Indigenous peoples of California

Indigenous peoplesofCalifornia, commonly known asIndigenous CaliforniansorNative Californians, are a diverse group of nations and peoples that are indigenous to the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and afterEuropean colonization. There are currently 109federally recognized tribesin the state and over forty self-identified tribes or tribal bands that have applied forfederal recognition.California has the second-largestNative Americanpopulation in the United States.
Most tribes practicedforest gardeningorpermacultureandcontrolled burningto ensure the availability of food andmedicinal plantsas well as ecosystem balance.Archeological sites indicate human occupation of California for thousands of years.European settlersbegan exploring their homelands in the late 18th century. This began with the arrival ofSpanishsoldiers and missionaries who establishedFranciscanmissions that instituted animmense rate of deathandcultural genocide.
FollowingCalifornia statehood, a state-enabled policy of elimination was carried out against its aboriginal people known as theCalifornia genocidein the establishment ofAnglo-Americansettler colonialism.The Native population reached its lowest in the early 20th century whilecultural assimilationinto white society became imposed throughIndian boarding schools.Native Californian peoples continue to advocate for their cultures, homelands, sacred sites, and their right to live.
In the 21st century,language revitalizationbegan among some California tribes.TheLand Backmovement has taken shape in the state with more support to return land to tribes.There is a growing recognition by California of Native peoples' environmental knowledge to improve ecosystems and mitigatewildfires.
The traditional homelands of many tribal nations may not conform exactly to the state of California's boundaries. Many tribes on the eastern border withNevadahave been classified asGreat Basin tribes,while some tribes on theOregonborder are classified asPlateau tribes. Tribes inBaja Californiawho do not cross into California are classified asindigenous peoples of Mexico.TheKumeyaaynation is split by theMexico-United States border.
Evidence of human occupation of California dates from at least 19,000 years ago.Archeological sites with dates that support human settlement in period 12,000–7,000 ybp are:Borax Lake, the Cross Creek Site,Santa Barbara Channel Islands, Santa Barbara Coast's Sudden Flats, andthe Scotts Valley site, CA-SCR-177. TheArlington Springs Manis an excavation of 10,000-year-old human remains in the Channel Islands. Marine shellfish remains associated with Kelp Forests were recovered in the Channel Island sites and at other sites such as Daisy Cave and Cardwell Bluffs dated between 12,000 and 9000 cal BP.
Prior to European contact, indigenous Californians had 500 distinct sub-tribes or groups, each consisting of 50 to 500 individual members.The size of California tribes today are small compared to tribes in other regions of the United States. Prior to contact with Europeans, the California region contained the highest Native American population density north of what is nowMexico.Because of the temperate climate and easy access to food sources, approximately one-third of allNative Americans in the United Stateswere living in the area of California.
Early Native Californians werehunter-gatherers, with seed collection becoming widespread around 9,000 BCE.Two early southern California cultural traditions include theLa Jolla complexand thePauma Complex, both dating from c. 6050–1000 BCE. From 3000 to 2000 BCE, regional diversity developed, with the peoples making fine-tuned adaptations to local environments. Traits recognizable to historic tribes were developed by approximately 500 BCE.
The indigenous people practiced various forms of sophisticatedforest gardeningin the forests, grasslands, mixed woodlands, and wetlands to ensure availability of food and medicine plants. Theycontrolled fireon a regional scale to create a low-intensityfire ecology; this prevented larger, catastrophic fires andsustained a low-density "wild" agriculturein loose rotation.By burning underbrush and grass, the natives revitalized patches of land and provided fresh shoots to attract food animals. A form offire-stick farmingwas used to clear areas of old growth to encourage new in a repeated cycle; apermaculture.
Different tribes encountered non-Native European explorers and settlers at widely different times. The southern and central coastal tribes encountered European explorers in the mid-16th century. Tribes such as theQuechanorYuman Indiansin present-day southeast California and southwest Arizona first encountered Spanish explorers in the 1760s and 1770s. Tribes on the coast of northwest California, like theMiwok,Yurok, andYokut, had contact with Russian explorers and seafarers in the late 18th century.In remote interior regions, some tribes did not meet non-natives until the mid-19th century.
