USA > California > Napa County > History of Napa and Lake Counties, California : comprising their geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber, together with a full and particular record of the Mexican Grants, also separate histories of all the townships and biographical sketches > Part 69
USA > California > Lake County > History of Napa and Lake Counties, California : comprising their geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber, together with a full and particular record of the Mexican Grants, also separate histories of all the townships and biographical sketches > Part 69
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CLIMATOGRAPHY .- The climate of Lake County differs materially from, perhaps, any other county in the State of California. It presents many phases, and even within a few miles there can be found wonderful diver- sities, not to say extremes, of climate. Inside the western border range of mountains the air is shorn in a measure of its moisture, but is still damp enough to keep the temperature reduced greatly and to make it a most pleasant place to live, it being that happy mean where the wind is shorn of its chilling fog, and the heat of the midsummer's sun is tempered by pass- ing through a strata of moist air. Farther in the interior the air is shorn of
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Geography, Name, Topography, Geology, Etc.
all its moisture, and becomes arid and parches the vegetation as it passes over it. The summer's sun pours its unimpeded rays into those valleys in a merciless manner, as if fully determined to prove to mankind that it can shine more fervidly to-day than it did yesterday. And yet it is not so very disagreeable, and those accustomed to it really enjoy its pelting rays. In the upper mountain valleys, such as Cobb, the temperature is always reduced in the summer season, and they afford the most delightful places of residence in the summer.
The average rain-fall is much more in Lake County than it is in San Francisco. It is a remarkable fact that there never has been a year yet when the crops and grass were an entire failure for the want of rain. This being a mountainous district, the rain-fall is naturally great, and the country reaps the results of the rains. The season of rain in this section may be said to commence in October and end in May. It is rare that it rains more than a day or two at a time, and the intervals range from a few days to several weeks. This is truly the beautiful season for all parts of Lake County. The grass now springs to newness of life, and is bright and green on every side, spreading an emerald tapestry over hill and dale fit for the dainty tread of a princess. The swelling bu dis bursted, and the tree is clothed in its garments of green, and the bright flowers gladden the scene with their lovely presence, and exhale an enchanting aroma which serves to make the spring days all the more grateful to man, betokening fruitage and vintage, to which the heart of man gladly looks forward: and in those mountain fastnesses, when the sun shines upon the early springing verdure of ground and tree, what a halo of glory is spread over the vista ! How the shadows of the fleecy cumuli chase each other over fen and brake, and how the merry sunshine kisses with loving tenderness the newly-born offspring of Mother Earth! And the birds and the bees are all in their merriest glee, and the woods with music ring as the sweet hours of the fresh, bright, joyous spring day passes by. Winter's snows are all past now, only on the far-away mountain's-top does there remain even a vestige of the icy monster who has so lately held a large portion of the land in his chilling grasp, and even that is fast disappearing beneath the genial rays of the ascending sun.
Quite an amount of snow falls during the winter months in the mount- ains of Lake County. In the valleys there is usually a fall of snow each winter, ranging from a few inches to several feet, and remaining on the ground from a few hours to several days.
February is the growing month of the year, and the life which has sprung into existence since the rains came now begins to be vigorous and thrifty. The sun has come an appreciable distance to the northward now, and the days are lengthened out enough to make the atmosphere very mild and
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-LAKE.
warm during the day, and the earth is able to retain a sufficiency of the genial rays to keep vegetation springing all night. March is also a great growing month, but there is a likelihood of the north wind blowing some days, and cold storms coming on and checking the growth of vegetation and casting a shadow of gloom over the whole face of nature. April is the month of " smiles and tears," and the saying that "April showers bring forth May flowers," holds as true here as at the East. The weather is now quite warm almost every day, and the air is so deliciously balmy that to live is a pleas- ure, and to grow is all that vegetation has to do. May is a continuation of those beautiful days, with now and then a real warm one, as a sort of har- binger of the days that are to come.
