UC Merced Journal of and Great Basin Anthropology

Title California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past

Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k01x3zx

Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 26(2)

ISSN 0191-3557

Author Laylander, Don

Publication Date 2006

Peer reviewed

eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26, No. 2 (200B) | pp. 153-177

CALIFORNIA'S PREHISTORY AS A REMEMBERED PAST

DON LAYLANDER ASM Affiliates, Inc. 2034 Corte del Nogal, Carlsbad, CA 92011

Numerous oral traditions are among the diverse sources of information available for reconstructing California's prehistory. These accounts were preserved by the prehistoric inhabitants' descendants and then documented by ethnographers, primarily during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For oral traditions to be used effectively in arriving at an understanding of factual events in the region's past, it is essential that the historicity of their content and their chronological range be critically evaluated. Empirical testing of the traditions' contents against independent evidence suggests that the traditions often preserved some elements of authentic information that extended back well beyond the narrators' own experiences, across several generations or even through several centuries. There is no credible support for claims that events or conditions as remote as a millennium or more in the past were remembered.

ARLY NATIVE CALIFORNIANS' IDEAS abouttheh 2000). Some of these claims seem to have been rooted Eprehistoric past are attested by a large and varied hi a form of Native American rehgious fundamentahsm collection of orally-transmitted narratives and other that would confer mfaUibUity upon the pronoimcements traditions (Fig. 1).^ These texts have been approached of traditional elders. In a more secular vein, a motive in a variety of different ways. To some contemporary seems to have been to assert native control over the Native , they are sacred texts that ought to ancestral past by denyhig or subordinating any sources be revered and believed. Other listeners or readers of information, such as archaeology, that might chaUenge appreciate them as hterature providing enjoyment and native views. At the other extreme are the skeptical inspiration. For many anthropologists, folklorists, and arguments advanced by Robert H. Lowie (1917) and psychologists, the narratives support scientific insights some functionalist anthropologists, sociologists, and into the universal workings of the human imagination, historians This latter view has asserted that oral traditions or mto the chasms m thought that separate one culture are so firmly rooted in the present that they lack any from another. The content of the narratives, even when value as dhect evidence about the past. it is viewed as substantially fictional, may offer to the It is possible to test these competing claims against ethnographer important clues concerning aboriginal the internal evidence of the narratives themselves and lifeways and cultural attitudes. Patterns in the ways agahist external archaeological and geological evidence, narrative elements were shared among different cultures at least to a limited extent. Several general categories of provide evidence about prehistoric interactions and mformation contamed in oral traditions are suitable for cultural change. Without denying the interest of any of such tests. These include chronologies, cultural change, these perspectives, the present study examines traditional events m the natm-al envhonment, and ethnic migrations. narratives with a different objective m mind: to evaluate oral traditions as sources of factual information about the events that constituted the region's human prehistory. HISTORICITY AND HISTORICAL INTEGRITY Sweeping claims have sometimes been made for Some observers have assumed that traditional narratives, Native American historical memory, which has been particularly those hnbued with a sacred character, were proposed to extend back through many miUennia (e.g., extremely stable throughout long periods of prehistory. Lahd 1984; Deloria 1995; Anyon et al. 1997; Echo-Hawk For instance, C. Hart Merriam (1910:15) wrote that

153 154 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26, No. 2 (2006)

Figure 1. Ethnolinguistic groups of Native California. (Number of languages is indicated in paretheses.) ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 155

Miwok myths "from thne hnmemorial have been handed as a means to vahdate mdividual rights of mheritance was down by word of mouth; from generation to generation rehiforced by a cultural taboo observed in the majority they have been repeated, without loss and without of Native Cahfomian cultures that mhibited the uttering addition." It remains to be seen whether Merriam's of deceased persons' names. assumption about the stabUity of myths was warranted. The degree to which different Native American Among various nonUterate cultures around the groups thought that the content of narratives ought to be world, there were marked differences in the stability stable also varied considerably. Alan Dundes (1964:23- of oral traditions and in factual knowledge about the 24) commented upon the variabihty from one culture to past. Some cultures in Africa and Oceania preserved another in the latitude that was allowed or encouraged detailed and apparently fahly accurate oraUy transmitted in an individual narrator's retelling of a traditional tale. mformation, such as pohtical genealogies and nugration For instance, innovation or alteration of the narrative's stories, that reached back as far as several centuries. elements was encouraged in the Southwestern pueblo Other cultures had httle to say about the past, described commuruties of Zuni and Isleta, but marked conservatism it exclusively in mythical rather than factual terms, or was reported for Tillamook and Eskimo narratives. were extremely fluid in their accounts of it (Vansina SimUar contrasts in attitudes toward innovation were 1985:24). present within aboriginal California. Variability in historicity among different cultures One factor in favor of stabihty might be the presence was not randomly distributed, but was conditioned of a supernatural sanction against any intentional iimo- by other aspects of culture. Probably the most impor­ vation or accidental deviation in the reciting of a fradition. tant factor that promoted the preservation of factual Rewards might accrue to letter-perfect performances, and information about the past was the presence of a manmade or supernatural punishments might result specific social need or function for such mformation. In from mistakes (Vansina 1985:37, 41-42). There is some strongly hierarchical societies, genealogies and narratives evidence of this for northwestern California. A Yuki recounting the deeds of ancestors served as charters narrator said that if he skipped any detail of a myth, that defined the statuses, roles, rights, and privUeges of he or his hsteners would become iU (Gifford 1937:116). hving hidividuals. Historical precedents had legal force. The Karok said that if a myth were not told m fuU, the This social function of history created incentives for narrator might become hunchbacked (i.e., doubled up individuals and groups to try to protect the integrity with hunger) (Kroeber and Gifford 1980:108; cf Luthhi of the transmitted traditions, although it also created 2002:93). Karok formulas, which were narratives used incentives for them to falsify the traditions in theh ovra as medicine to treat illnesses, to increase luck, or to favor when opportuiuties to do so arose. win success in love, had to be recited without missing In aborigmal Cahfonua, heredity was frequently at a word in order to be effective (Kroeber and Gifford least a factor in determhiing the succession to political 1980:263). "In northwestern Cahfomia the relating of a leadership within communities. Lands and resources myth verbathn, with the proper hitonation and mflection were sometimes owned by kin groups such as lineages of the voice, was believed to be of magical efficacy" or clans. However, these inheritance rights were (Gifford and Block 1930:43). However, such sanctions generaUy only very weakly developed. If a lineage owned enforcing verbatim performance seem to have been rare gathering rights to an oak grove, both those rights and in aboriginal Cahfomia as a whole. the membership of specific mdividuals hi hneages seem Another factor that might mfluence the stabihty of to have been accepted as common knowledge within the narratives was the manner m which they were fransmitted community, rather than as historical claims that might from one generation to the next. Transmission might require vahdation by reference to an oral tradition. A occur very informally, as listeners in the community man might succeed his father or his uncle as the leader repeatedly heard the performances of older narrators of a community, but he did not have to appeal to the and effortlessly became famUiar with them. Alternatively, legendary deeds of his great-great-grandfather hi order to the narratives nught be formally taught, for instance to justify his succession. This neglect of ttaditional narratives members of an age class who were imdergoing adolescent 156 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26. No. 2 (2006) mitiation (e.g., Loeb 1932:30,34,59,67; Zigmond 1980:12), structured. This would have made either accidental or selectively on a one-on-one basis by a master narrator or intentional innovations less likely. For instance, in instructing an apprentice. Presumably the more formal verse epics the use of a rigid poetic meter or rhyme and structured learning was also more conservative pattern, or looser patterns of alhteration and assonance, in its content. In general, there is httle ethnographic hmdered change (Vansina 1985:14). Although the poetics information about the processes by which traditions were of Native Californian narratives have been hidden in passed between generations in aboriginal California. One most translations (cf Luthin 2002), these accounts do not early report indicated that certain Gabriehno boys were seem to have been structured in ways that would have speciaUy taught to memorize narratives word-for-word. seriously inhibited itmovation. However, the primary function of this training seems to On the other hand, native songs often hicorporated have been to enable the boys to carry messages between narrative elements. Such songs might be included as the leaders of different communities, rather than to part of the recitation of a narrative, or they might stand protect the integrity of oral tradUions (Reid 1968:119). separately in community performances of singing and The River Yumans present an unusual case relating dancing. Songs probably introduced a degree of hteral to the manner of narrative transmission. In these conservatism (Vansina 1985:16), but that degree was cultures, it was beheved that individuals usuaUy acquhed not necessarily high. For instance, the Yumans made theh knowledge of the events portrayed in traditional extensive use of songs within myths and other narratives, narratives through their own dreams, in particular by but substantial variability was reported in the songs means of dreaming that had occurred whUe the dreamer that accompaiued any given narrative (Kroeber 1948:2). was stiU a fetus in his mother's womb (Harrington 1908; myths might be told entirely in song, but Kroeber 1948:1-2). The dreamer was beheved to travel considerable contemporary variation in the content of back hi time, often to the beginning of the world, and to the songs was observed (Strong 1929:130). The references witness m person the events that he would later narrate. to the prehistoric past that were contained in songs This view might seem to hnply extreme mdividuahty in tended to be too fragmentary and cryptic, considered by narrative authorship, but tendencies toward innovation themselves, to seriously constrain any evolution in the were nutigated by several factors. Adult "remembrance" understanding of the early events or situations that they of the prenatal dreams was sthnulated by hearing other described. Allusions could easUy be reinterpreted within people tell their own dreams about the same events. the stmcture of a new or substantiaUy altered narrative. Critical hsteners would comment about the correctness Songs were sometimes heard in dreams and subsequently of dream accounts that were being narrated, and in this performed by the dreamer. If such a song had a narrative way they exerted pressure toward standardization. River content, innovation might thus be introduced into the Yuman oral traditions were also sometimes transmitted content of a commimity's fraditions,withou t its personal by the method of one individual dhectly teaching them origin being recognized. to another, rather than through dreaming. On the whole, The use of foreign or archaic language in recitations however, the idea that the past was directly experienced of traditional narratives was reported from several hi dreams removed any cultural imperative for a careful, Cahfonua groups (Fig. 2). If archaic language hi a narrative word-for-word repetition of received narratives, and can be linguistically analyzed, it can serve to confirm it gave the skilled narrator considerable scope for conservatism (Vansina 1985:14-15). In the California correcting or elaborating his own version. It is probably cases, there has generaUy been no hngiustic confirmation not coincidental that Mohave myths show a relatively that such elements actuaUy preserved language that was high rate of infiltration by references to post-contact derived from either a long-past generation or a foreign cultural elements, such as wheat, chickens, and woven group. These words may perhaps have been extreme cloth, compared to other Native Cahfomian narratives. examples of the ceremonial distortion of normal language Another cultural feature that might contribute to the that was attested in other contexts (e.g., Blackburn accurate preservation of mformation about the past was 1975:26). The Sah Song was composed of if oral performances of traditional narratives were tightly Mohave words used in ways that were unintelligible ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 157

