San Joaquin

County History

History of San Joaquin County, California with Biographical Sketches - Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA - 1923

CHAPTER II
THE FIRST LANDOWNERS

        HAVING laid a broad foundation for the history of the county, who were the people placed here to enjoy its luxuriant and fertile soil, its delightful climate and the beautiful scenery of mountain, hill and valley? Indians, just Indians, a race of people not much higher in intellect than the animals that roamed the plains. Strange that so much beauty and value of soil should be wasted for five hundred or more years, for the Indians have lived here man knows not how long. We know only this, that Christopher Columbus found Indians, when in 1492 he landed at Cuba. It was to him a new race of people. Believing that he had landed at India, he named them Indians. Hernando Cortez, sailing to Mexico, there found the same race, Indians. His soldiers married the Indian women, from whence sprang the Mexican race. We will find many of them in Stockton. In 1542 Cabrillo, in sailing along the California coast, found Indians at every point of landing. When Sir Francis Drake landed in the bay that bears his name, the Indians crowded around him in great numbers. The Franciscan fathers traveling up the coast found Indians in every valley, and they assisted the padres in building their missions. Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga, in 1812, crossing the mountains into the San Joaquin Valley, found hundreds of Indians in the Valley of the Tulare. So it seems upon this entire continent of North America the Indians were the landowners and the sons of Nature.

Names and Location of Tribes

        In San Joaquin county there were but five tribes of Indians according to Colonel F. T. Gilbert, who, in 1879, made a study of the county Indians. Three of these tribes, the Mok-el-kos, the La-las and the Ma-cha-cos lived on the Mokelumne River: the Cos-os on the Cosumnes River,and the Ya-che-kos in the vicinity of the present site of Stockton. The Ma-cha-cos tribe occupied the territory from Athearn's Ferry to Campo Seco, the tribe claiming the land upon both sides of the river. The La-las were a small tribe later absorbed by the powerful Mo-kel-kos. They inhabitated the land between what was known as Staples Ferry and Athearn's Ferry. The Cos-os lived on the Cosumnes River and they gave the river its name. The Mo-kel-kos were the land grabbers of that day. They were a large tribe, numbering some twelve rancherias of about 3,000 Indians, and they held undisputed possession of all of the land between Lockeford and New Hope Dry creek and the Calaveras River. They had four chieftains, all brothers, and to hold this large tract of land, Sena-a-to lived at Staples Ferry, which was about four miles west of Lockeford ; Lo­we-no at Woodbridge; An-to-nio on the Calaveras, and Max-i-mo near Benedict's Ferry. The Ya-che-kos tribe were also a powerful tribe, probably the strongest tribe in the county; they lived in the vicinity of Stockton and owned all of the territory to French Camp. It was not a very large stretch of land, but it produced an abundance of food, and like the tramp of today, if the Indian could get plenty of food easily he was satisfied.

        The high cost of living in no manner affected the Indians, for Nature provides for its own. In case of a scarcity of food among the larger tribes, they would declare war upon a weaker tribe and capture their food supply. However, as it was, they had plenty of food. In the spring time they lived on a species of clover that grew abundantly on the plains; it was soft and contained sufficient nutriment to sustain life. When the clover had grown too rank for food, they substituted young tule roots; they also lived on seeds, bugs, frogs, non-poisonous snakes and grasshoppers. This insect was considered quite a delicacy, as they would roast them, mash them into a paste and mix with other edible foods. Their staple foods were fish, seeds and acorns; the latter they obtained in great abundance in the fall of the year. The acorns were ground to a powder in their mortars and made into bread. They obtained plenty of fish during low water, the streams abounding in salmon, perch and sturgeon; the last named fish were plentiful in the Mokelumne River and salmon in the San Joaquin. They shot these big fish with their bows and arrows, speared them with long, sharp-pointed poles, and were quite dexterous in catching them by hand. Although as a rule too lazy to hunt for large game the braves would occasionally go out and kill rabbits, birds and squirrels, and sometimes a deer or antelope, with their bows and arrows. They never molested a grizzly bear, says Carson, and at the sight of a bear they quickly hid from sight. When the fish and acorns were the most plentiful, namely in the fall of the year, they would have a big feast. It continued for several days, during that time they would gorge themselves with food until they became torpid.

