190 



CALIFORNIA INDIANS 



[ B. A. E. ' 



irig the white man's way of counting time. 

 Sticks were sometimes notched by the In- 

 dians as an aid in time counts. The oldest 

 of these among the Pima ( Russell in Am. 

 Anthrop., v, 76, 1903) dates from the 

 meteoric shower of 1883, a notable tally 

 date in Indian time reckoning. Some of 

 the northern tribes kept records of events 

 by means of symbolic figures or pieto- 

 graphs. One of these is an extended cal- 

 endar history, called the "Lone-dog 



Those along the coast s. of San Francisco 

 were brought under Spanish missionary 

 influence in the latter part of the 18th 

 and the beginning of the 19th centuries. 

 Some trilies, however, were not known 

 even by name until after the discovery 

 of gold and the settlement of the country 

 in 1849 and subsequently. The Califor- 

 nians were among the least warlike tribes 

 of the continent and offered but little re- 

 sistance, and that always ineffectual, to 



LINGUISTIC FAMILIES OF CALIFORNIA 



winter count," said to have been painted 

 originally on a buffalo robe, found among 

 the Dakota, the figures of which cover a 

 period of 71 years from 1800 (Mallery in 

 10th Rep. B. A. E. ). Another series is 

 the calendar history of the Kiowa, cle- 

 cribed by Mooney in 17th Reji. B. A. E. 

 See Measures, Numeral systems, (c. t.) 



California, Indians of. The Indians of 

 California are among the least known 

 groups of natives of North America. 



the seizure of their territory by the 

 whites. Comparatively few of them are 

 now on reservations. The majority live 

 as squatters on the land of white owners 

 or of the Government, or in some cases 

 on land allotted them by the Govern- 

 ment or even bought by themselves from 

 white owners. Their number has de- 

 creased very rapidly and is now probably 

 about 15,000, as compared with perhaps 

 150,000 before the arrival of the whites. 



