Introduction to the Cultures of
North American Aboriginal Peoples
California
California
• California
– Roughly equivalent to modern state of
California
• Eastern limit is the Sierra Nevada
Mountains/Colorado River
– Mediterranean climate
• Cool wet winters and warm dry summers
– Broadleaf evergreen flora
• Live oak chaparral (mosaic of oak groves and
grasslands) Sclerophyllous Woodland
– Eight species of oak (Quercus sp.)
• Four deciduous and four evergreen
• High acorn production (200-400 kg/year)
Climate
• Mild, moist winters, hot
dry summers inland
• Cool, often foggy coasts
• High percentage of
sunshine
• High summer diurnal
temperature range
• Frost danger during
winter
• Growing season at lower
elevations/along the
coast is year-round
California Fauna
• Virtually all terrestrial species found in North
America (except for species restricted to the
arctic/sub-arctic)
• Importance of marine species
– Shellfish
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Oysters (Ostreiddae)
Clams
Mussels
Abalone (Haliotis)
Sea urchin (Echinoidea)
– Marine mammals
• Whales, porpoises, dolphins, sea otters, sea lions, seals
Shellfish
Resource Diversity
Major Characteristics
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Acorn as staple food
Basketry
Use of ground stone vessels
Shell bead money
Central villages and specialized resource camps
Importance of trade, craft specialization
Various boat types
Linguistic diversity
Diet
• Acorn
– Inedible in raw state
• Tannic acid
– Water soluble
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Acorns are first ground
Washed with warm water to remove acid (leaching)
Cooked into a mush
Stored in granaries
Formed 30-60% of diet (up to 900 kg/ person/ year)
• Wide range of game from small mammals and birds up
to large game (elk, bear)
• Shellfish
• Insects
• Fish
– Salmon (in N. and Central California)
– Trout
– Marine species
Leaching acorn
Hunting techniques
• Stalking
– Effective range of bow and arrow is less than
10 meters
• Wide range of point sizes
– Use of foreshafts
• Fishing using hooks, harpoons, nets,
baskets
– Rivers, lakes, estuaries, surf zone, deep sea
fishing
Foreshafts
• Yurok
– Each about 20 cm long
– 501d is a bird shaft
– 501e is a squirrel shaft
• Hupa
– Arrow with flint point
– Arrow with foreshaft of hard
wood.
– -Boy's arrow with two
feathers and simple shaft.
Arrows
• Left: Yokuts shaft for use with
foreshafts; cane shaft with
feather fletching attached with
sinew and asphalatum,
approx. 65 cm long.
Center: Hupa-Karok-Yurok;
syringa shaft with carved bone
point, approx. 75 cm long.
• Far left: Cahuilla type;
backshaft of baccharis
salicifolia, foreshaft of
chamise, obsidian point,
fletching attached with deer
sinew and pine pitch; approx.
72 cm long
Bows
• Top: Paiute type bow shaped from cedar, backed with brain-tanned
deer sinew, raw deerskin-wrapped grip, braided sinew bowstring;
approx. 112 cm long
Center: Hupa-Karok-Yurok bow shaped from aged yew wood,
painted with traditional designs, twined sinew bowstring, 90-107 cm
long.
• Bottom: Maidu/Miwok bow of mountain mahogany, braided sinew
bowstring, 90-100 cm long
Fishing technology
Baskets
• Made from a wide range of materials
– Roots
– Stems
– Bark
• Three main colors:
– White, red, black
• Designs are made using different color
materials
• Designs are primarily geometric
Basketry
• Coiled basketry
technique
– trays, bowls of all
sizes, treasure
baskets and hats
• Twined basketry
technqiue
– leaching basins,
sieves, fish traps,
cradles, and water
bottles
Basket functions
• Storage
– Food
– Water
• Sometimes lined with asphalt
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Burden
Cooking
Clothing (hats)
Decorative (gift baskets)
Fishing baskets
Trays
Winnowing
Baby carriers (cradleboard)
Mortars + Cooking vessels
• Mortar and pestle made from
sandstone were used for
grinding and processing
acorns or seeds.
• The Indians on Santa Catalina
Island carved these stone pots
from steatite, a soft, easily
worked soapstone which they
quarried on the island. These
heat resistant cooking vessels
were traded to the Chumash of
the Northern Channel Islands
and to people on the mainland
coast, in exchange for local
resouces.
Bedrock mortars - Chumash
Bedrock mortar - Olompali
Shell beads (Olivella sp.)
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Small beads
Ground into circles
Holes drilled
Among Chumash
produced on Santa
Cruz Island
• Specialist villages
Settlement Pattern
• Groups occupied relatively restricted areas
• Main village ranges in size from 50 to several hundred
(Chumash)
• Villages are semi-permanent
– May move after a period of years
• Fair amount of variability
• Each village would be politically independent (a “triblet”)
– Yokuts were made up of at least 50 triblets
• Short term use of resource camps
• Houses were simply structures made of reeds or reed
mats
• Semi-subterranean sweathouses were a common
feature and used daily by men
Trade
• Because groups occupied relatively limited
areas trade was very important
• Raw materials
– Shells
– Obsidian
– Cherts
• Finished goods
– Baskets
– Ground stone
– Tools
Major sources of obsidian
Boat types
• Tule reed canoes
– Bundles of tule reeds are tied together to form a simple canoe
– Usually not more than 2-3 m in length
– Suitable for lakes, bays, estuaries
• Chumash plank canoes (tomol)
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Made from short planks of wood without a frame
Planks are stitched together using sinew or rawhide
Seams are sealed with asphalt
Manufactured by specialists belonging to a guild
• The Brotherhood of the (Canoe) Tomol
– 4 to 9 m long, 1 m abeam
– Could carry up to 1800 kg
– Capable of travel on the open ocean
Linguistic Diversity
• One of the highest rates of language diversity in
the world
– Six distinct language families
• Yukian isolate
– 40-50 distinct languages plus at least as many
dialects:
• Pomo had seven dialects (territory of c. 4000 km2)
• Distribution of language families reveals
something about the movement of peoples in
California