If what I said in the Introduction
is true - that any human-related mortality ultimately contributed
to the near extinction of the California condor - then we need
to look first at what impacts the West Coast Indians had on the
condor population. That's not easy to do. Probably three-quarters
of the Oregon and California Indians were gone before 1850, victims
of disease and murder. Some local groups were eradicated; most
southern California Indians were brought under the control of
the Spanish Catholic missionaries. Many of the individuals left
in Oregon and northern California were herded to reservations,
often intermixed with Indians from other geographical areas with
no close kinship ties. Indian communication and documentation
were oral, rather than written, and community continuity was required
to preserve and pass on history. Loss of the people meant loss
of information on past customs and culture. Reservation life,
with its breaking down of traditional relationships, often made
it impossible to continue to practice - and, eventually, even
to remember - living as it had been done. By the beginning of
the 20th Century, when scholars began to seriously seek out and
write down Indian history, there were few Indians alive who had
first- or even second-hand knowledge of what had gone on in the
pre-White or early White days [1].
What is known about West Coast Indian contact with California
condors is spotty geographically, with absolutely no information
from some areas and "pretty good" information from others.
For every local Indian population, it is almost a certainty that
knowledge is incomplete. It was gathered by non-Indians who, while
struggling with Indian language, endeavored to translate Indian
concepts to non-Indian documentation; whose primary interests
and mode of questioning might or might not have elicited information
on condors; and who often obtained all their local information
from one to a few Indian informants. Chances are high that some
of the "facts" were misinterpreted or are just plain
wrong, and that other equally important knowledge was completely
missed [2].
Added to the sketchiness of data and the chance of error, one
also has to deal with a body of misinformation on condor-Indian
interactions that has grown up in popular, and in some cases scientific,
literature. Two of the most repeated stories of Indians and condor
mortality are clearly untrue. (I have to share the blame in my
own earlier writings for helping - through incomplete research
- to keep these "legends" alive.) With these shortcomings
in mind, the following gives some idea of the role of West Coast
Indians in the decline of the California condor population.
OREGON AND WASHINGTON.
California condors were certainly known to Indians along the Columbia
River (at least west from The Dalles, Wasco County, Oregon); in
the interior valleys of the Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue rivers;
and among at least some of the Indians of the Oregon coast. By
1840, most of the Indian groups in these areas were near extinction.
By the 1870s the majority of survivors had been moved to reservations,
sometimes well outside of their historic environment, and pooled
with the remnant members of other near-extinct groups. By 1900
there may have been as few as 1,000 Indians within the probable
historic range of the condor in Oregon [1]. Little information
on interactions with wildlife survived the drastic reduction in
Indian numbers and the disruption of traditional activities. I've
only found one instance of apparent Indian-related condor mortality
in the Washington-Oregon area.
During archeological excavations at Five Mile Rapids (also known
as The Dalles Roadcut), near the Columbia River in Wasco County,
Oregon, more than 9,000 bird bones were unearthed. Included were
the remains of at least 22 California condors. It seems likely
that a larger sample would include bones from additional condors.
Even twenty-two dead condors in one location is unlikely to have
been a natural event; humans undoubtedly killed them for a purpose.
Exactly what that purpose was is unknown. Those particular condors
died some 10,000 years ago; all were full-grown, not nestling
or early fledgling, birds; and about twenty percent of the condor
bones sampled showed signs of the feathers having been purposely
removed. It is probably of significance that the sample included
a large number of bald eagle bones, also, and that some of the
eagle bones show signs of feather stripping. Over what period
of time were those birds killed? Did the killing continue into
more recent years? Were condors and eagles killed for the same
reason, and what was that reason? Were they killed for their feathers
(to make dance regalia, or for use by shamans), or was the harvesting
of feathers the aftermath of some killing ritual such as practiced
with golden eagles in southern California (page XX)? So far, there
are no clues [3].
California condors were present in Oregon and adjacent parts of
Washington, and apparently still relatively common, after most
Indians were gone from their historically occupied lands [4; also,
Chapter 4]. If Native Americans had any effect on depressing condor
numbers in Oregon prior to 1830, they certainly had no immediate
role in the eventual disappearance of the species from the region.
FAR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Most of the Indian groups on the far northwest coast of California
and in the mountains surrounding the upper Sacramento Valley seemed
to know, or know of, the California condor. Most at least had
a name by which they identified the species [5]. Only among the
Indians of Humboldt. Del Norte, and western Trinity counties does
the condor seem to have been important culturally.