At the time of the establishment of the first Spanish Mission in 1769, the most widely accepted estimates say that California's indigenous population was around 340,000 people and possibly more. The indigenous peoples of California were extremely diverse and made up of ten different linguistic families with at least 78 distinct languages. These are further broken down into many dialects, while the people were organized into sedentary and semi-sedentary villages of 400–500 micro-tribes.
The Spanish began their long-term occupation in California in 1769 with the founding ofMission San Diego de AlcaláinSan Diego. The Spanish built 20 additional missions in California, most of which were constructed in the late 18th century.From 1769 to 1832, an estimated total of 87,787 baptisms and 24,529 marriages had been conducted at the missions. In that same period, 63,789 deaths at the missions were recorded, indicatingthe immense death rate.This massive drop in population has been attributed to the introduction of diseases, which rapidly spread while native people were forced into close quarters at the missions, as well as torture, overworking, and malnourishment at the missions.
The missions also introduced Europeaninvasive plant speciesas well ascattle grazingpractices that significantly transformed the California landscape, altering native people's relationship to the land as well as key plant and animal species that had been integral to their ways of life and worldviews for thousands of years.The missions further perpetuatedcultural genocideagainst native people through enforcedconversion to Christianityand the prohibition of numerous cultural practices under threat of violence and torture, which were commonplace at the missions.
Thepopulation of Native Californiawas reduced by 90% during the 19th century—from more than 200,000 in the early 19th century to approximately 15,000 at the end of the century.The majority of this population decline occurred in the latter half of the century, under American occupation. While in 1848, the population of native people was about 150,000, by 1870 it fell to 30,000, and fell further to 16,000 by the end of the century.
The mass decline in population has been attributed to disease and epidemics that swept through Spanish missions in the early part of the century, such as an 1833 malaria epidemic,among other factors including state-enabled massacres that accelerated underAnglo-Americanrule.
In the early 19th century, Russian exploration of California and contacts with indigenous people were usually associated with the activity of theRussian-American Company. A Russian explorer, BaronFerdinand von Wrangell, visited California in 1818, 1833, and 1835.Looking for a potential site for a new outpost of the company in California in place ofFort Ross, Wrangell's expedition encountered the native people north ofSan Francisco Bay. He noted that local women, who were used to physical labor, seemed to be of stronger constitution than men, whose main activity was hunting. He summarized his impressions of the California Indians as a people with a natural propensity for independence, inventive spirit, and a unique sense of the beautiful.
Another notable Russian expedition to California was the 13-month-long visit of the scientistIlya Voznesenskyin 1840–1841. Voznesensky's goal was to gather some ethnographic, biological, and geological materials for the collection of theImperial Academy of Sciences. He described the locals that he met on his trip to Cape Mendocino as "the untamed Indian tribes ofNew Albion, who roam like animals and, protected by impenetrable vegetation, keep from being enslaved by the Spanish".
After about a decade of conservative rule in theFirst Mexican Republic, which formed in 1824 after Mexico gained independence from theSpanish Empirein 1821, a liberal sect of the First Mexican Republic passed an act tosecularize the missions, which effectively ended religious authority over native people inAlta California. The legislation was primarily passed from liberal sects in the Mexican government, includingJosé María Luis Mora, who believed that the missions prevented native people from accessing "the value of individual property."
The Mexican government did not return the lands to tribes, but made land grants to settlers of at least partial European ancestry, transforming the remaining parts of mission land into large land grants orranchos. Secularization provided native people with the opportunity to leave the mission system,yet left many peoplelandless, who were thus pressured intowage laborat the ranchos.The few Indigenous people who acquired land grants were those who have proven theirHispanicizationandChristianization. This was noted in the land acquisition ofVictoria Reid, an Indigenous woman born at the village ofComicranga.
The first governor ofCaliforniaas a U.S. state wasPeter Hardenman Burnett, who came to power in 1848 following the United States victory in theMexican–American War.As American settlers came in control of California with the signing of theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, its administrators honored some Mexican land grant titles, but did not honoraboriginal land title.
