Part 7

When one attempts to establish what were the Pomo community groups and chief villages, he encounters a great deal of divergence of opinion on detail among these investigators, due largely to differences among informants. Without extensive field work, which might in fact now be impossible, many of the discrepancies cannot be resolved. On the whole, the later students appear to have come closer to the truth and are probably more reliable.

CLEAR LAKE POMO

Gifford said (1937, p. 122) that there were 11 communities on Clear Lake. Kniffen reorganized them to make 12, after which Stewart returned to a count of 11. This last number, therefore, may be accepted as final. Each of them consisted of a single principal village of considerable size. A classical example is Cigom. Other inhabited spots within the community area have usually been recognized but whether they were permanent or shifting villages or camp sites usually is not clear. For this reason the population has been discussed by ethnographers since Barrett simply on the basis of the group, without much reference to the number of sites known to have existed. The single exception I would make to this procedure is to take account of the number (not necessarily the names and location) of the villages known to have possessed assembly houses, since the presence of these implies some degree of permanence. A community with one capital village and several such accessory sites would, other things being equal, create the presumption of a larger aggregate population than a community with a capital village and one or no subsidiaries.

There is a more definite population estimate for the Clear Lake region than we have for many other native groups. L. L. Palmer in his History of Napa and Lake Counties (1881), cites figures for the aboriginal population of the Clear Lake communities which he obtained from an informant who could well remember the days before the advent of the white man. These figures have been subject to some disparaging criticism by more modern students. The chief objection advanced is that the book is one of the many county histories which appeared as commercial ventures in the 1880's and which, on the whole, were very carelessly written. Palmer, however, as his text shows, was much interested in the fate of the natives and took considerable pains to secure informants who could give him data. There is no ground for impugning either his honesty or his competence. Moreover, it is difficult to see why informants seventy years ago should be any less reliable than they are now. Hence I can see no reason for not accepting his figures as they stand, subject to the limitations of his informant's knowledge.

With regard to those limitations it should be noted that the informant was a native of the Kulanapo community on the west side of the lake. He should therefore have had closest acquaintance with his own people and the adjacent group, the Habenapo. His figure for the Kulanapo was 500, a value which Kniffen attacks on the ground that Palmer's informant intentionally exaggerated the importance of his own group. This is a wholly gratuitous assumption and inconsistent with the fact that, since more was known at that time about the west-shore people, his figures could easily have been checked, had they been widely at variance with the facts. In the second place, the figure for the Habenapo was given as 300. Now Barrett (1908, p. 194) quotes even more specifically from Palmer:

The Hoo-la-na-po (Kulanapo) tribe was just below the present site of Lakeport.... At one time there were two hundred and twenty warriors, and five hundred all told in the rancheria. They are now reduced to sixty. Sal-vo-di-no was their chief before the present one, Augustine.

If we are going to discredit the testimony of the chief concerning his own village thirty years previously, we had better throw out along with it the information secured from septuagenarians who have to recount at second hand what their forefathers told them.

Some confirmation of Palmer's figure for the Habenapo is given by Barrett (1908, p. 195), who mentions a statement from the Report of the Commissioner for Indian Affairs in 1858 referring to the Lupillomi. The latter in turn are identified by Barrett as the Habenapo. The Commissioner said: "Upon the Lupillomi ranch, near Clear Lake, there are some three hundred Indians." Although by 1858 there may have been some reduction and mixing of population, the identity is striking.

Although the figures of Palmer's informant may be relied upon for his home territory at the southwestern corner of the Lake, for the north, east, and southeast shores he may have been inaccurate, being less familiar with those sections. The chief evidence for such a conclusion lies in the discrepancy between his figure for Cigom and that secured by Gifford after a meticulous and exhaustive examination of every individual who had lived in the village. Palmer's figure is 160 whereas Gifford's is 235. Thus Palmer's informant clearly underestimated, by a ratio of 2 to 3. Hence it is not unreasonable to increase Palmer's figures for the communities remote from the area of his informant.