        For some unknown reason the grizzly always had it in for the Indian, says James A. Carson, from whom much information was obtained regarding the custom and habits of the tribes. When a bear was seen by a white man, if not wounded by a bullet, he would immediately run away. But when the grizzly met the Indian Mr. Lo would immediately turn and escape, if possible, for bruin invariably followed after him. Hundreds of Indians have been killed by bears.

        The Indian in his physical appearance, like the Chinese and Japanese, seemed to have no distinctive feature, to the average white man. They all looked alike, were scarcely more than five feet, eight inches in height and a man over six feet in height was a wonder. Bancroft in describing them said they had "a low retreating forehead, black, deep set eyes, thick bushy eyebrows, high cheek bones, a nose depressed at the roots, and widespread at the nostrils. They had a large mouth with projecting lips, large white teeth, ears and hands and large, flat feet." They had great strength, according to a pioneer writer, and it was astonishing to see the loads they could carry without tiring.

Indian Wikiups

        In this mild, equable climate of San Joaquin almost any kind of a shelter was sufficient during the winter months. One should remember also, that the winter climate then was much milder than at the present time, for the thick forest of trees tempered the cold wintry blasts, and the warm weather was modified by the same means. During the summer, according to Carson, their wikiups were built of the flimsiest material and with the smallest amount of labor. They consisted of a number of long poles fastened together at the top with grapevines or willow branches and covered with grass or tules. In Winter the outside of the huts were plastered with wet, soft adobe which dried and hardened in the sun. A large hole was made in the top of the hut to permit the passage of smoke and then fires were built inside. In these habitations lived the entire family, until compelled to move out because of the filth and vermin. Then the wikiup was set on fire and burned to the ground and a new shelter constructed. So filthy and beastly were the Indians that the remains of food and other refuse was permitted to accumulate around their huts until the stench was something horrible. Carson said, "They were in the scale of life so low, that there was but little difference between them and a grizzly bear, their superiority consisting in the fact that they could build a fire and talk." Otherwise they lived on the same kinds of food and their habits were similar to that of bruin.

        The dress of the maids of the forest and the young braves was ever the same. No change of the fashion worried their minds nor the minds of their fathers as to their extravagance in costumes. The women wore a short apron suspended from their waist made of tule or grass. They were in, the fashion of 1920, short below and short above. For additional warmth in winter they wore over their shoulders a short fur cape made of rabbit skins. The men during the summer months were naked and in winter they also wore a mantle of the skin of some fur-bearing animal. We may think that with so little clothing they suffered greatly with cold during the winter months, but such was not the case. They were the sons of Nature, hardened from birth to their surrounding conditions. There was much good sense in the reply of an Indian to General Marino Vallejo on one occasion when the general asked a naked Indian, "Are you not cold?" "No," replied the brave. "Why are you not cold?" Said the Indian, "Is your face cold?" "Not at all," replied the General. And the Indian came back, "Indian all face."

Courtship and Marriage

        Among the Indians there were no long days of courtship, or uncertainties and palpitating hearts. With the young brave, it was like many in the present generation, a matter of business. How much is she worth, not in money but as a laborer. When he wanted a wife, he watched her carefully and observed the young maiden who was the most industrious in gathering acorns or in digging edible roots; one also who could carry heavy loads. When the young Indian had made his selection, he went to the chief and stated that he wanted the maiden for his "helpmate." The consent of the chief must always be obtained and seldom did he refuse to grant the "marriage permission." This was all the marriage ceremony necessary. The girl could refuse to live with the young man, but she was severely punished, because she became the common property of the tribe. Sometimes the buck desired the maid of another tribe, and if the chief would not give his consent, he would lie in ambush and kidnap the sweetheart of his desires. This was a cause of war between the two tribes. It is recorded that on one occasion, like the Trojans of old, the two tribes fought for twenty years over a dark-hued Helen. An Indian could divorce his wife; it required neither judge or a lawyer. It was just as easy as many of the divorces of to-day; it was only necessary for the husband to drive his wife out of the wikiup. Adultery on the part of the woman was always a cause of divorce. The woman could have but one husband; the man could have as many wives as he could feed and shelter.

