California E-Book

Andrew Rolle

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 823

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

The eighth edition of California: A History covers the entire scope of the history of the Golden State, from before first contact with Europeans through the present; an accessible and compelling narrative that comprises the stories of the many diverse peoples who have called, and currently do call, California home.

• Explores the latest developments relating to California’s immigration, energy, environment, and transportation concerns
• Features concise chapters and a narrative approach along with numerous maps, photographs, and new graphic features to facilitate student comprehension
• Offers illuminating insights into the significant events and people that shaped the lengthy and complex history of a state that has become synonymous with the American dream
• Includes discussion of recent – and uniquely Californian – social trends connecting Hollywood, social media, and Silicon Valley – and most recently "Silicon Beach"

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

List of Illustrations

Preface

1 California’s Distinctiveness

Selected Readings

2 The Native Americans

Selected Readings

3 Exploring Baja and Alta California

Selected Readings

4 Colonizers of the Frontier

Selected Readings

5 Missions, Presidios, and Pueblos

Selected Readings

6 California and Its Spanish Governors

Selected Readings

7 Exploration and Foreign Interference

Selected Readings

8 Arcadia

Selected Readings

9 Mexican California

Selected Readings

10 Infiltration and Revolt

Selected Readings

11 On the Eve of American Rule

Selected Readings

12 Trappers, Traders, and Homeseekers

Selected Readings

13 American Conquest

Selected Readings

14 Gold

Selected Readings

15 Approaches to Statehood

Selected Readings

16 Social Ferment

Selected Readings

17 A New Culture at the Golden Gate

Selected Readings

18 Post-Gold Rush Commerce

Selected Readings

19 The Messy Land Problem

Selected Readings

20 California and the Union

Selected Readings

21 Ships and Rails

Selected Readings

22 Agricultural and Urban Growth

Selected Readings

23 Discrimination and Accommodation

Selected Readings

24 Crushing or Saving the Indians?

Selected Readings

25 Labor, the Farmers, and the New Constitution

Selected Readings

26 California Culture, 1870–1918

Selected Readings

27 Progressive Politics

Selected Readings

28 Material Urban Growth

Selected Readings

29 Water, Conservation, and Agriculture

Selected Readings

30 Labor in an Industrial Age

Selected Readings

31 The Depression Years

Selected Readings

32 Twentieth-Century Culture

Selected Readings

33 Sports and Leisure

Selected Readings

34 Wartime Setbacks and Gains

Selected Readings

35 World War II and Its Aftermath

Selected Readings

36 The Beleaguered Sixties

Selected Readings

37 Environmental Realities

Selected Readings

38 From Reagan Conservatism to “Governor Moonbeam”

Selected Readings

39 A New Ethnicity

Selected Readings

40 From the Great Recession to the Rise of Silicon Beach

Selected Readings

41 Glowing Past Versus Troubled Future

Selected Readings

Appendix: The Governors of California

Spanish Regime, 1767–1821

Mexican Regime, 1821–1847

American Governors Under Military Rule

Governors of the State of California

Index of Authors in Selected Readings

Subject Index

End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Chapter 02

Table 2.1

California’s native population.

Chapter 41

Table 41.1

Gross Domestic Product

List of Illustrations

Chapter 01

Map 1.1 California topography.

Figure 1.1 Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, east of San Diego. In the foreground are chollo cactus.

Figure 1.2 Joshua Tree National Monument.

Chapter 02

Map 2.1 Major native linguistic groups. Adapted from A. L. Kroeber,

Handbook of the Indians of California

(Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78, Washington, D.C., 1925), Plate I.

Figure 2.1 Mono home. In front of this typical winter shelter is an assortment of burden-baskets and winnowing trays. All the utensils pictured were used by the inhabitants of this home alone.

Figure 2.2 Hupa Indian in ceremonial white deerskin dance costume.

Figure 2.3 Hupa female shaman from northwestern California.

Chapter 03

Figure 3.1 Cabrillo National Monument, dedicated to Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, is located on Point Loma’s east shore near the site where Cabrillo’s flagship, the

San Salvador

, is believed to have anchored. The monument commemorates the first European expedition to explore what is now the west coast of the United States.

Map 3.1 Early Spanish voyages.

Figure 3.2 Captained by Sir Francis Drake, the

Golden Hind

circumnavigated the world between 1577 and 1580. Of the five original vessels which set out from England, this was the only one to return.

Golden Hind

, 1927, by Montague Dawson. The Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, VA.

Chapter 04

Map 4.1 Spanish North America.

Figure 4.1 Monterey coastline along northern California first explored by Cabrillo.

Figure 4.2 Colonnades of Mission San Juan Bautista. Lawrence & Houseworth Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-27205).

Chapter 05

Figure 5.1 Mission San Luis Rey, founded in 1798, from Robinson’s “Life in California Before the Conquest,” 1846. C. C. Pierce Collection, courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

Map 5.1 California Missions.

Chapter 06

Figure 6.1 Mission San Juan Capistrano in the 1920s. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-92191).

Chapter 07

Figure 7.1 Fort Ross today is a designated National Historic Landmark. Located in Sonoma County, it served as a Russian settlement between 1812 and 1839, centering around the sea otter fur trade. Its buildings were constructed with California redwood.

Chapter 08

Figure 8.1 Young Native American rancho worker. Indian ranch hands were known for their horse riding and roping skills.

Chapter 11

Figure 11.1 Pío Pico (1801–1894), entrepreneur and politician. By the end of his second term in 1864, he had served as the last Mexican governor of California. In the 1850s he was among the wealthiest businessmen and landowners in California but due to bad business decisions and gambling later in life, his final years left him nearly penniless.

Chapter 12

Figure 12.1 Kit Carson, “King of Guides.” Shown here is the cover of the May 3, 1884 issue of Beadle’s Boy’s Library, a popular dimestore novel of the period. Christopher “Kit” Carson, famed Rocky Mountain scout and subject of many such romanticized stories, is depicted on horseback in front of a wagon train. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-66371).

Map 12.1 Early explorers of the West 1826–1831.

Map 12.2 Early explorers of the West 1833–1844.

