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Cabrillo, the Chumash, and Old World Diseases Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 153-173 (1995). Cabrillo, the Chumash, and Old World Diseases JON M. ERLANDSON, Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403. KEVIN BARTOY, Dept. of History, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene. OR 97403. Focusing on the Chumash, we examine the potential impacts of Old World epidemic diseases on protohistoric peoples of the southern California coast. Our study indicates that: (1) coastal peoples would have been highly susceptible to Old World disease epidemics; (2) native contacts with several sixteenth and seventeenth century European maritime expeditions were extensive; and (3) Old World diseases also were closing in on protohistoric California from the Southwest, Mexico, and Baja California. There is little clear evidence that Old World diseases devastated California's coastal tribes in the protohistoric period, but archaeologists have invested little energy searching for such evidence. We propose three models of protohistoric disease impacts to be tested with archaeological data, examine some problems in identifying protohistoric archaeological components along the California coast, and outline some archaeological patterns that might be linked to disease epidemics and associated cultural changes. Seemingly all the changes were minor: a few effectively integrate native American perspec­ European words in the languages, a few children of tives into historical reconstructions. mixed blood, a few iron knives and pieces of cloth, perhaps a few ideas about the Christian religion. The evidence for protohistoric disease epi­ Otherwise, there is little or nothing to indicate an demics must be uncovered in different ways than important European influence among the Indians of their historic counterparts. Due to the sporadic California prior to the eighteenth century. nature of protohistoric contacts between Euro­ [Kelsey 1985:502] peans and native Americans, few Old World dis­ ease epidemics were noted in the generally scanty written records of early explorers. Na­ J; OR the historical period, documentary evi­ tive oral histories can provide tantalizing clues dence provides a tragic portrait of the devas­ (see Walker and Hudson 1993:20), but scholars tating effects of Old World diseases on native must rely primarily on the archaeological record American tribes. For decades, anthropologists, for signs of Old World diseases during protohis­ demographers, and historians have debated toric times. whether such diseases had a significant impact So far, data from California have been mar­ on native Americans during the "protohistoric" ginal to this debate, although a number of schol­ period of European exploration, in some cases ars has mentioned the possibility of protohis­ even before Indian people had direct contact toric epidemics (e.g.. Brown 1967:78; Thornton with Europeans. Recently, this debate was 1987:84; Stannard 1992:24; Walker and Johnson revitalized by a number of publications (e.g., 1992:128). The lack of significant attention to Dobyns 1983; Upham 1986; Ramenofsky 1987; the possibility of protohistoric disease epidemics Thornton 1987; Stannard 1989), by a renewed along the California coast is surprising given the emphasis on contact history stimulated by the fact that this area, beginning in A.D. 1542, was 500-year anniversary of Columbus's belated the scene of some of the earliest European con­ "discovery" of the New World (see Thomas tacts with native Americans along the Pacific 1989, 1990, 1991), and by the desire to more coast of North America. 154 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY Santa Barbara -n O SANTA O Cuyler Harbor o . ^ m -<^zy*^ > San Miguel "::••••;•' ;<~^ Island '^^ -z. T^:^rrrr^.Sahta Cruz yrr^SanXa Rosa . Island Island Fig. 1. The Santa Barbara Chaimel area, showing Cuyler Harbor on San Miguel Island, where Cabrillo appears to have wintered in A.D. 1542-43. The best documented of California's coastal no detailed study of (1) the susceptibility of the tribes are the Chumash Indians of the Santa protohistoric Chumash to Old World disease epi­ Barbara Channel area (Fig. 1), for whom a demics, (2) the specific potential for disease wealth of historical, ethnographic, and archaeo­ transmission during protohistoric contacts be­ logical data is available. Most accounts of the tween the Chumash and European expeditions, Chumash and their neighbors discount or ignore or (3) the problems associated with identifying the possible effects of protohistoric European evidence for protohistoric disease epidemics and contacts on southern California's coastal tribes associated cultural changes along the California (e.g., Landberg 1965:19; Kelsey 1985; King coast. 