But June brings with it a change, especially in the valleys. On the mountain sides the grass begins to sere, and the patches of russet are every- where visible, showing out in bold relief, contrasted with the green foliage of the shrubbery or trees growing around it. This "sere and yellow leaf" is not the sombre hue of death as it is in most parts of the world, but it is a bright and beautiful tint which, while if unbroken might weary the eye, but broken and varied as it is in Lake County, with ample green from the trees, it presents a picture of rare beauty, and one on which the skill of a master limner might well be exercised to its utmost to catch the delicate tintings which the halo that now always overhangs the mountains, at early morn and evening, casts upon the scene. From now on till the rains come there is but little change in the scenery. The russet spots remain the same, and the green surrounding them is still the same emerald fringe.
In Lake County there are many days, during a season of unexcelled beauty and loveliness-days when the sun shines in unalloyed brightness from out the blue empyrean of heaven's own vault, mantling the world in a sheen of silver-days when the waves of the lake are all lulled to sleep, and naught but a myriad of gentle ripples disturb the placid quietude of her face, upon which the glinting rays of the midday's sun dance in a per- fect revelry of delight-days when the sparkling ripples, breaking in upon the beach, has been hushed down to a murmuring whisper, which is borne along upon the gentle evening zephyr, and falls upon the ear of the listener like the vesper anthems of some far away choir of angel singers.
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Indians of Lake County.
INDIANS OF LAKE COUNTY.
There was a time when the Indians of Lake County were as a swarm of locusts all over the land, and that day is not so very long agone either. Common report states that between 1830 and 1840, the fatal scourge of small-pox decimated the ranks very much of all the tribes in the Sacramento and bay valleys ; but it does not seem that the Indians of this section were affected by it. The lakes and streams abounded with fish, the woods were full of nuts and berries, and the margin of the lakes afforded a large field for " tule potatoes," as the succulent and nutritive roots of that rush are called. Thus it will be seen that Nature had provided in a most generous way for the sustenance of her children in this remote and sequestered place. In the fall of the year there were myriads of wild water fowl upon the lakes, and these they captured in vast quantities by means of the arrow and the spear, but the most effective implement of all was the sling. It is stated that those old Aborigines could send a smooth stone skipping along on the surface of the water for a remarkable distance, and that it would mow a swath right through the swarm of fowl floating upon it. They were able to trap and snare hare, deer and other animals for food, hence, their supply of provisions was only limited by their activity in its procurement.
From Mr. H. H. Bancroft's most excellent work, " Native Races of the Pacific States," we collate the following facts concerning these people. As a general classification he employs the term " Pomos," which signifies people, in all the section covered by the classification. This is the collective appella- tion of a number of tribes living in Potter Valley, Mendocino County. Each tribe takes a different prefix, as Ki Pomos, Cahto Pomos, Shebalne Pomos, etc. On the borders of Clear Lake the Indians belonged to the same general family, but their names were far different, being Lopillamillos, Mipacmas and Tyugas.
Their height rarely exceeds five feet eight inches, and is more frequently five feet four or five inches, and although strongly, they are seldom sym- metrically built. A low retreating forehead, black deep-set eyes, thick bushy eyebrows, salient cheek-bones, a nose depressed at the root and some- what wide-spreading at the nostrils, a large mouth, with thick prominent lips, teeth large and white, but not always regular, and rather large ears, is the prevailing description of these people. Their complexion is much darker
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-LAKE.
than the tribes farther north, often being nearly black, so that with their matted, bushy hair, which is frequently cut short, they present a very un- couth appearance.
Gibbs, in "Schoolcraft's Archeology," says : "The Clear Lake Indians are of a very degraded caste, their foreheads being often naturally as low as the compressed skulls of the Chinooks, and their forms commonly small and ungainly."
Of their dress Mr. Bancroft says: "During the summer, except on festal occasions, the apparel of the men was of the most primitive character, a slight strip of covering round the loins being full dress; but even this was unusual, the majority preferring to be perfectly unincumbered by clothing. In winter the skin of a deer or other animal was thrown over the shoulders, or sometimes a species of rope made from feathers of water fowl, or strips of otter skins twisted together was wound round the body, forming an effectual protection against the weather. The women were scarcely better clad, their summer costume being a fringed apron of tule grass, which falls from the waist before and behind nearly down to their knees, and is open at the sides." The authority quoted above, Gibbs, says: "At Clear Lake the women generally wear a small round, bowl-shaped basket on their heads; and this is frequently interwoven with the red feathers of the woodpecker, and edged with the plume tufts of the blue quail."
