Encyclopaedia

Introduction   Distribution of Californian Indians.member of any of the aboriginal North American peoples in the area roughly corresponding to California and the northern Baja California peninsula. Native peoples found in California were only generally circumscribed by the present state boundaries. Some of the peoples within these boundaries were culturally intimate with other areas neighbouring California. The Colorado River groups, such as the Mojave (Mohave) and Yuma, shared traditions with both the Southwest (Arizona and New Mexico) and southern California, whereas the peoples of the Sierra Nevada, such as the Washo , shared traditions with the Great Basin peoples. In northern California were to be found native traditions of the Northwest Coast; the remaining native groups occupied the greater part of California, and they represented indigenous cultural developments. A conservative estimate of the pre -Spanish population of Californi