If we ignore for the moment Palmer's data and neglect individual differences between communities, it would be possible to take Gifford's figure of 235 for Cigom as representing the average for a Clear Lake community. The population of the area would then be 2,585. Let us, however examine the eleven communities individually (following Stewart's outline, 1943, App. 1, pp. 57-59).

1. _Bachelor Valley and Tule Lake._ Stewart gives Cinal as the principal village with Homtcati and Xaro as villages with assembly houses. In his text on page 41 he says that these villages plus Mamamamau "were occupied under the leadership of one chief." Hence there were at least three secondary or subsidiary "occupied" villages. In addition, in footnote 30 to page 41 he points out that Kniffen had set apart a portion of the area under the name of Yobotui. Kniffen (1939, p. 368) gives the Yobotui the status of an independent group and shows a principal village under that name on his map. The group, whether single (Stewart) or compound (Kniffen), was clearly of quite large size. This is in line with Palmer, whose informant gave a population of 120 for most of the group but set apart Yobotui with an additional 150. Stewart's group, with two possible main and two or three subsidiary villages, is credited by Palmer with 270 people. Since the area lay in the extreme north, this estimate may be raised, in conformity with the Cigom case, by 50 per cent, making 405.

2. _Scott's Valley._ There were two groups here just prior to white settlement. The first was designated as the Boalke, Boilkai, or Yimaba, with one principal village Karaka (Stewart) or two "significant winter villages," Noboral and Karaka (Kniffen). Palmer's informant said they had 180 people and, since they lived near him, his figure may be accepted without change. The other group were the Komli, which are placed as a separate group by Stewart. All authorities agree, however, that they were Russian River natives who in relatively recent times migrated to Scott's Valley. Palmer says they had 90 people, a reasonable figure. The total for the two groups is thus 270.

3. _Upper Lake._ Here was a well defined group, with only one village, Xowalek. The History of Lake County gives them 150, which because of the distance from Lakeport may be increased to 225.

4. Another group in the same vicinity was the Danoxa, with a principal village of the same name plus either two or three villages with assembly houses. Palmer says they had 100 inhabitants, which may be increased to 150. From the number of villages it might be supposed that Danoxa was larger than Xowalek. But in giving the figures Palmer's informant may have confused the two groups; 375 seems a reasonable value for the two together.

5. _Clear Lake, east._ Gifford's value of 235 may be accepted without further comment for Cigom.

6. _Lakeport._ The status of the Kulanapo has already been discussed. Palmer's figure of 500 seems reasonable.

7. _Kelseyville._ The Habenapo are assigned a population of 300.

8, 9, and 10. _Lower Lake._ The three groups inhabiting the entire region of the southeast were the Kamdot, Elem, and Koi. Each had a principal village plus from two to four others with assembly houses. They are in the same terrain with and appear to be quite similar to Cigom. Palmer gives for the three a total population of 390, which, if increased by 50 per cent, would mean 585. If, on the other hand, we regard them as being of the same character as Cigom we could multiply 235 by 3 and get 705.

A curious contributory bit of evidence can be derived from Gifford's study of land ownership in this area (1923). Gifford shows that the ownership of property at Cigom was communal but at Kamdot, Elem, and Koi, it was a family matter. He lists very carefully the exact ownership of the tribal real estate. There were 22 tracts belonging to the _village_ of Cigom but 85 belonging to _families_ of Elem, 38 to _families_ of Koi, and 57 to _families_ of Kamdot. From this we can derive the minimum number of families for these places, for the tracts were simultaneously owned by different families. Using a factor of 6 persons per family the population of Elem would be 510. In this connection it is of interest that Gifford during the same investigation found that two subsidiary villages were occupied simultaneously with the main village. Thus he states (p. 86): "A second mainland overflow village, which was once _contemporaneously inhabited_ with insular Elem and mainland Behepkobel, was Mucokol...." (Emphasis mine.) A principal village the size of Cigom or larger plus two accessory villages of only 100 each would bring the population to 435. Thus there can be little doubt that Elem had fully 500 inhabitants. On the basis of family number the figures for Koi and Kamdot would be respectively 228 and 342, or, say, 230 and 340.

