Osoyukeju: "small town"; 1 sweathouse.
Before discussing the house numbers in detail we should call attention to Driver's analysis of the village Unutsawa-holma-noma. This analysis (1936, pp. 201 ff.) he says is based upon "concrete genealogical census data of about the year 1870." There can therefore be no argument concerning the validity of the figures he presents. He found, in brief, that in this village there were 11 houses, containing 21 families and 92 persons. The occupants per house ranged from 4 to 21 with an average of 9, the families from 1 to 6 per house with an average of 2 (actually 1.91), and the persons per family averaged 4.5 (actually 4.38).
When we examined Gifford's figures for the Clear Lake Pomo village of Cigom we found 5.0 persons per family, 2.35 families per house, and 11.75 persons per house. The similarity between the two sets of values, derived by different investigators independently, is clearly significant. Moreover, the slightly smaller numbers discovered by Driver at Unutsawaholma are explicable on the basis of the later date (1870) taken as the base line. At any rate there can be no doubt that the two villages were remarkably alike in composition of population.
In computing aboriginal population at Cigom and the surrounding country it was pointed out that Gifford actually was dealing with a declining population and that, if the aboriginal state were to be conceived properly, his figures would have to be increased. For this reason the family number was set at 7 instead of 5, which raised the number of persons per house to 16.45. Because of other evidence the latter value was reduced to 14.0.
For Driver's village the same considerations must apply. However, since the family number was found to be 4.38, rather than 5.0 the aboriginal value may be put at 6 instead of 7. Then, if the number of families per house is 1.91, the average persons per house would be 11.5, a figure which there is no strong reason for changing. It now appears that, if Unutsawaholma "formerly" had 17 houses, with 11.5 persons per house, the "former" population would have been approximately 195, or in round numbers 200.
Returning the matter of houses, Driver says (p. 184) that his informants "estimated" the number, but he thought the estimates were too high. (The number for the village of Unutsawaholma was evidently known exactly.) I think we have to concede Driver's point but we still do not know how great was the exaggeration. We note that Unutsawaholma with 17 sure houses "formerly" had 1 sweathouse but no designation "large" or "small." Of the two "large towns" one had 2 sweathouses and the other had 1 sweathouse and 40 ordinary houses. The same numbers were assigned to two other villages but they were not called large or small. The one called "small" had 1 sweathouse. The village, therefore, with 1 sweathouse and 17 other houses, but not designated either large or small, may be taken as approximately intermediate. The small town may be assigned half this number, or 8 houses. Those with 40 estimated houses, but not called large, may be assigned 25 houses each. Netstul, a "large town" with 40 houses and 1 sweathouse, may be given 30 houses, and Koticomota, a "large town" with 2 sweathouses, may be given 35 houses. This is a purely arbitrary arrangement but it must come somewhere near fitting the facts.
On this basis we have six villages with a total of 140 houses and an average of nearly 23. This would mean an aboriginal population of 1,610 persons. If we were to admit no declining population in 1870 but if we allowed that Unutsawaholma, with 17 houses, was of average size in aboriginal times, the value would still be 1,010 for the population of Alexander Valley.
Driver states, in conjunction with his village list, "these certainly not all inhabited at the same time." His opinion may be justified but he cites no evidence in its support, and the circumstantial data brought out with respect to each village separately does not indicate that discontinuance of habitation occurred very long ago. It is true that Alexander Valley was the scene of a minor intertribal war in the early years of the nineteenth century, as the result of which the Pomo were driven out by the Wappo. In the confusion there may have been some shifting of inhabitants and reconstitution of villages, with the consequence that the population came to include both racial elements. Nevertheless, the data presented by Driver imply a total number of inhabitants, at one time, of fully 1,610. If Barrett's eighth village, Tekenantsonoma, on Sulphur Creek, is allowed 70 inhabitants, the total is raised to 1,680.
The Northern Wappo and the Lake Miwok form the next natural division. It is preferable to treat these two groups together, and more or less in defiance of strict tribal limits, because the precise boundary between the Wappo and the Lake Miwok has never yet been determined to the entire satisfaction of ethnographers and because the racial affiliation of certain villages is still open to doubt. Bypassing the ethnographic problem, therefore, we may consider the area south of Clear Lake, which includes the headwaters of Putah Creek and upper Pope Valley. The region embraces a rough triangle, the apices of which are the modern villages of Lower Lake, Pope Valley, and Middletown.
The ethnographic sources consist of the works of Merriam, Barrett, and Kroeber. Merriam covered what he considered to be the Lake Miwok in a manuscript entitled "Tu-le-yo-mi Tribe List" and the pertinent Wappo villages in a manuscript entitled "Yukean." Barrett (1908) devoted several pages to the Wappo (pp. 274-278) and to the Lake Miwok (pp. 314-317). Kroeber's discussion in the Handbook was based largely upon these authorities but he later amplified his views in his paper (1932, pp. 366-369) on "The Patwin and Their Neighbors." Since all three investigators have contributed village lists, it will be necessary to examine them in detail. Previously, however, one particular problem requires brief mention.