California Ancient Peoples
California Ancient Peoples refer to the diverse indigenous groups that inhabited the region over thousands of years, particularly during the Archaic (9000-2000 B.C.E.) and Pacific (2000 B.C.E.-1500 C.E.) periods. Initially, these communities relied heavily on hunting larger game, but gradually transitioned to a lifestyle that included foraging for local seeds, acorns, and marine resources. This shift led to the establishment of small, seasonal settlements designed to optimize the use of available food resources.
As time progressed into the Pacific period, a more stable and complex social structure emerged, supported by advancements in technology and resource management. California peoples expanded their diets and developed specialized tools for gathering, which fostered larger settlements and intricate trading networks. Notable groups such as the Chumash, Pomo, and Mojave saw significant population growth and the rise of social stratification, where political structures were often based on kinship ties.
By the time of European contact in the 16th century, approximately 300,000 individuals representing over 100 distinct language groups populated California, highlighting the rich cultural tapestry and adaptability of its ancient peoples. Their legacies continue to inform the region's cultural identity today.
California Ancient Peoples
Related civilizations: Chumash, Kawaiisu, Tubatulabal, Shoshone, Mojave.
Date: 8000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.
Locale: Northern, central, and southern California
California Ancient Peoples
During the Archaic period (9000-2000 b.c.e.), ancient peoples settled new and ever more diverse subregions within what became California and the American West. The Archaic period represents the transition from a lifestyle that featured the hunting of larger game animals toward one in which agriculture featured more prominently. During this period, although much of the Americas underwent what has been termed a “broad-spectrum revolution” by archaeologist Kent Flannery, in California, the adoption of agriculture and sedentary village life took place more slowly. California peoples very gradually transitioned toward a dependence on the bountiful seeds, acorns, and maritime resources available in that region. This subsistence pattern initially allowed for relatively small settlements consisting primarily of temporary dwellings housing only a few dozen people per site. The California peoples set up temporary base camps, summer or winter encampments, and other forms of shelter intended to take advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs.
By contrast with the Archaic period, the Pacific period (2000 b.c.e.-1500 c.e.) saw the development of a focal economy. California peoples not only broadened the array of plants and animals they used but also focused on resources and tools that allowed them to take full advantage of a small group of seasonally available plants and animals, thus providing for a relatively stable and predictable lifestyle. Pacific period tools and technologies, which generally elaborated on Archaic period antecedents, included basketry; bedrock and wooden mortars; shell beadwork for rings, pendants, earplugs, and nose ornaments; bone and shell fishhooks and barbed points; charmstones; gaming pieces; and bone-tube whistles. Two of the most important adaptations associated with the Pacific period and its economy were the exploitation of acorn crops and the harvesting of shellfish. In addition, riverine resources, such as salmon, were harvested in growing quantities. Complex societies and extensive trading networks emerged among California peoples, particularly among the ancestors of such groups as the Chumash, Kawaiisu, Pomo, Tubatulabal, Mojave, and Shoshone. Village size in these groups expanded exponentially.
The Pacific period saw the emergence of more than six major settlements with populations exceeding one thousand people and about a dozen with populations exceeding five hundred. These settlements demonstrate the evolution of greater social and political complexity and the emergence of social elites. Most scholars believe that the early California peoples’ political structures were probably based on kinship. Along with the formation of political structures, the early settlements experienced craft specialization, trade, and population expansion, leading to a growing number of social distinctions, including the rise of village- and tribal-level leaders, traders, medical and religious practitioners, and warriors.
According to researchers Joseph Chartkoff and Kerry Chartkoff, during the Pacific period, people first occupied a number of previously uninhabited regions, including the southern Sierra, the Lower Klamath River, and the coastal region extending from Santa Cruz to Morro Bay. The basketry tradition, rooted in the Archaic period, became a major source of utility ware as well as a hotbed of artistic development during this time of expanded interregional interaction and trade. The newly introduced shell-bead money system in turn contributed to the variety and kind of trade. The bow and arrow, which were largely unknown in much of North America, were introduced to California peoples during the Middle Pacific period (c. 500 b.c.e.-500 c.e.) and were ultimately adopted into their traditions of hunting and warfare. Oceangoing canoes, fish dams, and specialized storage structures indicate the extent to which native peoples had adopted focal economies centered on specific seed crops or riverine or coastal resources. In northern California and the central valleys, settlement types and housing included pit-house structures, ramadas or porchlike structures, granaries, and larger communal dwellings.
The proliferation in the Middle and Late Pacific periods of rock art sites (including both painted polychrome pictographs and pecked-stone petroglyphs), intaglios or large-scale desert-pavement drawings, elaborate feather, shell, and leather costumes, and painted and tattooed body decorations established the indigenous patterns that persisted into the Spanish colonial mission era. About 300,000 people, representing more than one hundred distinctive language groups, occupied California at the time of the initial European contacts in 1539-1540.
Bibliography
Chartkoff, Joseph L., and Kerry Kona Chartkoff. The Archaeology of California. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984.
Heizer, Robert F., ed. California. Vol. 8 in Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
The Indians of California. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1994.
Kroeber, Alfred L. Handbook of the Indians of California. 1925. New York: Dover, 1976.
Moratto, Michael J. California Archaeology. New York: Academic Press, 1984.