Condors figured in myths, tales and religious beliefs handed down
by the Yurok, Wiyot, Hupa, and Karok. Condors in these stories
were sometimes endowed with tremendous physical prowess ("so
big and powerful he can lift a whale:" Tolowa [6]; "so
big that when he flaps his wings he makes the wind:" Wiyot
[7]). Principally, they were noted for the potent spiritual strength
inherent in them and their feathers. Shamans often gained some
of this power by confronting a condor in dreams or mysterious
circumstances [8], and condor feathers were used as part of the
curing processes of the Indian doctors [9]. In Wiyot mythology,
Condor has the role of the Judeo-Christian Noah, he and his sister
being the only ones saved when Above Old-Man flooded the world,
thereby making them the ancestors of all humans [10].
None of the Indians of the Northwest coast appear to have had
ceremonies or dances directed specifically to condors. However,
condor feathers were worn by Yurok, Wiyot, Hupa, Chimariko, and
possibly Tolowa, in other rituals, such as the White Deerskin
Dance and the Jump Dance [11]. The usual practice was to splice
condor wing (or tail?) feathers together to make especially long
plumes to attach to other head ornaments [12]. In addition to
shamans using individual condor wing feathers in their curing
ceremonies, Wiyot shamans wore headbands that were decorated with
condor body feathers, shells, and other ornaments [13]. For the
Hupa Kick Dance (held at the conclusion of a new doctor's training),
the shaman had "a bunch" of condor feathers that she
held [14].
I have found only one reference to how these northwestern California
Indians obtained their condor feathers. One contemporary Yurok
informant said that condors were never killed, and that all feathers
were picked up where the birds had shed them [15]. Condors regularly
used the same roosts and nest sites, so it might have been relatively
easy for people with the knowledge of those locations to supply
themselves with the few feathers needed each year. I found no
indication that condor feathers were discarded after use. (Some
central California Indians believed condor feathers could be "dangerous"
if used improperly or for too long. See below.) Therefore, it
might not have been necessary to regularly obtain replacements.
Even without a strict taboo on killing condors throughout the
region, the reverence in which the birds were held would have
precluded all but the most necessary taking. The needs of a relatively
few dancers and shamans (in a total area population of perhaps
as few as 2,500 Indians by the late 1800s) would not have required
the sacrifice of many birds.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY, NORTH CENTRAL
COAST, AND NORTHERN SIERRA FOOTHILLS
As in far northern California, most Indian groups in this area
knew the California condor by name [5], and many included condors
in their mythology (Cahto, Yuki, Maidu, Konkow, Patwin, Nisenan,
Pomo, Miwok) [16]. Surprisingly, because this is not generally
thought of as "condor country," there are more documented
cultural and ceremonial ties between Indians and condors in this
region than anywhere else in California. Also, this is the only
area of the state in which Indian involvement led to regular killing
of condors.
Indians that performed dances in which an entire condor skin was
worn, or enough feathers that a condor would have to have been
killed to acquire them, included the Pomo (all groups?), Northern
Maidu, Konkow, Valley Nisenan, River Patwin, Miwok (all but Southern
Sierra Miwok?), and perhaps Coast Yuki [17]. Among Indians embracing
the Kuksu religion, condor dances sometimes part of a dance cycle
[18], but in general the condor dances seem to have been opportunistic,
occurring whenever a condor was killed. The rituals were not deeply
spiritual, but were imitations of the condor, or of the gods that
the condor represented (Sul or Sulak of the Coast Range Indians,
Moluk of the Miwok and Sacramento Valley groups). While performed
in a widespread area, the actual dances may have occurred in a
relatively few villages. There are reports of condor dancers performing
exhibitions for groups that did not have their own dance [19],
and of a village "owning" the rights to the condor dance
"selling" the dance to another village [20].
It is impossible to judge the number of California condors that
were killed annually in this region. Factors that might have kept
the number low were the relatively few Indians in the area (perhaps
50,000 pre-European, as few as 5,000 by 1900); the fact that condor
dances were usually not part of a regular cycle and so condor
killing was not a scheduled requirement; the difficulty of killing
condors with snares or bow and arrows (because Indians were prohibited
by White law from using firearms); and the fact that killing condors
or handling their feathers was considered "dangerous,"
sometimes leading to sickness or even death [21]. On the other
hand, because condor feathers were "dangerous," they
were not preserved from year to year, so new condors had to be
killed for each new dance.
Condor dances were rarely performed after 1900, and even then
most Indians queried considered them ancient, with the details
mostly forgotten. Most Indians and condors were gone from this
area by the late 19th Century, so the rarity of the dance was
inevitable by then. Did Indian exploitation of the condors hasten
their disappearance from the Sacramento Valley and adjacent hills?
