THE KINGS AND THE KAWEAH RIVERS
The Kings and Kaweah watersheds may be considered at this point in their entirety (see maps [1] and [3], areas 3 and 4). If we deduct 730 persons for the San Joaquin basin, the estimates for the Mono on the two former streams was estimated by the village method as 870, by the stream mileage method as 1,653, and by the area method as 2,465. If one regards some of these figures as too high, he should bear in mind that the natives on the Kings and Kaweah rivers were exposed to more intense contact with the white race for a longer period before 1850 than those on the relatively sheltered North Fork, and that their extermination proceeded with tremendous velocity after that date. This fact may well account for the inability of either Kroeber or Merriam to find more than a few villages on the Kings and Kaweah, as compared with the success of Gifford on the North Fork. The more exposed villages may simply have disappeared before the era reached by the memory of modern informants. If this is so, the stream mileage and area comparisons may be more accurate than otherwise might be supposed.
Considerable evidence for a rather high population in this region at the midpoint of the nineteenth century is to be derived from contemporary accounts and from statements obtained by Merriam. Among the papers in his collection is a clipping from the Stockton Record of February 21, 1925, containing an article by Walter Fry of the United States Park Service. Included is an account of early days on the Kaweah by Hale D. Thorpe, obtained by Mr. Fry in 1910. Mr. Thorpe says:
When I first came to the Three Rivers country in 1856, there were over 2,000 Indians living along the Kaweah River above Lemon Cove. Their headquarters camp was at Hospital Rock.... There were over 600 Indians then living at the camp.
The Indians were mostly Mono, of the Patwisha tribe. Dr. Merriam evidently consulted Mr. George W. Stewart concerning this matter, since the file also contains a letter from Mr. Stewart written to Dr. Merriam on March 29, 1926, stating that this camp was occupied only during the summer and that there were several permanent rancherias along the stream. Mr. Thorpe's figure of 2,000 probably refers to Indians of all tribes, since by 1856 all the natives from the delta region had been driven up the river. The 600 at or near Hospital Rock were undoubtedly Mono.
In his manuscript entitled "Ho-lo-ko-ma, Cole Spring, Pine Ridge," Merriam has the following to say:
Ben Hancock, who has lived in this country about 40 years [in 1903] tells me that when he came here there were about 500 Indians (Ko-ko-he-ba) living in Burr Valley, a few on Sycamore Creek, 600 or 700 at Cole Spring (Hol-ko-mahs) and about the same number (also Hol-ko-mahs) in Fandango Ground and in Haslet Basin.... He says a very large village was stretched along the south side of King's River two or four miles below the mouth of Mill Creek and for half a mile the dome grass-covered houses nearly touched. There were also large villages on Dry Creek and one above the forks of King's River some miles above Dry Creek. The tribe at the forks is now extinct."
(There is only one survivor of the Burr Valley tribe.)
Although the numbers may be somewhat exaggerated, there is no reason why the essential correctness of this account should be questioned. This is particularly true in view of the circumstantial detail with which it is recorded. The Kokoheba must be regarded as having a population of at least 500 and the Holkoma of 1,200, making 1,700 for the Kings River Mono. If there were 730 on the upper San Joaquin and 600 on the upper Kaweah and if 500 are added for the Emtimbitch-Wobonuch group, the total is 3,530, not much more than was calculated by means of area comparisons.