MIWOK FOOTHILL AREA ... 4,150
FOOTNOTES:
[5] There are numerous other letters pertaining to this matter in the same volume of the Provincial State Papers.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
From the data presented in detail in the last section we may now derive the aboriginal population of the San Joaquin Valley as a whole.
| Region | Population | |
|---|---|---|
| Tulare Lake Basin | 6,500 | |
| Kaweah River | 7,600 | |
| Merced River | 3,500 | |
| Kings River | 9,100 | |
| Mariposa, Fresno, Chowchilla, upper San Joaquin | 19,000 | |
| Southern San Joaquin Valley | 6,900 | |
| Northern San Joaquin Valley | ||
| Delta area | 9,350 | |
| Lower Cosumnes | 5,200 | |
| Lower Mokelumne | 5,720 | |
| Lower San Joaquin, Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Stanislaus | 6,800 | 27,070 |
| Foothill strip (central and northern Miwok) | 4,150 | |
| Total | 83,820 |
The total, 83,820, is more than four times as large as the population estimated to be surviving in 1850 (19,000) and much exceeds any previous estimate advanced by modern students of the California Indians.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam in 1905 computed the population of the entire state of California as 260,000, of whom perhaps one-fifth may have occupied the San Joaquin Valley, although Merriam does not attempt to assess the population of this area as such. Kroeber discusses the matter at length in the Handbook (pp. 488-491, 880-891) and concludes that the population of the whole state was 133,000. Of these the Yokuts had 18,000, the Miwok (Plains and Sierra) 9,000, the Western Mono about 1,000, and the peripheral tribes in the south perhaps 2,000, a total of 30,000. Schenck is more liberal, since for the delta region he allows for a spread of between 3,000 and 15,000 persons. The present estimate for the same area, as closely as it can be determined, is in the vicinity of 13,000, or within Schenck's limits although toward his upper extreme.