Of the habit of tattooing Mr. Bancroft says: "It is universal with the women, though confined within narrow limits. They mark the chin in perpendicular lines, drawn downwards from the corners and center of the mouth ; they also tattoo slightly on the neck and breast. The men rarely tattoo. All who have seen the Indian women of Lake County are familiar with the bluish black stripes which are to be seen on the chins of all of them."
The primitive habitations of these Indians were very rude affairs, if we are to believe the statements made by the authorities quoted by Mr. Ban- croft, and which he deems of sufficient reliability to endorse in his own text. In this he says: " In the summer, all they require is to be shaded from the sun, and for this a pile of bushes or a tree will suffice. The winter huts are a little more pretentious. These are sometimes erected on the level ground, but more frequently over an excavation three or four feet deep, and varying from ten to thirty feet in diameter. Around the brink of this hole willow poles are sunk upright in the ground and the tops drawn together, forming a conical structure, or the upper ends are bent over and driven into the earth on the opposite side of the pit, thus giving the hut a semi-globular shape. Bushes or strips of bark are then tied up against the poles, and the whole is covered with a thick layer of earth or mud. In some instances, the inter- stices of the frame are filled by twigs woven cross-wise, over and under, be- tween the poles, and the outside covering is of tule reeds instead of earth."
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Indians of Lake County.
Our observations of the habitations of the Indians in Lake County lead us to believe that, as a class, they are far superior to the primitive affairs mentioned above. There are none covered with dirt or mud, except the sweat-houses. In shape they are perhaps about equally divided between the conical and oblong, and while the majority of them are thatched, not a few of their houses are constructed with shakes and boards, many of these latter displaying quite a degree of skill in their construction. The writer remembers well to have seen quite an effectual attempt at making a scol- loped cornice on a house in a rancheria at the mouth of Big River, Mendo- cino County, which was the work of an Indian with a handsaw. Of course these wooden buildings are a modern innovation, and not to be reckoned in our estimation of the Aborigine. The thatched buildings are strong, well shaped, and well-constructed affairs. The frame-work is strong, and the thatching so perfect as to be impervious to the heaviest storms of winter. Ordinarily there is a sort of a portico in front of the doors to these houses, which protects the entrances from the summer's sun and the winter's rains. The sweat-house approach is generally well timbered, and has much the appearance of the entrance of a mining tunnel. It is also well braced up with strong timbers on the inside. These timbers are generally hewn square, and are quite good samples of workmanship. In Long Valley we saw the frame-work of a house just ready for the covering, and saw the Indians in a neighboring swamp gathering grass for the thatch. This structure was about twenty feet wide and thirty long, and the frame-work consisted of poles planted in the ground, about two feet apart, and rising perpendicularly to the height of ten feet ; thence the roof began, and ex- tended to the ridge-pole-this angle being about forty-five degrees. About every foot, passing horizontally around the entire structure, and interlacing the upright poles, were a series of withes, making the entire thing look like a crockery crate. When this is thatched, it will make a comfortable and durable structure.
The statement made by Mr. Bancroft that "the bestial laziness of the Central Californian prevents him from following the chase to any extent, or from even inventing efficient game-traps," may apply generally, but it does not apply to the Indians of the Clear Lake section. As has been stated already, they were good hunters and fishers, and they were expert with the trap. These Indians were not so lazy as the race is generally represented to be. They made active and trusty vaqueros as early as the middle '40ies, under the regime of Salvador Vallejo; and Stone and Kelsey found them very willing and efficient workers. The testimony of the early settlers of Napa and Sonoma Valleys is that large numbers of the Lake Indians would come down every season and engage in work, and they made good hands also. Many of the adobe houses of old Sonoma were built by
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-LAKE.
these Indians, although the whole valley around the place was full of natives. If a white man was fair and honest with these Indians, they did him good work and were his most faithful vassals. Mr. W. C. S. Smith, of Napa City, is our authority for stating that in 1854, before there was any permanent white settlement in the county, the Indians at the north of Kel- sey Creek had quite an extensive garden of vegetables, melons, corn, etc. It would thus seem that they had learned the art of cultivating these things, and their value as food, and that they had proceeded in a business-like manner to their production.