Figure 2. Groups reporting use of foreign or archaic language in ti-aditionalnarratives . 158 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26, No. 2 (2006) to the Mohave (Lahd 1976:16). On the one hand, such were greatly facihtated by the use of written documents practices do point to a concern with word-for-word or at least inscriptions, but they might also be maintamed precision hi the transmission of narratives, and therefore oraUy. There is no evidence that prehistoric Californians presumably also to a conservatism in theh content. J. W ever made use of any such absolute chronologies. Hudson (1902:106) noted that narrators who gave Relative chronologies date events as occurring different renderings of the same myth used "archaic" before, after, or contemporaneously with other words that were the same in the various versions that events. Genealogies provided frameworks for relative were recorded, although the words were untranslatable. chronologies in some nonliterate cultures and may On the other hand, because such foreign or archaic extend as far as 30 generations (perhaps 750 years) elements were usuaUy uiunteUigible to both the narrators back into the past (Vansma 1985:117). Long genealogies and theh hsteners, or at best to everyone except a few are not attested in Native California. However, many speciahsts in esoteric knowledge, they were likely to be California traditional narratives contain hnphcit relative ineffective in transmitting mformation about the past. chronologies. At the early end of the time scale, myths^ In sum, many of the factors that make for conserva­ frequently linked theh episodes to such early mUestones tism in traditional narratives, including strongly marked as the successive events of creation that produced the social inequality, inherited privileges, supernatural world itself, solid land, animals, men, cultural norms, sanctions relating to the details of performance, and social institutions, and the various ethnolinguistic groups. highly structured literary forms, were weak or lacking At the opposite extreme of the time scale were the oral in aboriginal California. However, formal teaching and histories reporting events that had occurred when the learning of narratives did sometimes occur. Frequent narrators were young, and the oral narratives referring recitals on ceremoiual occasions and for pure entertain­ to events in the lifetimes of the narrators' parents ment during winter nights made the narratives very or grandparents. Although these later chronologies famihar to the commuiuty members and to visitors The generally fell within the historical era rather than in chcumstances of performance seem to have ensured that prehistory, it is likely that similar short-term relative many oral narratives did have a substantiaUy traditional chronologies were used by Native Cahfomians prior to character, although it did not give them immuiuty from European contact. In between the mythic period at one gradual, and sometimes not so gradual, change. extreme and the events that were either experienced at first hand or heard about directly from participants on the other, aboriginal Californians do not seem to CHRONOLOGIES have had any established reference points for relative Some sort of chronological framework is almost chronologies. Oral history quickly turned into legend, indispensable for a detaUed, factual knowledge of the past and legend quickly became myth. For instance, Yuki to be mamtamed (cf Vansma 1985:173). The chronology and accounts of warfare between those two may be either absolute, dhectly tying a particular event groups, some of which referred to events that must have to a definite number of years before the present, or it been less than a century old, have been noted as being may be only relative, placing an event as prior to, coeval stylized and folkloristic rather than historical in their with, or subsequent to other landmark events. contents (Goldschmidt et al. 1939). The Yuki adoption In various regions of the world, absolute chronologies of the Taikomol ceremony was mentioned as having have been maintained in a variety of ways. One method occurred "two or three generations before the coming has been to keep counts of elapsed years subsequent to a of the white man," but the story of its orighis was set m reference point in the past, such as the legendary foimdhig a mythic context. "It would seem that the Huchnom [a Yuki subgroup] have projected a set of relatively recent of Rome, the birth of Christ, the hijra of Muhammad, or, events mto the far legendary past; or, perhaps, to put the in the case of the classic Maya, an arbitrary point m an matter more accurately, that neither Yuki nor Huchnom astronomical cycle. Another method has been to string discriminate clearly between a century or two ago and together a sequence of year counts for the reigns of the thne of the creation" (Kroeber 1925:207). kings, consuls, or other leaders. These dating methods ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 159

