Two leagues downstream from rancheria no. 1, or about 3 leagues below the mouth of the canyon would have put him at a point roughly 5 to 6 miles east-northeast of Bakersfield, not at the site of the city, as is supposed by Coues (1900, p. 299). On May 8 he went 3 leagues south-southwest, then turned and traveled 6 leagues southeast and east to the Tehachapi. These distances and directions plotted on the map place him just at the mouth of Tejon Creek.
To summarize the rancherias mentioned: Garcés saw four villages on the Kern in territory of the Paleuyami or Yauelmani (nos. 1, 2, 3, 12), six on Poso Creek or minor watercourses to the north thereof (nos. 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11), all Paleuyami, and two on White River (nos. 6, 7) in the territory of the Kumachisi.
The size of these villages has been subject to some debate. Garcés cites two with 150 persons and one with 100, but Gifford and Schenck think that he specifies population only for the largest places. The other nine would therefore be smaller. These authors, however, put the average village size at about 60 (750 people in 12 villages). Deducting 400 for the three rancherias specified, the average of the other nine would be 39 which seems much too low. If Zalvidea's figures are any criterion, the villages on the Kern should have averaged at least 100 inhabitants, and it must be noted that Garcés found two rancherias in the hills with 150 and 100 persons respectively. Thus it seems reasonable to allow an average of 100 rather than 60. If so, the population seen by Garcés was in the vicinity of 1,200.
Now it is evident that Garcés did not see all the villages in the region. He covered about 10 or 12 miles of the Kern below the canyon, a good deal of upper Poso Creek, and perhaps 5 miles of White River. He never reached the lower stretches of the rivers at all. It is fair to assume that there were as many rancherias which he did not see as there were seen by him. If so the estimate of the population should be doubled, making 2,400.
One secondary piece of evidence is at hand. Garcés saw 8 villages of the Paleuyami (6 in the hills, perhaps 2 on the Kern). Now Zalvidea in 1806 says that the Pelones (Paleuyami) had at that time 13 rancherias. Allowing for shrinkage in the intervening thirty years, this is twice the number seen by Garcés.
We may at this juncture have recourse to river mileage estimates. It was found previously (p. 36) that for the Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced, Mariposa, and Chowchilla there was in 1850 0.34 village per mile of stream, with the Chowchilla having the lowest value, 0.20 village. For the Merced and the Kings rivers below the foothills in the first years of the nineteenth century it was calculated that there were on the average 65 persons per river mile. Assuming that the average village size was 150 inhabitants, there would have been 0.44 village per river mile. The southern streams were probably more sparsely inhabited than those just mentioned. Hence it is reasonable to apply the factor found for the Chowchilla, 0.20 village per mile, to the White River, Poso Creek, and the Kern River. There are about 150 miles of stream in these systems east of a line running from Porterville to Bakersfield, a line which Kroeber takes as the approximate westward limit of the foothill tribes. This means a probable 30 villages. If the average of 100 persons per village is used, as suggested above, this means a population of 3,000. The direct documentary approach thus gives 2,400 and the indirect method 3,000. A fair figure would be the mean of the two, or 2,700.
The peripheral hills on the southeast and south were held by several tribes. The entire upper Kern River, above the present village of Bodfish, belonged to the Shoshonean group, the Tubatulabal (area 1E). Kroeber thinks they may have reached a population of 1,000, which seems a reasonable figure. From the Kern and Walker's Pass south to Sycamore Creek (area 1D) were the Kawaiisu, a tribe, according to Kroeber, of 500 persons. In the southeastern corner from Sycamore Creek to Poso Creek were a few Yauelmani and the Kitanemuk. Pastoria Creek and Alisos Creek were occupied by a northward extension of the Alliklik, and from Alisos Creek westward to Bitter Water Creek were found the Tokya group of the Chumash.
For the groups beyond the Kawaiisu there are no population data of any kind. Even Kroeber fails to make an estimate. If we say 1,000 for them all in aboriginal times it will be a pure guess, but one which may be somewhere near the truth in view of the extent and character of the terrain involved. The total for the peripheral region would then be approximately 2,500 and that for the southern end of the valley as a whole 6,920, or in round numbers 6,900.
SOUTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY ... 6,900