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Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 by Charles E. Kelsey; Robert F. Heizer, ed.

r
• Editor’s Introductionr by Robert F. Heizerr
r
• Summary of Indian Census
r
• Counties surrounding Yosemite National Park:r
  r
  • Madera County (south of Yosemite National Park)r
  r
  • Mariposa County (southern Yosemite National Park, including Yosemite Valley, and area southwest of Yosemite National Park)r
  r
  • Mono County (east of Yosemite National Park)r
  r
  • Tuolumne County (northern Yosemite National Park and area northwest of Yosemite National Park)r
  r
  r
r

r Web Editor’s note:r I only reproduced census rolls for counties surrounding Yosemite National Park.r

r
• r This book also contains census rolls for most other Northern California counties, which are published in the book but I did not post online:r Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glen, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Monterey, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Yolo, and Yuba.r
r
• r Three counties had no Indian settlements: San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Solano counties.r
r
• r Nine counties Kelsey did not have time to visit:r Marin, Merced, Sacramento, San Benito, Santa Cruz, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, and Stanislaus counties.r
r
• r No plans were apparently made to enumerate the then-seven Southern California counties, although they had substantial numbers of American Indians:r Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties.r
r

About the Author

r r r Robert F. Heizer, Editorr

r Charles E. Kelsey was appointed by Congress in 1906 as a Special Indian Agent for California working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.r He was a San Jose attorney.r C. E. Kelsey graduated from Amherst College in 1884.r As an advocate of Indian rights, he specialized in documenting bands and tribes without reservation lands. The 1905-1906 census was part of the effort to determine how many had no land.r One result of this effort was the purchase of land for small reservations, called “Rancherias“ for landless Indians.r Kelsey wrote a book Indian Rights and Wrongs (1907) and was secretary and a director of the Northern California Indian Association of San Jose.r Later Kelsey was president of the Conservation Association of Southern California.r

About the Editor

r Robert F. “Bob” Heizer (July 13, 1915–July 18, 1979) was a professor of anthropology at University of California Berkeley. He wrote several books and papers on Native Americans of California and Nevada. He was a pioneer in using science in archaeology, such as radiocarbon dating.r

r
• Heizer Biography
r

Bibliographical Information

r Charles E. Kelsey (before 1884-after 1925)r Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906r (Berkeley, California:r r Archaeological Research Facility, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 1971).r Edited by Robert F. Heizer (1915-1979).r v+118 pages. 28 cm.r No copyright.r

r Digitized by Dan Anderson, August 2006,r from a copy at the University of California, San Diego library.r These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose,r provided this notice is left intact.r
r     —Dan Anderson, www.yosemite.ca.usr

r r Next: Editor’s Introductionr r

r

r

r http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/1905_indian_census/r

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r r Next: Summaryr •r Contentsr r

Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 by Charles E. Kelsey; Robert F. Heizer, ed.

r CENSUS OF NON-RESERVATION CALIFORNIA INDIANS, 1905 - 1906r

r C. E. Kelseyr

r Editor’s Introductionr

r In 1905-06 Mr. C. E. Kelsey, an attorney of San Jose, was appointedr as Special Indian Agent for the California Indians with the charge ofr ascertaining the number and location of Indians living outside of reservationr lands. In 1906 Kelsey was the Secretary and one of eleven directorsr of the Northern California Indian Association which operated for ther benefit of Indians. The census which he compiled was not published, butr typescript copies (191 pp. on legal size paper) were presented by Kelseyr to A. L. Kroeber and to C. Hart Merriam in 1906. The original copy isr Presumably on file in Washington with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).r Kroeber’s copy is catalogued as Manuscript No. 59 in the collection of ther Anthropology Department and the Lowie Museum on deposit in the Universityr Archives, Main Library, Berkeley. Merriam’s copy¹r was utilized by Kroeberr and me in the California Indian claims cases (Dockets 31/37) of fifteenr years ago, and this examination stimulated Kroeber to write his paper,r “California Indian Population in 1910” in which he concluded that populationr numbers calculated by him earlier were too low by 20 to 25 percent².r