Within individual narratives, there also seems to described by C. Hart Merriam (1928:ii) as "Speaker have been httle concern with chronology. The number and Keeper of the Laws, History, and Chronology of his of days that elapsed between the events of a story was tribe." In the myths that Hulsey narrated, he referred hi often precisely specified, but years were rarely counted. passing to a debate among the First People as having Characters in myths often gestated and grew to maturity lasted for ten years (Merriam 1928:117), and on several in miraculously short periods of time. A. L. Kroeber occasions he referred to much longer stretches of mythic (1948:3) noted the "hrationahties or surrealisms of thne" m time. A mountain had stood in the location of a modem Mohave narratives, and examples could be multiphed from town "thousands of years ago" (Merriam 1928:27). An many other Cahfomia groups However, the Mohave also unknown second world had drifted around for 500 provided one partial exception to this general dismterest years (Merriam 1928:116). A culture hero, who put the m internal narrative chronology. A long Mohave account sun, moon, and stars in the sky, boasted that "'when of travels and battles had an internal chronology that what I have done becomes known, it wiU be a thousand spaimed at least 48 years and was usuaUy (ahhough not generations from today.' (It is not yet a thousand invariably) consistent and plausible (Kroeber 1951). generations)" (Merriam 1928:99-100; the parenthetical Kroeber described the account as "pseudohistorical" comment is in the original). In ah, according to this because of its largely naturahstic content, and he observed Achumawi consultant, between the start of creation that precise internal dating of this sort had not been and the transformation of the Fhst People into animals reported from any other aboriginal group north of and plants, the oddly precise figure of 11,600 years had Mexico. It is imcertain whether the exceptional attention elapsed (Merriam 1928:158). Such references to long- to internal chronology in this narrative was an aboriginal term chronologies, extremely rare in Native Califonuan feature or an historical-period irmovation by the narrator, narratives, can perhaps be attributed to post-contact perhaps under Westem influence. influences emanating from the relatively time-obsessed The recorded versions of Native Californian Westem culture. oral traditions rarely contain any allusions to long- The hnphcations of this lack of absolute or relative term absolute chronologies, but there are occasional chronological frameworks m aboriginal California have exceptions. In several mstances, Stephen Powers (1976:35, not always been fuUy appreciated. For example, in 1909, 59-60, 144, 251) wrote phrases such as "a great many Walter C. MendenhaU asked some desert CahuiUa about himdred snows ago," "many hundreds of years ago," and the drying of Lake CahuUla, the great freshwater lake "a thousand years old," but it seems highly probable that that was remembered as having once fiUed theh vaUey. these phrases were mserted by the recorder rather than "When questioned as to the date of this event they state being used by the native narrator. In a more elaborate that it occurred as long ago as the lives of four or five and specific case, a creation myth referred very old men, say three or four centuries ago at most" to the flooded condition of the earth at the time when (MendenhaU 1909:683-685). Archaeological evidence the two Creators emerged from beneath the sea, and now puts the lake's finalrecessio n m the late 1600s, about the narrator added parenthetically, "from that time, it 250 years before MendenhaU's time (Laylander 1997). wiU be four thousand years untU the flood comes again" This agrees reasonably weU with MendenhaU's estimate, (Spier 1933:350). The specific number of years may have but the CahuiUa consultants' reference to "the lives been inspired by Bishop Ussher's well-known biblical of four or five very old men" was ambiguous. It might chronology of 4,000 years between the creation and the have referred to the lengths in years of exceptionally bhth of Christ. The Halchidhoma narrative itself gives no long lifespans, or to the number of steps in a sequence mdication that the narrator either knew or was mterested of transmissions by which the report about the lake m how much of this aUotted 4,000-year span had aheady had passed from elders to young men. In any case, it is elapsed. It seems reasonable to regard the chronological unhkely that the phrase had any very specific meanmg reference as non-traditional. for the aborigmal CahuUla. In the absence of a system A similar exception is provided by an Achumawi of absolute chronology or any memorized chains of narrator, William Hulsey (Istet Woiche), who was narrative transmission, it is not clear how the Cahuilla 160 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26. No. 2 (2006) would have decided when to stop referring to the elapsed underwent greater changes than Merriam had envisioned time as having been the hves of three or four very old in theh subsistence strategies (for mstance, m marithne, men, and start measuring it by the lifetimes of four or acom, and pine nut specializations), hi technology (such five very old men. It seems probable that this degree of as projectUe types and milling equipment), and in social chronological precision was more or less forced upon the organization (including community size, mobility, and CahuiUa consultants by their Westem interrogator, and gender roles) (cf Chartkoff and Chartkoff 1984; Moratto that the proper mterpretation of the CahuUla response 1984; Fagan 2003). Rather than indicating extreme would have been not "three or four centuries ago at conservatism in general culture, Merriam's examples can most" but merely "far back beyond hving memory, but now be seen as pointing up a degree of fluidity in the not as far back as the thne of creation." content of Miwok narratives, which had been invented or In sum, the evidence suggests that Native Cahfor- adapted to reflect changing hfeways nians usuaUy distinguished sequences of events occurring Given the reality of prehistoric cultural change, within mythic time that were associated with the events narratives potentially contain two types of elements of creation, as weU as sequences of events taking place that bear on the historicity of the cultures that created during the narrators' own lifetimes or a generation or and transmitted them: archaisms and anachronisms. If two prior to that. For events lying between those two traditional narratives were highly stable and transmitted extremes, no system for remembering duration or essentially intact from generation to generation, then sequence seems to have been maintained, presumably archaisms, or obsolete cultural patterns, should appear because none was considered to be necessary for any in the descriptions of mythic and legendary events. Even practical purpose. if the specific content of traditional narratives was fluid, archaisms might still be included if the transmitters of oral tradition were aware of such past changes and CULTURAL CHANGE wanted to avoid putthig anachroiusms into theh accounts A key issue in evaluating the historicity of Native of earher thnes. On the other hand, if both the traditions Cahfomian cultures is whether the aboriginal lifeways were fluid and the narrators' historical consciousness that were depicted hi oral traditions were hmited to those was hmited, the most remote past would be likely to be of the most recent, ethnographicaUy documented portion portrayed anachronisticaUy, in the garb of the present or of prehistory, or whether the traditions also preserved a very recent past. an awareness of a more remote past. A century ago, This perspective on the problem of historicity is Merriam came at the issue from the opposite dhection. sinular to one that has been apphed to the analysis of the Taking it as a given that the narratives were extremely Homeric epics of early Greece. The centuries between the conservative, and noting that the culture reflected in period of the Trojan War and the thne when the Iliad and Miwok narratives matched ethnographic patterns, he the Odyssey were written down sparmed the transition argued that this correspondence proved the extreme m metaUurgy from bronze to hon, the extmction of the conservatism of other aspects of Miwok culture: Mycenaean city-states during the Greek Dark Ages, and the local disappearance of chariot warfare. The The repeated mention in the mythologies of certain objects and practices (such as the ceremonial round­ Homeric poems preserved some archaic elements, while house, the use of the stone mortar and pestle for they anachronisticaUy distorted or overlooked others. grinding acorns, the use of baskets for cooking, the use This mixed pattern may have arisen from both a certain of the bow and arrow and sling in hunting, the practice degree of narrative conservatism and some awareness of of gambling by means of the hand-game, and many others) proves that these objects and observances cultural change. are not of recent introduction but were among the Unfortunately, in contrast to Greece during the early possessions and practices of the Mewan tribes [Merriam 1910:22]. Bronze and Iron Ages, Cahfomia's prehistoric past offers relatively few sohdly docimiented cultural mUeposts that Subsequently, archaeological evidence has been able lend themselves to use in testmg the historicity of oral to demonstrate that the prehistoric cultures of California traditions Some prehistoric changes, such as alterations ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 161 m social orgatuzation, may be reflected m narratives, but documented or dated, m part because of recent taboos they are difficult to docimient and date archaeologicaUy. against such studies. It is possible that multiple shifts Others, such as shifts in sheU bead types or projectile back and forth between inhumation and cremation may pomt styles, are highly visible archaeologicaUy but were have occurred through time. For example, hypotheticaUy, not likely to be mentioned in oral narratives. However, references to cremation in the myths of a group that there are a few cases that are suitable for such tests. had recently changed from inhumation to cremation Cultural changes that occurred comparatively late in might reflect a rapid, anachronistic adaptation of the prehistory, that can be documented archaeologicaUy, and myths' contents to later circumstances, or it might be that are reflected m the content of traditional narratives an archaism that recaUed a still earlier period when hiclude the adoption of new burial practices, the bow and cremation had been practiced, prior to the adoption arrow, pottery-making, and agriculture. of the recently abandoned practice of inhumation (cf Kroeber 1925:317; Powers 1976:340-341). A confrast Burial Practices between ethnographicaUy attested funeral practices and In some respects, funeral practices seem to offer a the local archaeological evidence might reflect prehistoric promishig basis for assessing conservatism or irmovation change within a culture, but alternatively it might reflect in Native Californian traditional narratives. This aspect the intmsion of a new group of people into the region, of prehistoric behavior is highly visible archaeologicaUy. with the intruders themselves being conservative in In traditional narratives, references to funerals were theh fimeral customs. Moreover, because of the complex common, and the basic contrast between cremation geographic mosaic that intermixed cremation and and inhumation is readily distinguished, although inhumation throughout most of Cahfonua, most groups more detailed aspects that may be weU documented must have been aware of alternative contemporary archaeologicaUy, such as burial posture, orientation, funerary practices. Therefore, references to inhimiation and grave accompaniments, were usuaUy not specified in the myths of a group that practiced cremation might in the narratives. EthnographicaUy, the geographical merely have incorporated the practices of a neighboring pattern hi the distribution of inhumation and cremation group in order to indicate the exotic or bizarre nature within Cahfomia was complex. Different practices often of burial practices during the mythic period, without crosscut hnguistic famihes and even groups of dialects preserving any memory of actual changes through time writhin a single language community. This ethnographic within the narrators' ovra cultural traditions pattern strongly suggests that burial practices continued The best test case for conservatism in narrative to change during very late phases of prehistory, and content with respect to burial practices would be therefore that superceded pattems might weU have been provided by a region of the state that was relatively remembered in oral traditions. uniform in its ethnographicaUy documented burial Unfortunately, there are several serious weaknesses pattern and in which there were only two successive in the evidence of funerary customs as a test for prehistoric burial patterns: an older practice attested archaism or anachronism in traditional narratives. The archaeologicaUy, and a later, contrasting practice ethnographic record is sUent or unclear concerning the documented both ethnographicaUy and archaeologicaUy. funeral practices of several Cahfomia groups Many of the There should also be evidence for continuity between groups foUowed mixed fimeral practices, with the choice the culture of the ethnographic narrators and the earher m a particular case depending upon such factors as the local culture that had used the contrastmg burial pattern. status of the deceased individual and the chcumstances The case m which these conditions come closest to being and location of his or her death (Gould 1963). For met is provided by the Luiseno and of coastal instance, several northern California groups normally . These groups practiced cremation practiced mhumation but would cremate someone who prior to the mission period, whereas inhumation was died far from home, so that the remams could be carried the pattern of an earlier culture in the same region, back more convenientiy. ArchaeologicaUy, the sequences known archaeologicaUy as the Encinitas Tradition or of local changes in funeral customs are often not well La JoUa Complex (Warren 1968). The dating of the 162 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26. No. 2 (2006) change from inhumation to cremation is somewhat References to the use of the bow and arrow are uncertain; it may have occurred as early as about 500 abundant in narratives that were set in the earhest, B.C. (Moriarty 1966:23), or it may have come several mythic period, and they are found in the traditions of centuries later. The shift was not absolutely complete; nearly every ethnolinguistic group in the state. Some rarely, late-period inhumations are also documented. myths specificaUy refer to the creation of the bow and An unresolved problem is whether there was cultural arrow by a mythic person (e.g., Harrington 1908:336; continuity between the Encinitas Tradition and the Gifford 1917:302-305; Kroeber and Gifford 1980:10, Luiseno or the Kumeyaay. In any case, Luiseno and 73-74,147-148), but in most myths the immemorial Kumeyaay myths project the practice of cremation presence of the technology is shnply taken for granted. back to earhest, mythic times (e.g., DuBois 1901:184, There are no clear references to superceded projectile 1904a:185). No historical consciousness of a superceded technologies, such as the atlatl and dart. pattern of inhumation seems to have been preserved, Possible archaisms might be sought in myths that if such was the practice of these groups' cultural describe huntmg or conflict but either deny the presence forebears. Indeed, one narrator among the neighboring of the bow and arrow or fail to mention them. For CahuiUa not only projected cremation back to earhest instance, one Washoe legend told of a battle between mythic times but also believed that the replacement the Washoe and a race of giants who had no bows. of cremation by inhumation among the Cahuilla had James E Dovras (1966:62) suggested that the giants might occurred in early prehistory, rather than under Spanish represent a pre-Washoe culture in the region. However, influence beginning in the late eighteenth or early at best this account provides only problematic evidence nineteenth century (Patencio 1971:27-28). for a consciousness of a time before the bow and arrow A second test for burial custom archaism in oral were prevalent. Evidently traditional narratives were traditions comes from the central Sierra sufficiently fluid m theh content to incorporate this shift foothUls. Numerous cave burials have been documented during the last 1,400 years, and no historical memory of archaeologicaUy and assigned to the period between the replacement of an earher technology was preserved. 1,000 B.C. and A.D 500 (Moratto 1984:305). The historic Miwok inhabitants of this region were aware of the Pottery presence of human remains in the caves, but they Ceramic vessels were another relatively late technological attributed the burials to a race of man-eating giants innovation, although they were less widely adopted (Merriam 1910:232). The Miwok themselves practiced within California than was the bow and arrow. Subregions cremation and rejected with horror any suggestion that where pottery was made included southernmost and their own ancestors might ever have practiced cave southeastern parts of the state, the eastern Sierra, the burial. Evidently either the people of the cave burials westem foothiUs of the southern Sierra, and the middle were not culturaUy ancestral to the Miwok, or else the Klamath River (Kroeber 1925:822; Mack 1990). Pottery earlier burial practice had been forgotten during the was most extensively made and used in the area lying ensuing 1,400 years between the lower and the Pacific Coast. It has generaUy been supposed that ceramic technology Bow and Arrow diffused from the American Southwest or northwestern A more effective test of the historicity of traditional Mexico to the Colorado River sometime around narratives is provided by the bow and arrow. This new A.D. 400 and that the technology was only reaching its technology was introduced throughout Cahfomia during westem hmits at the time of mission contact (A.D. 1769), the late prehistoric period, after around A.D. 500. Myths although there are some recent archaeological hints make frequent reference to the use of weapons in of an earlier, middle Holocene ceramic industry in hunting, warfare, or individual violence. Consequently, southern Cahfonua (e.g., Porcasi 1998). Yuman,Takic, and these narratives' treatment of the subject is a good test of Chemehuevi narratives all incorporated anachronistic conservatism or awareness of historical change, at least references to pottery hito theh accounts of the mythic on a time scale of about 1,400 years period (e.g., DuBois 1904a:185, 1904b:218, 237, 241, ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 163

