Settlement Patterns
The tremendously rich environments of central California, coupled with
the sophisticated technology of the native peoples, 
allowed
a population density and a permanency of residence unheard of in gathering
and hunting societies. Most nations had several villages (probably from
2 to 8), each near a perennial water source and, if possible, near timber
as well. With few exceptions, villages were located in ecotones, sites that
fostered access to varied resources with little travel involved to harvest
those resources. The number and size of villages established by each tribelet
was correlated loosely with the size of the nation's territory and the productivity
of their habitats. The more densely settled tribelets, such as those in
the resource rich areas along the Sacramento River and in the southern Sierra
foothills, had only two to four villages, while other tribelets forced to
range over larger territories sited more villages.
The principal villages of lake, stream-delta, and delta-foothill nations had populations of 1,000 or more. Most other villages were smaller, with between 200 and 800 inhabitants, but even the less populous villages covered substantial areas: one Wukchumni Yokuts village covered the equivalent of eight city blocks. And in a few areas, village populations were much small, between 50 and 100 persons.
Each village controlled a territory seasonally endowed with sufficient food resources to sustain the group. In rich habitats settlements might be clustered within a few hours' walk of one another, while in less productive areas they might be a day or two apart. In any given season, one, two or more villages were occupied with one serving as the political center for the nation. In many areas resources were such that villages might be inhabited the year round. In other areas, when local resources dwindled or stored staples were exhausted, the population shifted to another set of villages, while in some areas, especially along the coast, the main village served as winter residences for most tribelet members, but groups would disperse to smaller villages and camps in spring and summer to take advantage of scattered, seasonally available resources.
For most of the year people occupied fairly substantial
dwellings in fixed villages. Houses varied in details of construction and
in materials in the various geographical provinces. Some groups living along
the coast of the North Coast Range built single-family, conical houses formed
by setting slabs of redwood bark or wood in a circle, 10 to 15 feet in diameter,
and leaning them together against a center post. Larger and sheltering more
people were the dome-shaped houses made of slender, flexible poles stuck
in the ground in a circular or oval fashion, bent over and tied at the top,
and covered with bunches of long coarse grass in a series of overlapping
layers. Such houses measured up to 25 or 30 feet across.
In the Sacramento
Valley many people lived in substantial earthcovered, often multifamily,
dwellings constructed over an excavation. Poles were used for the framework
with a large center pole as support, leaving a hole in the roof to let out
smoke and a side opening for a door. Brush, leaves, or tule were piled on
the poles and the house covered with dirt. Eastward, people living in the
Sierran foothills lived in either conical structures made from bark slabs
or at lower elevations a thatched structure covered with brush, grass, or
tules.
To the south, in the southern San Joaquin Valley,
domestic structures were of two types. The smallest and least elaborate
were the single-family dwellings with oval floor plan and large tule mats covering their wooden frameworks. Within the
community these houses all stood in a single row. Some Yokuts tribelets
built a more distinctive domestic structure. These were long, steep-roofed
communal residences which sheltered 10 or more families. Sections of these
big tule mat-covered structures were apportioned to individual families,
each with its own fireplace and door.
In addition to domestic structures, all larger towns and villages contained a public or semi-public structure that served as the focal point for various ceremonial and ritual activities. Sometimes these structures resembled overly large versions of the semisubterreanean earth-covered houses. Often called dance houses or round houses, the construction of these, attended with much ceremony, involved almost all members of a community. Among some groups, these earth lodges were not only for ceremonial purposes but also as a men's gathering place, for the shaman's initiation, and in cold weather for a sleeping place for unattached men.
Among many groups, a more usual sleeping place for unattached men, as well as a male gathering place, was the sweat lodge. The sweat lodge was ubiquitous in the central region, found from small hamlets of 50 people to large towns of over 1,000 residents. Built similar to the earth-covered dance house, but much smaller, such structures were almost always the domain of men, with women rarely being allowed use. It was here in the sweat lodge that men purified themselves for various tasks.
The monthly discharge of some one to five ounces of blood by the unfertilized female probably has evoked cultural responses throughout human existence. In native California, menstruating women in all groups altered their routine activities and became subject to special prohibitions and proscriptive behaviors, including secluding themselves during their period, either in a specially designated and separated area within the house or in a separate structure constructed specifically for this purpose. The Wintun-speaking people bult a dome-shaped brush shelter sized to accommodate one person with comfort. Here the woman remained for the period of her flow, refrained from sexual intercourse and refrained from eating deer, fish, and grease.
For additional information on the Central
Region,
please select a topic most applicable to your interests:
Languages | Subsistence | Settlement Patterns | Sociopolitical Organization | Religion
Northwest
Coast | Northeast | Central
Coast and Central Valley
East of the Sierra Divide | Interior Desert | Southern Coastal
Native Peoples of California - Topics
To comment on this page please send email to Chuck Smith at crsmith@cabrillo.cc.ca.us.
Page last updated: 23 August 1999