        Supporting a wife was easy, for the position of the woman was one of degradation and drudgery, as they were nothing more than slaves. They were compelled to cook the food, gather all of the firewood, and carry heavy loads. There was no release from the household drudgery, even though the woman had a young baby to care for. The papoose she carried upon her back in a basket suspended from her head by deer thongs; and the master, what did he? He lay around the wikiup, mending his bows and arrows, nets and fish-hooks—a Herculean task.

Form of Government

        The tribes were governed by chiefs and sub-chiefs, who had full control and authority respecting their tribes. Each tribe had what was known as a "captain chief" and each family and their relatives were under the authority of a sub-chief, he being subject to the captain chief. The tepee of the captain chief was much larger than that of his tribe, and if the wikiups were erected in a circle his hut occupied the center of the circle. Considerable dignity was given to him and his family, they were treated with the greatest respect. After his death his widow and daughters were considered as Indians of nobility, and they were not compelled to labor as were the women of the common people. A kind of aristocracy was prevalent even among the uncivilized race. The chieftaincy among the sub-chiefs was hereditary along the male line. At the father's death, the eldest son succeeded him. Sometimes, however, the son would be deprived of his rightful authority, as the captain chief would appoint to the office some favorite son, because of some exploit or bravery in a horse-stealing expedition.

Famous Chiefs

        In civilized life a man may be famous among his relatives and friends and yet be a nonentity to the general public. So was it among the Indian tribes. An Indian chief was famous in his tribe although he did nothing to win either fame or glory. The only chiefs of any renown, so far as the writings show, were Estanislao and Jose Jesus. Two of the chiefs of the La-las tribe were named Ah-a-moon and Al-i-no; the tribe itself was so few in number that in 1879 three only were living, a mother, son and daughter. The chiefs of the Ya-che-kum-na were many in number, for it was a large tribe. Their last big muck-a-muck was Mauries-to, and he was described by an Indian who knew him as a tall, powerfully-built man. His rancheria was near the present site of Stockton. Al-wi-no was the last big gun of the Ma-cha-kos tribe; he was said to be about six feet four inches and lived to be eighty years of age. The Mok-el-kos considered their tribe as the aristocrats of the California tribes, because of the fact that a large number of them were christianized by the Franciscan fathers. Although calling themselves Christians or "gente de reason" (Indians of reason), "they kept up their monthly feasts and dances," says Gilbert, "and invoked the spirits to crown the seasons with plentiful crops of ground nuts, and an abundance of game. Their medicine men performed their incantations to pacify the evil spirits, ward off pestilence and disease and to heal the sick. Their prophets and seers orated on the traditions, past prowess and glories of the tribe, and forecast the horoscope of the future." Their last great prophet and seer, Mau-ritz, was said to have lived to be 115 years of age; he was seven feet in height and at that age stalwart and imposing. A pioneer in speaking of this chief at the age of ninety years, says, "I thought him the most remarkable Indian I had ever seen—tall, handsome, graceful, and well-timed in his actions, with a well-formed head; he was the beau ideal, an impassioned orator, and he had a magical influence over his hearers." The last chief of the Ya-che-kum-na tribe was old Manuel. L. C. Branch in writing of the old chief in 1881, said, "He was a large, fleshy Indian, had rather an intelligent look and when taken, all in all, was much superior to the average among his tribe. He had several wives and a pretty daughter. She decorated herself with feathers and beads, had a pleasant look, and always carried a plate which she passed around and took up a collection. By this device the Indians were enabled to gather together enough money to buy whisky sufficient to keep them drunk for a week or two. They all drank, and when the law prohibited the selling of liquor to Indians and the whites refused to let them have it, they managed to procure it from the Chinese store keepers. When drunk they would fight amongst themselves and beat their women unmercifully."