1906:156, 158-159, 163; Patencio 1943:116; Devereux Kroeber 1948:4-8,15-16, 30, 63). The Chemehuevi, who 1948:242; Kroeber 1948:5-6, 9,12-13,15, 53, 63; Seiler apparently had become agriculturalists more recently 1970:54; Lahd 1984:105,158-159). than the River Yumans, were reported to have had References to ceramic containers have not been "absolutely no tribal memory of a thne when they had found in the myths of other groups that had adopted not...planted wheat," an Old World crop (Lahd 1976:23). pottery later or made less extensive use of it. However, Agricultural anachronisms mdicate either a recent origin traditional narratives had fewer occasions to refer to for the myths or a high level of fluidity in theh content, as containers of any kind than to funerary customs or weU as httle consciousness of cultural change. the use of the bow and arrow, and the absence of any references to pottery m a local body of narratives does Mortars not carry much weight as a possible archaism. The The manufacture and use of mortars provides another alternative technologies that had preceded ceramics, possible chronological marker, although one that is such as basketry, animal skin containers, gourds, and problematical. Intensive use of mortars and pestles in stone bowls, continued to be used after their partial aboriginal California has commonly been linked to acom replacement by pottery, and therefore references in the processing, which seems to have begim or at least greatly narratives to these containers cannot be considered intensified in many parts of Cahfomia after ca. 2,500 B.C. archaisms. However, ethnographic evidence attests that mortars were used to process a considerable range of other floral, Agriculture faunal, and mineral resources. Archaeological evidence Prehistoric agriculture was also adopted late in time and suggests that mortar use may have begun long before within an even more hnuted geographical range. It was the late period (Jones 1996), and references to mortars in solidly established among the River Yumans, and was myths cannot be assumed to be late anachroiusms probably present to some extent among some Salton If there was a late prehistoric florescence of mortar Basin groups, including the Imperial VaUey Kumeyaay use, this may hnply that many of the mortars used during and possibly the CahuiUa. Irrigation and cultivation of the latest period were manufactured during that same native plants seems to have been practiced prehistoricaUy period. Despite this, oral traditions of many California by the eastern Mono, but in that instance there was no groups reported that theh mortars had been made by distinctive complex of nonnative crop plants, such as mythic figures or members of a long-ago race, or that the com, beans, and squash that were cultivated by the they were purely natural features (Fig. 3). Such behefs Yumans, which would make it much more difficult to may reflect conditions prevailing during the ethnohistoric distmguish any agricultural references in eastern Mono period, with its displacements and drastic decrease in myths population, when it was no longer necessary to make Among the agricultural groups, hunting, fishing, new mortars. This suggests a fairly shaUow memory of and gathering conthiued to be hnportant, and therefore actual late prehistoric practices. references to these practices cannot be considered archaisms. Because the adoption of cultivated crops Rock Art involved fairly fundamental cultural changes, at least In several parts of California, native peoples denied for the River Yumans, an absence of any references to knowing the origins of the rock art that was present in agriculture in myths might arguably be an archaism. their regions, or else they attributed its creation to the However, in fact such references are common. mythic period or to supernatural agents (e.g., Gifford Anachronistic references to agriculture and agricultural and Kroeber 1937:145,186; Stewart 1941:418; Voegelm crops are frequent in Mohave, Halchidhoma, Ouechan, 1942:95) (Fig. 4). In some cases, the rock art may Kumeyaay, and Cahuilla narratives set in the mythic have been created by other ethnic groups who were period (e.g., Bourke 1889:179; DuBois 1906:155,158,163; subsequently displaced by the ancestors of the historic Curtis 1907-30(2):75; Hamngton 1908:332, 340; Strong hihabitants. In other instances, the professed ignorance 1929:142; Gifford 1931:80; Patencio 1943:25,108-109,115; concerning rock art may have been an attempt to deflect 164 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26. No. 2 (2006)