Map 12.3 Early trails of the West.

Map 12.4 Early transport routes of the West.

Figure 12.2 Two survivors of the Donner Party, James Frazier Reed and his wife Margaret Keyes Reed. Reproduced by permission of Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.

Chapter 13

Figure 13.1 John Charles Frémont (1813–1890), known as “The Great Pathfinder,” was a renowned explorer, surveyor, and Civil War general.

Map 13.1 War with Mexico.

Figure 13.2 Los Angeles, 1857 from a contemporary print.

Chapter 14

Map 14.1 Main routes to the gold fields.

Figure 14.1 The Devil’s Golf Course is what remains of Death Valley’s last lake, which disappeared over 2,000 years ago. The terrain is formed as water rises up through underlying mud and evaporates, leaving pinnacles of salt behind. Devil’s Golf Course, Death Valley, California.

Figure 14.2 “A Sunday’s Amusement in the Mines,” 1848–1849, from a contemporary print. Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection of Early Californian and Western American Pictorial Material, courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Figure 14.3 Broadside advertisement of the Mormon Island Emporium in the California mines, 1848–1849. Such stores also served as mail, express, and banking centers.

Chapter 15

Figure 15.1 The Great Seal of 1849. Containing the state’s motto, “Eureka” (“I have found it!”), the design shows Minerva the goddess of wisdom surveying a California scene that includes a miner at work, ships in port, and a grizzly bear next to a luscious bunch of grapes. Shown is the original design by Robert S. Garnett, introduced to the 1849 state constitutional convention by Caleb Lyons. The 1937 version now serves as the state’s current official seal.

Chapter 16

Figure 16.1 Vigilantes in San Francisco execute James Casey and Charles Cora as James King’s funeral cortège passes below. Contemporary print, H. G. Hills collection, courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Chapter 17

Figure 17.1 North Beach, San Francisco, ca. 1860. H. G. Hills collection,

Figure 17.2 The residence of Mrs. Mark Hopkins and Governor Stanford, San Francisco. H. G. Hills Collection,

Figure 17.3 The Crocker and Colton mansions, San Francisco, located on Nob Hill, renamed “Snob Hill” by jealous San Franciscans. I. W. Taber Collection,

Chapter 18

Figure 18.1 Placer miner on the Colorado River, ca. 1890. C. C. Pierce Collection,

Figure 18.2 A Wells Fargo Office shown around 1866. Lawrence & Houseworth Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-11055).

Figure 18.3 Going into the southern California mines by stagecoach, 1904. Diggings are in the canyon and can be seen in the background. C. C. Pierce Collection,

Chapter 19

Figure 19.1 Created in 1919, this map marks the supposed boundaries of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos of L.A. County. The scale is given in English miles and Spanish leagues and varas. Title Insurance and Trust Company, Los Angeles,

Chapter 20

Figure 20.1 “Andy,” an African American placer miner, at a sluice.

Figure 20.2 Leland Stanford, ca. 1875, after he became Governor. He would later be elected U.S. Senator.

Chapter 21

Figure 21.1 Chinese construction workers on the Central Pacific Railroad at “Cape Horn,” a strategic point in the crossing of the Sierra crest.

Chapter 22

Figure 22.1 Vicente Lugo ranch house and some of its landlords and neighbors, 1892. C. C. Pierce Collection, courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.

Figure 22.2 California orange pickers, ca. 1895. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-78372).

Figure 22.3 Harvesting in the San Fernando Valley, ca. 1900. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-53885).

Chapter 23

Figure 23.1 Nine anti-Chinese cartoons by Keppler on the “Chinese Invasion” of the United States, published about 1880. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-103143).

Figure 23.2 Chinese butcher shop in San Francisco, ca. 1890. Photographed by I. W. Taber, Wyland Stanley Collection, courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Chapter 24

Figure 24.1 Wi-ne-ma, or Tobey Riddle, standing between a federal agent and her husband, Frank, on her left. Four more Modoc women sit in front. Taken at an army camp near Tule Lake, 1872. These natives were not part of the warring band.

Figure 24.2 McKay, the

San Francisco Bulletin

correspondent, taking notes on the California lava beds. At left are two partially hidden Warm Springs scouts on the lookout for Modocs, 1872.

Figure 24.3 “Indians Welcome, Indian Land” logo is partially hidden under the U.S. Penitentiary sign at the entrance to Alcatraz Island. The graffiti is a reminder of the island’s 1969–1971 occupation by activists emphasizing the need for American Indian self-determination.

Chapter 26

Figure 26.1 Charlotta Bass in her office at the

California Eagle

, ca. 1931–1940. The African American newspaper was published for more than 85 years. Bass came to work for the newspaper in 1910. Two years later she became managing editor and publisher. She remained the owner until her retirement almost 40 years later. USC Library for Social Studies and Research.

Figure 26.2 Yosemite’s majestic El Capitan.

Figure 26.3 Market Street, San Francisco, looking east from Third Street before the earthquake and fire of 1906.

Chapter 27

Figure 27.1 San Francisco earthquake damage. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USZ62-101015).

Figure 27.2 Displaced San Francisco residents wait in a bread line, April 1906.

Figure 27.3 The great San Francisco graft prosecution, 1906–1907. Henry Ach, one of Abraham Ruef’s attorneys, whispers to the wily Ruef, San Francisco police chief Bigg is at left.

Figure 27.4 Hiram Johnson, the popular progressive Republican Governor of California, 1910–1917; and United States Senator, 1917–1945. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-DIG-npcc-00723).

Chapter 28

Figure 28.1 The Hotel del Coronado, built in 1887, was designated a historic landmark in 1977.

Figure 28.2 Broadway, looking south from Second Street, Los Angeles, June 8, 1889, at the opening of a cable car route.

Figure 28.3 Filming a movie in the early days. The historic Santa Monica Pier can be seen in the background.

Figure 28.4 On November 21, 1937 over 12,000 Californians attended the dedication ceremonies at the preview for the 1939 Pacific World’s Fair. They took place in front of the $1,000,000 administration building on Treasure Island. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration (SPB) Control Number: Neg 12775-C.

