For the southern Miwok on the upper Mariposa and Chowchilla, calculated by means of village counts and Gifford's average of 21 Indians per village, the values of 273 and 410 respectively were obtained. The factor of a reduction to 70 per cent of the aboriginal population may be here applied, yielding a total of 975 for the two streams. The figure for the North Fork Mono in prehistoric times has already been placed at 640.
If we now add 12,000 for the valley and marginal Yokuts, 5,400 for the foothill Yokuts between the Miwok border and the Kings River, 975 for the southern Miwok on the Mariposa and Chowchilla and 640 for the North Fork Mono the total becomes 19,015.
The validity of this figure can be subjected to a check through comparison by area. This method cannot be expected to show up minor or secondary errors but it will bring to light any fundamental or serious discrepancies. We may block out four major regions: the Kaweah-Tulare Lake, the Kings River, the Merced River, and the segment between the Merced and the Kings. Each of these represents fundamentally the same type of environment, i.e., a rough strip extending southwest to northeast, beginning with the lakes and sloughs of the central valley axis, passing across the valley floor to the foothills, and reaching ultimately the middle altitudes of the Sierra Nevada. Four cross sections are thus obtained, differing in width but fairly uniformly including the habitats represented. It should be noted that the water surface of Lake Tulare as it existed in 1860 has been deducted from the area of the Kaweah-Tulare region; also that the two northern regions include a relatively greater expanse of uninhabitable mountain territory than do the two southern regions. The western boundary has been drawn along a line approximately five miles west of the San Joaquin River and the prolongation of its axis toward the lake. The westward extension of the Tachi toward Coalinga had to be neglected since there are no clear tribal boundaries in this area. The number of square miles was computed by township lines and the error of estimate must be considered at least plus or minus 20 per cent. The results follow:
| Region | Area (sq. mi.) | Population | Population density per sq. mi. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kaweah-Tulare | 1,880 | 14,100 | 7.12 |
| Kings | 1,530 | 9,100 | 5.85 |
| Merced | 1,400 | 3,500 | 2.50 |
| Mariposa-San Joaquin | 3,760 | 19,000 | 5.05 |
The density of the Mariposa-San Joaquin area is quite close to that of the Kings River Basin. The Kaweah-Tulare territory has a somewhat higher density, but this finding is compatible with the known enormous concentration of population around Tulare Lake and in the Kaweah delta. The value for the Merced strip is unduly low. The discrepancy can be accounted for on two grounds. The first, already mentioned, is that this river, throughout its length, passes through a greater area of uninhabitable mountains than do many of the other streams. The second is that our estimates for the lower Merced are insufficient. They rest in essence on the single report by Moraga, who, as has been shown, tended to underestimate and who did not see, or at least did not report upon, the entire course of the lower river. Moreover there is no report at all from Spanish sources with respect to the San Joaquin between the mouth of the Chowchilla (Nupchenche group) and the mouth of the Tuolumne. That villages did exist throughout this region is attested by the illuminating account of J. J. Warner, who was a member of Ewing Young's expedition to the great valley in 1832 and 1833. (I use the text as quoted in Warner, 1890.) He says (p. 28):
In the fall of 1832 there were a number of Indian villages on King's River, between its mouth and the mountains: also on the San Joaquin River from the base of the mountains down to and some distance below the great slough. On the Merced River from the mountains to its junction with the San Joaquin there were no Indian villages; but from about this point on the San Joaquin, as well as on all of its principal tributaries, the Indian villages were numerous; and many of these villages contained from fifty to 100 dwellings.
It is noteworthy that Warner saw no villages on the lower Merced, precisely at the spot where Moraga in 1806 had recorded no less than seven. All of these must have been obliterated during the intervening twenty-six years, striking testimony to the devastation being wrought among the open valley peoples. But from the junction of the Merced and the San Joaquin rivers, along the main axis of the valley the villages were numerous, some of them containing 50 to 100 houses or at least 250 to 500 people.
What happened to these villages is graphically told in Warner's own words.
On our return, late in the summer of 1833, we found the valleys depopulated. From the head of the Sacramento to the great bend and slough of the San Joaquin, we did not see more than six or eight Indians; while large numbers of their skulls and dead bodies were to be seen under almost every shade-tree near water, where the uninhabited and deserted villages had been converted into graveyards; and on the San Joaquin River, in the immediate neighborhood of the larger class of villages, which, in the preceding year, were the abodes of a large number of those Indians, we found not only graves, but the vestiges of a funeral pyre. At the mouth of King's river we encountered the first and only village of the stricken race that we had seen after entering the great valley.
This was the pandemic of 1833, concerning which, in comparison with some accounts, Warner's description is a model of conservatism.