Estanislao, the Warrior Chief

        This chief was one of the historical figures of California, for after him was named the Stanislaus River, because of the fact that on that river he defeated and completely routed the Spanish soldiers in command of General Mariano Vallejo, he being the Government's best fighter. Estanislao had been one of the Indians at the San Jose Mission, had there been educated, was a man naturally bright and therefore far more intelligent than the average Indian. The Indians in all of the missions were deprived of their freedom, and upon every opportunity they ran away and rejoined their native tribes. Estanislao succeeded in escaping and he became the chief of the Si-yak-um-nas. His confinement in the Mission San Jose had not increased his admiration of the Spaniards nor the Mission fathers and he hated them with all of the hatred of an Indian.

        The Indians loved good eating when they could get it, and they were especially fond of horse meat. Frequently they would make a raid on the mission stock and steal a band of horses. To stop these raids so far as possible, the Government sent out expeditions to punish the thieves. All prisoners were driven into the missions and there attempts made to christianize them. In one of these expeditions, that of 1829, Lieutenant Alfred Sanchez was sent out with a company of forty men, well armed, to rout Estanislao. He found the Indians fortified in a thick wood on the Stanislaus River. Sanchez made an attack but was defeated, with the loss of two soldiers killed and eight wounded. The Indians' loss was one killed and eleven wounded. Sanchez, unable to drive out the Indians from their stronghold, returned to San Jose.

        The Government now concluded to send out their best general, who had just come back from a victorious battle, having routed and killed forty-eight "braves" in the "Valle de los Tulares." Vallejo, marching from San Jose Mission, on arriving at the San Joaquin River, was immediately greeted with a shower of arrows from the Indians in their strong­hold. Crossing the river, Vallejo soon learned that he could not drive the Indians from their fort and he commanded his men to set the willows on fire. The Indians were driven out, several of them being killed, but the following day, from a heavily wooded thicket near the Arroyo Seco, they again challenged Vallejo to fight. The General now tried to parley with them, but they would neither compromise nor surrender. The soldiers then made another attack bringing into action a small cannon which they had brought with them. The fight continued during the day, the Indians slowly retreating to a series of earth trenches they had thrown up. Before night the Indians had badly wounded eight more soldiers, and his ammunition giving out, Vallejo was compelled to cease fighting. The following morning Vallejo returned to the Mission. As he had not accomplished the object of his expedition, the defeat and the destruction of the tribe, his work was a complete failure due to the bravery of Estanislao. Now comes the result of this battle, unimportant as it may appear to the reader, the Indians fought so bravely they cowed the Spaniards, and from that time they dare not invade this section of the valley.

José Jesus, the White Man's Friend

        After the death of Estanislao, José Jesus became the chief of the Si-yak-um-na tribe. He was an Indian over six feet in height, well built, clean in his person, proud and dignified in manner. He had been educated at the San Jose Mission and at one time was alcalde---­the peace officer—of San Jose. He usually dressed in the gala-day attire of a Spanish grandee with a cotton shirt, and trousers, calzonazos, sash, serape and sombrero, and created quite a stunning appearance. He was a bitter enemy to the Spaniards, and never would he smoke the pipe of peace with them. He believed that he had been wronged by the mission fathers and on one occasion he made a raid on the mission stock and drove away over one thousand horses to his mountain home where they were killed for food. When Captain Weber located on the Campo de los Franceses he sent for José Jesus and made a treaty with his tribe to keep peace with the white men, and never afterward did José Jesus or any of his tribe violate that treaty. After the arrival of the "gold seekers" the chief, like many of the whites, would get on a glorious "jag." And on one occasion while at Knights Ferry, he engaged in a quarrel with a white man, who shot and badly wounded the chief. Captain Weber, learning of the wounding of his Indian friend, engaged Dr. William M. Ryer, a surgeon, to attend. José Jesus. The Indian recovered and Captain Weber paid the surgeon $500 for his services. A few years later, in another fight, the chief was killed, however the tribe remained friendly to the whites because of the treaty and quite a number of them were employed by Captain Weber as vaqueros.

