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A Case Study of a Northern California Indian Tribe - Cultural Change to 1860 (1977) (109 pages)
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Page: of 109
20
Indians had as usual run away." One week later, Smith visited a valley Nisenan village that he called ''Ya-loo" on the east side of the Feather River, one mile below
the mouth of the Yuba River.
The village consisted of about 50 lodges. I saw nothing among
them which had any appearance of having come from a civilized
country. They were generally naked but a few of them had feather
robes and dresses made of net work. The dress of the women consisted of a belt around the waist to which was attached two
bunches of bark or glads, one hanging down and the other behind
in the form of a fringe. These Indians smoke wooden pipes and
in common with most of the Indians of this valley they wear their
hair not more than 5 or 6 inches in length.
The "Ya-loo'" cried when Smith left their village, a valley Nisenan custom expressing
sorrow for unhappy events. 22 Smith later discussed the potential of the valley
Nisenan tribes that he contacted for being Christianized.
If missionaries could be used in Civilizing and Christianizing
any Indian in the world their efforts should be turned towardsthis valley (Sacramento valley). The Indians are numerous ,
honest and peaceable in their disposition.
The smallpox epidemic of the summer of 1833 was terribly lethal. Its
lateral distribution probably affected some foothill Nisenan. The main devastation
was confined to the valley Nisenan. Trapper-explorers who came after Smith assessed
the destruction. In the spring of 1833, John Work, leader of a Hudson Bay trapping
party, passed six valley Nisenan villages along the lower Feather River, each populated
by "some hundreds of people." 24 In August, 1833, Work returned to this area and
noted a dramatic change.
The villages which were so populous and swarming with inhabitants
when we passed that way in January now seem almost deserted and
have a desolate appearance. The few Indians who remain....are
lying apparently scarcely able to move. It is not starvation as
they have considerable quantities of their winter stock of acorns
still remaining. 25
J. J. Warner, a member of the Ewing Young trapping party of 1833, also discussed valley Nisenan population dynamics.
In the fall of 1832, the banks of the Sacramento River....were
Studded with Indian villages. On our return, late in the summer
of 1833, we found the valley depopulated....large numbers of
skulls and dead bodies were to be seen under almost every shadetree near water....uninhabited and deserted villages had been
converted into graveyards, 26
5