Figure 3. Groups reporting exotic origin of mortars. ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 165

Figure 4. Groups reporting exotic origin of rock art. 166 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26, No, 2 (2006) unwelcome mquhies by outsiders into matters that were common occurrences cannot be matched with specific considered sacred. However, it is likely that some of prehistoric events, and they cannot shed light on the the rock art was created by the local groups' cultural depths of coUective memories antecedents and that its origins were genuinely not Some accounts of recurring events seem to refer to remembered. Unfortunately for the use of this test of particularly extreme cases, and it may be temptmg to try historicity, the archaeological dathig of most rock art hi to match them with the most extreme events of the type Cahfomia is stUl highly uncertam. that are known geologicaUy or archaeologicaUy from the In sum, the cultures that are portrayed in Native late Holocene period. Arguing agamst such mterpreta- California's oral traditions, including its creation tions is the fact that a cuhural pattern of exaggeration myths, are essentially the cultures of the final period of was regularly manifested in the nanatives' references to prehistory. There is no persuasive evidence that hfeways envhonmental events. A very common motif was a flood prior to the latest centuries were remembered. On the that covered the enthe earth, or perhaps drovraed every­ contrary, there is fahly good evidence that earher cultural thing except a single local mountain peak. In another pattems had been forgotten, at least for periods prior to frequent motif, the sun was said to have approached about 1,000-1,500 years ago. the earth and set everything afhe, nearly destroying the world. Comments by Francisco Patencio, a Pahn Springs CahuiUa, on natural events that had supposedly occuned CHANGES IN THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT during his infancy, which would have been in the late Undeniably, prehistoric societies and cultures were 1850s, reflected both a pattern of exaggeration and a very strongly affected by natural changes in their physical shaUow thne depth for historical memory: or biological environments. Oral traditions offered a But one time (I was very smaU, I could not remember potential tool for keeping alive an awareness of both yet), there came such earthquakes as had not been past pattems of envhonmental change and the cultural known to any of the people. Whole mountains split— strategies that had been developed for coping with them. some rose up where there had been none before. Other peaks went down, and never came up again. The extent to which Native Cahfomians made use of this It was a terrible time. The mountains that the people tool may say something about theh general awareness of knew well were strange places that they had never the distant past. seen before [Patencio 1943:58]. For a reference in an oral tradition to be per­ Such accounts as these may have ultimately been suasively matched with an actual prehistoric event, rooted m actual experiences of particular floods, wUdfires, several prerequisites must be met. The event must have or earthquakes, but there is no reason to assume that been distinctive in character and probably of a type that the original events inspiring them were necessarily the occurred relatively infrequently. It must be well docu­ greatest ones knovra from the local geological record. mented and well dated within the region's geological or archaeological record. FinaUy, it must have occurred across a sufficiently brief span of thne, so that the people Changes in the Climate who were living through it could recognize what was Some other types of events were repeated less frequently taking place. and also had major impacts on prehistoric Californians, yet because of the thne scales over which they took place, Frequently Recurring Phenomena they were not hkely to have hnpressed themselves into Earthquakes, droughts, tornados, severe storms, floods, people's memories. The transition from the Pleistocene and major wUdfhes were hnportant events for prehistoric Epoch to the Holocene provides several instances of Native Californians, and these phenomena were often such changes, including the rise of sea level by scores mentioned in traditional narratives. However, they of meters, major geographical shifts or extinctions in recurred so frequently that they were hkely to have been Pleistocene fauna and flora, the retreat of mountain known as first-hand experiences by a large proportion of glaciers, and the disappearance of large desert lakes. elderly individuals References m oral traditions to such Prehistoric Cahfomians were present to witness at least ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 167 some of these events, but the changes may have occuned Ocean tsunami, a 10-year-old Enghsh ghl on a beach in so gradually, over generations, that they were not Thailand is credhed with having saved himdreds of hves perceived as events by the people who hved during them. by recognizhig the signs of an approaching tsunami based In any case, the remoteness in thne of the Pleistocene- on what she had learned in a geography class (Owen Holocene transition makes h highly improbable that any 2005). Members of some Indian Ocean ethnic groups oral records would have survived, even if they had been were reported to have escaped serious harm from the formulated in the first place. 2004 tsimami thanks to theh traditional knowledge of its Distance in time is not as much of a problem in warning signs (HoUand 2005). the case of the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, a period Apparent references to tsunamis have been recorded of markedly higher temperatures that has been dated in the oral traditions of groups hving on the northwestern between about A.D. 800 and 1350, and the subsequent coast of North America, including northernmost coohng of the Little Ice Age. Makoto Kowta (2001) California (McMillan and Hutchinson 2002). Some of proposed that these climatic changes were mirrored the stories are not distmguishable from more generahzed in certain myths. However, as in the case of and widespread mythic flood accounts, and many of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, it is questionable them contam a strong element of exaggeration. Even if whether the climatic changes involved in the onset of the phenomenon of the tsunami were clearly attested, it the Medieval Climatic Anomaly or its termination in would be difficult to link an oral tradition with a specific the beginning of the Little Ice Ace occurred rapidly event, such as the A.D. 1700 tsunami, unless the tradition enough to have been perceived as distinct events by mentioned a particular location where datable physical contemporaries. The phenomena portrayed in the evidence of the tsimami was present. However, some of Maidu oral traditions, hi particular drought, recuned so the traditions seem to testify at least to a memory of the frequently on a smaUer scale that attemptmg to identify generic phenomenon of tsunamis an account of extreme drought with this particular A tsunami story told in 1929 by a woman event is not persuasive, given the pervasive tendency to from Cahfomia refened to events set m Brookings, in the exaggeration in Cahfonua mythologies southwestem comer of Oregon (DuBois 1932). Accordhig to this account, the inundation happened at a time when Tsunamis there were no white people on earth, and the survivors Major tsunamis, or seismic sea waves, are recunent but of the tsunami returned to repopulate the earth. If the relatively infrequent events near the tectonicaUy active account was ultimately based on factual experience of the westem coast of North America. A geological study at A.D. 1700 tsunami, hs conversion from factual tradition Bradley Lake in southern Oregon has suggested that to myth was aheady weU advanced after two centuries. tsunami surges reaching at least 5-8 m. above sea level In the Tolowa story, the survivors were given a verbal have struck the coast on the average about once every warning to flee, so the nanative contained no practical 390 years (Kelsey et al. 2005). After a hiatus of 650-750 information about natural tsunami warning signs years, one such event on January 26,1700, was recorded m Japan and also left geologicaUy recogiuzed deposits of Volcanic Eruptions sand on the northern Cahfonua coast. Major volcanic eruptions happen infrequently enough Tsunamis would have been noteworthy for prehistoric and are sufficiently well-defined geographically that coastal populations. Remembering them m oral traditions accounts of them m traditional nanatives might plausibly might also have had a practical value. Individuals who be matched with actual events. They are also dramatic m would have had no knowledge of tsunamis from theh ovra character and hnportant in theh consequences, making experiences or from those of theh parents or grandpar­ them suitable subjects to have been included in nanatives ents might have been alerted by traditions to the warning (Powers 1976:272-273). Holocene volcaiusm is attested signs of an impending tsimami, in particular an abnormal geologicaUy in several parts of Cahfomia (Fig. 5). By one recession of the sea several minutes prior to the arrival count, nine eruptions have been documented in Mono of the inundating waves. During the great 2004 Indian County alone within the last 2,000 years (Mone and 168 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26, No. 2 (2006)