The Indian's Religion

        Going ahead of our story about ten years we will return to the Indians of San Joaquin as seen by the first arrivals in the valley. In regard to their religion, James H. Carson says they had "no idea of a Supreme Being, and when questioned upon that subject would grin and shake their heads." The only faith in which they believed was necromancy, and their medicine men performed incantations to ward off evil spirits and to heal the sick. They regarded any mysterious act as something supernatural. Their religious belief seems to have been different in different parts of the county for, says another writer, they had a belief that the good would inherit eternal life and the bad would forever die. They believed a good chief was especially honored in the happy hunting ground. After death "his heart went up among the stars, to enlighten the earth, and the heavens were ablaze with the hearts of departed good Indians."

The Indian Sweat House

        Poor Lo had no cure for disease except incantations and the sweat house. The sweat house seems .to have been the universal remedy for the cure of disease among all of the Indians of the coast. One California writer in his book, "What we can learn from the Indians," tells of his being nearly roasted in a Southern California sweat house. The tribes were located at all times in the vicinity of a stream of water, and the sweat house was built on the bank of the channel. Sometimes the house was made of willow poles placed in a circular shape and plastered with soft earth, and again they would make it by digging a large hole in the earth and making it air tight. When they wished to use the sweat house the Indians would build a large fire in it, and the patient or patients would enter the place, close the entrance and there remain until they were perspiring freely, then running out they plunged into the cold water. It was a kill or cure remedy every time. If the patient was cured they praised the sweat house and if he died they said he was possessed of an evil spirit.

        There came a time when no sweat house was large enough to hold those stricken with disease, for a pestilence swept over the land. De Mofras, the great French scientist and traveler, tells of a scourge, the cholera, that swept the valley in 1824, and it carried off 12,000 of the Indians of this valley and county. Two years later a fever broke out among the Indians of the Sacramento Valley and 8,000 died.

        James J. Warner, the trapper, traveling over the county in 1832 said, "On no part of the continent on which I had then, or since traveled, was so numerous a population subsisting upon the natural products of the soil and waters as in the valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento. On our return late in the summer of 1833 we found the valleys depopulated. From the head of the Sacramento River to the great bend of the San Joaquin we did not see more than six or eight live Indians; while large numbers of their skulls and dead bodies were to be seen under almost every shade tree, near water, where the uninhabited and deserted villages had been converted into graveyards; and, on the San Joaquin River, in the immediate neighborhood of the larger class of villages, which the preceding year were the adobes of a large number of those Indians, we found not only many graves but the vestiges of funeral pyres."

        Traveling on to Kings River, the trappers found a large number of live Indians but the plague was there, and Mr. Warner, continuing his account of that terrible period, said, "We were encamped near the village one night only and during that time the death angel passing over the camping ground of the plague-stricken

fugitives, waved his wand, summoning from the little remnant of a once numerous people, a score of victims to muster into the land of `Manitou ;' and the cries of the dying, mingled with the wails of the bereaved, made the night hideous, in the veritable valley of death."

Disposal of Their Dead

        According to authorities the Indians seemed to have practiced cremation, and also the burial of bodies in mounds of the earth. Colonel F. T. Gilbert says, "The Indians bury their dead, bestrewing their graves with beads and shells. Along the Mokelumne River in 1879 there were a large number of mounds in which the Indians declared the dead were buried who had died during the plague." On Roberts Island, at one time on the ranch of Joseph Hale, a large mound was discovered containing a large number of skeletons. They were the bones of bucks, squaws and papooses together mingled in one mound. In the burial, the body of a chief was placed in a sitting position with his face to the east to await the rising sun. Their weapons, charms and tools, such as they possessed, were buried with the male Indians. Indian mounds were found in many places around Stockton, and on February 8, 1862, the Stockton Independent said, "Captain Hayes and Ben Sanborn yesterday made a trip down the channel where an old Indian burial ground had been discovered, the flood having washed the earth from several of the graves The parties dug up several skulls and bones beads, arrow heads and ornaments and brought them to this city. The curiosities may be seen in the rooms of the Natural History Society in the Agricultural Society rooms." Many years later, public school superintendents, J. A. Barr and Edward Hughes, found many articles that told of the history of the Indians.