According to the data above the total population of the Clear Lake basin was 3,155, which may be rounded off to 3,150. When Kroeber originally formulated an estimate of the population of the Pomo communities, based largely upon Barrett's study, he set the average per community at 100. Later (Gifford and Kroeber, 1937, p. 119) he reduced the probable number of communities and reset the population limits at 75-300. with a likely average of 200. The average we get here is 287, considerably larger than Kroeber would allow. However, all the available evidence seems to support the conclusion that, for the Clear Lake region at least, the community size was somewhat larger than stated by Kroeber.

A puzzling secondary question is what disposition to make of the Lileek, the small Wappo group associated with the Habenapo. These people came very late and settled among the Habenapo, probably after the effect of the white invasion farther south had begun to be felt. Palmer's informant said there were about 100 of them. They might be added to the Habenapo but, in view of the doubt concerning their origin and history, it is perhaps best to disregard them entirely.

_Clear Lake Pomo ... 3,150_

NORTHERN POMO

For the remainder of the Pomo we have no such clearly defined body of knowledge as for the Clear Lake group. Thus it is necessary to consider each subdivision or subtribe separately. As a preliminary step, however, it is desirable to discuss the problem of house and family number in so far as it relates to the Pomo.

In Gifford's analysis of Cigom we possess a remarkably thorough treatment of the demography of a single village, one which may be taken as representative of the entire tribe, with the exception of the portion lying along the coast. At Cigom Gifford found 47 social groups or families and 235 persons. The mean is 5.0 persons per family. However this figure represents the period of 1850 and immediately thereafter, when the Clear Lake population had already for several years suffered from contact with the whites. Hence the aboriginal value must have been higher. Indeed Gifford's study gives an amazing picture of the demographic dissolution of the Pomo in the mid-nineteenth century.

Among the 47 families there were 57 persons who were described as "son" or "daughter" and were obviously at or below the age of puberty at the period the informants were recalling. This means only 1.21 children per family, far below the minimum number (2.0) necessary for replacement. Clearly the population was declining rapidly at that time. If there were 1.21 children and the family number was 5.0, the average number of adults was 3.79. For simple equilibrium or stability, such as we must assume existed in pre-white times, at least 3 children must be found in every family. Thus with 3.79 adults there would have to have been a family number of 6.79 or say, 6.80 merely to maintain the population. Considering the relative richness of the environment and the quite elaborate culture of the Pomo an average of 7.0 is by no means excessive for the aboriginal Pomo.

That the Clear Lake Pomo were in a deplorable state at the time described by Gifford is attested by the statements of his informants concerning the subsequent fate of the 57 children mentioned in the text. Of these, 29, or 50.9 per cent, "died young." Such a tremendous child mortality is quite consistent with our entire picture of the postcontact decline in Indian population but is wholly at variance with any reasonable concept of aboriginal conditions.

At Cigom Gifford found 20 houses, mostly of the multiple type so common among the Pomo. Three of the houses held 4 families, three held 3, twelve held 2, and two held 1. The average is 2.35 families per house or, in terms of persons, 11.75 per house. This is of course based on the 1850 value of 5.0 persons per family. If we admit an aboriginal number of 7.0 persons per family, then the number per house becomes 16.45 instead of 11.75.

In his study of Redwood Valley Kniffen (1939, pp. 373-380) puts the population at 125 and the number of houses at 12. This would mean 10.4 persons per house, quite close to Gifford's value for Cigom in or near 1850.

In his chapter on the Pomo Stephen Powers (1877) described the village of Senel (Sanel, Shanel) in the Russian River valley (p. 168 and map). He shows on his map 104 houses and 5 assembly houses. The houses were large and contained according to his estimate 20-30 persons each. This estimate seems much too high. However, on other grounds he puts the former population at 1,500 inhabitants, a figure which is arrived at entirely independently by an informant of Stewart (1943, p. 45). Indeed Stewart comments with reference to Powers that "my population estimate and description closely approximate his." This means for 104 houses a mean of 14.42 occupants.

