The Smallest Nations · Episode 1 of 8 · 45 min
A Thousand Small Nations
Before 1769, California was the most linguistically diverse place in North America and one of its most densely populated, with hundreds of small independent nations rather than empty wilderness. The acorn economy, deliberate fire and salmon fed a managed abundance. Spanish missions and Mexican ranchos then took the fertile coast first, so that later 'Indian land' began as the leftover margin.
Who's who
- Junipero SerraFranciscan friar who founded Mission San Diego de Alcala in 1769
- Alfred L. Kroeber+1 more episodeAnthropologist who gave a low pre-contact estimate and popularized 'tribelet'
- Sherburne F. CookDemographic historian who revised the population estimate upward
- Jose FigueroaMexican governor during the 1834 secularization
Where it happens
- Mission San Diego de Alcala, CaliforniaFirst of the Alta California missions, founded 1769
- Fort Ross, Sonoma coast, CaliforniaRussian fur-trading post on Kashaya Pomo territory, 1812-1841
Timeline
- July 1769Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcala.
- 1769-1833Twenty-one missions are established; disease devastates mission populations.
- 1812Russians establish Fort Ross to hunt sea otter.
- 1833-1834Mexican Secularization Act dissolves the missions.
- 1834-1836Most mission land is granted as private ranchos to Californios, not Native people.
Still debated
Pre-contact population estimates range from about 133,000 (Kroeber) to about 310,000 (Cook), and most modern scholars favor a figure well above Kroeber's. Language counts range from about 60 to 90 depending on how language and dialect are drawn.