        That it was the custom of some of the Indians to burn their dead is undoubtedly true, as two such cremations were witnessed by James C. Carson and L. C. Branch. Mr. Carson wrote, "The first of these funerals which I noticed was on the Cosumnes River. The rancheria, to which the deceased belonged, was a large one, situated in a beautiful valley from which arose tall pines, whose spear tops formed a canopy above; around it arose high and rugged hills that gradually rounded until their tops were topped by the everlasting snows, and through it moved the crystal waters of a fine creek. The scene in all was beautiful. On a clear piece of ground a vast heap of dry wood was placed on which the dead was to be laid and consumed. The sun had set and night was drawing her sable mantle over the earth, when the entire tribe began chanting unearthly incantations around the fires of their huts, and they so continued until darkness had completely enveloped the scene. Then arose a hideous scream out of the hut of the departed that was answered by every one in the camp—torches were lighted and by their glare the corpse was borne to the funeral pyre. The body was placed on top of it and more dry wood heaped around. Then came the wild chant, an incantation for the dead. The chief applied the first torch to the pile and in a moment in blazed forth in a hundred places. The forked flames that enveloped the body shot up among the tall pines and lighted up the shadows. When the body had become charred by the fire the Indians with sharp pointed poles would stir up the body to aid the fire in its work of destruction, and amidst the howling of the Indians the work was continued until the body was consumed." The burial customs of the Indians did not change for Branch relates a funeral which he saw at Knights Ferry, when a boy, twenty years later than the one described by Carson. "The funeral of a chief," he says, "was attended with more ceremony than that of the common Indian and the whole village was thrown into mourning, which continued for several days. In preparing the body for burning it was decorated with feathers, beads and flowers, and after remaining in state a few days was conveyed to the funeral pyre. The flowers, feathers and beads, in fact everything belonging to the dead chief was burned with him amidst the howls and lamentations of the tribe."

        When a male Indian died there was howling and wailing in the rancheria for several days. "If the dead were a chief," says Miss Ellen C. Weber, "the marriageable maids daubed upon their foreheads and cheeks a kind of grease composed of ashes and pitch and day and night they howled the wailing cadence, hoo­ah-hoo, hoo-ah-whoo." Branch says the mourning grease was composed of the ashes from the pyre and it was mixed with pitch brought from the mountains for mourning purposes. The stuff was permitted to remain until it wore off. During the period of mourning the widow's person was held sacred, and she was exempt from all manner of work or drudgery. Branch in boyhood lived near the Indian rancheria at Knights Ferry and he declares that the Indians held an annual dance of mourning, at which time the most lamentable groans and howls were kept up by the entire rancheria. "We heard them frequently clear across the river and it seems as if they kept it up all night."

        In the days of the Indian the Calaveras River was full of fish, and the beautiful oaks along its banks yielded an immense harvest of acorns, consequently it was a very desirable tract of land. At one period there was a scarcity of food and the Si-yak-um-na tribe, encroaching upon the territory claimed by the Ya-che-kos, a big battle took place in which many warriors were killed. Neither side made any attempt to bury their dead and the skeletons lay for many years bleaching in the sun. After a long period of time, a Spaniard named José Noriega, passing over the country, camped one night on the bank of the river, where the bloody battle had been fought. He was much surprised on arising the following morning to find that he had been resting among hundreds of human bones and skulls. Because of this fact he named it Calaveras, a Spanish word meaning "place of skulls." Some time previous to the naming of the place by Noriega, the Hudson Bay Company, in making a map of the place for trapping purposes, gave it the name of Wine Creek, because of the wild grapevines growing along its banks.

