It is evident that a combination of circumstances prevents us from making an adequate assessment of the aboriginal population of the lower Merced River and adjacent segments of the San Joaquin. Our density figure is about half the expected value. If we had the full facts, we could perhaps double the estimated population. Under existing conditions we can feel reasonably sure of the value given for the area between the Mariposa and the San Joaquin rivers.

MARIPOSA-SAN JOAQUIN ... 19,000

THE SOUTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

The southern end of the valley, beyond Tulare Lake and the Kaweah River, can best be considered in three parts. The first is the foothill strip from the Kaweah to the Tejon Pass, which was inhabited by the Yokuts tribes Koyeti, Yaudanchi, Bokninuwad, Kumachisi, Paleuyami, and Yauelmani (maps 1 and 2, area 1G). The second comprises the lower Kern River together with the former Buenavista Lake basin. This area was held by the Yokuts tribes Hometowoli, Tuhohi, and Tulamni. The third includes the peripheral fringe of relatively high foothill and mountain country of the southern Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi and was inhabited by non-Yokuts people: Tubatulabal, Kawaiisu, Kitanemuk, and the Tokya branch of the Chumash (maps 1 and 2, areas 1A to 1E).

Only the Koyeti are described by the Spanish authorities hitherto consulted. Moraga mentions the rancheria Coyahete with a population of 400 in 1806. Estudillo in 1819 found a rancheria, which he called Arroyo de Copaipich, with 200 and one called Canyon Agspa with 400 people. The latter may perhaps be Moraga's Coyahete. If so, the tribe had a population of at least 600 in 1819, but it must have suffered some decline prior to that year. Latta's informants were able to remember 8 villages. Moreover, the tribe was oriented ecologically toward the Kaweah delta and oak forest, although it was actually situated on the lower Tule River. Thus an estimate of 800 persons would not be too much for the precontact period. The Yaudanchi on the upper Tule River also, according to Kroeber and to Latta, had 8 villages and covered considerably more territory than the Koyeti. Hence the same population may be ascribed to them. The Bokninuwad were evidently a smaller group, since Kroeber reports for them only two villages and Latta none. It would not be safe to allow them more than 200 persons. If we do so, then the tentative estimate for the three tribes must be put at a total of 1,800.

For the remainder of the territory held by the Yokuts there are only two documentary references, the diaries of Garcés in 1776 and Zalvidea in 1806. Both these writers give population data which have been subject to considerable controversy.

For the Buenavista region the four pertinent villages are mentioned by Zalvidea and are as follows:

Village
and Tribe
Houses
Men
Women
Children
Total
Malapoa
(Tulamni)		...29 22859
Buenavista
(Tulamni)		...3614438218
Sisipistu
(Hometwoli)		 2850-60... ... ...
Yaguelame
(Yauelmani)		...92... ...300

From even casual inspection it is apparent that Zalvidea did not see the complete population of any one of these villages and that many of the inhabitants had been removed by previous expeditions or were in hiding. The village of Malapoa is small but presents no serious demographic discrepancies. The number of children was low, but as has been pointed out in a previous discussion Zalvidea was counting as men or women everyone over the age of seven years. The children, calculated according to his method, amounted to 13.5 per cent of the total.

At Buenavista he found only 36 men to 144 women, an incredible situation unless most of the men had fled or had been killed. Under normal conditions the number of men should at least approximately equal that of the women. Therefore in order to reconstruct the probable population we are forced to assume the presence of at least 144 men. This gives a total of 326 persons of which 8.6 per cent would have been children. For the other two villages only the number of men is given, no doubt the men actually seen. Indeed at Yaguelmane Zalvidea "counted" the 92 men he specifies. Significantly, however, he counted men "from 7 to 40 years" and infers that the village had a population of 300. If for Yaguelmane we allow 10 per cent of children seven years old or younger the adults would number 270. If the sex ratio were near unity, then, with 92 men 40 years or younger, there must have been 47 men over that age and 135 women of all ages. If the same ratios are applied to Sisipistu with 55 men from 7 to 40 years of age, the population would be 180. This figure is quite consistent with the number of houses, 28, for the number of persons per house would then be 6.43. The four villages (Malapoa, Buenavista, Yaguelame, and Sisipistu) consequently must have had populations of 59, 326, 300, and 180 respectively. The average of the four is 191 persons.