r Beyond providing the general information that there were more Indiansr (a total of at least 20,000) in California in 1906 than anyone, includingr the Bureau of Indian Affairs, believed (15-16,000), the Kelsey census providesr for us an actual count. of the number of surviving native Californiansr in each of the 36 counties in which Kelsey made investigations. While her provides figures for 45 counties, nine of these he did not visit because her was called to Washington before he could find the time to do so, and ther numbers listed for these counties (Marin, Merced, Sacramento, San Benito,r Santa Cruz, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo and Stanislaus) werer taken from the last (1900) census figures for lack of anything better.r three counties (San Francisco, Santa Clara and Solano) reported no Indianr settlements, and therefore do not enter into his schedule.r

r The Commissioner of Indian Affairs wished to possess the informationr gathered by Kelsey in order to secure some basis for estimating the needsr cf the landless California Indians living off reservation areas. A numberr cf small parcels of land were ultimately purchased for many of the personsr r listed in the census, and these locations are in part shown on a recentlyr published map.³r Apparently Kelsey was aided in part by the 1900 U. S.r Census figures which would at least indicate the general areas where therer were Indians living. It is also probable that he consulted both Kroeberr and Merriam for guidance since both were actively engaged in ethnographicr studies, and could therefore offer suggestions as to where Indians werer residing or might be located. It would appear that a good deal of travellingr was involved, and that Kelsey must have had to work as rapidly asr possible. For this reason he may have decided to collect only the minimalr amount of information necessary, and for the same reason did not recordr marriage data or ages and sex of children. We may assume that Kroeber,r rather than Merriam, provided him with some information on linguisticr classification since the language stock names he employs are those whichr R. B. Dixon and Kroeber were using. As Kelsey moved about collectingr names and numbers of Indians living off reservation lands, he also recordedr the numeral systems of the persons in the locality where he was interviewing.r These were collected with some care and employed the Webster dictionaryr method of phonetic recording (syllables hyphenated, long and short soundsr indicated, etc.). Copies of the schedule of names for numbers (typewrittenr on 117 legal size sheets) are on file at Berkeley; it has never beenr published. It is not known why Kelsey made this numeral system record,r but it may be suggested that the information would serve to identify ther language family of the person providing the record and thus form the basisr for his arranging the census by the language stock along with locality andr county provenience. The date on which each of the 116 numeral systems wasr recorded is given. A few of these date from September, 1903; none bear ar 1904 date, and most of them were taken down in August - December, 1905 andr January - March and August, 1906. It can be inferred that in 1905-06 Kelseyr spent approximately nine months making his survey of non-reservation Indians.r

r There are many possibilities for additional research in this document.r One would be analysis of the surnames, some of which are nicknames bestowedr in jest by Americans of an earlier period (e.g. John Howmuch, Teapot Kitty,r Shoofly Sherman, One-eyed Jim, Whisky Bill). Some are obviously names inr the native language which were not substituted for by more standard Americanr surnames or given names (e.g. Mikeonalla Jim, Wamenhot, Kinmahley, Garfieldr Towendolly), though we note that such native names are quite rare.⁴r Mostr r of the names of persons are of American or Spanish (i.e. Spanish-Mexican)r origin, and the latter may go back to times before 1846 when Californiar was seized from Mexico, or they may date from post-1848 times when ther amalgamation of Indians and Mexican Californians was accelerated byr their both being considered as groups to be kept socially apart fromr the new political power-population element which had preempted the land.r

r Another possible use of the Kelsey census would be as source materialr on the nature and size of the family unit. Unfortunately Kelsey did notr record whether single men or women with children were widowed or divorced,r the age of adults, or the sex and age of children. To some extent theser data could be determined from other records such as the compilation ofr names, ages and residence of over 1000 native ethnographic informants⁵,r and the Great Rolls of 1928 and 1950 drawn up by the Bureau of Indianr Affairs⁶r and other BIA records. Such inquiry would be laborious, butr the data on a large number of named and therefore identifiable individualsr does exist.r