There is no way to tell, but this is the only part of the California
condor range in which it seems possible.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AND SIERRA
FOOTHILLS
Yokuts, Monache, and Tubatulabel all recognized condors by name
[5], and Condor was a fairly prominent personality in several
myths of the Yokuts and Monache (North Fork Mono) [22]. Shamans
of all groups in this region were said to have worn ceremonial
capes made of condor feathers [23]. Apparently no capes and no
details of their use have survived. I found no suggestion that
condor feathers were used by other than shamans, or that there
were any dances or ceremonies in which the condor was a significant
feature.
This region of California never had a dense Indian population,
and there were perhaps as few as 25,000 people in the area prior
to the European invasion. The San Joaquin Valley Indians were
not spared the effects of Spanish mission enslavement (see below),
but real disaster arrived in the form of severe disease epidemics
spreading through the area in the 1830s and 1840s [24].The Gold
Rush followed, highlighted for the Indians by more disease, murder
and displacement from their homelands, and the native inhabitants
all but disappeared. By 1854, there may have been as few as 2,000
Indians in the entire San Joaquin area. If their activities had
an adverse effect on the condor population before the European
invasion, any impact after 1850 would have been minimal.
CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN COASTAL
CALIFORNIA
The Indians of California from San Francisco Bay south to the
Mexican border, and west of the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave
Desert, were the earliest to be affected by the arrival of Europeans.
At the start of the Spanish Catholic mission era (1770), there
were an estimated 72,000 Indians in that area. "Enrollment"
(mostly forced) of Indians into mission society resulted in virtual
slavery, major disruption of community and family ties, and drastic
loss of individuals to disease and murder. "By 1830 [a few
years before the missions were secularized] there were approximately
10,000 neophytes [Indian "converts"] enrolled at the
missions and few, if any, unconverted heathen left in the territory."
In the following years many more Indians were lost to disease,
murder, and destruction of their food supplies. By 1900, this
vast area probably supported less than 2,500 Indians [25].
This is the region that one usually thinks of in relation to California
condors, the area that certainly supported the greatest numbers
of condors for at least the last 150 years of their wild existence.
Therefore, it would seem logical that the species would figure
prominently in local Indian mythology, ritual or religion. This
seems not to have been the case. Most groups had names by which
they recognized the condor [5], but condors or condor-like entities
show up in myth only among the Chumash (Holhol, possibly a condor
or condor-man) [26], and perhaps Cahuilla ("a bird which
is larger than a buzzard") [27]. Use of condor feathers for
dance regalia or ceremonial purposes is known only from the Chumash
(dancing skirt, feather bands of uncertain use), Luiseño
(dancing skirts), and Tipai-Ipai (dancing skirt) [28]. Whistles
made from condor bones have been discovered in Costanoan territory
at San Francisco Bay [29]. There are two Chumash rock paintings
that have been suggested as representations of condors; one certainly
qualifies, but to see a condor in the other takes a powerful imagination
[30].
During archeological excavations of Costanoan shellmounds on the
east side of San Francisco Bay, two skeletons of California condors
were found. One was an entire intact skeleton; the other was a
disarticulated series of bones, but all seemed to be from one
bird. The condition of the condor bones suggested to the researchers
"special or ritual sepulture, perhaps mortuary treatment
similar to that accorded humans" [31]. If the condors were
ritually buried, they are the only ones so far known to have received
such treatment.
Two well known, often-repeated stories of condors ceremonially
sacrificed appear to be entirely untrue, those of the "royal
eagle" of Pajaro River, and the "Panes," or "Shoshonean
condor cult," of coastal southern California.
The "Royal Eagle." The incident giving rise to the first
story occurred in Costanoan territory. On 8 October 1769 at the
Pajaro River crossing near the border of present-day Monterey
and San Benito counties, Miguel Costanso, diarist of the Portola
Expedition, wrote (English translation of the original Spanish):
"Here we saw a bird that the natives had killed and stuffed
with grass; it appeared to be a royal eagle; it was eleven palms
from tip to tip of its wings. On account of this find we called
the river the Río del Pájaro" [32].
For centuries, the golden eagle had been known to the Mexican
people as the royal eagle (águila royal). The soldiers
with Costanso thought the stuffed bird looked like a royal eagle.
Its wingspan of "eleven palms" was a little over seven
feet, just right for a golden eagle. Neither Costanso's record,
nor the similar diary entry of Fr. Juan Crespi [33], provide further
details that suggest the bird was a condor. Why is this incident
included in almost every story written about the California condor?