With this shift in power, the American settlers embraced a policy of elimination toward indigenous people in California. In his second state address in 1851, Burnett framed an eliminatory outlook toward native people as one of defense for the property ofwhite settlers:
Some local communities like the city ofShastaauthorized "five dollars for every Indian head."In this period, 303 volunteer militia groups of 35,000 men were formed by the settlers.
In the fiscal year of 1851–1852, California reimbursed approximately $1 million of expenses for militia groups engaged in "the suppression of Indian hostilities", although in fact, they were massacring native people.Volunteer militia groups were also indirectlysubsidizedby the U.S. federal government, who reimbursed money to the state for the militias.
Most of inland California includingCalifornia desertsand theCentral Valleywas in possession of native people until the acquisition ofAlta Californiaby the United States. The discovery of gold atSutter's Millin 1848 inspired a mass migration ofAnglo-Americansettlers into areas where native people had avoided sustained encounters with invaders. TheCalifornia Gold Rushinvolved a series of massacres and conflicts between settlers and the indigenous peoples of California lasting from about 1846 to 1873 that is generally referred to as theCalifornia genocide.
The negative impact of theCalifornia Gold Rushon both the local indigenous inhabitants and the environment were substantial, decimating the people still remaining.100,000 native people died during the first two years of the gold rush alone.
Settlers took land both for their camps and to farm and supply food for their camps. The surging mining population resulted in the disappearance of many food sources. Toxic waste from their operations killed fish and destroyed habitats. Settlers viewed indigenous people as obstacles for gold, so they actively went into villages where they raped the women and killed the men.
Sexual violence against native women and young girls was a normal part of white settler life, who were often forced into prostitution orsex slavery. Kidnappings and rape of native women and girls was reported as occurring "daily and nightly." Thisviolence against womenoften provoked attacks on white settlers by native men.
Forced labor was also common during the Gold Rush, permitted by the 1850Act for the Government and Protection of Indians.Part of this law instituted the following as a legal practice:
Raids on native villages were common, where adults and children were threatened with fatal consequence for refusing what was essentiallyslavery. Although this was in legal termsillegal, the law was established not to help protect indigenous people, so there were rarely interventions to stopkidnappingsand the circulation of stolen children into the market by law enforcement.What were effectivelyslave auctionsoccurred where laborers could be "purchased" for as low as 35 dollars.
A central location for auctions wasLos Angeles, where an 1850 city ordinance passed by theLos Angeles City Councilallowed prisoners to be "auctioned off to the highest bidder for private service."HistorianRobert Heizerreferred to this as "a thinly disguised substitute for slavery."Auctions continued as a weekly practice for nearly twenty years until there were no California native people left to sell.
The United States Senate sent a group of consultants,Oliver Wozencraft, George Barbour, andRedick McKeeto make treaties with the indigenous peoples of California in 1851. Leaders throughout the state signed 18 treaties with the government officials that guaranteed 7.5 million acres of land (or about 1/7th of California)in an attempt to ensure the future of their peoples amid encroachingsettler colonialism.Anglo-Americansettlers in California responded with dissatisfaction and contempt at the treaties, believing the native people were being reserved too much land. Despite making agreements, the U.S. government sided with the settlers and tabled the treaties without informing the signees. They remained shelved and were never ratified.
TheCalifornia genocidecontinued after theCalifornia Gold Rushperiod. By the late 1850s, Anglo-American militias were invading the homelands of native people in the northern and mountainous areas of the state, which had avoided some earlier waves of violence due to their more remote locations.Near the end of the period associated with the California genocide, the final stage of theModoc Campaignwas triggered when Modoc men led by Kintpuash (AKA Captain Jack) murderedGeneral Canbyat the peace tent in 1873. However, it's not widely known that between 1851 and 1872 the Modoc population decreased by 75 to 88% as a result of seven anti-Modoc campaigns started by the whites.
There is evidence that the first massacre of the Modocs by non-natives took place as early as 1840. According to the story told by a chief of theAchumawitribe (neighboring to Modocs), a group of trappers from the north stopped by theTule lakearound the year 1840 and invited the Modocs to a feast. As they sat down to eat, the cannon was fired and many Indians were killed. The father of Captain Jack was among the survivors of that attack. Since then the Modocs resisted the intruders notoriously. Additionally, when in 1846 theApplegate Trailcut through theModocterritory, the migrants and their livestock damaged and depleted the ecosystem that the Modoc depended on to survive.
