Chapter Two:
The Native Americans and the Land (continued)
If the Monache brought new technology to the west
slope, however, they also were forced to adapt to different natural
resources. In this shift they inevitably looked to many of the
techniques already developed by the long-time residents of the less arid
western foothill environment. Many different plants were present, and
many familiar ones missing. The staple pinyon nuts occurred only in a
few isolated areas, but several varieties of oak provided often enormous
annual crops of nutritious acorns. The technology was different,
however, for, unlike pine nuts, the acorns had to be treated to make
them edible. Acorn meal ultimately became the single most important food
staple for the Monache. Similar shifts in hunting habits were required
for different game.
Over several centuries the Western Mono effectively
adapted to life west of the Sierran crest. By the time Europeans arrived
on the scene, the Monache had divided into approximately six distinct
bands, united by language but by no apparent political structure. Three
of these bands were north and west of present Sequoia and Kings Canyon
national parks and are not a part of our story; the other three lived in
or near areas that are now part of the two parks. The Wobonuch lived in
the foothill country west of Grant Grove that drains mostly north into
the Kings River. South of the divide between the Kings and Kaweah
rivers, occupying the upper foothill valleys near the head of the North
Fork of the Kaweah, resided the Waksachi. Occupying the remainder of the
Kaweah watershed were the Potwisha (also variously spelled Patwisha or
Balwisha).
To the west of all the Monache, on the floor of the
Great Central Valley itself, Yokut bands dominated, as they also did in
the Tule River mountain country, the next Sierran drainage south of the
Kaweah. In the Kern River country, well south of what is now national
park land, the Tubatulabal, another Paiute-Shoshonean group, made their
permanent homes. [5]
The Potwisha are the best known and remembered of the
Monache bands in the parks region. Apparently, they ranged throughout
the watersheds of the Marble, Middle, East, and South forks of the
Kaweah. The western boundary of their world, which they shared with the
Yokuts, was approximately where Terminous Reservoir is today. The
Potwisha exploited their native range in a thoroughly omnivorous
fashion. No plants were cultivated for food, although some plant
manipulation, including use of fire, may have been helped increase
yields. Actually, there was little in either the plant or animal
kingdoms that was not occasionally consumed. Acorns were the staple of
their diet. Several species were consumed, but general preference went
to the nuts of the black oak (Quercus kellogii) of the upper
foothills. Acorn crops varied annually in abundance and quality, and the
various Monache bands learned to store the nuts in specially designed
granaries. Because they contain tannic acid, acorns required water
leaching before they could be consumed. This usually was accomplished
through a process that began with grinding them into flour and then
continued through a hot-water treatment to the resulting flour. The
deacidified flour was then used to make gruels and cakes. Many other
plants were used seasonally, including pine nuts, yucca, and manzanita
berries.
Hunting provided another critical food source, and
many creatures were pursued. Larger mammals were sought with the bow and
arrow. Bows commonly were made of California laurel, although more
elaborate ones of western juniper reinforced with deer sinew also were
fabricated. Obsidian for arrow points usually came through trade from
the Owens Valley area. The addition of certain substances to arrowheads
resulted in poisoned points, which were not uncommon. Sun-dried deer
liver, sometimes fortified with rattlesnake venom, was the most common
toxin. Deer provided the most useful targets, being relatively plentiful
and having many useful parts, but various other animals also were taken.
Through the year, deer might be taken by arrow or trap, bears ambushed
as they came out of winter dens, migratory fish forced into weirlike
woven traps, and small rodents smoked out of their tunnels. Generally
the environment provided abundant food during much of the year. [6]
Befitting the usually gentle climate, housing and
clothing were simple. Small domelike thatched shelters or conical houses
of cedar bark were most common. Villages of any size normally had sweat
houses, which were sometimes so popular that groups had to alternate
using them. During warm weather, clothing was limited to a few small
garments worn below the waist, and moccasins were used only for longer
journeys. The largest known Potwisha village apparently occupied the
narrow river terrace along the Middle Fork of the Kaweah now known as
Hospital Rock. Located at an altitude of 2,700 feet, the site offered a
nearly perfect combination of the elements important to Western Mono
life. Several types of oak forest, including black oak, grew nearby. The
same variety of plant communities provided excellent habitat for game.
Immediately below the camp flowed the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River,
with excellent fishing. Camp water came from the river and from a spring
and stream that flowed across the village site. Nature had even provided
extra shelter in the form of a talus boulder nearly sixty feet long with
a natural cave beneath it.
From their Hospital Rock camp, the Potwisha pursued
their seasonal search of food. Individually and in family bands, they
wandered widely across the landscape, following traditional foot trail
routes they shared with other mountain creatures. During summer and fall
Monache often moved into the higher mountains. Here, just as many others
have since, they escaped the late summer heat of the lower canyons while
they harvested acorns and late summer berries, hunted, and traded with
desert Indians who had come into the high country from the east.
Throughout the region of the two parks, evidence of summer mountain
camps can still be seen. Bedrock mortars, conical holes worn into the
rock by the repeated grinding of acorns, pine nuts, and other seeds, are
the most common sign of these camps. At major foothill village sites,
more than a hundred mortar holes can sometimes be found. Smaller sites
are scattered throughout the mid-altitude forests, where modern visitors
often discover them. The Wobonuch and Waksachi apparently moved up in
summer to areas that include modern Dorst Campground, Grant Grove, and
Kings Canyon near Cedar Grove. Bedrock mortars at the sites provide
irrefutable evidence. The Potwisha also moved up; their mortar sites are
still visible at Giant Forest and Mineral King, among other places.
We can only estimate the total number of Monache to
inhabit the parks region. More than fifty years ago pioneer an
thropologist A. L. Kroeber of the University of California opined that
the Western Mono could not have totaled more than 2,000 individuals in
the early nineteenth century, with the Eastern Mono of the Owens Valley
region numbering perhaps twice that many. Thus, Kroeber concluded, the
total world of the Monos probably did not exceed 6,000 persons. The
Yokuts, having the rich biological resources of the Central Valley
wetlands to draw upon, were much more numerous. Kroeber estimated 15,000
to 20,000, and some recent estimates are much higher. [7] All this leads to the main question of this
chapter, how did these people perceive, react to, and affect the lands
that are the subject of this book?
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