The average of the three sets of data available give 13.76 persons per house, a figure which may be rounded off at 14.0 in view of the probability that Kniffen's estimate is a little low. It is noteworthy, furthermore, that neither Gifford nor Powers gives any indication that all the houses in the villages respectively studied were not simultaneously occupied. Indeed, with the multifamily system it is difficult to see how they could stand deserted for a considerable period of time.

_The Potter Valley groups._--Stewart paid particular attention to the Potter Valley groups and determined the central or capital villages to have been Canel, Sedam, and Pomo. Stewart also says that, whereas Canel was the main village in its area, Yamo was the most populous. Sedam was one of the largest villages in the valley and Pomo was somewhat smaller. By comparison with the Clear Lake towns it is appropriate to consider the three principal towns (including Yamo with Canel) as having approximately 200 inhabitants each, or 600 in all. The next question concerns peripheral or outlying villages, of which there were certainly a considerable number. Stewart says that the Canel were "distributed" among 12 villages (including Yamo). Moreover "my informant (JSm) insisted that these villages were all occupied at the same time ... each having a 'curing' sweathouse; however all were under one chief, and there was only one ceremonial or 'devil' house" (p. 40). Barrett (1908, fn. 129, p. 142) says his informant called three of these villages camps only. At the same time Barrett lists 9 villages, excluding Kachabida and Canekai, 6 of which correspond to villages of Stewart. Merriam lists 10 villages, only one of which is in addition to those of Barrett or Stewart. Although there is some overlap, it seems clear that there were at least 12 villages apart from Canel, Sedam, and Pomo. Of these Yamo has already been considered. Kachabida, mentioned by Barrett and Merriam, was one of those which migrated to the Clear Lake region shortly before 1850 and must therefore be excluded, since its people have already been counted among the Clear Lake Pomo.

Canekai lay several miles to the northeast in the hills. It is simply shown by Stewart on his map as lying in the territory of Sedam. Merriam, however, calls it a "small tribe," the shanel-kaah, and cites Gibbs (1860), who mentioned the group under the name of the Shanelkaya. Evidently a fair-sized village or minor subtribe once existed in the area. At least 100 persons must be ascribed to it.

Deducting Yamo, Kachabida, and Canekai and three of Stewart's villages which Barrett said were camp sites there remain 11 villages supported by the word of at least one of the three above-mentioned authorities. Five are given by all three of them, 4 by two of them and 2 by one alone. It is safe therefore to allow 10 villages in addition to the 5 already accepted (i.e., Canel, Sedam, Pomo, Yamo, and Canekai). Concerning the size we have no data but they must all have been relatively small. Three houses each would seem a reasonable estimate, yielding at the Pomo rate of 14 persons per house 42 inhabitants for each village or 420 for the aggregate. Thus, counting 600 for Canel, Sedam, Pomo, and Yamo, 100 for Canekai, and 420 for the balance, we get 1,120 as the best estimate for the Potter Valley subtribes.

_Calpella and Redwood Valleys._--This area is divided by Stewart into two subtribes, the Masut of Calpella and the Katca of Redwood Valley. This course is also followed by Kniffen who made a special investigation of the Kacha (Katca). On the other hand Merriam included both groups in his tribe, the Mah-soo-tah-ka-ah (his manuscript entitled "Northern Pomo").

The Kacha tribe all lived in the village given as Kacha by Kniffen and as Kabelal by Barrett, Merriam, and Stewart. Kniffen says "there must have been about 125 people in the valley...", but gives no supporting data. He does, on the other hand, mention that the village had 12 houses (1939, p. 375). At the aboriginal Pomo number of 14.0 there should have been 168 instead of 125 inhabitants. It is quite possible that Kniffen was thinking in terms of the early 1850's and hence made a low estimate. It appears to the present writer that 170 is preferable.