Credit for it becoming a condor story probably belongs to Harry
Harris, who in 1941 published "The annals of Gymnogyps,"
in most respects an excellent history of the California condor
[34]. Harris thought that the Pajaro River incident was an early
record of the panes festival practiced by southern California
Indians, an event believed at that time to involve the sacrificial
killing of condors taken from their nests (see below). With the
panes in mind, he surmised that a mere seven-foot wingspread
only meant the specimen was a condor not yet full-grown. As further
support, he noted that Pedro Fages' narrative of the Portola Expedition
included comments about "eagles" with wings measuring
"fifteen spans" (eleven feet), and of natives raising
young eagles in their villages [35]. Harris failed to acknowledge
that these observations were unrelated to the Pajaro River incident;
it isn't clear where they occurred, as no other diarist with the
expedition commented similarly. Also, Fages wrote of seeing "vultures"
and "buzzards" (hawks?), suggesting he was able to tell
a large vulture (condor) from an eagle. There is no evidence that
anyone on the Portola Expedition actually measured a bird with
an "fifteen spans" wingspread (or any other wingspan).
The literature is full of "eyeball" estimates of condors
with wingspreads of 10, 12 and even 14 feet. By the same token,
a normal seven feet of eagle wing could easily be estimated as
11 feet.
At the Pajaro River, the Spaniards may have witnessed part of
an eagle-killing ceremony similar to that practiced by the southern
California Gabrieliños, Luiseños, Serranos, Cahuillas,
and Tipai-Ipais. The rite, often associated with the toloache
(jimson weed) cult and the worship of the god Chingichnish ("Chinigchinich"),
was early believed to involve condor sacrifice. This was shown
to be erroneous in 1908, but the story continues to be regularly
repeated in popular books and articles on the condor, and also
in ornithological and ethnological papers (see below).
The Panes. In the early 1800s, at Mission San Juan Capistrano,
the Catholic priest Geronimo Boscana observed an Indian ceremony
in which a large bird was sacrificed. His description, first published
in English by Alfred Robinson in 1846 [36], read as follows:
"The most celebrated of their [San Juan Capistrano
Indians] feasts, and which was observed yearly, was the one
called the 'Panes,' signifying a bird feast. Particular adoration
was observed by them, for a bird resembling much in appearance
the common buzzard, or vulture, but of larger dimensions."
In 1811, the Spanish government in Mexico asked the Catholic
priests in California to answer various questions about life at
the missions. Portions of the reply, translated in 1908 by A.
L. Kroeber and J. T. Clark [37], contained similar descriptions
of a bird sacrifice (perhaps some of the information prepared
by Boscana, himself):
"They [Indians at Mission San Diego] have a great
desire to assemble at a ceremony regarding a bird called vulture
(gavilan)... they kill it, and for its funeral they burn it...
In the following year they search for another vulture, and do
the same with it."
"We know that they [Indians at Mission San Juan Capistrano]
adore a large bird similar to a kite, which they raise with the
greatest care from the time it is young, and they hold to many
errors regarding it".
"We have not observed any other idolatry among these Indians
[at Mission San Luis Rey] than that connected with certain
birds which they call azuts, which really are a kind of very large
vulture... they very slowly kill the birds... They skin the birds
and throw their flesh on the fire... They keep the feathers of
the birds [and] make a sort of skirt of them... We made
the most careful efforts to ascertain the purpose of this ritual,
but we have never been able to extract anything else than
that thus their ancestors made it".
Even as he translated, Kroeber noted that a "gavilan"
was not a vulture, but more likely an eagle "which the
word gavilan properly indicates." He also noted that
"azuts are not really vultures, that is, condors, but
eagles. Ashwut is Luiseño for eagle, yungavaiwot for condor."
Kroeber's Indian informants "always mentioned the eagle
as the bird connected with this ceremony." Nevertheless,
Boscana "describes the bird as much resembling the common
buzzard, but larger, which clearly makes it a condor." Kroeber's
conclusion was that probably both eagles and condors were used
in the ceremony.
Shortly after Kroeber published his comments on the Panes story,
another famous ethnologist, C. Hart Merriam, offered objections
and corrections.
"As a matter of fact, the word gavilan means neither eagle
nor vulture, but among Spanish and Spanish-Mexican people is the
ordinary common every-day word for hawk... There is no doubt,
however, that several of the early Mission Padres failed to distinguish
the eagle from the large hawks, and used the name gavilan indiscriminately
for both; hence Dr. Kroeber is entirely right in assuming that
the ceremonial bird of the Mission Indians of Southern California
is the eagle. It is the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)".
"In another place in the same article... Dr. Kroeber states:
'Boscana, however, describes the bird as much resembling the common
buzzard, but larger, which clearly makes it a condor.' This seemingly
natural inference is entirely erroneous. Buzzards are large hawks
- not vultures - and the bird we in America call 'turkey-buzzard'
is not a buzzard at all, but a vulture. Boscana's 'common buzzard'
is a large hawk closely related to our red-tail, and the bird
he described as 'much resembling the common buzzard, but larger,'
was of course the golden eagle. Had he meant the turkey-buzzard
he would have used the Spanish-Mexican word aura (pronounced ow'-rah),
which is the name by which the turkey-buzzard is known among the
Spanish-speaking people of California" [38].