In their personal habits they are quite far from being tidy, viewed from the highest standpoint of decency and cleanliness, but viewed in the light that is generally thrown upon the Indians of California, they are remarka- bly neat and clean. The stranger on the streets of Lakeport is surprised to see the really tidy and cleanly appearance of the Indians that are seen there, as compared with many in other towns. Several white men within the limits of the county cohabit with Indian women, and have educated them to a high degree of proficiency in housekeeping and the preparation of food in the modern American style. We have the testimony of a gentleman who ate a dinner prepared by one of these women, unawares, and he states that he never ate a finer meal; but when he learned who had prepared it he ap- preciated the merit more than before.
" Their weapons were bows and arrows, spears, and sometimes clubs. The bows were well made, from two and one-half to three feet long, and backed with sinew, the string of wild flax or sinew and partially covered with bird's down or a piece of skin, to deaden the twang. Their arrows were short, made of reed or light wood, and winged with three or four feathers." The head was of obsidian chiefly in this section, as it is strewn all over the face of the country. The spears were about five feet in length and were usually pointed with obsidian, though sometimes the wood was hardened at the point by subjecting it to the action of fire. To this list of weapons given by Mr. Bancroft must be added the sling, which was with the Lake Indians a very effectual implement of warfare. As stated above, they were very proficient in its use, and could hurl a stone with such force and precision that many an enemy fell beneath its force. They had no tomahawks, and did not practice scalping.
They had but few implements of domestic economy, the basket being the most useful of all. This was made of fine grass, so closely woven to- gether as to hold water. In this their food was boiled, when occasion required, by placing the food and water in the basket and then heating it by immersing hot stones. The flat surface of a heated stone served all the purposes of baking, and a spit was used in broiling. But it must be re- membered that a large percentage of their food, roots, berries, seeds, and
L. M. Gruwell
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Indians of Lake County.
even a large portion of meats, was eaten in an uncooked state. For knives they used the sharp edge of a flat stone, and by patient perseverance were enabled to accomplish wonders with their flint instruments, as is evinced by the beauty of, and the work put upon their shell money.
Bancroft states that the existence and quality of the boats used by any primitive race is a good index of their advancement, both intellectually and in power and prowess, and, as an example, shows the characteristics of the Chinooks and Columbia River Indians, as compared with those further south, where nothing beyond a balsa was ever known or used. Taking this as an indicator of the grade of their intelligence, the Lake Indians come to the front again. They had boats, which, though not of wood, were really canoes, and the old Indian will shake his head and say, " Old canoe mucho wano; log canoe no mucho wano." These old boats were constructed in this wise : A willow pole was taken for a keel and properly shaped, by placing it between stones and weights. Withes of proper length were then taken and fastened to the keel just as the ribs of a boat are, and shaped up and attached to another pole used as the gunwale. Tule was then interwoven between the ribs of the boat and made as compact as possible. It is true that the boat leaked, but what did they care for that ? They were always naked, anyway. They were sure of one thing, their boat would never founder at sea nor capsize, for the roughest seas could put no more water in them than there was, and the weight of the occupant kept it well ballasted. These boats were propelled by a paddle. They would have to be rebuilt as to the tule part every year generally, though by careful usage they would last two years. The boat of to-day is the rude dug-out of the pioneer days, and is made with fire as the chief implement. It is easily upset and Indians frequently drown, which is the occasion of the remark quoted above in re- gard to the relative merits of the two styles of canoes.
Polygamy obtained among them, and the chastity of the wife was a car- dinal tenet among themselves, though the white man's gaudy trinkets were often a sufficient temptation for the man to prostitute his wife. The white man who was kind to them was always gladly welcomed to a matrimonial alliance, and the fairest daughters of the tribe were readily yielded, and it is but fair to state that many of these hardy old pioneers have never de- serted the wives which they took to themselves from the daughters of the forest, but still abide with them and are rearing families.