Masut is given by Barrett and Stewart as a village but by Merriam as a tribe. Another village near by, Chom-cha-de-lah (Merriam) or Chomchadila (Powers, Kroeber) is admitted by Stewart and in fact given as the main village in his appendix (p. 57). Stewart also adds two villages, Diskabel and Kobida. It is evident that there were several villages closely clustered together. Stewart thinks there were four. Of these Masut and Chom-chah-de-lah were apparently large and the others perhaps small. We may allow 150 each for the larger ones and 50 each for the smaller, making 400 in all.

The village of Matuku lay in the same territory. This is given the status of tribe by Merriam but was involved in the migrational movements between the Calpella region and Clear Lake. Hence its population is difficult to evaluate. Perhaps 100 persons will be adequate.

In near-by Coyote Valley lived the tribe called by Powers the Shodokaipomo. This seems to be the general name for the subtribe and perhaps also for one of their villages (Barrett and Merriam). In addition, Merriam, following Barrett, lists Shah-chahm-kah-oo (called Shashamkau by Kroeber). Powers (1877) in commenting on this group has this to say: "Mr. Christy states that there were between three hundred and four hundred (people) when he arrived." Since there is no specific reason to doubt Mr. Christy's word, we may set the population of the subtribe at 350. The total for the entire area is 1,020.

There are for the Calpella-Redwood Valley region 8 reasonably well authenticated villages, as follows:

Kabelal (Barrett, Merriam, Stewart) Masut (Barrett, Stewart) Chom-cha-de-lah (Powers, Barrett, Merriam, Stewart, Kroeber) Matuku (Barrett, Merriam, Stewart) Shodo-kai (Barrett, Merriam, Powers) Shah-chahm-kah-oo (Barrett, Merriam, Kroeber) Diskabel (Stewart) Kobida (Stewart)

Of these five may be regarded as principal villages and hence large; the others may have been small. The average for all together is 127 persons per village. If we allow 175 persons for each of the larger ones, we must assume 50 for the smaller. These figures seem of the correct order of magnitude.

_Willits Valley._--The tribe inhabiting Willits Valley extended from the inland valleys clear to the coast. Stewart makes it clear, however, in contradistinction to Barrett, that they had no permanent villages actually on the coast before they moved in that direction ahead of the American advance to the north. The Northern Pomo thus, unlike the Coast Yuki, lived a long distance inland and traveled to the seashore only as occasion demanded from time to time.

Stewart lists 9 village sites: Mitom, the principal village; Tsamonda, a small village; Nabo; Talel, with 8 dwelling pits; Tsaka, with 8 pits; Bakau; Cotsiu; Kacebal; and one of unknown name. He says that there is no evidence that all these were occupied at the same time, but "several must have been occupied simultaneously because five were occupied by the parents of Indians still living."

Much light is thrown on the situation in Willits Valley and adjacent areas by the work of Merriam (in the manuscript "Northern Pomo"). Merriam splits the natives into three dialectic subgroups: the But-kow-hah-po-mah of upper Outlet Creek, the Sho-jul-po-ma of eastern Little Lake Valley, and the Met-tum-mah of Willits Valley proper.

The But-kow-hah-po-mah had a principal village But-kow-hah-chut-te, corresponding to Stewart's Bakau plus "3-4 rancherias." If we allow 150 for the main village and a possible 25 each for the outlying rancherias, we get 250 for the group. This seems quite reasonable for a small, somewhat isolated subtribe.

The Sho-mul-po-mah had for a principal village Sho-tse-yu-chut-te, which is mentioned by Barrett and corresponds to Stewart's Cotsiu. In addition, Merriam cites from Barrett 6 other villages, 4 of which he confirms as villages. One of these, Tah-nah-kum-chut-te, he says contained a sweathouse having a capacity of 200 people. According to a principle enunciated by Powers (p. 168), but which is of somewhat doubtful validity, the capacity of a sweathouse or assembly house is equivalent to one-third of the population. Thus the Sho-mul-po-mah might have had 600 people. However, if we allow that the principal village, by analogy with Kasha, had 175 and that each of the villages of Barrett which were confirmed by Merriam had 4 dwelling houses each (i.e., 56 people) then the population would be computed at 400.