In 1934, John P. Harrington provided a new translation of Boscana,
one that showed the entire discussion of buzzard, vulture, and
condor to be irrelevant. The pertinent passage reads:
"Among all the feasts which they celebrated every year,
among the principal and most solemn ones is one which they called
the feast of the Pames, which means the feast of the bird, for
they gave a kind of worship and veneration to a bird which has
the same form and size as a kite, although somewhat larger. It
is a kind of carnivorous hawk, but very sluggish and stupid"
[39].
A look at the Spanish of Boscana's original manuscript shows that
the Harrington translation is correct. Boscana spoke of the ritual
only as a bird festival (fiesta del Pajaro) involving an
adored and venerated species of bird of prey (una especia de
adoracion, y veneracion á un pajaro... una especie de gavilan
carnisero), similar to but larger than a kite (que tiene
la misma forma y grandeza, aunque algo mas, de un Milano).
"Kite" (signifying a hawk of the genus Milvus)
is a better translation of "Milano" than "buzzard
(a Buteo hawk). Either could be described as a small eagle,
but neither looks anything like a vulture. Robinson's use of the
term "vulture" was not actually part of the translation,
but his own erroneous attempt to further define "buzzard"
[40].
[An aside, but an important one: The festival known as "Panes"
was actually called "Pames." Robinson spelled the word
correctly the first time he used it in his translation, but it
was misspelled the rest of the time. This is clearly shown in
the original Spanish.]
Even before Kroeber's translation of the Mission Indian report,
one author had used Boscana's description to link the Pames to
a "Shoshonean condor cult" [41].. Among ethnologists,
Kroeber's and Merriam's explanations put an end to discussions
of a southern California condor-based religion, but a number of
researchers (myself included) continued to entertain the possibility
that condors might occasionally have been used in lieu of eagles.
A close look at the history of the ceremony shows that to be unlikely.
A Luiseño myth tells of Ouiot (pronounced wee-ote),
the first person ever to die. The people held a ceremony at Ouiot's
death, and were told that they should continue to have "fiestas
for the dead" every year, with a sacrificial offering. They
selected Ash-wut the Eagle-Man, "a big man and a very great
captain," to be the one killed. Ash-wut objected. "To
escape his fate, he went north, south, east, and west; but there
was death for him everywhere, and he came back and gave himself
up" [42].
The Cahuilla believed that the eagle "symbolized the constant
life of [their] lineage. The eagle is said to live forever, and
yet, from the 'beginning' allowed himself to be 'killed' so the
people were assured of life after death. As lineage members died
each year but the lineage continued in perpetuity, so it is with
the eagle" [43].
Descriptions of the bird-killing ceremony from the Cupeño,
Serrano, Luiseno, Tipai-Ipai (Diegueno), Desert Cahuilla, Pass
Cahuilla, and Mountain Cahuilla all include the same elements
[44]: eaglets were obtained from eyries owned by the chiefs; they
were reared in the villages, then at annual mourning ceremonies
for the dead were sacrificed by suffocation. The eagle feathers
were saved for ceremonial costumes, and to become part of the
village's "sacred bundle" of religious items. From legend
to conclusion of the ceremony, it is all about eagles. There could
be no justification for substituting a condor or any other bird.
It was not like having a ham instead of a turkey at Thanksgiving;
the eagle was the revered bird.
Southern California Indians did kill condors on occasion. Examples
of Luiseño dance skirts made of condor feathers are preserved
in several museums [45], and there are feather bands (of uncertain
use) originating with the Chumash or Tatavium people [46]. Condors
are seldom mentioned in southern California Indian lore, and there
is no indication that condor killing was based on anything more
than occasional need for feathers. Indian culture in this region
was disrupted so early in the European invasion that it is impossible
to know how accurate is that assessment.
So, what can be said about the
effects of Indian activities on the California condor? Excepting
only the inhabitants of the lower Sacramento Valley and nearby
Coast Ranges, it appears that most California and Oregon Indians
had little reason to kill condors, and they didn't. Some apparently
had taboos against killing them. Even when permitted, killing
was constrained by group rules concerning what individuals were
allowed to do the taking, and by spiritual beliefs that it could
be physically dangerous to handle condor feathers. Firearms of
any kind were rare on the Pacific Coast prior to the Gold Rush,
and early European settlers quickly passed laws barring Indians
from owning or using guns. Indians had to shoot condors with bow
and arrow, or snare them at baited sites [47]. Both were achievable,
certainly, but - in contrast to what could be accomplished with
firearms - constraints of talent and time clearly imposed limits
on the amount of mayhem that could be caused.