( kS; Mt. M^ZOTia

/ V^)^ i'd( MX J^ \ } \ Jlx X^'i I /p. (_jX /I \ vi^ V JM JL-^ —^ ^'s^'—~^~^ / 7lc = area of Holocene volcanism / j~\y\-^ ( \ ^'^ ^'x i'x 1

I x^ \ \

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r: II iflxSan FranciscQ Farallon /vX \ R V. Islands ( \ ^^

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"*•• \ •« 1\ r-^ Figure 5. Locations relating to changes in tlie natural environment. ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 169

Adams 1988:21). However, no persuasive matches have in traditional California narratives. Florence C. Shipek been made between specific eruptions in prehistoric (1986:4) cited the Kumeyaay creation myth, also shared California and references to volcanism in traditional by the and Halchidhoma, according to which nanatives (cf Sutton 1993:122). two mythic creator-brothers emerged upward through In southern Oregon, the catastrophic eruption primeval waters In Shipek's view, this was a memory of and collapse of Mount Mazama around 5,700 B.C. the post-Pleistocene rise in sea level. Aside from other resulted in the formation of Crater Lake within its objections to this interpretation, the match between caldera. This event provides a unique test because of the content of the myth and the characteristics of the the unparalleled magnitude of the eruption and its geological event seems to be farfetched. distinctive consequences in the creation of the lake. Another set of legends attributed the origin of Various Modoc-Klamath traditions refer to Crater San Francisco Bay to a great earthquake that opened Lake and its mountain. Both popular and scholarly the Golden Gate and flooded an existing freshwater writers have suggested that these accounts may have lake. Several and Costanoan versions were been based on information that had been passed coUected after the middle of the nineteenth century down oraUy from witnesses to the actual emption (e.g., (Bancroft 1886:88-89; Powers 1976:448). Kevin Starr Clark 1963; Vitahano 1973; Greene 1984; Deloria 1995; (1990:45) assumed that these accounts were based on Hanis 2000). The primary narrative cited in support of factual memories and used them as evidence for dating this interpretation, a myth that was recorded in 1892, the presumed geological event: "In prehistoric times a contained three elements that matched geological geological catastrophe, most likely a major earthquake, interpretations of Crater Lake: there was a volcanic caused the httoral to subside massively. There survived in eruption, the crater formed in part by collapse, and local Indian memory a recoUection of this event through the lake was produced by subsequent rainwater (Clark foUclore, thereby dating it to within the last 30,000 years. 1953:54-55). However, volcanic eruptions in the Cascade As the plain collapsed, the sea rushed in to form the Range occur on the average of about once a century, present San Francisco Bay" (Stan 1990:45). There is no and the basic phenomenon of eruptions would have geological confirmation for the occurrence of such a been famihar to the region's inhabitants It would not be catastrophe. The actual flooding of the bay was caused by surprising for Modoc-Klamath traditions to have infened the gradual rise of sea level during the early Holocene, the volcanic origin of this feature without any orally rather than by an earthquake, and it was evidently not transmitted testimony from contemporary witnesses. remembered in oral traditions. Some myths treated Myths routinely offered accounts to explahi the origins the bay as a primeval feature (e.g., Merriam 1910:67). of geological features that long predated any possible Bay was simUarly created by rising sea level human witnesses. Moreover, other Modoc-Klamath between about 8,000 and 4,000 B.C. (Masters 1988). myths assigned a different origin to Crater Lake or Kumeyaay traditions treated the bay as a feature that took for granted its presence since earliest mythic times was already in existence during earliest, mythic times (e.g., Wood 1929:97-99; Barker 1963:70-75). There is no (DuBois 1904c:102). persuasive evidence that the Mount Mazama eruption As well as flooding new embayments, the rising was remembered rather than merely mfened. Holocene sea created distinctive geographical features by isolating new islands. The Farallon Islands had Coastlines been joined to the San Francisco mainland untU about The rise of sea level as Pleistocene glaciers melted was a 9,000 B. C. The northern Channel Islands (San Miguel, dramatic event when seen from a geological perspective, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa islands) had not and it had important human consequences, but it probably been attached to the mainland during the Pleistocene, but would not have been perceptible on the time-scale of an they had formed a smgle large island within the period of mdividual human life. The changes were largely complete human occupation, until after about 9,000-7,600 B.C. by about 6,000 years ago. Nonetheless, some analysts (Porcasi et al. 1999). No traditional nanatives recordmg have attempted to discern distant memories of this event the origins of these islands have been documented. 170 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26, No 2 (2006)

