A Native American Adaptation to Drought: The Kumeyaay as Seen in the San Diego Mission Records 1770-1798

Abstract

While estimates of contact period populations tend to project the idea of stable populations, analysis of ethnohistorical data for environmental and climatic fluctuations may present evidence for population growth and decline independent of European contact. Thirty years of Mission San Diego baptismal, marriage, death and harvest records are correlated to demonstrate a variety of responses to drought, including a dramatic decline in birth rates. Spanish environmental descriptions of extensive grasslands and oak parks with limited chaparral indicate massive environmental management for food production. While Dobyns (1966) pioneered the many works improving estimates of the size of Native American contact period populations, only part of the picture has been corrected by the use of population data recorded by the first explorers. Such estimates, as Bennett (1966:425) indicated, are static and do not reflect actual populations nor conditions which cause growth and decline. In fact, they support Cook's assumption (1943:9) derived from his work on California populations, that Native American groups represent old stable, well adjusted populations with balanced birth and death rates, or it is assumed that a state of steady population growth occurred until Europeans interrupted the process. In contrast, it is argued here that environmental factors functioned independently of European contact and affected populations in all parts of North America causing population fluctuations and modifying socio-cultural behaviors. Another assumption which will be examined is that under any given technology the carrying capacity, or food supply, remained stable. Such an assumption is expressed in most literature on California Indians since Merriam (1905:594-595) stated that the 'naturally abundant varied and rich food accounted for the population densities that he estimated. On the contrary, evidence will be presented that the varied and rich food supply resulted from deliberate human management. ETHNOHISTORY 28/4 (Fall 1981) 295 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.215 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:18:48 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 296 FLORENCE C. SHIPEK My work on the contact period in southern California supports Merriam's (1905) high population estimates more than double Kroeber's (1925, 1939). I estimate at least 10,000 Luiserio and 10,000 Kumeyaay (Dieguenio-Kamia). However, the Kumeyaay data to be presented also give evidence that extreme fluctuations existed that correlated with rainfall variations. Further, it is suggested that the strategies developed to cope with stress, both environmental management and socio-cultural flexibility, equipped southern California Indians to withstand the recurrent impacts of Spanish missionization, Mexican secularization of the missions, and the entrance of American settlers combined with continuing drought cycles. In contrast to other missionized California tribelets, the southern California groups survived these events as viable societies, and populations began a rebound each time drought stress was relieved, thus slowing the downward trend caused by increasing encroachment on their lands. Evidencefor Environmental Variation I suggest that natural environmental changes have always affected populations. Favorable years allow populations to grow; while several years of extremes, i.e., cold, heat, drought, excess rain, excess snow, or some unusual event, caused decreases or population movements. For example, Colton (1960) noted the effect of the Sunset Crater eruption of volcanic ash in A.D. 1070. The population left; later upon discovering the enhanced fertility of the ash area, they returned along with competing migrants from other regions. As cultivation and erosion destroyed fertility, malnutrition set in and populations again left. Likewise, in A.D. 1570, several years of drought on the Carolina coast caused famine, death, and emigration according to Father Quiros (Lewis 1953: 39-41). Through the semi-arid west rainfall variation had an immediate effect upon native peoples everywhere. Evidence for change in food availability, population decline and abandonment, and migration to other areas coincides with and gives evidence for the effects of drought (Bryson and Baerreis 1966; Baerreis and Bryson 1968) on the Plains. For southern California and northern Baja California the dendrochronological series which record moisture availability (Fritts 1965; Naylor 1976) indicate that the Spanish entered the region near the close of a twenty year sequence of relatively abundant rainfall. A series of extreme drought years followed the establishment of the missions. The Spanish encountered a large population in 1769, but had they arrived ten to twelve years later, they would have found fewer people. In fact, until 1900 A.D., except for the decade from 1830 to 1840, years with below average rainfall dominated the record. For at least two centuries preceding the Spanish arrival, years of abundant rainfall had alternated with cyclic droughts and Indians developed both positive and negative cultural and biological responses to recurrent drought.