There were limits on condor killing imposed by the habits and
numbers of Indians in condor habitat. Contrary to popular belief,
Indians did not belong to big "tribes" occupying large
areas of land. They lived in discrete communities, and seldom
strayed far out of their local environment. Some trading was done
for materials not found at home (including at least one case of
importing condor feathers [48]), but in general Indians made use
of what was available locally. A condor could only be killed if
it was found nearby.
Indian population densities in most areas were low, even before
European settlement. Condors had much of the countryside to themselves
most of the time, with little likelihood of meeting up with Indians
who wanted to kill them. By the mid-19th Century, Indians had
been nearly eradicated from much of California and Oregon. After
that, it would have been rare for an Indian to kill a condor.
The reasoning outlined above may not apply to that region of California
occupied by the Miwok, Pomo, and neighboring groups. Among these
Indians, there was a steady demand for condor skins to wear in
dances, with the need recurring because old "dangerous"
skins and feathers needed to be replaced. The fragmentary record
suggests that condor dances occurred only at scattered locations,
and that villages hosting condor dances did not have them every
year. Still, it looks to me that Indians killed enough condors
in that region to have caused long-term reductions in condor numbers
there.
The authors of one recent, semi-scientific book on California
condors opined that California Indians killed 700 condors each
year [49]. They presented no basis for this opinion. It is clearly
very wrong. From the information available, a pre-European loss
of condors to Indians might not have exceeded a dozen or so annually,
with almost all that mortality occurring north of the San Francisco
Bay area. Indians cannot be exonerated from contributing to the
decline of California condors, but their impact was minor except
in localized situations.
Chapter Notes
1. I reviewed a large number of
sources of Pacific Coast Indian populations over time, and the
reasons for reductions in numbers. Some of the ones I found particularly
pertinent were:
Coan, C. F. 1921. The first stage of the federal Indian policy
in the Pacific Northwest. Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society
22(1):46-86.
Cook, S. F. 1955. The epidemic of 1830-1833 in California and
Oregon. University of California Publications in American Archeology
and Ethnology 43(3):303-326.
Cook, S. F. 1971. The aboriginal population of upper California.
Pages 66-72 in: R. F. Heizer and M. A. Whipple. The California
Indians, a source book. Berkeley, California: University of California
Press.
Cook, S. F. 1978. Historical demography. Pages 91-98 in:
R. F. Heizer (editor), Handbook of North American Indians. Volume
8, California. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Population. Pages 880-891 in: Handbook
of the Indians of California. Washington, D. C.: Bureau of American
Ethnology.
Thornton, R. 1980. Recent estimates of the prehistoric California
Indian population. Current Anthropology 21(5):702-704.
2. "For better or worse, people have filled in their gaps
of knowledge about the aboriginal past with their own creativity
and assumptions, shaped by popular and scholarly images of an
enduring traditional Indian as well as the circumstances of the
moment." Page 775 in: B. D. Haley and L. R. Wilcoxon.
1997. Anthropology and the making of the Chumash tradition. Current
Anthropology 38(5):761-794.
3. Findings at The Dalles Road
Cut are described in:
Cressman, L. S., D. L. Cole, W. A. Davis, T. M. Newman and D.
J. Scheans. 1960. Cultural sequences at The Dalles, Oregon: a
contribution to Pacific Northwest prehistory. Transactions of
the American Philosophical Society 50(10):1-108.
Miller, L. H. 1957. Bird remains from an Oregon kitchen midden.
Condor 59(1):59-63.
Hansel-Kuehn, V. J. 2003. The Dalles Roadcut (Fivemile Rapids)
avifauna: evidence for a cultural origin. Master of Arts thesis.
Pullman, Washington: Washington State University.
4. Wilbur, S. R. 1973. The California condor in the Pacific Northwest. Auk 90(1):196-198.
5. Between 1900 and 1930, C. Hart Merriam gathered names of plants and animals from Indian groups throughout California. His notes are at the Bancroft Library (Berkeley, California): C. Hart Merriam Papers, Collection Number BANC MSS 80/18c.
6. Page 187 in: C. H. Merriam and R. F. Heizer. 1967. Ethnographic notes on California Indian tribes. Reports of the University of California Archeological Survey. Berkeley, California: Department of Anthropology, University of California.
7. Merriam and Heizer op. cit., page 180.
8. Pages 149-150 in: A.
L. Kroeber. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Washington,
D. C.: Bureau of American Ethnology.
Driver, H. E. 1939. Culture element distributions: X. Northwest
California. University of California Anthropological Records 1(6):297-433.