The silence on the subject is not surprising, given the basin (Laylander 1997:50-51). There were a mmimum great thne depths mvolved. of three full stands of the lake during the last 1,000 years, in addition to several earlier stands that are stiU Rivers and Lakes poorly known (Love and Dahdul 2002). The most recent Some myths addressed the origins of particular inland stand ended m the late seventeenth century. In the late water features For example, Shipek (1986:6) discussed a nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, CahuiUa and Kumeyaay story of two brothers who were the Cuyamaca Kumeyaay oral traditions told of the lake's rise and faU, as Mountams hi eastern San Diego County. The brothers weU as the native use of its fish, sheUfish, and waterfowl. quarreled over the betrothal of Cold Water, a woman These accounts mixed credible information about the who was a spring, to Sweet Water (i.e., the Sweetwater lake with clearly distorted or mythicized elements, River). As a result of the fighting, one of the brothers indicating that the events, which had taken place 200- (Corte Madera Mountam, southwest of the Cuyamacas) 300 years before the traditions were documented, lay moved away from the other brother. Shipek interpreted close to the borderland between factual history and myth this story as a memory of a prehistoric episode of within these cuhures. geological fauhhig and stream capture through headward erosion, by which the Sweetwater River, which has its Trees source in the Cuyamacas, was diverted into its present Even some very recent features in the natural envhon­ course north of Corte Madera. In this instance, not only ment, such as particular trees, were occasionally in­ is the match between the contents of the myth and the corporated into myths. In northwestern California, a event very dubious, but there is no confirmation that the faUen redwood tree that was lodged in the crotch of a supposed geological event ever happened. neighboring tree, probably less than a century earlier, A Northern Paiute myth told of a time when was incorporated into a local (ChUula) myth that the water in Mono Lake was fresh rather than saline interpreted the tree as the walking stick of the culture (Steward 1936:429). According to geological evidence, hero Yhnantuwmgyai (Gifford and Block 1930:19-22). the last thne when the freshwater Lake RusseU occupied Another tree in the same region was believed by the the Mono Basin was during the late Pleistocene, when to be one of the Fhst People (Curtin 1898:xxi); glacial runoff was sufficient to fiU the basin and cause if the Yurok tree was a coastal redwood, it may have it to overflow into the Owens River system. It is lUcely been as old as 1,000 years Among the , a that this was weU beyond the range of memory in oral specific blue oak tree was beheved to have been grow­ tradition. The Northem Paiute myth also told how fish ing at its present location since the mythic period (Mer­ had migrated through various Great Basm lakes before riam 1910:140). These references attest to the fluidity of they finaUy settled m Lake Tahoe, and the story appears myths' contents and to an absence of detaUed historical to have been invented to account for the absence of fish memories. in the saline lakes. In sum, the physical envhonment that was described One particularly valuable test of the historicity of in Native Cahfornia's oral traditions, like the cultural the region's aboriginal cultures is provided by Lake context, was essentially that of the latest prehistoric CahuUla in southern Cahfomia (WUke 1978; Laylander period. Such natural phenomena as floods, wildfires, 2004). Under natural conditions, the Colorado River earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions periodically shifted its course within its delta. At were recognized in the region's myths, but very few times, instead of flowing directly south into the Gulf references to these phenomena were concrete enough of California, it emptied northward into the Salton to be linked to specific events in the prehistoric past. Basin, filling Imperial and Coachella valleys with a Relatively recent occurrences, such as the rise and faU great freshwater lake, up to 180 km. long and 50 km. of Lake Cahuilla during the A.D. 1600s and perhaps wide. The lake has been estimated to have taken about the tsunami of A.D. 1700, were remembered, but they two decades to fill and at least six decades to dry up had aheady begun to be seen through a haze of mythic agam once the river redhected hs course away from the exaggeration. ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 171

ETHNIC MIGRATIONS do not fix them chronologically, it might be possible to associate a tradition with a linguistic movement No aspect of oral traditions has held greater mterest for that dated from almost any period of prehistory. The its potential contribution to prehistory than references linguistic evidence itself is often ambiguous concerning to ethnic nugrations. Early European observers during the probable direction of movement implied by an the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries noted native episode of separation or expansion. At best, the avaUable peoples' migration traditions and took them seriously as linguistic evidence usuaUy points to the probable general evidence concernmg the ulthnate origins of the native direction in which a language community expanded, peoples they encountered (e.g., Boscana 1933; Geiger without mling out more complex pattems that may have 1976). This credence arose in part from the observers' mcluded both forward and retrograde movements. behef m the relatively short Judeo-Christian chronology The creation myths of several Yuman groups, for the post-diluvial world and the consequently late including the Kumeyaay, Mohave, Halchi dhoma, and settlement of the Americas. Given those assumptions, Quechan, said that the first humans had migrated from why should not the recent initial occupation of Avikwame, a mountain most frequently identified with Cahfomia be remembered in native traditions? Modem Newberry Mountain in southern Nevada, near the archaeological evidence that human occupation in northern extreme of ethnographic Yuman territory. Cahfomia extended back more than 12,000 years makes Linguistic evidence has been variously interpreted as any oral preservation of evidence about the fhst arrivals suggesting a north-to-south expansion of the Yumans, much less plausible. However, the possibility remains which might correspond to the primordial migration of that later ethnic movements into or within California the myth, or a south-to-north expansion out of northem might have been remembered. Baja Cahfomia (Laylander 1993; Mixco 2006). Kroeber (1905:90, 1951:107) noted that fradhional In Mohave narratives, accounts of travels were narratives in the northwestern and central portions rich in geographical details. However, these described of the state lacked "historical or pseudo-historical" the travels of individuals or clans, not of enthe nations accounts of nugrations. The primeval presence of ethiuc or of individuals who were clearly identified as the groups in their present homelands and the absence of nations' forebears. Except for a frequent north-to-south any migrations was commonly imphed, and occasionaUy trend and links to Avikwame near the northern limit it was explicitly asserted (e.g.. Powers 1976:394-375). of ethnohistoric Mohave tenitory, the accounts do not There were a few exceptions One was a Tolowa account seem to have been pattemed as to geographical dhection that told, plausibly, of the group's migration from the or chronological sequence. They can be interpreted north m canoes (Powers 1976:69). A Yurok tale reported as reflecting an awareness of the phenomenon of migration from the northwest (Powers 1976:62). Eastem prehistoric ethnic migration, but not as recognizable Miwok said that theh ancestors had moved from the west factual memories of spechic migrations. to the Siena Nevada region long ago (Clark 1904:64). A Kumeyaay version of the Yuman creation In contrast to the scarcity of migration legends myth told of a migration westward from the lower in northern and central California, they were fairly Colorado River (DuBois 1907). Also mentioned as common in southern California. To evaluate whether stops on the journey were Warner's Ranch, Elsinore, these accounts contained authentic remembrances and Temecula, locations to the north of ethnographic of actual ethnic shifts, the narratives might be tested Kumeyaay territory. There is archaeological support for against linguistic evidence concerning the directions a late prehistoric westward spread of pottery-making of prehistoric population movements. However, this into Kumeyaay territory, which has been suggested as test is not entirely satisfactory. Although language is a marking an ethnic movement (Rogers 1945), but the fundamental index of culture, patterns hi the spread of diffusion of ceramics rather than migration might have languages may not always have matched pattems in the been just as hkely. spread of other aspects of culture or of lines of biological Luiseno migration stories generally played out descent. Because oral traditions' references to migrations on a narrower geographical stage. Locations variously 172 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26, No. 2 (2006) associated with the origins of the first people included had migrated into California from the east, contrary Puvunga, possibly in Long Beach; Lake Elsinore and to the general anthropological interpretation (Steward Temecula, m southeastern Riverside County; and BonsaU, 1936:434). in northern San Diego County (DuBois 1908:157; One very late migration was the movement of the Boscana 1933:83-85). From a point of original dispersal Chemehuevi group of Ute/Southern Paiute speakers to theh ultimate homes, the various Luiseno kin groups from the eastern Mojave Desert to both banks of the were said to have traveled along different routes that Colorado River in an area formerly occupied by the were remembered by their descendants a century ago Halchidhoma during the early nineteenth century. (DuBois 1908:158-159; Strong 1929:284-285). Carobeth Lahd (1984:106) thought that the foggy settmg The Cahuilla of the also had of a Chemehuevi myth, so untypical of that group's complex migration stories concerning clan ancestors desert homeland, might mdicate that the nanative "has (Strong 1929:86-87, 100-102). Patencio (1943, 1971) survived in racial memory throughout millennia of suggested that there were two phases of prehistoric southward migration," but this is dubious. Also accordhig migration by his ancestors. A prhneval migration of all to Laird (1976:7), the Chemehuevi had lived in well- Indians from the cold, snowy north was succeeded by a established settlements on both sides of the Colorado more localized eastward migration of CahuUla ancestors River "as far back as tribal memory extended." from coastal Southern California into the Coachella A form of negative evidence about memories of Valley (cf. Strong 1929:100-101). Both scenarios are ethnic migrations is provided by references to local places plausible. With respect to the first migration, in other that were incorporated into Native Californian myths. contexts Patencio showed an interest in demonstrating Many of these accounts referred to specific geographic a concordance between scientific views and Cahuilla features, such as mountains, rivers, or settlements, traditional knowledge, and it is not unlikely that his that were located within or near the ethnographicaUy behef m a northem orighi was strongly influenced by the documented territories of the narrators. Some groups, prevailing scientific view of Native American origins in such as the Yurok, Karok, and Mohave, put great the Bering Straits area. emphasis on the inclusion of local references in their Two other Takic groups, the Cupeno and the Senano, myths, while such references are less common in the had myths pointmg to a primordial migration from the myths of some other groups, but nearly every group in north (Gifford 1918:183,199). A Cupeno story about a the state mcorporated at least some local place references wonder-working hero, Kisily Pewik, who reconquered into its myths Evidently most Native Califonuan groups his father's homeland at Cupa, has been interpreted had hved in theh historic locations since what was truly, as reflecting a migration of a group of Cahuilla who for them, time immemorial. However, linguistic and became the Cupeno after traveling south from Soboba archaeological evidence suggests that ethnic expansions about 800-1,000 years ago (HUl and Nolasquez 1973:i; cf and displacements were numerous throughout the Gifford 1918:200-201; Strong 1929:270-273). However, course of California's prehistory (e.g., Moratto 1984; there is Utile in the narrative to suggest this particular Foster 1996). Local references were also incorporated interpretation, and no independent evidence confirming into versions of myths belonging to types that were the hypothesized migration. widely shared throughout Native North America, such Mark Q. Sutton (1993) analyzed possible reflections as Earth Diver, Theft of Fire, and Orpheus, confirming of the Numic expansion throughout the Great Basin that the geographical contents of these myths had been in myths and other oral traditions. He found a general modified as they were adopted by new cultures tendency for Numic narratives to suggest movements Similarly, Native Californian myths contained toward the north or east, consistent with the Lamb references to neighboring ethnolinguistic groups, Hypothesis that Numic speakers spread out in other although these were mentioned less frequently directions from eastern California during the last 1,000 than places. For example, one Hupa myth referred years However, the evidence is not uniform; for mstance, specifically to the Shasta, Karok, Yurok, Tolowa, and a Panamint tradition suggested that Shoshone speakers Eel River Athapaskans (Goddard 1904:129). The ARTICLE I California's Prehistory as a Remembered Past | Laylander 173