Chapter 29

Figure 29.1 The naturalist John Muir (1838–1914) meditating in the wilderness.

Figure 29.2 The lush Imperial Valley nourished by mammoth federal, state, and local irrigation projects of the 1920s and 1930s, in 1941.

Figure 29.3 Giant redwoods.

Chapter 30

Figure 30.1 Destruction by bombing of the

Los Angeles Times

building, 1910.

Chapter 31

Figure 31.1 Migrant mother and baby wait for help with a broken-down truck that contains all of the family’s worldly possessions. Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington (LC-USF34-T01-016453-E).

Figure 31.2 Civilian Conservation Corps workers in California at Camp Rock Creek, 1933. National Archives, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs, 1882–1962 (NLR-PHOCO-A-48223762 (27)).

Figure 31.3 Aerial view of San Simeon, William Randolph Hearst’s castle.

Chapter 32

Figure 32.1 Steinbeck’s novel,

The Grapes of Wrath

, was made into a successful movie in 1940, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda (center). The Granger Collection, New York / Top Foto.

Figure 32.2 The dawn of movie making found Los Angeles to be an ideal locale with its year-round sunshine and its plentiful actors and actresses wishing to make it big in the infant industry.

Figure 32.3 President Abraham Lincoln (played by Joseph Henabery) at Ford’s Theatre in a scene from D. W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation,” 1915. The Granger Collection/TopFoto.

Figure 32.4 J. Paul Getty Museum at its Los Angeles Getty Center.

Chapter 33

Figure 33.1 Tiger Woods.

Figure 33.2 AVP and Olympic Gold Medalists, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh at play, September 2006. The two are volleyball’s most dominant doubles team, having won more than 80 professional beach volleyball tournaments.

Chapter 34

Figure 34.1 World War II evacuation sale at Okano Bros. five and dime store in San Francisco, 1942. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, New York (ARC ID 195537).

Figure 34.2 Japanese American boy waiting by his family’s belongings to be transported to a War Relocation Authority Camp, Salinas, California, 1942. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-USF34-T01-072499-D).

Figure 34.3 World War II assembly-line workers of both sexes contribute to the production of an A-20 attack bomber at the Douglas Aircraft plant in Long Beach, California. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, New York (ARC ID 196397).

Figure 34.4 An exhausted Santa Monica newspaper seller, Ramon Casillas, can be seen reflecting on the day World War II ended on August 14, 1945.

Chapter 35

Figure 35.1 Freeway system. A large highway (I-405) near LAX.

Figure 35.2 Once a popular form of mass transit, the Pacific Electric Railway system fell victim to Angelenos’ love affair with the automobile. In the far right can be seen Sister Aimee Semple McPherson’s Angelus Temple.

Figure 35.3 B-1 bomber flies over Edwards Air Force Base. United States Air Force.

Figure 35.4 Earl Warren (Governor 1943–1953) and his family are pictured grunion hunting with well-known actor and family friend Leo Carrillo.

Figure 35.5 After a remarkable political comeback that astonished friends and foes alike, Richard Nixon won the U.S. presidency in 1968.

Chapter 36

Figure 36.1 Folk musicians and activists, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan perform at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., August 8, 1963.

Figure 36.2 Senator Robert F. Kennedy breaks bread with Cesar Chavez during a mass marking the end of Chavez’s 25-day fast, March 10, 1968. Chavez fasted to bring attention to the peaceful disposition of the farm workers’ strike against California grape growers.

Figure 36.3 First Lady “Lady Bird” Johnson, the conscientious wife of President Lyndon Johnson, visits a classroom for Project Head Start, March 19, 1966. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin (ARC ID 596401).

Chapter 37

Figure 37.1 Los Cerritos Shopping Mall in the Los Angeles area suburbs, August 5, 2006.

Figure 37.2 Makeshift flood control activity combined with conservation.

Figure 37.3 Tunnel under construction through the Tehachapi Range bringing water into southern California.

Map 37.1 Counties of California.

Figure 37.4 Mount Shasta, a towering volcanic peak of the Cascade Range, viewed from the north.

Map 37.2 Major routes of California.

Figure 37.5 Global climate changes have led to fears of rising sea levels. Here a large 2010 winter swell pounds the Venice Pier.

Figure 37.6 At first embraced by environmentalists for producing clean energy, wind farms have become controversial for the numbers of birds killed and other desert creatures displaced by their use.

Chapter 38

Figure 38.1 Ronald Reagan (right) campaigning for Barry Goldwater in 1964. That year Goldwater won the Republican presidential nomination. The Goldwater campaign was the starting point of Reagan’s own national political career.

Figure 38.2 Jerry Brown served as the 34th Governor of California (1975–1983), and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor (2011–present). Photograph by Phil Konstantin.

Chapter 39

Figure 39.1 Antonio Villaraigosa gives his victory speech after defeating incumbent James Hahn, May 17, 2005. Villaraigosa became the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since 1872 when the city was still a frontier town. Photograph by Julio Cortez.

Figure 39.2 Los Angeles on April 30, 1992 near the intersection of Kenmore Avenue and Beverly Boulevard. Later that day, a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in portions of the city. Polaroid photo by Dana Graves.

Map 39.1 Los Angeles and vicinity.

Chapter 41

Figure 41.1 Speaker of the House of Representatives Italian American Nancy Pelosi, alongside California’s Austrian-born Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on February 27, 2007, Washington, D.C. Reproduced by permission of the photographer, Oscar H. Metaquin.

Figure 41.2 The proliferation of medical marijuana shops, including this one on the Venice Beach boardwalk, has earned both praise and ire amongst Californians. Photo courtesy of Arthur Verge.

Guide

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Table of Contents

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California

A History

Eighth Edition

Andrew Rolle

Arthur C. Verge

This eighth edition first published 2015© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Edition history: Harlan Davidson (1e 1963, 2e 1969, 3e 1978, 4e 1987, 5e 1998, 6e 2003, 7e 2008)

Registered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

Editorial Offices350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UKThe Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.

The right of Andrew Rolle and Arthur C. Verge to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rolle, Andrew F. California : a history / Andrew Rolle, Arthur C. Verge. – Eighth edition.  pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.

