The First Peoples of California | Early California History: An Overview | Articles and Essays | California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress (2024)
The Spaniards, of course, were hardly the first to discover this land of wonder and extremes. The earliest Californians were adventurous Asians who made their way across the Bering Straits to Alaska thousands of years ago when a warmer climate and a now-vanished land bridge made such travel easier. These men and women and their descendants settled North and South America, spreading out to form the various nations and tribes whom the first European visitors to this hemisphere dubbed "Indians." The mountain ranges of the Pacific Coast isolated these early settlers from the cultures that developed in neighboring Mexico and the western United States. Thus, the early population of California bore little physical resemblance to the Native Americans of the Great Plains and apparently shared no ties of language or culture with these nations. California's rugged topography, marked by mountain ranges and deserts, made it difficult for her indigenous groups to travel great distances, and the region's native peoples were even isolated from each other, tending to live in large family groups or clans with little political structure, unlike the larger tribes and nations to the east. As European settlement came late to California, her natives were also denied access to the newcomers' horses, whose runaways fathered the wild herds that gave Great Plains tribes new mobility as early as the sixteenth century. Thus divided and isolated, the original Californians were a diverse population, separated by language into as many as 135 distinct dialects. Tribes included the Karok, Maidu, Cahuilleno, Mojave, Yokuts, Pomo, Paiute, and Modoc. On the other hand, the mountains that divided the groups made extensive warfare impractical, and the California tribes and clans enjoyed a comparatively peaceful life.
The region's lack of rain during the growing season meant that agriculture was not a practical means of livelihood for early Californians, but the gentle climate and rich soil enabled these groups to live by skillfully harvesting and processing wild nuts and berries and by capturing the fish that crowded the streams. The acorn, leached of toxic acids and turned into meal, was a staple of the diet of most California native peoples. Indeed, the first English-speaking Europeans to encounter California Native Americans were so struck by their focus on gathering nuts from the ground and unearthing nutritious roots that they nicknamed them "Diggers," and "Digger Indian" became a vague nickname for many of the groups.
An ample food supply, temperate climate, and absence of wars contributed to a large, healthy population. It has been estimated that when Europeans first came to California, the native population was probably close to 300,000--13 percent of the indigenous peoples in North America.
Spanish California Europeans' contact with California began in the mid 1530s when Cortez's men ventured to Baja California. Not until 1542 did Spaniards sail north to Alta California, and Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's expedition that year made landings as far north as modern Santa Barbara.
The history of California can be divided into the Native American period (about 10,000 years ago until 1542), the European exploration period (1542–1769), the Spanish colonial period (1769–1821), the Mexican period (1821–1848), and United States statehood (September 9, 1850–present). California was one of the most ...
Several days earlier, January 24, 1848, gold had been discovered on the American River near Sacramento, and the ensuing gold rush hastened California's admittance to the Union. With the Gold Rush came a huge increase in population and a pressing need for civil government.
First claimed for Spain by Juan Cabrillo in 1542, the land known as “California” appeared as a peninsula and an island on maps in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Some 130,000 years ago, scientists say, a mysterious group of ancient people visited the coastline of what is now Southern California. More than 100,000 years before they were supposed to have arrived in the Americas, these unknown people used five heavy stones to break the bones of a mastodon.
The area's first ever branding as California came in 1562, when a map of the area was made with California's name right at the tip of Baja California. Swagerty said the cartographer, Deigo Gutiérrez, associated the area with the phrase "Calida Fornax" - which translates to "hot, fiery furnace."
It was the tribes of the coast, the "Mission Indians," who were most drastically affected. Tribes like the Modocs in the northern mountains had little or no contact with the Spanish and suffered little.
Today there are gold mines operating across California in different capacities and operational styles. About 30 miles south of the Marshall Gold Discovery Site, in the community of Sutter Creek, is the Lincoln Mine operated by Seduli Gold, an unlisted Australian gold company.
Over 100 tribes and bands populated the area, including the Karok, Maidu, Cahuilleno, Mojave, Yokuts, Pomo, Paiute, and Modoc tribes. California's rugged mountain ranges and deserts made it difficult for indigenous groups to travel great distances, and tribes were isolated from each other, living in family groups or ...
The Aztecs were a major civilization in Mexico; their ancestors and exchange relationships were widespread in North America, but no definitive evidence exists of formal Aztec settlements in San Diego.
The Yurok Tribe is the largest Tribe in California with more than 6,200 members. The Tribe's ancestral territory comprises 7.5 percent of the California coastline, spanning from the Little River to the south and Damnation Creek to the north.
Introduction: My name is Nathanael Baumbach, I am a fantastic, nice, victorious, brave, healthy, cute, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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