Pages 238-250 in: E. Sapir and V. Golla. 2001. Hupa texts, with
notes and lexicon
9. Page 85 in: Curtis,
E. S. 1924. The North American Indian. Volume 13. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Norwood Press.
Kroeber 1925 op. cit., pages 117-118.
Simons, D. D. 1983. Interactions between California condors and
humans in prehistoric far western North America. Pages 470-494
in: S. R. Wilbur and J. A. Jackson, Vulture biology and
management. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
10. Page 83 in: E. W. Gifford
and G. H. Block. 1930. California Indian nights entertainments.
Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company.
Also, pages 111-112 in: D. A. Leeming and J. Page. 1998.
The mythology of native North America. Norman, Oklahoma: University
of Oklahoma Press.
11. Kroeber 1925 op. cit., pages 55-56. Also: Waters, H. 2009. Fixing the world. North Coast Journal (Eureka, California) 16 July 2009.
12. Driver 1939 op. cit.; Kroeber 1925 op. cit., pages 55-56.
13. Such a headband is preserved in the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California-Berkeley (Catalogue number 1-11618); pictured in: C. D. Bates, J. A. Hamber and M. J. Lee. 1993. The California condor and the California Indians. American Indian Art Magazine 19(1):40-47.
14. Sapir and Golla op. cit., pages 223-229, 260-267.
15. Barnard, J. 2009. Yurok Tribe works for return of condor to Northwest to help fix world gone wrong. The Los Angeles (California) Times, 18 August 2009: quoting Tiana Williams of Yuroks.
16. Some of the references reviewed
were:
Barrett, S. A. 1906. A composite myth of the Pomo Indians. Journal
of American Folklore 19(72):37-51.
Dixon, R. B. 1902. Maidu myths. Bulletin of the American Museum
of Natural History 17(2):33-118 (condor, pages 98, 265, 302).
Goddard, P. E. 1909. Kato texts. University of California Publications
in American Archeology and Ethnology 5(3):65-238 (condor on pages
71-77, 122-133).
Kroeber, A. L. 1929. The Valley Nisenan. University of California
Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology 24(4):253-290
(condor, page 276).
Kroeber, A. L. 1932. The Patwin and their neighbors. University
of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology
29(4):253-423 (condor, page 306).
Merriam, C. H. 1910. The dawn of the world, myths and tales of
the Miwok Indians of California. Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur Clark
Company.
Ortiz, B. 1989. Mount Diablo as myth and reality: an Indian history
convoluted. American Indian Quarterly 13(4):457-470.
17. Some of the references reviewed
were:
Gifford, E. W. 1926. Miwok cults. University of California Publications
in American Archeology and Ethnology 18(3):391-408.
Gifford, E. W. 1955. Central Miwok ceremonies. University of California
Anthropological Records 14(4):261-318.
Gifford, E. W. 1965. The Coast Yuki. Publication No. 2, Sacramento
(California) Anthropological Society.
Gifford, E. W., and A. L. Kroeber. 1937. Culture element distributions:
IV, Pomo. University of California Publications in American Archeology
and Ethnology 37(4):117-254.
Kroeber 1932, op. cit., pages 339-342.
Loeb. E. M. 1926. Pomo folkways. University of California Publications
in American Archeology and Ethnology 19(2):149-405 (condor dance,
pages 384-385).
18. Loeb, E. M. The Eastern Kuksu Cult. University of California
Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology 33(2):139-232.
19. Gifford 1965 op. cit., pages 84-85; Loeb 1926 op. cit., pages 384-385; Bates, Hamber and Lee op. cit., page 43.
20. Kroeber 1929 op. cit., page 269.
21. DuBois, C. 1935. Wintu ethnography.
University of California Publications in American Archeology and
Ethnology 36(1):1-147 (danger of condor feathers, page 91-93).
Kroeber 1932 op. cit., pages 341-342; Merriam and Heizer
op. cit., page 280; Bates, Hamber and Lee op. cit.,
page 44.
22. Gayton, A. H., and S. S. Newman.
1940. Yokuts and Western Mono myths. University of California
Anthropological Records 5(1):1-110.
Gifford, E. W. 1923. Western Mono myths. Journal of American Folklore
36(142):301-367.
Gifford and Block op. cit., pages 91-94.
Kroeber, A. L. 1906-1907. Indian myths of south central California.
University of California Publications in American Archeology and
Ethnology 4(4):167-250 (condor myths, pages 205-231).
23. Aginsky, B. W. 1943. Culture
element distributions: XXIV Central Sierra. University of California
Anthropological Records 8(4):393-468 (condor regalia, page 447).
Driver, P. 1937. Culture element distributions. VI Southern Sierra.
University of California Anthropological Records 1(2):53-154 (condor
regalia, pages 105 and 144).