 ISBN 978-1-118-70104-1 (pbk.)1. California–History. I. Verge, Arthur C. II. Title.  F861.R78 2015 979.4–dc23

2014018389

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: San Francisco cable car © Vito Palmisano / Getty ImagesCover design by Simon Levy

List of Illustrations

Figures

Figure 1.1

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Figure 1.2

Joshua Tree National Monument

Figure 2.1

Mono home

Figure 2.2

Hupa in ceremonial dance costume

Figure 2.3

Hupa female shaman

Figure 3.1

Cabrillo National Monument

Figure 3.2

The

Golden Hind

Figure 4.1

Monterey coastline

Figure 4.2

Mission San Juan Bautista

Figure 5.1

Mission San Luis Rey

Figure 6.1

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Figure 7.1

Fort Ross

Figure 8.1

Native American rancho worker

Figure 11.1

Pío Pico

Figure 12.1

Kit Carson dimestore novel cover

Figure 12.2

Two Donner Party survivors

Figure 13.1

John C. Frémont

Figure 13.2

Los Angeles,.1857

Figure 14.1

The Devil’s Golf Course

Figure 14.2

“A Sunday’s Amusement in the Mines”

Figure 14.3

Mormon Island Emporium advertisement

Figure 15.1

The Great Seal of 1849

Figure 16.1

Vigilantes in San Francisco

Figure 17.1

North Beach, San Francisco, ca. 1860

Figure 17.2

Hopkins and Stanford residence, San Francisco

Figure 17.3

Crocker and Colton mansions, San Francisco

Figure 18.1

Placer miner, ca. 1890

Figure 18.2

Wells Fargo Office, ca. 1866

Figure 18.3

Southern California mines by stagecoach

Figure 19.1

Old ranchos of L.A. County

Figure 20.1

African American placer miner at a sluice

Figure 20.2

Leland Stanford

Figure 21.1

Chinese construction workers at “Cape Horn”

Figure 22.1

Vicente Lugo ranch house, 1892

Figure 22.2

Orange pickers, ca. 1895

Figure 22.3

Harvesting in San Fernando Valley, ca. 1900

Figure 23.1

Keppler anti-Chinese cartoons

Figure 23.2

Chinese butcher shop in San Francisco

Figure 24.1

Wi-ne-ma, or Tobey Riddle, and Modocs

Figure 24.2

San Francisco Bulletin

correspondent McKay

Figure 24.3

“Indians Welcome, Indian Land” logo, Alcatraz

Figure 26.1

Charlotta Bass

Figure 26.2

Yosemite’s El Capitan

Figure 26.3

Market Street, San Francisco

Figure 27.1

San Francisco earthquake damage

Figure 27.2

Displaced San Francisco residents

Figure 27.3

San Francisco graft prosecution defendants

Figure 27.4

Hiram Johnson

Figure 28.1

Hotel del Coronado

Figure 28.2

Broadway, Los Angeles, 1889

Figure 28.3

Early filming at Santa Monica

Figure 28.4

Treasure Island dedication ceremony, 1937

Figure 29.1

John Muir

Figure 29.2

Imperial Valley, 1941

Figure 29.3

Giant redwoods

Figure 30.1

Destruction of

Los Angeles Times

building

Figure 31.1

Migrant mother and baby

Figure 31.2

Civilian Conservation Corps workers, 1933

Figure 31.3

Aerial view of San Simeon

Figure 32.1

“The Grapes of Wrath”

Figure 32.2

Dawn of movie making

Figure 32.3

“Birth of a Nation”

Figure 32.4

J. Paul Getty Museum

Figure 33.1

Tiger Woods

Figure 33.2

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh

Figure 34.1

Evacuation sale, San Francisco

Figure 34.2

Tagged Japanese American boy

Figure 34.3

Douglas Aircraft plant wartime workers

Figure 34.4

Newspaper seller, August 14, 1945

Figure 35.1

Freeway

Figure 35.2

Pacific Electric Railway

Figure 35.3

B-1 bomber

Figure 35.4

Earl Warren

Figure 35.5

Richard Nixon

Figure 36.1

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan

Figure 36.2

Robert F. Kennedy and Cesar Chavez

Figure 36.3

First Lady “Lady Bird” Johnson

Figure 37.1

Los Cerritos Shopping Mall

Figure 37.2

Flood control and conservation

Figure 37.3

Water tunnel through the Tehachapi Range

Figure 37.4

Mount Shasta

Figure 37.5

Global climate change at Venice Pier

Figure 37.6

Wind farm

Figure 38.1

Ronald Reagan

Figure 38.2

Jerry Brown

Figure 39.1

Antonio Villaraigosa

Figure 39.2

Los Angeles riots, 1992

Figure 41.1

Nancy Pelosi and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Figure 41.2

Venice Beach pot shop

Maps

Map 1.1

California topography

Map 2.1

Major native linguistic groups

Map 3.1

Early Spanish voyages

Map 4.1

Spanish North America

Map 5.1

California Missions

Map 12.1

Early explorers of the West 1826–1831

Map 12.2

Early explorers of the West 1833–1844

Map 12.3

Early trails of the West

Map 12.4

Early transport routes of the West

Map 13.1

War with Mexico

Map 14.1

Main routes to the gold fields

Map 37.1

Counties of California

Map 37.2

Major routes of California

Map 39.1

Los Angeles and vicinity

Tables

Table 2.1

California’s native population

Table 41.1

GDP in selected countries and California

Preface

Like its predecessors, this eighth edition of California: A History is designed to serve the general reader and students alike. Since its original publication in 1963, the work has enjoyed great popularity, having been read by well over 100,000 readers. The book’s aim is to recount the state’s history from its origins to the present in an engaging manner while seeking a balance between conflicting viewpoints.

Any history of California must do justice to the Indian peoples, the first inhabitants of the land, and then to Spanish and Mexican colonialism, both of which shaped the past and continue to influence the present. The historian also must chronicle those dramatic, sometimes violent, changes that began after the American conquest of the province. Today, especially, Californians face great challenges as the nation’s most diverse and populous state, having surpassed 38 million residents in 2013.

