The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California

by Sherburne Friend Cook

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.