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

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Title: Culture Contact in Protohistoric California Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 33 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-03 13:53:50 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:58 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:11:58

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

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jizcaino’s three ships carried a full crew of pout 200 men, including 150 soldiers and sailrs, a number of officers, two pilots for each sel, three priests, and two cartographers : See olton 1916:104-106; Mathes 1968:54-56). The opinion thnic composition of Vizcaino’s voyagers is not ie jetailed, but in addition to Spaniards and Mexisan Indians, at least one African was on board (Wagner 1929:192). The voyagers encountered diverse coastal , native communities that varied in population, soMaer cial organization, and political elaboration. Al: though many native peoples visited the sailors, most encounters took place in groups that were : reported to be not much greater than the size of edinen ss the ships’ crews. While population estimates are ui not very precise in primary accounts, when giv1 eae en they tend to vary between one hundred and three hundred persons (e.g., Bolton 1916:80-86; Wagner 1924:21). These observations are similar in range to those projected by most archaeologists and ethnographers today, who suggest— aug ss with the possible exception of the Chumash and Gabrielino polities—that the peoples of central and southern California were organized into many small tribelets or village communities _ packed across the coastal landscape (e.g., Simmons 1997:56-60; Kroeber 1925; Lightfoot 1993:182-185). The temporal duration of. most encounters was relatively short, usually only a few hours over a oneor two-day landfall, punctuated by a few longer layovers (see also Johnson 1982:48). The Cabrillo-Ferrelo voyage recorded 20 places in Baja and Alta California where encounters took place with native peoples. They averaged about 5.6 days per stay in each location, but this included two long anchorages (57 and 14 days) on the Islands of San Lucas to wait out rough winter storms (see Fig. 2). In eleven of the 20 places where encounters occurred, the length of the visits lasted from a few minutes (usually when canoes paddled out to the ships) to less than a day on land. In other places where the CULTURE CONTACT IN PROTOHISTORIC CALIFORNIA 143 ships anchored for longer periods (besides the two wintering spots), the duration of stopovers ranged from two to seven days. The length of time spent on land tended to be short because Cabrillo frequently took advantage of opportune weather conditions in order to tack northward against the unfavorable winds and currents that typically flow down the coast of California. Furthermore, crew members were constantly in search of water and wood, and when these resources were unavailable or inaccessible, they would move to another anchorage. Many of the encounters along the Santa Barbara Channel were instigated by natives in canoes who briefly visited the ships as the crews slowly. tacked northward searching for protected bays in which to anchor so that they could obtain water and wood. Drake made only one recorded landfall in Alta California, and it lasted for 36 days. However, the rendezvous between locals and newcomers were highly structured events of limited intervals, especially during the initial encounters. During the first two weeks of Drake’s stay in Nova Albion, it appears that the natives came to his encampment on a three-day cycle to exchange gifts, to perform dances and songs, to conduct ‘‘self sacrifices’? and healing rituals, and on one occasion to undertake the celebrated ‘‘crowning”’ of Drake. At the end of the day’s engagements, the natives apparently returned home to their respective villages while Drake’s men remained in their encampment for protection. After the first few days of formal gatherings (June 18 to June 26, 1579), the tempo of the encounters increased as daily meetings took place between Drake’s crew and local inhabitants, and the voyagers began to visit outlying villages. De Unamuno and his crew experienced only two very brief encounters with the peoples of Morro Bay (‘‘Puerto de San Lucas’’) over a two-day period (October 19 and 20, 1587). Both contacts involved aggressive posturing and lee i I, Lyne it i; i Nl A yey ‘gate , et itifate id ina, i alee aay at. ball {howe aul bln bad ete leat!