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Death Valley Indian Farming UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Title Death Valley Indian Farming Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7dm32971 Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 2(2) ISSN 0191-3557 Author Wallace, William J Publication Date 1980-12-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California DEATH VALLEY INDIAN FARMING 269 19786 Basketry. In: Handbook of North Amer­ Without doubt, this was the place now called ican Indians, Vol. 8, California, R. F. Hungry Bill's Ranch, named for a well-known Heizer, ed., pp. 626-641. Washington: local Indian who maintained a small farm Smithsonian Institution. thereabouts. Hungry Bill's is located near the Kroeber, A. L. head of Johnson Canyon on the east face of the 1925 Handbook of the Indians of California. Panamint Mountains. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of American Sixteen years later Frederick V. Coville, Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. botanist for the United States Department of Merriam C. Hart Agriculture's 1891 "Death Valley Expedition," n.d. Merriam Collection of Baskets of North remarked upon plant propagation at the same American Indians. Catalog on file at the spot as well as in Hall Canyon that feeds into Department of Anthropology, Univer­ Panamint Valley. sity of California, Davis, California. At the mouth of Hall canon, near Hot Springs, at the west foot of the Panamint Mountains and in Johnson cafion, on the eastern or Death Valley slope of the same range, the Indians have under crude irriga­ tion and cultivation two or three acres of ground. The crops commonly raised are corn, potatoes, squashes, and watermelons. Of the last they are especially fond, fully as Death Valley Indian much as the African and the desert climate is admirably suited for their growth Farming [Coville 1892:352]. WILLIAM J. WALLACE Edward W. Nelson, one of the expedition's biologists, added the following details: By the last quarter of the nineteenth On the east side of the Panamint moun­ century some Death Valley Indians had tains, at a place marked 'Johnson's R.', is a incorporated small scale farming into their series of three or four little patches of soil subsistence economy. First to report native along the course of a steep rocky cafion crop raising was Lieutenant Rogers J. Birnie, leading down into Death Valley, just south Jr., who led a United States Army exploring of Bennett's mills. party into the desert country in 1875. After There a couple of families manage to live departing the silver mining camp of Panamint, by raising corn, melons, squashes, and a the lieutenant and his contingent of seven few peaches and grapes, with pine-nuts and soldiers traveled through a canyon in the grass-seed in their season [Nelson 1891: Panamint Mountains on their way to Death 371-372].! Valley. While passing down the canyon, Birnie noted that: Hungry Bill's Ranch was not the only locality farmed. Five families living in Grape­ . grass and a short running stream were vine Canyon at the far northern end of Death found, also a small cultivated piece of Valley also cultivated plots of ground (Steward ground where vegetables were raised with I938:89).2 A survey map of "Scotty's Old facility by irrigation [Wheeler 1876:132]. Ranch" prepared in 1924 shows "Indian Gardens" at two places in the vicinity of Grape­ William J. Wallace, 161 Via Pasqual, Redondo Beach, CA 90277. vine Springs. These springs water a green patch 270 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY on the slope of the Grapevine Range a short improve growth of wild plants (Steward distance north of the canyon of the same name 1941:291). and their overflow feeds into ephemeral Little Rewards from the small patches of land Grapevine Creek. Since arable land here is were not great. As Coville (1892:352) pointed severely limited, garden plots must have been out: "The cultivation of plants furnished them quite small. As at Hungry Bill's the growing [the Indians] neither a sure nor an adequate plants depended upon irrigation rather than food supply." Quite probably, a good part of upon the sparse and uncertain rainfall for the harvest was consumed on the spot by a needed moisture. gathering of relatives and friends. By the end of Garden plots were family-owned and summer, a few months after reaping, the Grape­ family members of both sexes helped in the vine Canyon people had eaten the entire yield tilling. Planting took place in the early summer of their gardens, leaving nothing for the lean at Hungry Bill's and the crops matured rapidly winter months ahead (Steward 1938:89). Pos­ under the hot sun. Less severe growing con­ sibly, too, as with the lower Colorado River ditions in Grapevine Canyon, which lies at a tribes, corn was