Shasta, Karok, and Yurok all spoke non-Athapaskan recent as the final filling and recession of Lake CahuiUa languages, and they would presumably have been in the seventeenth century were remembered, but unknown to the ancestors of the Hupa before the they had already begun to be shrouded in a fog of latter entered northwestern California. One estimate myth. Memories of earher changes in cultural practices has put that entry as recently as A.D. 1300 (Foster and technologies, the natural environment, and the 1996:75). Such references indicate that the migrations geographical distributions of native groups were not bringing Native Californian groups to their historic preserved. Given the relative ahistoricity of aboriginal locations were generally not remembered. Narratives Cahfomia, those who seek factual mformation about the that refer to interactions with ethnic groups remote earher centuries and miUeimia of the region's prehistoric from the narrators' present locations might attest to past wUl have to turn to other sources of mformation. past migrations (Vanshia 1985:15), but no clear cases of this are found in Native Californian oral traditions. In sum, most of the groups in Native California NOTES do not seem to have been conscious of prehistoric * Unquestionably, the picture of Native California's oral literature migrations. The traditional narratives of some groups, that is available to us in the recorded body of traditions is particularly in the south, did show an awareness of incomplete. Extensive recording was undertaken only a century the phenomenon of ethnic migration, although that after the missions had begun to deplete native cultures. New awareness usuaUy coexisted with the placement of theh narratives continue to be published, and traditions continue to be passed along and to evolve within some of the surviving world's earhest beginnings at or near the sites of their native cultures. The present discussion is based primarily on historic homes. The directions of migration that were narratives that were published during the late nineteenth and suggested by some nanatives are enthely plausible, but early twentieth centuries, because these are the most accessible sources and have been less subject to historical-period distortions detailed, substantive, and factual information does not and biases than subsequent versions. Imperfect as they are when appear to have been preserved about even the most considered as a record of pattems of thought and knowledge in recent ethiuc shifts or expansions late prehistoric California, they are the best record we have, or are likely to get.

•^ Genres of oral narratives have been defined in a variety CONCLUSIONS of different ways, both by native groups and by folklorists. The traditional nanatives of Native Cahfomia have not The most widely recognized distinction is between myths, escaped from some historic-period influences. These legends, and folktales (Bascom 1965). Myths are generaUy defined as stories that were sacred, that were believed to be influences can be seen in the inclusion within myths tme, and that were set in the remote past before the world had of casual references to Old World human races, crops assumed its present form. Legends were stories about a less such as wheat, animals such as horses, and technologies remote past; they were also believed to be true but were not such as metallurgy, as weU as in occasional borrowing necessarily considered sacred. Folktales might be set in either the remote or recent past, were not sacred, and often were not of entire narrative themes from Old World folklore considered to be true, but might be merely entertaining. There (e.g., Blackburn 1975:302-329). However, these recent is potential importance to the distinctions between sacred mterpolations are uncommon. On the whole, Cahfomia's and profane narratives and between ones that were beheved by theh narrators and listeners to be tme and ones that were myths and legends present a substantiaUy credible picture considered fictional.However , reliable information about these of pre-contact hfeways, including material culture, social attributes is lacking for most recorded Native Californian mstitutions, and value systems, although, not surprismgly, traditional narratives. In some Cahfomia groups, myths were not those traits were sometimes exaggerated or distorted considered sacred (e.g., for the Achumawi, see Leeds-Hurwitz 2004:205; for the Tolowa, see DuBois 1932:261). In general, for literary effect. Received from late nineteenth and different genres of traditional narratives do not seem to have early twentieth century narrators, the traditions attest been strongly distinguished. More accessible and useful for the to cultural memories that had been preserved across present analyses is a chronological distinction between the oral several generations. traditions that were set in the mythic epoch, when the world was StiU just taking shape and when, in most of the cuhures, animals However, as a record of periods prior to prehistory's were people, and narratives that were set in the subsequent, final centuries, oral tradition has httie to offer. Events as more famihcU' legendary epoch. 174 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26. No. 2 (2006)

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