r The Kelsey census is given here exactly in the form in which itr appears in the original. The reader is therefore assured that nor editorial alteration has been made beyond an occasional addition forr purposes of clarification or identification and which occur in squarer brackets.r

r Because the Kelsey census is in hand and has not been made generallyr available, it was thought that it would be useful to print it in orderr that others might have access to its contents. The reduction of fundsr assigned to the Archaeological Research Facility in 1971-72 has mader possible only the most limited amount of publication. Under these circumstances,r it is with particular gratitude that we express our appreciationr to Mr. Raymond Ickes of Berkeley for offering to underwrite the cost ofr publishing the Kelsey census. Anyone who uses the census, we are confident,r will echo this acknowledgment to him for making it possible tor provide the information to a wider audience.r

r Robert F. Heizerr

r NOTESr

r r 1. Bearing the handwritten note “Given me by Mr. Kelsey, November 4,r 1906. C.H.M.”r

r r 2. University of California Publications in American Archaeology andr Ethnology, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 218-225, 1957. Kroeber here citesr (p. 220) the official BIA figures for Indians living on reservationsr in 1905 as 6,536 persons. Adding this number to Kelsey’s non-reservationr Indians in northern California (13,361) gives a total ofr 19,897 which is surely too small for the actual total number in ther state since no figures are available for non-reservation Indians ofr southern California at this time. The federal census of 1910 countedr 12,965 Indians in California, an official figure which was probablyr only about fifty percent of the actual number of then living Indiansr in the state.r

r r 3. S. P. Teale (Chairman). Progress Report to the Governor and ther Legislature by the State Advisory Commission on Indian Affairsr (Senate Bill No. 1007) on Indians in Rural and Reservation Areas.r Sacramento, 1966. (Contains untitled loose folded map showingr addresses of Indians in 1965; referred to on p. 21).r

r r 4. Published lists of names of Indians living before 1900 are rare.r One such list is the 114 names of Indians indentured in Humboldtr County between 1860 and 1863 which can be found in R. F. Heizer andr A. J. Almquist, The Other Californians (Univ. of Calif. Press, 1971,r pp. 54-56). Nearly all of these persons are recorded by their givenr name only which is either a common American name (e.g. Sarah, Ella,r Mary, Charley, George) or more rarely a nickname (e.g. Indian Henry,r Mad River Billy, Blue Coat Mowwena, Sorenose Jack, Sam Houston,r George Washington Donally, Blackhawk). The surname of these unfortunater indentured individuals was no doubt adopted from the white man,r or woman, in whose custody they were placed until they reached ther age of 30 for males or 25 for females. Names of Indians in larger numbers could be secured from the rosters of persons attached to ther several reservations which were established in California as early asr 1853. These records are filed in the U. S. National Archives.r

r r 5. R. F. Heizer. “The Human Sources of California Ethnography.[”] Ms to ber published in Vol. VIII of Handbook of North American Indians,r W. Sturtevant, ed.r

r r 6. The 1928 Roll is filed in the Sacramento office of the BIA. Seer also A. L. Kroeber and R. F. Heizer, “Continuity of Indian Populationr r in California from 1770/1850 to 1955”, Univ. of Calif. Archaeol.r Research Facility, Contribution No. 9, pp. 1-22, 1970 (Berkeley).r As an example of the rich detail of the 1928 Roll, see R. F. Heizer,r “A Chumash ‘Census’ of 1928-1930”, Univ. of Calif. Archaeol. Researchr Facility, Contribution No. 9, pp. 23-28, 1970 (Berkeley).r S. F. Cook has carried out some analysis of the 1928 Roll in hisr “Trends in Marriage and Divorce Since 1850”, Ibero-Americana No. 24,r 1943 (Berkeley); “Racial Fusion Among the California and Nevadar Indians”, Human Biology, Vol. 15, pp. 153-165, 1943; and “Migration andr Urbanization of the Indians of California”, Human Biology, Vol. 15,r pp. 33-45.r

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Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 by Charles E. Kelsey; Robert F. Heizer, ed.

