually no acknowledgement of the Indian wars in the California state content standards.
The Spanish Period
•	Exploration begins in 1542 by Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo
•	1542: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrives, along with Christianity and the horse, he brought disease, slavery, and death. Indians came to be victims of “progress.”
•	Serra and de Portola, Missions 1769-1823
•	Why the 200 year wait?