Enormous social and material changes continue to test the state as well. Legislative battles remain over how best to educate and employ the state’s diverse peoples – and how to pay for all of it. This eighth edition incorporates these developments in a historical context, pondering implications for the future. Likewise, those sections of the book devoted to women, the environment, immigration, education, crime, sports, energy, and transportation have been expanded.

An avalanche of writing, especially about contemporary California, often verges upon sociology rather than history. Much of this emphasis concerns minority groups who have outgrown that label. An updated chapter examines those changes as does an entirely new chapter that outlines the impact of the Great Recession and the rise of new technologies and start-up companies in its wake. The appearance of new works on the many aspects of California history is reflected in updated chapter bibliographies and, as always, this edition features a separate index of authors listed in these sections. Additionally, new maps, charts, and photographs are provided.

Professor Arthur Verge remains as co-author of this new edition. Among those persons who have been helpful in its preparation are my long-time editor and friend, Andrew Davidson, as well as Larry Kocher, Galal Kernahan, Charles Johnson, Professors Robert T. Smith and William Doyle, and Milton Slade and Selena Spurgeon.

A. R.

1California’s Distinctiveness

The name California brings to mind extremes in both geography and climate. The state’s variety is overwhelming. Its mountains are the highest in the continental United States outside Alaska. Its redwood forests comprise the oldest and tallest trees alive. Its high surf and sandy beaches lie in sharp contrast to its bleak deserts. The state’s rains, floods, and wildfires can be catastrophic. Its droughts, too, are severe, its legendary earthquakes highly destructive.

In 1906, over 3,000 people were killed in a San Francisco earthquake. That catastrophe left a quarter of a million persons homeless. Since then, California has repeatedly experienced major quakes that resulted in the loss of life and property. In addition to its world-famous San Andreas Fault, it has a great many other underground faults, known and unknown.

California offers virtually every climatic, geologic, and botanical combination. These range from the wettest to the driest weather; sandy soil in its deserts and rich loam in the Central Valley. Mount Whitney (14,496 feet) is the second-highest peak in the United States. Bad Water in Death Valley (282 feet below sea level) is the lowest point in North America. In 2012, the World Meteorological Organization declared that Death Valley holds the highest recorded temperature in history, a stunning 134 degrees that was taken on Greenland Ranch, on July 10, 1913. In the summertime, the Central Valley’s temperature rises to well over a sweltering 100 degrees. Yet, in half an hour one can travel into the San Francisco Bay area, fogbound at less than 50 degrees. In midwinter, the orange groves of southern California lie in valleys framed by distant snowy peaks.

California’s literature expresses all this distinctive regionality. It underlies the “local color” of the short stories of Bret Harte, the wit of Mark Twain’s tall tales, the humanity of John Steinbeck’s novels, as well as the celebration of nature in the stark poetry of Robinson Jeffers. In architecture, the fusion of its Spanish heritage and tastes of the New Englanders who arrived next produced the Monterey-style house, with its balconies, adobe walls, red-tiled roof, and white-washed woodwork. Such variety lies at the heart of California’s past and present.

Map 1.1 California topography.

No other American state would, standing alone, comprise its own nation. California ranks third in size, but first in population. By 2013, the state surpassed 38 million inhabitants. The 14 counties that make up southern California are nearly as large as all six New England states combined, and are larger than Illinois, Iowa, or Alabama. More people live in Orange County than in Montana. There is a great disparity of population within the state’s 58 counties. The Los Angeles area, with some 10 million residents, stands in contrast to tiny Alpine County, with only 1,200 inhabitants.

The province’s natural wealth once lay unexploited. The melting snows of the Sierra rushed down unharnessed rivers into the sea. Underground reservoirs of petroleum lay untapped. Gold, shining on the bottoms of mountain streams, awaited the picks and shovels of Yankee miners. Magnificent timber stands stood untouched. But, rather quickly, the missions and ranchos gave way to vineyards and orange groves. Next came oil derricks, aircraft factories, steel mills, residential subdivisions, Hollywood film-making, and the technology in the Silicon Valley.

Urban development has overwhelmed a state whose shoreline spans the Pacific seaboard for 1,200 miles. The length of California is 824 miles while its width reaches 252 miles. The chief surface features are two mountain chains that traverse almost the entire length of the state. Its Central Valley lies between the mountains of the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada. The combined San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, 400 miles long and 50 miles wide, constitute one of the great granaries of the world. Because farmers can raise crops during three growing seasons instead of the usual one, California remains the nation’s top agricultural state.

It is more accurate to speak of California’s “climates” than to refer to a single weather pattern. Scores of specialized microclimates frequently recur. What is usually thought of as “California climate” prevails mostly south of San Francisco to the Mexican border, and between the Coast Ranges and the Pacific Ocean. In these regions the seasons drift by mildly, almost unperceived. The heat of the day is fanned by prevailing westerly winds. Climatic comfort is usually maintained by foggy “veloe” clouds.

What Californians call “winter” evokes laughter in other parts of the country. The state’s coastline is cooled by a meteorological process known as “upwelling,” wherein warm winds swirl inward from a northwesterly direction even as prevailing currents bring cold ocean water from the depths up to the surface. When the warm air meets the cold surface water, condensation forms. Then fog and low clouds sit over the ocean, creeping inland at night and retreating seaward toward dawn. During the course of the day, heat radiating off the California landmass helps to dissipate this fog.

Although more than half the state’s residents live in southern California, most of the raw materials and 90 percent of the fresh water lie in northern California. Annual rainfall in the northwest corner of the state, above Eureka, reaches 110 inches, making the area a virtual rain forest. Precipitation in the Central Valley is heavier at Sacramento and Stockton than at other cities farther south, including Fresno and Bakersfield. At San Francisco, the average annual rainfall is nearly 23 inches; at San Luis Obispo it falls to 19 inches, and to less than 15 inches at Los Angeles. In San Diego, near the Mexican border, rainfall generally amounts to only 10 inches per year. Precipitation, the heaviest from November to April, averages only 6 inches at Bakersfield and as little as 1 or 2 inches in desert areas.

