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

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Title: Trade and Trails in Aboriginal California (September 1950) Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection Author: L. L. Sample Publisher: UC Archaeological Survey Published: September 1950 # of Pages: 32 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2016-03-29 10:08:48 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 05:54:06 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:54:06

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

Page: of 32  

-3TRADING CUSTOMS The Yurok of northwestern California prefcrred canoeing to other forms of travel and were, consequently, better acquainted with the Hupa and Karok up the Klamath River than with the Tolowa just north on the coast.' The dupa of the lower Trinity River traded chiefly with the Yurok, They had products very Similar to the Karok and had little intercourse with the Wiyot, Nongatl or Wintun.’ The Bear river Athapascans did not trade much with the Wailaki and Sinkyone because they had troubles with theme According to one of Nomland's informants the Wailaki made'a special kind of poison that the Bear River people did not know and people who went into this territory were liable to be poisoned and die in a week or twoe The Bear River people seem to have traded mostly with the Hupa although these were farthest away from Bear River territory.? Betwoen the Sinkyone and northern Athapascans there were stcep mountains; to the south there were natural passes giving easy access to the Kato and Yuki. This may account somewhat for the lack of trade between the Sinkyone and northern Athapascans. Most Yuki trade was with peoples to the south; hostility was fclt toward the northern groups. The Coast Yuki would not go through Wailaki territory although they were friendly with tho Sinkyonc,10 The Yuki were friendly with the Wailaki but did little trading with them, perhaps because of a lack of desirable trade material which the Wailaki could_. offer. The Round Valley Yuki made periodic trading trips to the Russian River. They did not, however, oftcn cross the Goast Range barricr to trade with the Wintun of the upper Sacramento Valley. The Wappo of Napa Valley traveled to the coast at least once a year taking about two days each way, In spring and summer they made trips to Clear Lake and to St. Helena for trading purposes,+3 The Pomo were cxtensive traders; they made long trips within their territory and as far south as Bodega Bay on the coaste Clcar Lake was open to visitors and these included: the Matuho and Potter Valley Pomo groups; Cache Creek Patwin, and Coyote Valley :iwok to Lower and East Lakes; Long Valley Patwin to Shigom and Upper Lakes“4 The Pomo area was the principal source of clam shell beads and magnesite cylinders for northern California. There are wore beads found in sites alon the north side of San Francisco Bay than in the sites along the south Bayt The Pomo, therefore, probably supplied the northern San Joaquin Miwok, also, It is known that the Mivok made trips to Monterey and an informant of Wfiwok ancestry claimed that they got abalone shell from Monterey, 16 Yokuts friends sometimes traded to the Miwok to the north a string of clamshell disc beads. The Nez Perce Indians of southeastern Washington visited California in the first half of the 19th century coming along the Walla Walla trail (show entering California at Goose Lake, following down the Pit River and Hat Creek to the Sacramento River). Plains influence may have reached northeastern California along this trade route. Krocber suggests that these influences diffused dowm the Columbia, up che Deschutes River, and over the divide into the drainage of Klamath Marsh.+/ There was a trail up the Deschutes (the one used by Peter Skene Ogden in 1827) which may have reached California, Intercourse with the Klamath Lake people, however, was evidently slight for all California tribes, although the Shasta traded with thom to somo extent. It seems more likely that Plains influence should have come from the cast dircctly from the most Plains-ized of the Plateau tribes, the Nez Perce, rather than through the less Plains-ized Columbia tribes. The Achomawi served as middlemen in the trade between the ‘Jintun and the Iiodoc and Paiutc. The Wintun had shell beads wanted by these northeastern people. The ifaidu traded chicfly with the Wintue The Nisenan (Southern Maidu) had little trade relations with the Maidu, iiiwok, or Washo exccpting