Modern ethnographic data are of little value for estimating the population of the Southern Pomo, however carefully it may have been secured. The Spanish and Mexican missionaries, accompanied by the military, entered the area certainly before 1820 and by the year 1835 the Southern Pomo had been relocated in the missions, conscripted for labor, or carried off by disease. Shortly after 1840 the Americans began to appear and as a result the original village pattern was completely disrupted. Hence it is relatively useless to compute population from the sites which in recent years have been remembered by Indian or white informants. Merriam, following Barrett, lists about 80 village names but in very few instances endorses Barrett's findings by subscribing his initials. To attempt any detailed analysis of these sites would serve no useful purpose whatever.

It is clear from the opinions expressed by Kroeber and Stewart that the Southern Pomo exhibited the same general type of social organization as the Central Pomo, namely, a splitting into subtribes with each of the latter inhabiting a single, large main village. Several of these have been reasonably well identified, some by modern ethnographers and some by the early missionaries and civil contemporaries. There are 15, the existence of which is sufficiently well assured. They are as follows:

1. Amalako Dry Creek Stewart
2. Amako Cloverdale Stewart, Merriam
3. Makahmo Cloverdale Stewart, Merriam, Kroeber
4. Amatio Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam
5. Kale Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam
6. Mukakotcalg Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam
7. Wotokkaton Healdsburg Merriam, Kroeber
8. Tsoliikawai Healdsburg Stewart, Merriam
9. Batiklechawi Sebastopol Merriam, Kroeber
10. Masikawani Sebastopol Stewart, Merriam
11. Hukabetawi Santa Rosa Merriam, Kroeber
12. Kabetsiuwa Santa Rosa Stewart, Merriam
13. Gualomi Santa Rosa Mission records, Merriam
14. Chichiyomi Santa Rosa Mission records, Merriam
15. Levantoyome Santa Rosa Mission records, Merriam

If each of these fifteen villages had a population of only 300 Indians, a low value considering the huge congregations in the Ukiah-Hopland region, the total for the Southern Pomo could be set at 4,500.

There is a little contributory evidence to be obtained from the mission records. These documents, which are to be found in the Bancroft Library of the University of California, include baptism records for the missions of San Rafael and Solano, those which drew upon the Pomo for converts. Up to 1834 there had been baptized 268 persons from Levantoyome, 90 from Gualomi, and 44 from Chichiyome. Conversions in peripheral areas like that of the Southern Pomo were always far from complete, particularly at the end of the mission period. Many of the natives were killed in the incessant skirmishes and massacres of the time, many were enslaved directly by rancheros, many died of disease, but by far the greatest number simply fled the approach of the white man. It is quite reasonable to suppose that not more than one-third of the natives were ever actually brought into the missions for conversion. This would mean an average of 402 persons for the three subtribes or villages just mentioned, Levantoyome, Gualomi, and Chichiyome. Extended to the entire 15 known principal villages, the total would be 6,030.

A second possible method consists of area-density comparisons. The over-all density in the sum of the Potter Valley, Calpella, and Ukiah areas can certainly have been no greater than that originally existing in the region of the Southern Pomo, for of all the Pomo subdivisions the southern group possessed the most favorable habitats and the most prolific food supply. The population found for the three northern areas mentioned above was 5,090 and the area according to Stewart (pp. 57-59) was 585 square miles. The density was thus 8.70 persons per square mile. The corresponding value for the Clear Lake Pomo is 7.34. The area of the Southern Pomo, including the five groups discussed here was 745 square miles. At the northern density of approximately 8 persons per square mile the population would have been 5,960.

The two methods employed therefore yield essentially similar results and make possible the estimate of 6,000 persons for the Southern Pomo.

According to Alexander Taylor (1860-63, Ser. I, folio page 5) Captain J. B. R. Cooper, an American, went to Santa Rosa as early as 1827. Apparently following his statements Taylor says "it was estimated" that 2,000 Indians lived in Sonoma Valley and 1,500 in Santa Rosa Valley. In another place (Ser. I, folio page 3) Taylor states that "when Capt. Cooper settled the Molino Rancho, in Santa Rosa Valley, in 1834, there were living in his neighborhood as many as 2,000 Canimares." The latter term refers of course to the southeastern portion of the Southern Pomo.

We should not accept these pioneer estimates of Indian population without examination and qualification. Neither should we reject them, equally uncritically, as automatically exaggerated and mendacious, and hence worthless. It is quite likely that Cooper knew more about the number of Indians on his ranch than any other white man, at the time or since. It is relatively unlikely that Cooper had any motive for propagating a completely false report. On the other hand, it is wholly possible that Cooper may have been inaccurate or careless in his count. Nevertheless the Cooper estimate is quite in conformity with our other sources of population information.

It was stated previously that 402 baptisms are on record from three rancherias in the Santa Rosa area. To these may be added 220 others whose names are clearly Pomo in character, making a total of 622. At the rate of three aboriginal inhabitants to one baptism in this region, the territory concerned—and this is very close to Cooper's home—would have contained 1,866 people. The mission data thus in general support Cooper's figure.