Every citizen of Lake County is familiar with the customs which attach to the sweat-house and to the various dances and feasts, hence we will not occupy the space in narrating them. Cremation was the old way of dis- posing of the dead, though it is generally, if not entirely, done away with now, and the bodies are buried. Gibbs states that " the body is consumed on a scaffold built over a hole, into which the ashes are thrown and covered."
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History of Napa and Lake Counties-LAKE.
" A scene of incremation is a weird spectacle. The friends and relations of the deceased gather round the funeral pyre in a circle, howling dismally. As the flames mount upward their enthusiasm increases, until, in a perfect frenzy of excitement, they leap, shriek and lacerate their bodies."
Mr. Stephen Powers, a most excellent authority on matters pertaining to the Indians of California, has given a lengthy series of articles on these people to the world through the pages of the Overland Monthly, an excel- lent journal, published in San Francisco until December, 1875. In these he has used the language affinity to locate the boundaries of the different familes in the State. To the Indians in the north-central portion of Cali- fornia he applies two great family names, Pomos and Patweèns. Of the former he says: "The Pomos consist of a great number of tribes or little bands, sometimes one in a valley, sometimes three or four, clustered in the region where the headwaters of Eel and Russian Rivers interlace, along the estuaries of the coast and around Clear Lake. Really, the Indians all along Russian River to its mouth are branches of this great family, but below Calpella, Mendocino County, they no longer call themselves Pomos. The broadest and most obvious division of this large family is into Eel River Pomos and Russian River Pomos." Mr. Alfred E. Sherwood, of Sherwood Valley, Mendocino County; came into that section in 1853, and is very conversant with all matters pertaining to the Indians, and he is our authority for the statement that this family extended as far south as Petaluma, and all talked a kindred tongue. But strange as. it may appear, the Shebalne Pomos could not converse with the Cahto Pomos, who had their habitation only a dozen miles to the north of them. Their name, as given by Mr. Powers, Shebalne Pomos, signifies neighboring people, would carry out that idea, as does also the name given us by Sherwood, Chehulikia, which sig- nifies the north valley, or the valley farthest north that is inhabited by this family. We can thus see the appropriateness of Mr. Power's subdivision into Eel River Pomos and Russian River Pomos, the Cahto Pomos belonging to the former, and the Shebalne Pomos to the latter. The justness of Mr. Powers' statement that the Pomos should include those around Clear Lake is evidenced by the fact that the Sanels, in Russian River Valley, speak a kindred tongue, and all big feasts by either party are attended by at least delegates from the other.
The reader has now got a very good idea of the geographical extent of the Pomo family, to which the larger portion of the Lake County Indians belonged, and we will now pass to the consideration of the other family- the Patweens. This word signifies person or Indian, and is common in all tribes of the family, just as Pomo meant people, and was common in all the members of that family. The following is the geographical statement given by Mr. Powers, of the Patweens : "In Long, (Lake County,) Indian, Bear
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Indians of Lake County.
and Cortina Valleys, along the Sacramento River from Jacinto to Suisun inclusive, on Cache and Putah Creeks, and in Napa Valley, the same lan- guage is spoken." This fact was well known by the early settlers, as the following will prove: In the spring of 1849, ex-Governor L. W. Boggs dis- patched a party to the headwaters of the Sacramento for the purpose of prospecting for gold. It was desired to secure a large body of the upper country Indians to work for the party, and a chief from the Suisuns was taken along to act as interpreter for them.
In Long Valley, Lake County, just east of Clear Lake, the Indians were known as the Lolsels or Loldlas. Lol denotes Indian tobacco, and sel is a locative ending; hence, the name means wild tobacco place, applied first to the valley and then to the people in it. On Cache Creek there were three tribes : the Olposels, Chenposels and Weelacksels, all accented on the first syllable, and signifying the upper, middle and lower tribes, " Sel " being a locative, as stated above.
When wild clover came into blossom, they frequently ate it so greedily as to become distressingly inflated with gas, and amusing scenes ensued. One remedy was a decoction of soap-root administered internally, and judi- cious squaw mothers usually kept a quantity of it on hand. The most fre- quent treatment was, however, to lay the patient on his back, grease his belly and let a friend tread it.
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