Figure 1.1 Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, east of San Diego. In the foreground are chollo cactus.

Courtesy of Lynne Blanton.

The Coast Ranges partly control California’s weather. In the winter, North Pacific storms crash down on those mountains. Rain clouds push through their canyon gaps into the Central Valley. Most fast-moving storms, however, break up along the Sierra crest. Below the eastern Sierra, the scorching temperature sometimes rises to 130 degrees in Death Valley, where there is hardly any vegetation. In the bleak volcanic area of northeastern California, a rocky topography also limits agriculture and ranching.

In northern California, annual floods can be especially severe. Since the Gold Rush era, Sacramento, Stockton, Oroville, and Marysville have repeatedly endured winter inundations. Paradoxically, one of the most serious flood threats exists in semi-arid southern California, where burned-out chaparral provides poor cover for unstable mountain watersheds.

This wide range of climate makes possible a great variety of vegetable and floral products. Almost every plant, tree, or shrub that grows in temperate zones, and many indigenous to the tropics, can be grown somewhere in California. The state also is known for its unique forms of vegetation, especially its giant sequoias, which have their roots deep in the ancient past. Along with the bristle-cone pines of the White Mountains, these monarchs of the forest may well be the oldest living things on Earth. Sequoias now standing reached their prime at the time of Christ. Their age may be 5,000 or more years. Sequoias are virtually immune to diseases that afflict other trees, and their tannic bark is practically resistant to fire. Most “big trees” that have perished have been the victims of human ravages, lightning strikes, or fierce storms.

The gnarled Monterey cypress, a picturesque denizen of the seacoast, grows along a rugged section of the Monterey shoreline. These trees, clinging precariously to promontories like Cypress Point, are totally exposed to Pacific storms. Over the years heavy winds have twisted them into fantastic forms, and yet they survive. Similar in tenacity are the rugged Torrey pines hugging the coastline above San Diego.

California’s skies were once darkened by flocks of geese, ducks, and other migrating birds that wintered there. Although the indigenous wildlife has been seriously depleted, 400 species of mammals and 600 varieties of birds still make the state their home. From the horned toad and desert tortoise to the bobcat, weasel, and black-tailed deer, California’s fauna is as diversified as its other natural features. In the wilderness, coyotes, mountain lions, and wolverines still roam. Once common, Bighorn mountain sheep and Wapiti (commonly known as elk) are now rare, and the grizzly bear is extinct. The California condor and sea otter have barely escaped extinction.

Geologically, California is still young. The 400-mile-long Sierra scarp, formed by processes known as uplifting and faulting, and the Cascade and Klamath ranges in the north are all in youthful stages of development. The California coastline, pushed up out of the Pacific’s depths at Points Pinos and Lobos, as well as at Cape Mendocino, is a rocky one, with headlands jutting out to sea. This coastline, unlike the eastern shore of the United States, is geologically one of emergence, rather than submergence; in fact, the entire Pacific shoreline is sharply uplifted. This geologic pattern has produced few navigable rivers or harbors comparable to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. With the exception of San Diego Bay in the south, San Francisco Bay in the middle, and Bodega and Humboldt Bays (both lesser estuaries) in the north, California has few natural harbors.

Figure 1.2 Joshua Tree National Monument.

Courtesy of Lynne Blanton.

In past geologic ages, stupendous changes shaped the contour of California. Its two principal mountain chains, the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges, were titanic upheavals from beneath the Earth’s crust. The fiery origin of the Cascade Mountains to the northeast is revealed by their lava formations and extinct cinder cones. One supposedly dead volcano, Lassen Peak, came back to life in 1914, spouting out a mass of hot mud and ash that devastated everything in its path. At intervals, Lassen floats a pennant of smoke from its summit, as if to warn that its inner fires still smolder. Seething geysers and hot sulphur springs – safety valves for subterranean heat and pressure – testify that underlying fires are far from extinguished at Calistoga and Geyserville in the Napa Valley.

Glaciers, changes of weather and temperature, volcanic and chemical action, running water, successive earthquakes – all have shaped the mountains of California. The Yosemite Valley is a symbol of California’s vanishing wilderness. Its glacial U-shaped chasm is lined with perpendicular walls, out of which cascades the magnificent Bridalvale Waterfall.

Continuous earth tremors have also altered geography. The sheer precipice of the eastern Sierra, facing Owens Valley and Nevada, drops 10,000 feet below Mount Whitney. It provides a striking example of a vertical fault caused by earthquakes. Seashells, whale bones, and beach boulders are to be found on mountaintops far above the present level of the sea, proof that ages ago ocean waves washed against the base of the Sierra Nevada range.

Prehistoric California went through numerous transitions of climate, including both arctic cold and tropical heat. A few small glaciers still exist in the Sierra range as mementos of the last ice age. As for the tropical past, it is locked into the asphalt beds at Rancho La Brea, now a municipal park in Los Angeles. During the Tertiary Age, the quaking, sticky surface of this prehistoric swamp became a death trap for animals and birds long since extinct. The blackened skeletons of creatures caught in these tar pits furnish evidence of the kinds of animal and plant life that once existed in the region. Museum dioramas can only suggest an era of huge mammoths, camels, horses, saber-toothed tigers, dire wolves, and ground sloths that once roamed through primeval forests. Carbon-dating has established the age of animal and mineral remains taken from La Brea at more than 28,000 years.

California’s remoteness long kept it isolated. Visitors had to cross the Pacific Ocean, only to risk a dangerous landing on the craggy shore, or traverse an unexplored continent, unfordable rivers, waterless deserts, and rugged mountain peaks covered with snowfields. When the explorer John Charles Frémont entered the remote province in 1844, his expedition narrowly escaped death in the icy Sierra Nevada. Two years later a group of overland emigrants known as the Donner Party lost half its members in these same mountains. Similarly, Death Valley acquired its name from desperate “overlanders” who perished in that unforgiving inferno.

