[Illustration: INDIAN TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA after A. L. Kroeber]
TOLOWA YUROK KAROK UPPER LOWER SHASTAN SHASTA OKWANUCHU ACHOMAWI ATSUGEWI KORO MINU NEW RIVER MODOC NORTHERN PAIUTE LASSEN VOL. NAT. PARK PYOT WHILIOUT ATHABASCAN CHILULA HUPA NONGATL SINKYONE LASSIK WAILAKI KATO YUKI YUKI HUCHNOM COAST YUKI POMO N. C. S.W. E. S.E. WAPPO CHIMA RIKO WINTUN NORTHERN CENTRAL SOUTHWESTERN SOUTHEASTERN COSTANOAN SAN FRANCISCAN SANTA CLARA SANTA CRUZ YANA N. CENTRAL SOUTHERN YAHI MAIDU NORTHEASTERN NORTHWESTERN SOUTHERN WASHO MIWOK COAST MIWOK PLAINS NORTHERN CENTRAL SOUTHERN YOKUT NORTH VALLEY
California Indians are often regarded to have been lazy and shiftless. To be sure there were such individuals, but we have that type of person in our midst too, and I dare say in equal or greater percentage. As a matter of fact, Indians generally could not afford to be lazy—there was no beneficent government to coddle them. It was largely a case of sink or swim. They had to provide their own shelter, food, and clothing as well as what amusement and extras—hardly to be called luxuries—they wished to enjoy. These things were all wrought from the wilderness with their own bare hands, using only wood, stone, and fire as tools. These native Americans lived in a stone-age culture. Metals, the wheel, domesticated herd animals, and agriculture were unknown to California Indians. Although there was some seasonal migration, there were no truly nomadic or wandering tribes in California.
In California there were 103 separate tribes each speaking its own language. To be sure, some were mere dialects of others, but there were 21 tongues completely distinct from each other and mutually unintelligible. These belonged to several unrelated language families, as shown on the second map.
As suggested above, Kroeber has shown that we are technically incorrect in referring to the California Indians as a single group of tribes. Within the political boundaries of the State of California there were actually three separate cultures with a number of subcultures, which were as follows: The small area in the northwest corner of the state, the Klamath River drainage, was occupied by the Northwest California Sub-culture, a part of the North Pacific Coast Culture which extended into British Columbia. The California-Great Basin Culture had three representatives in the state: the smallest or Lutuami Sub-culture, represented by the Modoc tribe only, extended down from the north across the east central portion of the northern boundary of California. The next larger was the Great Basin Sub-culture just east of the Cascade-Sierra backbone. The third and largest sub-culture of the California-Great Basin Culture was that of the Central California tribes (the Diggers of the pioneer), extending westward from the Cascade-Sierra crest to the Pacific Ocean across the bulk of the state. The fifth sub-culture is known as the Southern California comprising the area south of the Tehachapi Mountains from the coast east across the Colorado River, being a part of the Southwest Culture.