        At one time the sole owners of North America, the American Indian is practically extinct. Here in California, before the arrival of their white destroyers, they numbered, it was estimated, about one hundred thousand. Trappers said there were in this section about ten thousand papooses, squaws and bucks. Driven out of the county by the white settlers they retired to the mountains and a little directory published in 1852, said, "Soon after the white faces appeared on the river (the San Joaquin) their numbers were thinned, and the remnant of the tribe removed to the wild country of the coast range." It was the custom of the chiefs, however, after C. M. Weber settled upon this grant, to pay that gentleman an annual visit and to give and receive presents, and the reciprocation, on the part of that gentleman of kindnesses, generated a feeling of respect toward him. These visits had been discontinued for three years, but on January 10, 1852, the remnant of the tribe again appeared on the levee opposite Mr. Weber's residence. Ten families only were left of the Si­vak-um-nas. In that year a state census was taken by legislative law, and the Indians in San Joaquin County at that time numbered, male and female, 293, and 158 of them were over twenty-one years of age. According to this report 40 of the number located on a rancheria at Athearn's Ferry, and fifty-five at Staples Ferry on the Mokelumne River; about twenty at Doak & Bonsell's Ferry, San Joaquin River, and 275 at Dent and Valentine's Ferry, near Knights Ferry. The poor unfortunate Indians were treated by the brutal white men as outcasts and unworthy even of humane treatment. They were shot and killed upon the slightest provocation, and frequently used as targets, were shot down in cold blood. Their women and children were outraged and they had no redress, even in the courts.

A Brutal Law

        To crown it all, the legislature of 1852, passed a law "for the protection and government of the Indians." It declared that no Indian in a court of law could testify against a white man. An Indian convicted of stealing might be fined or punished by whipping not exceeding twenty-five lashes. In the light of today the reader may not see the sarcasm and brutality of that law. The whites took up all of the land and the Indians could obtain no food either from the land or water. If they stole food they were punished by fine or whipping, if they could not obtain money to pay a fine, and cruel brutes took great delight in laying on the lash. But that was not all of those humane laws passed by a pro-slavery legislature. An Indian arrested as a "vagrant" was put up at auction by the justice of the peace and sold to the highest bidder, and he was compelled to work for his master for a term not exceeding four months.

The Barr Collection

        The following paper gives a very interesting and exhaustive account of the implements of the California Indians. It was written by James A. Barr of Stockton, who is an expert on Indian relics, having made it a study for many years.

        The Barr Collection comprises nearly 4000 pieces of "finds." It is the result of twenty-eight years' work in studying and exploring the archaeological field in that State. While the collection illustrates the various sections of the State, by far the greater part was secured in the great valleys of Central California.

        In the northern part of the State the aborigines were modified by contact with tribes from Oregon while in Southern California they were modified in a more pronounced way by tribes from Nevada, Arizona and Mexico. In the great central region stretching for 150 miles from the Sierras to the Pacific and from the northern to the Southern points of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Valley (a distance of about 400 miles), the typical California Indian was developed. This large territory comprising about three-fourths of the State has been neglected for the most part by collectors. It is practically unknown in the literature of archaeology. Even the Government Reports devote themselves mainly to the Channel Islands and to other parts of the southern California section.

        Climate and environment combined to make the Central California region an ideal home for the Indian. The many rivers and channels were filled with fish and mussels. Water fowl swarmed in countless thousands. Elk, antelope and deer were plentiful. The native California oak furnished a yearly supply of acorns. With such a varied and unfailing food supply, with a mild climate, and protected by mountain ranges for the most part from the incursions of the tribes to the north, east and south, the Indians of the great Central California region developed through generations a culture peculiarly their own. With a constant food supply and with little need for war, they had ample time for the manufacture of implements representing the highest type of Indian workmanship. Many distinctive forms in obsidian, stone, bone, shell and clay were developed in this favored region.