California’s actual “discovery” by Europeans came by sea. That event occurred relatively late in human history, partly because, as mentioned, it was not that easy to reach its shores by boat. In 1542, Spain’s mariners, after repeated voyages, finally sighted that distinctive and still unexplored “terrestrial paradise at the left hand of the Indies.”

The region’s human story actually begins with the Native peoples whom the invading Spaniards encountered.

Selected Readings

For descriptions of the geologic and natural wonders of California see Roderick Peattie, ed.,

The Pacific Coast Ranges

(1946) and Peattie’s

The Sierra Nevada

(1947); Allan Schoenherr,

A Natural History of California

(1992); Alfred Runte,

Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness

(1989); John McPhee,

Assembling California

(1993); Jeffrey F. Mount,

California Rivers and Streams

(1995); David Hornbeck and Phillip Kane,

California Patterns: A Geographical and Historical Atlas

(1983); Warren A. Beck and Ynez D. Haase,

Historical Atlas of California

(1973); David W. Lantis, Rodney Steiner, and Arthur E. Karinen,

California: Land of Contrast

(1963); G. H. Geschwind,

California Earthquakes

(2001); Robert Tacopi,

Earthquake Country

(1964); and Philip L. Fradkin,

The Seven States of California

(1995).

Early general histories include Hubert Howe Bancroft,

History of California

(7 vols. 1884–1890); Theodore H. Hittell,

History of California

(4 vols. 1885–1897); Zoeth S. Eldredge, ed.,

History of California

(5 vols. 1915); Charles E. Chapman,

History of California: The Spanish Period

(1921); and Robert Glass Cleland,

History of California: The American Period

(1922), which preceded his

From Wilderness to Empire

(1944) and

California in Our Time

(1947).

2The Native Americans

Over the course of thousands of years, California’s original inhabitants had fashioned a harmonious adjustment to their environment. Yet, nineteenth-century observers claimed that they did not compare favorably with other tribal groups in North America. Nevertheless, their routine included the production of baskets with intricate designs, acorn-leaching operations, and the skillful chipping of flint into useful tools. Furthermore, some of the groups, among them the Hupa and Yurok, practiced sophisticated rituals.

It is difficult to generalize about California’s many different tribal groups. Isolated from other North American Indians by rugged mountains and bleak deserts, Native Californians lived close to the soil within an uncomplicated culture. Favored by ample supplies of acorns and abundant game and seafood, but lacking metal tools, they never developed organized agriculture. Similarly, their fine basketry work may explain why they rarely made pottery, with the exception of groups in the Owens Valley and along the lower Colorado River. In such a culture, one’s livelihood revolved around gathering food as well as hunting and fishing, as opposed to sowing, planting, and harvesting crops. Therefore, instead of labeling the life ways of California Indians as simplistic, it is more accurate to speak of their traditional cultures as realistic. Theirs was a practical social system adapted to their environment that functioned successfully and remained intact for thousands of years.

Today’s anthropologists maintain that the first Americans (perhaps hunting mammoths) crossed from Siberia over a land bridge in the Bering Sea. Some 20,000 years ago, terrain, exposed during low sea levels, may have made this approach possible. The ancient bones of “Laguna Man” are about 17,000 years old. Flint chips from another site near Calico have been dated as about 20,000 years in age. A link between California’s Indians and Asian natives has been verified. Recent DNA studies match those of the coastal Chumash with ancient remains from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America!

Map 2.1 Major native linguistic groups. Adapted from A. L. Kroeber, Handbook of the Indians of California (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78, Washington, D.C., 1925), Plate I.

More than 10,000 words and grammatical forms used by California natives resemble those employed in remote parts of Siberia. These language linkages suggest that the first humans to reach the Pacific coast of North America were Mongolians. California’s Penutians, who lived north of Monterey, appear to have arrived only 3,000 years ago. In addition to Asian linguistic similarities, their domestic practices and religious beliefs resembled those of tribal societies in far-off Siberia.

Most of California’s Indian natives were of sturdy stock and they lived long lives as well. Chief Solano of the Suisunes, for whom Solano County is named, was six feet seven inches tall. Sam Yeto, Mighty Hand, as he came to be called, was hardly dull-witted. His followers speedily picked up the Spanish language from the missionaries. They also quickly learned how to read music and even to sing religious chorals in Latin. They were, however, generally resistant to working in the fields, having no background in organized agriculture.

California’s missions were built by Indian laborers under the direction of the Franciscan friars. Controversy has arisen among historians over the missionaries’ treatment of natives, as if the Indians were children in need of punishment for their sins. Yet the missionaries taught the natives new trades, including carpentry and weaving. In a short time, the Indians also became excellent horseback riders and cattle herders, even though they had not previously possessed domesticated livestock, including horses.

Traditionally, basket-making lay largely in the hands of the women, who were also expert in dressing skins and fashioning rushes into bedding mats. Coastal Indians built dugout canoes with no better tools than wedges of elk horn and axes fashioned from mussel-shell blades. The natives’ household utensils included stone mortars, with which they ground acorns and other seeds. They used horn knives and flat spoons or paddles to stir acorn gruel. The Indians also used looped sticks for cooking meat in baskets lined with red-hot stones, as well as nets made of vegetable fiber to catch fish or carry small objects. They also made attractive wooden trays and bowls.

The first sound one likely heard upon approaching an Indian village was the pounding of pestles in mortars. Natives sometimes mixed pulverized acorns with bits of dried salmon and whole nuts, which became basic provisions during winter. Before acorns could be consumed, they had to be hulled and parched, with the tannic acid leached out in a basket-pot or a sand basin. Next, they boiled the sweetened ground acorn meal. The Shastas roasted moistened meal, while the Pomo and other groups mixed red earth with their meal and baked it; the resultant product could be eaten immediately or stored for later use. These original Californians also ate the boiled green leaves of certain plants and roasted roots. The Indians distilled no intoxicating beverages, but they induced inebriation by smoking or chewing wild tobacco. Jimson weed was their equivalent of marijuana.