Summary of Indian Census

Non-reservation Indians of California, 1905-1906

Indians on the Forest Reserves in Northern California

r The following counties could not be visited on account of the special agentr being called to Washington, and the figures given are from the census.r

SUMMARY

r *Not visited; figures taken from 1900 censusr

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Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 by Charles E. Kelsey; Robert F. Heizer, ed.

Madera County

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Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 by Charles E. Kelsey; Robert F. Heizer, ed.

Mariposa County

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r r Next: Tuolumne Countyr •r Contentsr •r Previous: Mariposa Countyr r

Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 by Charles E. Kelsey; Robert F. Heizer, ed.

Mono County

r r Next: Tuolumne Countyr •r Contentsr •r Previous: Mariposa Countyr r

r

r

r http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/1905_indian_census/mono-county.htmlr

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r r Contentsr •r Previous: Mono Countyr r

Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 by Charles E. Kelsey; Robert F. Heizer, ed.

Tuolumne County

r r Contentsr •r Previous: Mono Countyr r

r

r

r http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/1905_indian_census/tuolumne-county.htmlr

r

r Yosemite > Library >r 1905 Indian Census >r

r

r r Next: Editor’s Introductionr r

Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 by Charles E. Kelsey; Robert F. Heizer, ed.

r
• Editor’s Introductionr by Robert F. Heizerr
r
• Summary of Indian Census
r
• Counties surrounding Yosemite National Park:r
  r
  • Madera County (south of Yosemite National Park)r
  r
  • Mariposa County (southern Yosemite National Park, including Yosemite Valley, and area southwest of Yosemite National Park)r
  r
  • Mono County (east of Yosemite National Park)r
  r
  • Tuolumne County (northern Yosemite National Park and area northwest of Yosemite National Park)r
  r
  r
r

r Web Editor’s note:r I only reproduced census rolls for counties surrounding Yosemite National Park.r

r
• r This book also contains census rolls for most other Northern California counties, which are published in the book but I did not post online:r Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glen, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Monterey, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Yolo, and Yuba.r
r
• r Three counties had no Indian settlements: San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Solano counties.r
r
• r Nine counties Kelsey did not have time to visit:r Marin, Merced, Sacramento, San Benito, Santa Cruz, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, and Stanislaus counties.r
r
• r No plans were apparently made to enumerate the then-seven Southern California counties, although they had substantial numbers of American Indians:r Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties.r
r

About the Author

r r r Robert F. Heizer, Editorr

r Charles E. Kelsey was appointed by Congress in 1906 as a Special Indian Agent for California working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.r He was a San Jose attorney.r C. E. Kelsey graduated from Amherst College in 1884.r As an advocate of Indian rights, he specialized in documenting bands and tribes without reservation lands. The 1905-1906 census was part of the effort to determine how many had no land.r One result of this effort was the purchase of land for small reservations, called “Rancherias“ for landless Indians.r Kelsey wrote a book Indian Rights and Wrongs (1907) and was secretary and a director of the Northern California Indian Association of San Jose.r Later Kelsey was president of the Conservation Association of Southern California.r

About the Editor

r Robert F. “Bob” Heizer (July 13, 1915–July 18, 1979) was a professor of anthropology at University of California Berkeley. He wrote several books and papers on Native Americans of California and Nevada. He was a pioneer in using science in archaeology, such as radiocarbon dating.r

r
• Heizer Biography
r

Bibliographical Information

r Charles E. Kelsey (before 1884-after 1925)r Census of Non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906r (Berkeley, California:r r Archaeological Research Facility, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 1971).r Edited by Robert F. Heizer (1915-1979).r v+118 pages. 28 cm.r No copyright.r

r Digitized by Dan Anderson, August 2006,r from a copy at the University of California, San Diego library.r These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose,r provided this notice is left intact.r
r     —Dan Anderson, www.yosemite.ca.usr

r r Next: Editor’s Introductionr r

r

r

r http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/1905_indian_census/r