California Athabascan Groups

by Martin A. Baumhoff

ESTIMATES BASED ON VILLAGE COUNTS

Wailaki (Eel and North Fork).—The present list gives a total of 67 villages among the Eel River and North Fork Wailaki. For purposes of calculating population I have excluded 13 of them (nos. 6, 9, 16, 31, 38, 40, 51, 57, 58, 59, 61, 66, 67) because they are summer camps in the hills, rock shelters used only briefly, or specialized fish-drying camps. These places do not seem to have been used simultaneously with the main villages. This list appears to be a substantially complete count from Horseshoe Bend south, but it is clear that neither Merriam nor Goddard visited the area north of this, and the village count suffers as a result. There are about 16 river-miles south of Horseshoe Bend, including both the main Eel and North Fork, and there are 49 main villages on this stretch, yielding an average of 3.1 per river-mile. If we apply this figure to the 7 river-miles above Horseshoe Bend, we get 21.7 villages for that stretch rather than 5, as given by ethnographers. We may reduce this figure to 15, because this stretch of the river appears to offer a less desirable location (Goddard, 1923a, p. 107).

This calculation gives a total of 69 villages for the entire group, considerably less than Cook's total of 87 (Cook, 1956, p. 104). The reason for the difference is that Cook bases his estimate on Goddard's data, with the territory of the Wailaki extending above Kekawaka Creek, whereas I have taken Kekawaka Creek as the boundary.

The house count per site for this group must be extrapolated from Goddard's house-pit counts (1923a, pp. 103, 105) on the sites of two of the tribelets. This figure has been calculated by Cook, who takes Goddard's house-pit count for 20 sites as "92 pits." For two localities, however, Goddard specifies a certain number plus "several" others. "If we allow 4 to represent 'several,' in each of these, then the total number of pits is 100 and the average per site or village is 5.0" (Cook, 1956, p. 104). Cook then reduces the figure by 20 per cent to allow for the probability that not all the house pits represent simultaneously occupied houses. His average number of houses per site is 4, which would not appear to be an overestimate. If we take this figure, we have a total of 276 houses for the Wailaki as against Cook's figure of 348, which was based on a greater area.

Cook takes 6 persons per house as the average density for the Wailaki. This figure is arrived at in several ways. The figure of 7.5 per house is well established for the Yurok and sets an upper limit for the Wailaki area. Goddard appears to have based his population estimate on a mean of 4.5 persons per house, almost certainly too low, and Cook compromised at 6 per house. This figure is supported by independent observation by Foster on the Round Valley Yuki (Cook, 1956, p. 107). The social organization and the habitat of the Yuki and Wailaki are nearly identical, so the population per house should be the same for both groups.

Accepting the figure of 6 persons per house, we get a total population of 1,656 for the Eel Wailaki and the North Fork Wailaki, as compared with Cook's figure of 2,315 and Goddard's figure of between one and two thousand.

Pitch Wailaki.—Goddard (1924) records 33 villages for the Pitch Wailaki. For two of the four tribelets, the count is virtually complete. For a third tribelet, the T'odannañkiyahañ, Goddard lists 6 villages and indicates that there were probably more (1924, p. 225). If, to allow for these possible villages, we add 5 to the total above, we get a total of 38 villages for three tribelets, or an average of 12.7 per tribelet. Although the fourth tribelet, the Tchokotkiyahañ, had a poorer habitat than the other three (Goddard, 1924, p. 222), we may assume that it had at least 8 villages, an estimate which is probably conservative in view of its extensive territory. We then get a total of 46 villages for the Pitch Wailaki.

Goddard counted house pits in 22 village sites and got an average of 5 per site. If we reduce this to 4 to account for unoccupied pits, we have an estimate of 184 houses for the Pitch Wailaki, as against 172 estimated by Cook. On the basis of 6 persons per house this gives a population of 1,104 as against 1,032 by Cook and between 650 and 800 by Goddard.

For all Wailaki combined we get a total of 2,760. Cook's figure is 3,350, Kroeber's is 1,000, and Goddard's is between 1,650 and 2,800—average of 2,225. The difference between the figure presented here and Cook's figure is mostly due to the adjustment I have made in the Wailaki boundary from the one used by Goddard.

Mattole.—The village lists of Merriam and Goddard give a total of 42 villages for the Mattole. I have excluded 5 of these from calculation of population estimates, one because it is a summer camp and four others because the frequency appears too great, in places along the coast, to make simultaneous occupation likely. This leaves a total of 37, very likely a conservative estimate since Goddard gives a number of names of villages not located and therefore not included in our calculations.