1990; Gibson 1991:67). In fact, many studies of This paper explores whether the Chumash and contact begin in A.D. 1769, over 225 years after their neighbors were likely to have been affected the Chumash first had sustained contact with by protohistoric contacts (either direct or in­ Europeans. To our knowledge, there has been direct) with Old World diseases. It includes a CABRILLO, THE CHUMASH, AND OLD WORLD DISEASES 155 discussion of the susceptibility of the proto­ A DEMOGRAPfflC DEBATE historic coastal Chumash to epidemic diseases, The effects of European contact on native then examines in detail Chumash contact history American societies have been debated for dec­ between A.D. 1542 and A.D. 1769. Our focus ades. Ramenofsky (1987:1) aptly summarized a is on the Chumash because: (1) they lived in century-old debate about the size of North numerous relatively large villages with extensive American populations prior to European contact: intervillage interaction, traits that made them susceptible to the spread of epidemic diseases; Three issues are at the heart of the debate (1) (2) they had relatively substantial protohistoric precontact population size and magnitude of post- contact decline; (2) timing of the decline relative contact with Europeans, especially with mem­ to the earliest census counts; and (3) role of in­ bers of Cabrillo's expedition of A.D. 1542-43; fectious disease in that decline. Ethnologists of the (3) they buried their dead without cremation American Historical School (Helm 1965, 1980; Kroeber 1934, 1939; Steward 1949) generally take (unlike many of their Uto-Aztecan neighbors), a conservative position on these issues. They do allowing detailed studies of health patterns not accord disease a major role in the early post- among historic, protohistoric, and prehistoric contact period, but date the recognized onset of groups; and (4) there is considerable archaeo­ aboriginal decline subsequent to historical docu­ mentation and sustained European settlement. logical and ethnographic information available Ethnohistorians, typified by Dobyns (1966, 1981, from the Santa Barbara Channel area. In many 1983) and Krech (1978, 1983) and historical ways, however, the Chumash were similar to demographers, such as Cook (1976) and Borah California's other coastal tribes, and aspects of (1976), envision an entirely different sequence of events during the contact period. They assume in­ this analysis could just as easily be tested against fectious diseases, a major cause in the destruction archaeological data up and down the coasts of of aboriginal populations, reached regional groups Baja and Alta California. decades, if not centuries, prior to historical doc­ umentation. Consequently, even the earliest cen­ The purpose of this paper is not to prove or sus counts may describe populations as much as disprove that protohistoric epidemics of Old 95 % reduced from precontact maxima. Given World diseases significantly affected the Chu­ contrasts between positions, it is no wonder that mash and their neighbors. Rather, we hope to for A.D. 1492, suggested totals for aboriginal North America range from 0.9 million (Kroeber stimulate research and debate on the effects of 1939) to 18 million (Dobyns 1983). protohistoric European contact on California's coastal tribes. By heightening awareness of The polarized nature of this debate has been some of the problems involved in such research, emphasized in a number of recent publications it is hoped that anthropologists and other schol­ (see Dobyns 1989; Henige 1989; Snow and ars will be prompted to examine or reexamine Lamphear 1989), but some scholars have begun the archaeological record for the protohistoric to search for a middle ground. Milner (1980) period along the California coast. Ultimately, and Blakely and Detweiler-Blakely (1989) sug­ knowing the effects of protohistoric European gested, for instance, that Old World disease contacts on California tribes has major impli­ probably spread to native American populations, cations for reconstructing the size of prehistoric but not as a radiating wave that left every tribe native California populations, comprehending the and region devastated in its wake. Instead, they magnitude of the death and destruction that fol­ proposed that diseases followed "corridors of lowed European contact, and assessing the valid­ least resistance, occasionally dying out in cul-de- ity of ethnographic models for precontact socie­ sacs" (Blakely and Detweiler-Blakely 1989:62). ties of the California coast. Such cul-de-sacs may have been caused by geo- 156 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY graphical barriers, environmental conditions ing results (e.g., Blakely 1988; Snow and (Upham 1986), and the reduced viability of Lamphear 1989; Campbell 1990; Ramenofsky disease transmission due to
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