24. Cook 1955 op. cit.
25. This section is summarized from information in the literature cited under Chapter Note 1. The quote is from Cook 1978 op. cit.
26. Page 84 in: Hudson, T., and E. Underhay. 1978. Crystals in the sky: an intellectual odyssey involving Chumash astronomy, cosmology and rock art. Santa Barbara, California: Ballena Press.
27. Page 376 in: Hooper, L. 1920. The Cahuilla Indians. University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology 16(6):315-380.
28. Bates, Hamber and Lee op.
cit.; photos of Luiseño dance skirts, pages 42-43.
Page 147 in: Blackburn, T. 1963. A manuscript account of
the Ventureno Chumash. Archeological Survey Annual Report 5:139-158.
University of California, Los Angeles.
29. Morejohn, G. V., and J. P. Galloway. 1983. Identification of avian and mammalian species used in the manufacture of bone whistles from a San Francisco Bay archeological site. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 5(1-2):87-97.
30. Lee, G. 1979. The San Emigdio
rock art site. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology
1(2):295-305.
Lee, G., and S. Horne. 1978. The Painted Rock site (SBa-502 and
SBa-526): Sapaksi, the House of the Sun. Journal of California
Anthropology 5(2):216-224.
31. Howard, H. 1929. The avifauna
of the Emeryville shellmound. University of California Publications
in Zoology 32(2):301-394.
Wallace, W. J., and D. W. Lathrap. 1959. Ceremonial bird burials
in San Francisco Bay shellmounds. American Antiquity 25(2):262-264.
32. Teggart, F. J. 1911. The Portola Expedition of 1769-1770. Diary of Miguel Costanso. Publications of the Academy of Pacific Coast History 2(4):1-167.
33. Page 210 in: H. E. Bolton. 1927. Fray Juan Crespi, missionary explorer of the Pacific Coast, 1769-1774. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
34. Pages 6-7 in: Harris, H. 1941. The annals of Gymnogyps to 1900. Condor 43(1):3-55
35. Pages 12 and 77 in: Priestly, H. I. (translator). 1972. A historical, political, and natural description of California by Pedro Fages, soldier of Spain, dutifully made for the Viceroy in the year 1775. Ramona, California: Ballena Press.
36. Page 291 in: "An American" [Alfred Robinson]. 1846. Life in California: during a residence of several years in that territory. New York, New York: Wiley & Putnam.
37. Pages 4, 7 and 11 in: Kroeber, A. L. 1908. A mission record of the California Indians. University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology 8(1):1-27.
38. Merriam, C. H. 1908. Meaning of the Spanish word gavilan. Science 28(709), New Series, page 147.
39. Page 39 in: Harrington, J. P. 1934. A new original version of Boscana's historical account of the San Juan Capistrano Indians of southern California. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 92(4):1-62.
40. Reichlen, H., and P. Reichlen. 1971. Le manuscrit Boscana de la Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris. Journal de la Societe des Americanistes 60(1):233-273.
41. Pages 397-399 in: Hodge, F. W. (editor). 1907. Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico. Washington, D. C.: Bureau of American Ethnology.
42. DuBois, C. 1906. Mythology of the Mission Indians. Journal of American Folklore 19(72):52-60.
43. Pages 138-140 in: Bean, L. J. 1974. Mukat's people: the Cahuilla Indians of southern California. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
44. Principal references to the
southern California eagle-killing ceremony:
Bean op. cit., pages 138-140
Pages 182-183 in: DuBois, C. G. 1908. The religion of the
Luiseño Indians of southern California. University of California
Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology 8(3):69-186.
Strong, W. D. 1929. Aboriginal society in southern California.
University of California Publications in American Archeology and
Ethnology 26:1-358 (eagle-killing ceremony on pages 32-34, 83-84,
119-120, 177-179, 261-262, and 307-309).
Pages 314-320 in: Waterman, T. T. 1910. the religious practices
of the Diegueno Indians. University of California Publications
in American Archeology and Ethnology 8(6):271-358.
45. Bates, Hamber and Lee, op. cit.
46. Elsasser, A., and R. F. Heizer. 1963. The archeology of Bowers Cave, Los Angeles County, California. University of California Archeological Survey Reports 59:1-45.
47. Pages 101 and 133 in:
Barrett, S. A. 1952. Material aspects of Pomo culture. Bulletin
of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 20(1).
Gifford 1926 op. cit., page 395.
Kroeber 1932 op. cit., page 279.
48. Gifford and Kroeber 1937 op. cit., pages 169-170.
49. Pages 43-44 in: Snyder,
N. F. R., and H. Snyder. 2000. The California condor: a saga of
natural history and conservation. San Diego, California: Academic
Press.