        The Barr collection represents the exploration of more than 300 village and camp sites since 1878. It is the largest and most representative collection of Indian antiquities from the Central California region yet assembled, or that, in all probability, could be assembled at this late day. The collection has been carefully catalogued, the catalogue giving all available data for each "find." Something over a year of such time as could be spared was taken in reducing the field notes to catalogue form.

        In the catalogue 2401 numbers are used. In many cases one number represents a large number of implements or ornaments. In many instances a "find" is given a catalogue number, the facts recorded and the implements and ornaments stored in boxes for a closer classification in the future. The collection includes fully 1,000 feet of beads or "wampum" (bone, shell and stone). With the exception of a few unique specimens, all beads are numbered by "finds." For instance No. 231 is a string of thirteen feet found with one skeleton.

        The collection is rich in obsidian implements—curves, arrow-points, spear-heads, knives and drills. It is doubtful if any obsidian implements in the world exceed in beauty of workmanship the "Stockton curves." There are 158 of these curves in the collection. The Smithsonian Collection has six. So far as known no other collection has a single specimen. Dr. W. H. Holmes of the Smithsonian Institution after studying the Barr Collection in Stockton said of these curves, "Implements of this class may have been used for cutting or sawing, but obsidian is so brittle and fragile that it hardly seems possible, unless used on comparatively soft material. These curves are peculiar to Central California."

        These curves vary from 9/16 to 4 ½ inches in length. A few are without serrations. Some are serrated on the convex edge; some on the concave edge; some on both edges. Most of them are notched as if for a handle. A few are double curves; in two the outer edges form a right angle and the inner the segment of a circle. Three are of soapstone while all others are of black obsidian.

        Bone implements are especially numerous on the Pacific Coast. Those from Central California have a much better appearance than those from the Islands and other parts of the southern section of the State. The bleached and weathered appearance of the latter is replaced in the former by a smooth, finished surface, yellowed or browned with age. On some pieces a remarkable high polish remains. Among the bone implements in the Barr Collection are awls or perforators, whistles from 1 ¼ to 9 3/8 inches in length, game bones, nose and hair pins, knives, daggers, spears or harpoons, scrapers, flakers, root-diggers, fish hooks or fish-hook shaped ornaments, etc. A few of these implements are etched or engraved.

        The aborigines of Central California were profuse in their use of shells for purposes of ornament. The number and variety of shell ornaments found in the burial places of this section are probably unequaled by any other part of America. Three varieties of shells were most in use—the mussel, the abalone and the olive.     Besides fully a thousand feet of beads (mostly shell), the collection comprises every variety of shell ornament from the simple square bangle to the carved, etched and polished gorget.

        A form peculiar to the Central California region is the so-called "pottery ball." With the exception of a brief reference in one of the later Smithsonian reports, they have never been figured or described. They were doubtless used to take the place of rocks (which were scarce in the valleys) in slings or in cooking. The collection shows these "pottery balls" in all shapes and sizes. Some are crudely fashioned from clay, in instances showing the imprint of the hands. Some are globular or cylindrical; others are bell-shaped, spool-shaped, pestle-shaped, cone-shaped, cup-shaped, etc., etc. Some are ornamented—one with triangles, others with lines or dots, thumb nail markings, etc.

        Among the stone implements in the collection are mortars, pestles, boat-shaped vessels, steatite jars and dishes, metates, grinders, rubbing stones, cup-stones, pipes, plummets of "medicine stones," perforated stones and discs, hammer-heads, grooved stones, labrets, etc., etc. Pipes are unusually scarce in the Central California district. In twenty-eight years but 21 have been found, varying in length from 1 ¼ to 8 ¾ inches. The collection includes one clay pipe, most of the 21, however, being made of steatite. The 57 "plummets" or "medicine-stones" in the collection include many fine pieces, fine in workmanship, form and material. Among the 60 mortars and 194 pestles are all types found in the region. Among the pestles are 38 of the rare "phallic" form, representing many distinctive types.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler