The California Indians, No. XIII [pp. 542-550]

THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS.
could find no Indians living by whom to
verify them, further than that the aboriginal name of Puta Creek was Lewy.)
Napa Valley was named for its aboriginal inhabitants. On lower Puta Creek
the Indians were called by the Spaniards,
on account of their licentiousness, Putos, and the stream, Rio de los Putos.
On upper, middle, and lower Cache
Creek respectively are the Olposels,
Ch6nposels, and Weelacksels (all three
names accented on the first syllable),
which signify "upper tribe," "lower
tribe," and "tribe on the plains." In
Long Valley, just east of Clear LI.ake,
are the Lolsels or Loldlas. Lol denotes
"Indian tobacco," and sel is a locative
ending; hence the name means "wildtobacco place," applied first to the valley, then to the people in it. At Knight's
Landing are the Yodetabies; in Cortina
Valley, the Wicosels (north tribe). At
Colusa are the Corusies (corrupted to
the present form), whose most celebrated chiefs were Sioc and Hookileh. At
Jacinto was a little tribe whose name I
do not know, and on Stony Creek the
Patweens intermarried with the Wintoons, and were called by the latter
Noyukies.
If all the vast plains from Stony Creek
to Suisun had been inhabited by Indians,
the population would have been very
great; but for several more or less obvious reasons they were not. In winter
there was too much water on them; in
summer none at all, and the aborigines
had no means of procuring an artificial
supply. More than that, there was no
wood; and the portions overflowed in
the rainy season breed millions of accursed gnats in the early summer, which
render human life a burden and a weariness. Hence they were compelled to
live beside the water-courses, except
during limited periods in the winter,
when they established hunting-camps
out on the plains. Nor could they even
dwell beside the Sacramento, save on
those low bluffs, as at Colusa, where the
tule swamps do not approach the river.
At a point about four miles below Colusa there are indications, in the shape
of circular excavations, that they once
had somewhat substantial dwellings far
from water; yet these may have been
only permanent hunting- camps. They
also had temporary camps in winter
along the edge of the tule swamps, for
the purpose of hunting wild fowl.
But along the streams the population
was dense. General Bidwell states that,
in I849, the village of the Corusies contained at least I,ooo inhabitants. In
Spring Valley, on the Estes Rancho, a
cellar was lately dug, which revealed a
layer of bones six or eight feet below the
surface, lying so thick that they formed
a white stratum all round the sides of
the cellar. At Vacaville great numbers
of bones have been discovered in various excavations. Senfior Pifia, who was
in the country ten years before the discovery of gold, states that on Puta Creek
the Indians lived in multitudes. They
had an almost boundless extent of plains
whereon to hunt game and gather grassseed; before the streams were muddied,
salmon swarmed there by myriads; and
the broad tule swamps in winter were
noisy with quacking and screaming water-fowl.
In addition to the modes of gathering
and preparing food heretofore described,
the Patweens had some different processes. On the plains they gathered the
seed of a plant called "yellow-blossom"
(probably Ranunculus Californicus),
crushed it into flour with stones, then
put it into baskets with coals of fire,
and agitated it until the chaff was all
burned out and the flour scorched, then
made it into piinole or bread as black as
charcoal. The seed of the wild sunflower, alfilerilla, clover, and bunchgrass was treated much in the same
manner. The Corusies, and probably
others, had an ingenious way of captur
I 874.]
543