By 1900, the population of native people who survived the eliminatory policies and acts carried out in the 19th century was estimated at 16,000 people.Remaining native people continued to be the recipients of the U.S. policies of cultural genocide throughout the 20th century. Many other native people would experience false claims that they were "extinct" as a people throughout the century.
Although the Americanpolicy of Indian removalto force indigenous peoples off of their homelands had begun much earlier in the United States in 1813, it was still being implemented as late as 1903 in Southern California.The last native removal in U.S. history occurred in what has been referred to as theCupeño trail of tears, when the people were forced off of their homeland by white settlers, who sought ownership of what is nowWarner Springs. The people were forced to move 75 miles from their home village of Cupa toPala, California.The forced removal under threat of violence also includedLuiseñoandKumeyaayvillages in the area.
During the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the government attempted to force indigenous peoples to further break the ties with their native culture and assimilate into white society. In California, the federal government established such forms of education as the reservation day schools andAmerican Indian boarding schools.Three of the twenty-five off-reservation Indian boarding schools were in California,and ten schools total.
New students were customarily bathed inkeroseneand their hair was cut upon arrival.Poor ventilation and nutrition and diseases were typical problems at schools. In addition to that, most parents disagreed with the idea of their children being raised as whites, with students being forced to wear European style clothes and haircuts, given European names, and strictly forbidden to speak indigenous languages.Sexual and physical abuse at the schools was common.
By 1926, 83% of allNative Americanchildren attended the boarding schools.Native people recognized the American Indian boarding schools as institutionalized forces ofelimination toward their native culture. They demanded the right for their children to access public schools. In 1935, restrictions that forbid native people from attending public schools were removed.
It was not until 1978 that native people won the legal right to preventfamilial separationthat was integral to native children being brought to the boarding schools.This separation often occurred without knowledge by parents, or under white claims that native children were "unsupervised" and were thus obligated to the school, and sometimes under threatening circumstances to families.
Since the 1920s, various Indian activist groups were demanding that the federal government fulfill the conditions of the 18 treaties of 1851–1852 that were never ratified and were classified.In 1944 and in 1946, native peoples brought claims for reimbursements asking for compensations for the lands affected by treaties and Mexican land grants. They won $17.5 million and $46 million, respectively. Yet, the land agreed to in the treaties was not returned.
TheAmerican Indian Religious Freedom Actwas passed by the U.S. government in 1978, which gave indigenous people some rights toward practicing their religion. In practice, this did not extend or include religious freedom in regard to indigenous people's religious relationship to environmental sites or their relationship with ecosystems. Religion tends to be understood as separate from the land in AmericanJudeo-Christianterms, which differs from indigenous terms. While in theory religious freedom was protected, in practice, religious or ceremonial sites and practices were not protected.
In 1988,Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Ass'ntheU.S. Supreme Courtsided with the U.S. Forest Service to build a road through a forest used for religious purposes by three nearby tribal nations in northwestern California. This was despite the recommendations of the expert witness on the matter, who stated that the construction of the road would destroy the religions of the three tribes. However, no protection was provided through the Religious Freedom Act.
TheNational Park Servicemandates a no-gathering policy for cultural or religious purposes and theUnited States Forest Service(USFS) requires a special permit and fee, which prohibits native people's religious freedom. A 1995 mandate that would have provided conditional opportunities for gathering for this purpose failed to pass. Pesticide use in forests, such as the dropping of 11,000 pounds ofgranular hexazinoneon 3,075 acres of theStanislaus National Forestin 1996 by the USFS, deformed plants and sickened wildlife that are culturally and religiously significant to native people.
California has the largest population of Native Americans out of any state, with 1,252,083 identifying an "American Indian or Alaska Native" tribe as a component of their race (14.6% of the nation-wide total).This population grew by 15% between 2000 and 2010, much less than the nation-wide growth rate of 27%, but higher than the population growth rate for all races, which was about 10% in California over that decade. Over 50,000 indigenous people live in Los Angeles alone.
However, the majority of Indigenous people in California today do not identify with the tribes indigenous to the state, rather they are ofIndigenous Mexicanor Central American ancestry, or of tribes from other parts of the United States, such as theCherokeeorNavajo. Of the state's 934,970 indigenous people who specified aNative Americantribe, 297,708 identified as "Mexican American Indian", 125,344 identified as"Central American Indian", and 125,019 identified as Cherokee. 108,319 identified with "all other tribes," which includes all of the Indigenous Californian tribes except for theYuman/Quechan, who numbered 2,759 in the state.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are currently over one hundredfederally recognized native groups or tribes in Californiaincluding those that spread to several states.Federal recognition officially grants the Indian tribes access to services and funding from theBureau of Indian Affairs, and Federal and State funding forTribal TANF/CalWORKsprograms.
TheCalifornia genocidewas not acknowledged as a genocide by non-native people for over a century in California.In the 2010s, denial among politicians, academics, historians, and institutions such as public schools was commonplace. This has been credited to a lingering unwillingness of settler descendants who are "beneficiaries of genocidal policies (similar to throughout the United States generally)."This meant that the genocide was largely dismissed, distorted, and denied,sometimes through trivialization or even humor to create a self-positive image of settlers.
In 2019, 40th governor of California,Gavin Newsomsigned an executive order formally apologizing to native people and for the formation of a Truth and Healing Council that would be "aimed at reporting on the historical relationships between the state and its Indigenous people."Of this history, Newsom stated: "Genocide. No other way to describe it, and that's the way it needs to be described in the history books."This was a significant event in reducing the dismissal of the California genocide.
After a long decline of Indigenous language speakers as a result of violent punitive measures for speaking Indigenous languages atIndian boarding schoolsand other forms ofcultural genocide, some Indigenous languages are being reawakened. Indigenous language revitalization in California has gained momentum among several tribes. There are some obstacles that remain, such asintergenerational trauma, funding, lack of access to records, and conversational regularity.Some languages with the most success areChumash,Kumeyaay,Tolowa Dee-ni',Yurok, andHoopa.
Cheryl Tuttle, aNative American Studies DirectorandWailakiteacher, commented that language revitalization can be both important for speakers themselves and for the homelands:
Native people, and particularly native women, are disproportionatelyincarcerated in California.Some native people identify the modernprison-industrial complexas another reproduction of the "punishing institutions" that have been imposed onto them and built on their homelands since the arrival of European settlers, including military forts, ranchos, Spanish missions, Indian reservations, boarding schools, and prisons, each of which exploited native people as a source of labor for the economic interests of settlers.Prison laborin California has also been compared toCalifornia's history of forced laborof indigenous people.
In 1990, federally recognized tribes gained some rights to ancestral remains with theNative American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.The similar California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act  is an act that requires all state agencies and museums that receive state funding and that have possession or control over collections of humans remains or cultural items to provide a process for identification and repatriates of these items to appropriate tribes.
This protection to ancestral remains does not prevent development on indigenous burial grounds, just a temporary consultation and return of remains or artifacts found.Tribes and tribal bands in urbanized or high-development areas, such as theTongva(Los Angeles),Acjachemen(Orange County), andOhlone(San Francisco Bay Area) struggle to protect burial grounds, village sites, and artifacts from disturbance and desecration, usually from residential and commercial developments, which has been a feature of daily life for native people in California since the arrival of European settlers.
Along the middle reaches of Marsh Creek near the modern day city of Brentwood lies land that was once occupied by the Bay Miwok speaking peoples more specifically the Volvon tribelet. Radiocarbon dates at the burial site estimate that the individuals were interred around 5,000 to 3,000 BP (3,000 to 1,000 BCE). In the earliest periods of the Black Marsh occupation, individuals were buried in an extended position facing north if on the east side of the site and south if on the west side. Observations by researchers suggest that individuals were not interned based on their sex or age, leading some archaeologists to assume a more culturally significant reason.
In 1982, the California court caseWana the Bear v. Community Constructionsided with developers in the destruction of aMiwokburial ground inStockton, California. Over 600 burial remains were removed for a residential development and the Miwok had no power to stop development or to the remains of their ancestors, since Native American burial grounds were not legally considered cemeteries. The has been referred to asethnocentrisminsettler coloniallaw.
The paved site of theWest Berkeley Shellmoundcontinues to be threatened by housing developments and has become a significant site of contention in the San Francisco Bay Area.NumerousTongvavillage sites and burial grounds continue to be desecrated from developments in thegreater Los Angeles area,such as the unearthing of 400 burials atGuashnafor a development inPlaya Vistain 2004.TheAcjachemensacred village site ofPutiidhemwas desecrated and buried underneathJSerra Catholic High Schoolin 2003 despite protests from the people.
A recurring issue that biological archaeologists face is, during the prehistoric/historic period and late period, Malibu was a common burial site for Indigenous Californians.  This makes it nearly impossible to separate the remains of individuals who lived during the historic period and those who were buried before the Europeans arrived.
TheLand Backmovement in California has gained visibility and action in various places throughout the state.Tuluwat Islandwas the site of the1860 Wiyot massacre. The return began in 2000 with a purchase by theWiyottribe for 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) of the site, which was contaminated and abandoned as ashipyard. In 2015, theEureka City Councilvoted to return the island. An article for CNN stated that this return is perhaps "the first time that a US municipality repatriated land to an indigenous tribe without strings attached." The official transfer occurred in 2019.
Tribes excluded fromfederal recognitiondo not have a land base, which makes tribal identity more invisible. Land back movements have formed to return land to these tribes. This includes theSogorea Te' Land Trustand theTongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, which established the Shuumi Land Tax and thekuuyam nahwá'a("guest exchange") respectively as a way for people living on their traditional homelands to pay a form of contribution for living on the land.In 2021, theAlameda City Councilvoted to pay in Shuumi Tax $11,000 for two years, becoming the first city to pay the tax.
In 2024, 2,820 acres of ancestral homeland were returned to the Shasta Indian Nation byCalifornia governorGavin Newsom. This included tribally significant lands that were drowned by the construction of theCopco I damin 1922.
Basket making was an important part of Native American Californian culture.Baskets were both beautiful and functional, made oftwine, woven tight enough that they could hold water for cooking.Tribes made baskets in a wide variety of shapes and sizes to fulfill different daily functions, including "baby baskets, collecting vessels, food bowls, cooking items, ceremonial items"and wearable basket caps for both men and women. The watertight cooking baskets were often used for making acorn soup by placing fire-heated stones in the baskets with food mixtures, which were then stirred until cooked.
Baskets were generally made by women. Girls learned about the process from an early age, not just the act of weaving, but also how to tend, harvest, and prepare the plants for weaving.
The indigenous peoples of California had a rich and diverse resource base, with access to hundreds of types of edible plants, both terrestrial and marine mammals, birds and insects. The diversity of the food supply was particularly important and sets California apart from other areas, where if the primary food supply diminished for any reason it could be devastating for the people in that region. In California, the variety meant that if one supply failed there were hundreds of others to fall back on. Despite this abundance, there were still 20–30 primary food resources which native peoples were dependent on.Different tribes' diets included fish, shellfish, insects, deer, elk, antelope, and plants such as buckeye, sage seed, andyampah(Perideridia gairdneri).
Acornsof the California Live Oak,Quercus agrifolia, were a primary traditional food throughout much of California.The acorns were ground into meal, and then either boiled into mush or baked in ashes to make bread.Acorns contain large amounts of tannic acid, so turning them into a food source required a discovery of how to remove this acid and significant amounts of labor to process them. Grinding in the mortal and pestle, then boiling allows for the tannins to be leached out in the water. There was also the need to harvest and store acorns like crops since they were only available in the fall. Acorns were stored in large granaries within villages, "providing a reliable food source through the winter and spring."
Native American tribes also used the berries of theManzanitaas a staple food source.The ripe berries were eaten raw, cooked or made into jellies. The pulp of the berries could also be dried and crushed to make a cider, while the dry seeds were sometimes ground to make flour. The bark was also used to make a tea, which would help the bladder and kidneys.
Native Americans also made extensive use of theCalifornia juniperfor medicinal purposes and as a food.TheOhloneand theKumeyaaybrewed a tea made from juniper leaves to use as a painkiller and to help remedy a hangover. They also picked the berries for eating, either fresh or dried and pulverised. The ripe berries of theCalifornia huckleberrywere also collected and eaten by many peoples in the region.
There were two types of marine mammals important as food sources, large migratory species such asnorthern elephant sealsandCalifornia sea lionsand non-migratory, such asharbor sealsandsea otters. Marine mammals were hunted for their meat and blubber, but even more importantly for their furs. Otter pelts in particular were important both for trade and as symbols of status.
A large quantity and variety of marine fish lived along the west coast of California, providing shoreline communities with food. Tribes living along the coast did mostly shore-based fishing.
Anadromous fishlive half their life in the sea and the other half in the river where they come tospawn. Large rivers such as theKlamathandSacramento"provided abundant fish along hundreds of miles during the spawning season."Pacific salmonin particular were very important in the Californian Native American diet. Pacific salmon ran in Californian coastal rivers and streams from the Oregon line down to Baja California.For northwestern groups likeYurokandKaruk, Salmon was the defining food.For example, more than half of the diet of the Karuk people consisted of acorns and salmon from the Klamath River.This combination of fish with acorns distinguished them from some societies in the north which focused solely on fishing.
In contrast to acorns, fish required sophisticated equipment such asdip netsandharpoonsand they could only be caught during a brief seasonal window. During this time, salmon would be harvested, dried and stored in large quantities for later consumption.
Tribes lived in societies where men and women had different roles. Women were generally responsible for weaving, harvesting, processing, and preparing food, while men were generally responsible for hunting and other forms of labor. It was also noted byJuan CrespiandPedro Fagesof "men who dressed as women" being an integral part of native society. The Spanish generally detested these people, who they referred to asjoyasin mission records. With colonialism "joyaswere driven from their communities by tribal members at the instigation of priests and made homeless." Thejoyastraditionally were responsible fordeath,burial, andmourning ritualsand performed women's roles.
Many tribes inCentral CaliforniaandNorthern Californiapractised theKuksu religion, especially the Nisenan,Maidu,PomoandPatwintribes.The practice of Kuksu included elaborate narrative ceremonial dances and specific regalia. A malesecret societymet in underground dance rooms and danced in disguises at the public dances.
InSouthern Californiathe Toloache religion was dominant among tribes such as theLuiseñoandDiegueño.Ceremonies were performed after consuming a hallucinogenic drink made of the jimsonweed or Toloache plant (Datura meteloides), which put devotees in a trance and gave them access to supernatural knowledge.
Native American culture in California was also noted for itsrock art, especially among theChumashof southern California.The rock art, orpictographswere brightly colored paintings of humans, animals and abstract designs, and were thought to have had religious significance.
Reservations with over 500 people:
Before European contact, native Californians spoke over 300 dialects of approximately 100 distinct languages.The large number of languages has been related to theecological diversity of California,and to a sociopolitical organization into small tribelets (usually 100 individuals or fewer) with a shared "ideology that defined language boundaries as unalterable natural features inherent in the land".Together, the area had more linguistic diversity than all of Europe combined.
"The majority of California Indian languages belong either to highly localized language families with two or three members (e.g.Yukian,Maiduan) or are language isolates (e.g.Karuk,Esselen)."Of the remainder, most areUto-AztecanorAthapaskan languages. Larger groupings have been proposed. TheHokansuperstock has the greatest time depth and has been most difficult to demonstrate;Penutianis somewhat less controversial.
There is evidence suggestive that speakers of theChumashan languagesandYukian languages, and possibly languages of southern Baja California such asWaikuri, were in California prior to the arrival ofPenutianlanguages from the north andUto-Aztecanfrom the east, perhaps predating even theHokanlanguages.WiyotandYurokare distantly related toAlgonquian languagesin a larger grouping calledAlgic. The severalAthapaskan languagesare relatively recent arrivals, having arrived about 2000 years ago.