The Indians generally constructed simple dwellings, the designs of which varied in accordance with the local climate. In northwest and central California, some homes lay halfway below the ground, their sides and roofs consisting of broad slabs of wood. These dwellings kept the inhabitants warm in cold weather and cool on hot days. The Klamath River tribes sometimes constructed shelters out of bark and redwood planks. Among the Chumash, houses consisted of poles drawn together in a semicircle and tied at the top with reeds. Thatched with grass, foliage, or wet earth, such dwellings were well suited to the mild climate of the Santa Barbara coastline.

Along the Pacific coast, the natives had few weapons other than small bows and arrows and flint-tipped lances. When hunting large animals, they made up for a lack of better armament by employing clever strategies. In order to draw near enough to big game to kill it, they donned disguises fashioned from the heads and upper parts of skinned animals. They also set out decoys to attract birds within arrowshot. They also coordinated game drives, herding the wild animals past hunters lying in ambush. They also employed the less common practice of running down deer in human relays, until the quarry fell to the ground from exhaustion. The Indians also constructed pits and traps to catch even larger or more dangerous game. Nevertheless, they relished as foodstuffs small animals such as wood rats, squirrels, coyotes, crows, rabbits, lizards, field mice, and snakes. Cactus apples and wild berries too formed part of their diet.

Some tribelets ate snails, caterpillars, minnows, crickets, grubs (found in decayed trees), slugs, fly larvae (gathered from the tops of bushes in swamps), horned toads, earthworms, grasshoppers, and skunks (the latter killed and dressed with all due caution). Seafood and shellfish formed an important part of the diet of coastal inhabitants. Others fished inland along northern rivers in which great schools of salmon spawned. Nature, in addition to furnishing the Indians with food, also provided them with basic clothing. When weather permitted, the men went naked except for moccasins or crude sandals. Farther north, they fashioned snowshoes from animal skins. If temperatures plummeted, the Indians donned rabbit or deerskin cloaks and skin blankets. Some women wore skirts made of tule grass or aprons of animal skin. In cold weather they employed capes of deerskin or rabbit fur or simply covered their breasts with furs, including those of the otter and wildcat. Some groups painted their faces and bodies in intricate patterns; others braided decorative seashells into their hair. For ceremonial occasions both sexes donned elaborate headdresses of feathers and beads. Northern peoples wore basketry hats, while those of the central region bound their heads with hairnets.

Another source of pride among certain groups was the craftsmanship of their watercraft, which the males handled with dexterity and skill. Small boats included tule balsas, or reed rafts, made out of woven river rushes. These were poled or paddled along inland waters, as were plank canoes, the burned- or chopped-out trunk segments of large trees. While the men engaged in hunting and fishing, the women and older children hunted small animals, gathered acorns, scraped animal skins, fashioned robes, hauled water and firewood, wove baskets, barbecued meat, and even constructed dwellings. Yet it is misleading to label the men as lazy; they simply became specialized in their roles. Among the Hupa the males made bows, arrows, nets, and pipes, dressed hides, and used dry sticks to start fires.

Figure 2.1 Mono home. In front of this typical winter shelter is an assortment of burden-baskets and winnowing trays. All the utensils pictured were used by the inhabitants of this home alone.

Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-49232).

Dancing was not only a social amusement but an important part of highly structured ceremonies. There were special dances to honor the newborn child, the black bear, the new clover, the white deer, and the elk. Other dances welcomed visitors. Additionally there was a dance of peace and one of war, for which young men painted themselves and dressed in plumes and beads. Dancing also took place during separate puberty rites for boys and girls. The Yurok held a first-salmon dance at the mouth of the Klamath River. The Hupa, in addition to staging a first-eel ceremony, also celebrated an autumnal first-acorn feast.

Singing became spirited when a group celebrated by chewing or smoking jimson weed, the narcotic effects of which were noted. Some religious rituals, such as those of the Toloache cult, used music as an adjunct to narcotics. Accompanied by the hum of the bull roarer (a slat of wood swung at the end of a thong), chanting and singing might go on late into the night.

Among other types of celebrations were those during which participants boasted about the fine huts they had built or the victories their warriors had won. All such achievements were intoned aloud by wizened elders in lengthy orations, to which onlookers listened in solemn silence. Celebrating crowds did not gorge themselves, usually eating abstemiously.

Some tribes held a special ceremony each summer to memorialize the dead. This ritual included building a large fire into which clothing, baskets, and other possessions were thrown as offerings to the departed. Young men then danced in a circle around the fire, accompanied by the rattle of a melancholy chant of mourning. Organized mourning for the dead by close relatives was practiced by nearly all tribes. This entailed smearing one’s face with a wet paste mixed from the ashes of the deceased. The mourners usually kept this facial covering on until it wore off, perhaps as long as a year. Many tribes practiced cremation; a few tribes buried their dead.

Many Indian customs might seem strange to us today. In northwestern California, for example, a wife could be purchased for strings of shell money or deerskins. In fact, a man was disgraced if he secured a wife for little or nothing. Polygamy was practiced by males who could afford more than one wife. Some of the men were inveterate gamblers who would risk their last possession, including their wives. A guessing-game was popular, as were other games of chance involving the placing of stone pebbles under seashells. In ball games, and in leaping, jumping, and similar matches, the contestants accepted defeat with the same good sportsmanship that they displayed in victory.

Governed by lineage and quite precise social patterns, each family was a judiciary system unto itself. The bodies of adolescent boys and girls were painted by shamans who acted as temporary guardians, or “spirit helpers,” during their rites of passage into adulthood. At all times obedience to elders was stressed. There was no fully systematic punishment for crime. Although atonement for injuring another was expected, some offenses could be excused by recompense. A murderer might buy himself off by paying the family of the deceased in skins or shells.

Because the local natives spoke approximately 135 different dialects, a strict political or tribal system was not universal. One should, therefore, avoid use of the term tribe. Except for a minority of well-defined tribes or tribelets, including the Yumas and some of the Indians of California’s northwest coast, the basic political unit was the village community settlement. The Spanish called these village units rancherías, which composed loosely-knit confederations of several hundred persons, within each of which were smaller clans identified by individual totems. A ranchería had a leader who received a strict deference. One can apply the term chief only loosely. The child of a male or female chieftain stood to inherit a family’s power, but only if he or she demonstrated similar leadership talents.