Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: The Nature of the Land-Holding Group Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 7 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

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Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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310 ‘ : Ethnohistor, Indians in California in native times, we have seen that there would have been around 500 tribelets if that had been the only type of organization in the area. With only lineage organizatj prevalent, there would have been 1,500 to 2,000 independent u;..: It is obvious that separate American dealings with these abou: reduction, TeEOMals land cession, compensation and the like would have been interminable. The result is that Sweeping co: densations of native units were made, whether by Spaniards founding missions or Americans settling the land. These sim plifying condensations were perhaps inevitable from the point view of the incoming population of higher culture. Neverthele: the simplifications were imposed on the Indians, and no doubt against their will. They lived by custom in extreme fractionat and contentedly so. And that the holdings of most groups were tiny, did not make them the less their owners, by their standa: of internal and international justice. IV Along the lower Colorado River, whose history has been Pp ly known since 1540, there once lived a series of six or eight n tionalities of Yuman stock who were organized into true tribes, in the usual sense, of 2,000 to 3,000 souls each, Thase fought : drove one another out — the last expulsion occurred about 1828 — until when the United States took over California only two we: left along the Colorado, the Mohave and Yuma, plus the Cocopa Mexico. This organization, so anomalous in the area, was acco’ panied and probably conditioned by the facts that alone in Califo: nia these tribes farmed and that they waged war gratuitously, { glory. However, it is possible that even these tribes were conIn the 1850's the Mohave num bered around 2,500 to 3,000 and recognized six chiefs, each with glomerations of earlier tribelets. authority in an areal tract. In extent and population, as well as lents of tribelets. es uand-Holding Group Bay. In the Northwest corner of the State in the region of the lower ‘lamath River, there were five or six small ethnic nationalities shose organization departed from standard California usage ina ‘irection more or less Opposite to the last. There was no tribal sense or political authority, but a great interest in individual or ‘amily wealth. The majority of the territory remained communal or “public;” but many of the choicest or most productive spots tad come to be recognized as private property. The emphasis on wealth was so intense that the representatives of rich houses had zreat prestige and much influence; but in the almost complete absence of political institutions or sanctions, no one possessed admitted authority. This type of organization is wholly different ‘rom that of all the rest of California; neither tribelet nor lineage nor tribe functioned or existed in historic times. Nevertheless, there are indications that this Northwestern society may have developed out of something like the tribelet type organization. At any rate, there were practiced a series of “world-renewal” rituals, each made separately and with a fair measure of differentiation, at designated spots, and supported by the inhabitants of a recognized tract surrounding the sacred spots. S5oth in extent and in population these tracts resemble tribelets; and they may be religiously weighted survivals or transformations of former political tribelets — counties grown into dioceses, as it were. The map in Gifford’s and my World Renewal monograph neatly illustrates this influence. Both these last two types of organization were definitely marginal in California and restricted in extent. Over the great bulk of the State, either the tribelet or the lineage organization prevailed. There are some areas for which we are unable to say which one, or can only infer with uncertainty: some Indians were missionized too early; others were thoroughly overwhelmed and _ disorganized by contact, sometimes even exterminated; or ethnoloin recognizing a leader, these “sub-units” remained near-equiva-_ gists waited too long before they contacted them. On these grounds uncertainty prevails for the Salinan and Costano nationalities, for a Sk ates Coa eee . AE es Ae on aemeradoe tile aor Ta at) phan $5 pth 705 Bem hen ee POE i f tt et a ot} Vie init Se ohne PI aS, Prarie y ef bot ot Lo Bye tiated Rey nba a Senet e ieee Seoest bao se