CHAPTER XXII. 
THE KA-BLNA-PEK. 
In the Clear Lake Basin the Indians may be divided into two main bodies, 
those on the west side and those on the east. On the west they are related 
in language slightly to the Pomo; on the east, equally slightly, to the Pat- 
win. In the northwest corner of the basin a constant communication was 
kept up with the Pomo; hence the villages about Lakeport speak a Pomo 
dialect, and are properly included with that large nation; but all the dwell- 
ers around the lake should be enumerated as distinct peoples, being divided 
into the two bodies above mentioned. Big Valley and Cobb Valley were 
the principal abode of the western lacustrine tribes; Héschla Island and 
the narrow shore adjacent that of the eastern. 
The Kéa-bi-na-pek living on lower Kelsey Creek may be taken as 
representative of the western division, though they formed only one village 
of the many in Big Valley. The myriads of fish in the lake and the abund- 
ance of acorns supported a dense population in this valley, estimated by 
the pioneers at many thousands. They were brave and independent mount- 
aineers, even more infinitesimally subdivided and less coherent, if possible, 
than is the wont of the California Indians. They had no chiefs of general 
and large authority ; nothing but head-men or captains of villages. 
Coming up from Russian River to Clear Lake one receives at first the 
impression that the natives here are a sickly race on account of their lighter, 
brassy color and longer faces. Indeed some pioneers insist stoutly that 
they are altogether a different race from the “ Diggers”, perhaps a remnant 
of some ancient, indigenous people who were forced into these mountain 
valleys by an invasion of the lowlands. It will be shown further along that 
this theory is erroneous. Still they always were and yet are a much finer 
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