gathered at all stages of ripe­ lower elevation (ca. 2700 vs. 5000 feet), allowed ness. Wheat, corn, and squash that had not for an earlier sowing. Crops were planted in been promptly eaten was stored away in pits February and harvested in July. Until shovels (Driver 1937:65), and seeds, of course, had to were obtained from prospectors, loosening be put aside for the next season's planting. and breaking up the soil was done with Usually, when a man died, his crops, even if hardwood digging sticks, the same ones ready for harvesting, were destroyed and his employed by women for prying up roots and field allowed to lie idle for a year or two digging rodents out of their burrows. Seeds of (Steward 1938:89). different plants were set out in the same plot, Conflicting views are held as to how and with those of each species or variety sown in a when the Death Valley Indians learned the separate row. Other than occasional irrigation rudiments of farming. Julian H. Steward and casual weeding, the developing plants (1938:72,89; 1941:231)has suggested that their received little attention. So far as is known, knowledge of horticulture was acquired in the gardens were not fenced to keep out marauding early post-contact period, partly from the rabbits or other animals. Nor do traps seem to Southern Paiute of Ash Meadow (Nevada) have been set for ground squirrels that might who practiced cultivation in aboriginal times,^ dig up seeds or uproot plants. and partly from Whites. An opposing idea is Both native American and Old World that the stimulus for raising crops came earlier domesticates were cultivated. According to an and from the Colorado River Valley. Support­ aged Grapevine Canyon inhabitant, corn (vari­ ing evidence for this view is a Furnace Creek egated), pumpkins, squashes, two kinds of Indian's claim that his grandfather visited the beans, sunflowers, watermelons, muskmelons, Mohave and brought back seeds of the various tomatoes, and wheat were raised (Steward domesticated plants (Driver 1937:113). The 1941:232). By contrast, a Furnace Creek date of this alleged event has been calculated at villager recalled the growing of only corn, about 1840. beans, and yellow field pumpkins (Driver Though the possibility of an introduction 1937:65). To these can be added potatoes from the Colorado River Valley cannot be (Coville 1892:352), peaches, and grapes altogether dismissed, particularly since the (Nelson 1891:372). Tobacco was not propa­ Mohave word for melon (kamito) is nearly gated, though the brush was burned to identical to the Death Valley designation DEATH VALLEY INDIAN FARMING 271 (kamitu) for muskmelon, a stronger case can (Wheeler 1876:133; Miller 1919:62). More­ be made for a Southern Paiute-White deriva­ over, there is nothing to suggest that the tion. Proximity, a close correspondence in the acceptance of farming led to greater stability of combination of crops, plus an apparent simi­ residence. Not until their way of life gave way larity in farming methods hints at a Southern entirely to Western civilization did Death Paiute connection as does the sharing of names Valley's native inhabitants finally give up the for at least three cultivated plants. From Death habit of moving seasonally from locality to Valley Indian terms for corn {maic), beans locality in search of wild plant and animal {piholes) and tomatoes, it can be guessed that foods. these plants were taken over directly from Mexican prospectors. The aforementioned NOTES Grapevine Canyon resident thought that corn, crooked neck squash, pumpkins, beans and 1. Nelson (1891), additionally, noted that the tomatoes were procured from miners during Indians living at the mouth of Hall Canyon grew the Lida, Nevada boom of the I870's and that corn, beans, melons, and squashes and were start­ striped squash, watermelons, wheat and sun­ ing a small orchard of peaches and figs. Of a differ­ flowers came from the Ash Meadow Paiute ent order was the farming he observed near the (Steward 1941:232). Certainly he was wrong in mouth of Hunter Canyon in Saline Valley. Here the regards to the last-mentioned; for the Ash native people had 100 acres under irrigation and the Meadow people did not cultivate the land was cultivated with the aid of four American sunflower. The plant could have been obtained plows. An opportunity to sell alfalfa, barley, and from the Mohave, the only Colorado River wheat to the Borax Works led to this development. tribe to grow it. They also grew melons, squashes, corn, and beans (Nelson 1891:371-372). Whatever its source, crop raising made no great impress on Death Valley Indian life and 2. According to Steward (1938:89) two of the culture. To be sure, its introduction meant a same families also maintained farms at nearby little more food and a more diversified diet.
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