Table Of ContentContested Eden
C A L I F O R N IA B E F O RE
THE GOLD RUSH
Editors
RAMON A. GUTIERREZ and RICHARD J. ORSI
Illustrations Editor Associate Editor
ANTHONY KIRK MARLENE SMITH - BARANZINI
Published in association 'with the California Historical Society
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London
Contested Eden
California History Sesquicentennial Series
Edited by Richard J. Orsi
1. Contested Eden: California before the Gold Rush, edited by Ramon
A. Gutierrez and Richard J. Orsi
2. A Golden State: Mining and the Development of California, edited by James
J. Rawls and Richard J. Orsi
3. Taking Root in Barbarous Soil: People, Culture, and Community in Gold-Rush
California, edited by Kevin Starr and Richard). Orsi
4. Taming the Elephant: Politics, Government, and Law in Pioneer California,
edited by John F. Burns and Richard J. Orsi
Contested Eden
C A L I F O R N IA B E F O RE
THE GOLD RUSH
Editors
RAMON A. GUTIERREZ and RICHARD J. ORSI
Illustrations Editor Associate Editor
ANTHONY KIRK MARLENE SMITH - BARANZINI
Published in association 'with the California Historical Society
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
©1998 by
The Regents of the University of California
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS C ATALOGI NG~I N - PUB LIC ATION DATA
Contested Eden: California before the Gold Rush / edited by
Ramon Gutierrez, Richard]. Orsi.
p. cm. (California history sesquicentennial series ; i)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-21273-8 (cloth : alk. paper).—ISBN 0-520-21274-6
(pbk.: alk. paper)
i. California—History—to 1846. 2. California—History—
1846-1850. i. Gutierrez, Ramon A., 1951- . n. Orsi, Richard J.
in. Series.
F864.C735 1998
979.4—dc2i 97'23°57
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standards for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 739.48-1984.®
Contents
LIST OF MAPS * Viii
PREFACE • Michael McCone and Richard J. Orsi • ix
1. Contested Eden: An Introduction • Ramon Gutierrez • I
2. A World of Balance and Plenty: Land, Plants, Animals, and
Humans in a Pre-Eurofean California • M. Kat Anderson,
Michael G. Barbour, and Valerie Whitworth • 12
3. Indian Peoples of California • William S, Simmons * 48
4. Seekers of the ''Northern Mystery': European Exploration of California
and the Pacific • Iris H. W. Engstrand . 78
5. Land, Labor, and Production: The Colonial Economy of Spanish and
Mexican California • Steven W. Hackel • III
6. "The Child of the Wilderness Weeps for the Father of Our Country":
The Indian and the Politics of Church and State in Provincial
California ' Michael J. Gonzalez • 147
7. The Creation and Re-creation ofCalifornio Society '
Douglas Monroy . 173
8. Between Crucifix and Lance: Indian-White Relations in California,
1769-1848 . James A. Sandos • 196
9. Engendering the History of Aha California, 1769-1848: Gender,
Sexuality, and the Family • Antonia I. Castaneda . 230
10. Serpent in the Garden: Environmental Change in Colonial
California • William Preston • 260
11. Alta California's Trojan Horse: Foreign Immigration •
Doyce B, Nunis,Jr. • 299
12. War in California, 1846-1848 . Lisbeth Haas • 331
PICTURING CALIFORNIA • Anthony Kirk • 357
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS . 375
INDEX . 379
Maps
California, 1830 • 2
The North Part of America, 1625 • 79
Spanish sea and land expeditions to California • 84
Diseno, Rancho Sespe, ca. 1829 • 178
Spanish missions, presidios, and pueblos to 1824 * 207
Hispanic and Anglo influences on California's interior Indians,
18205 to 18505 • 217
The Anza expedition, 1775-1776 * 247
San Joaquin Valley, ca. 1819 • 272
Bidwell-Bartleson party, 1841 • 314
Preface
As the twenty-first century dawns, it is incumbent on Californians to take stock of
their civilization. Over centuries, indeed millennia, through the application of hu-
man intelligence and organization, they have built monumental productive systems,
sophisticated associations, flexible governments, and creative and vigorous, if some-
what untamed, cultures. On the other hand, Californians continue to be troubled by
contradictions, debates, and conflicts, ironically often stemming from those same
successes. While, for example, the people benefit from perhaps the most diverse
and profitable regional economy in the world, resource exhaustion renders the con-
tinuation of that affluence problematic. Whereas California has always been a land
of immigrants, ever refreshing the state with their ideas, skills, and energies, some
contemporaries now challenge the wisdom, and even the viability, of a multicultural
society. Although the complex, modern California way of life, with its gargantuan
infrastructure and environmental management systems, has been made possible only
because of the evolution of powerful government agencies to further the common in-
terest, in the last two decades those governments have been crippled by dwindling
finances, a stalemate of contending interests, and growing doubts among some of the
populace regarding their efficiency and representativeness. Private interest has, for
many Californians, replaced community well-being as the state s driving principle.
As it has been in the past, California remains a "contested Eden."
The victories and torments of modern California, which actually reflect those of
much of the rest of the nation and world, though perhaps in bolder relief, can be un-
derstood only in the context of the states history. The origins of an ambiguous pres-
ent lie not simply in yesterday, but also in pioneer days. Demonstrating this is the
great opportunity, and the challenge, presented by the California Sesquicentennial
between 1998 and 2000.
ix
x PREFACE
It is with pleasure and a sense of obligation that, in conjunction with the Univer-
sity of California Press and many other partners, the California Historical Society—
the officially designated "state historical society"—launches the California History
Sesquicentennial Series as its principal contribution to the statewide commemora-
tion. Four topical, but interrelated, volumes, one published in each year from 1997
through 2000, will reexamine the meaning, particularly from today's perspective, of
the founding of modern California in the pre-i848 and gold-rush era experiences.
Each of the volumes will collect essays by a dozen authors, drawn from the ranks of
leading humanists, social scientists, and scientists, reviewing the best, most up-to-
date thinking on major topics associated with the state's pioneer period through
the 18/os. The authors have been asked to consider, within their area of expertise, the
general themes that run through all four volumes: the interplay of traditional cultures
and frontier innovation in the creation of a distinctive California society; the dy-
namic interaction of people and nature and the beginnings of massive environmen-
tal change; the impact of the California experience on the nation and the wider
world; the shaping influence of pioneer patterns on modern California; and the im-
portance and legacy of ethnic and cultural diversity as a major dimension of the
state's history.
The Sesquicentennial California History volumes will be published simulta-
neously as double issues of California History, the quarterly of the Historical Soci-
ety, and as books for general distribution. This volume, Volume i in the series, Con-
tested Eden: California before the Gold Rush, co-edited by Ramon A. Gutierrez,
Professor of Ethnic Studies and History at the University of California, San Diego,
deals with the social, economic, cultural, political, and environmental patterns of Na-
tive American, Spanish, and Mexican California through 1848. Volume 2 (1998), be-
ing co-edited by James J. Rawls, member of the history faculty at Diablo Valley
College, will focus on the pioneer industry of gold mining, its discovery and its im-
pact on the state, the West, and the national and world economies. Volume 3 (1999),
being co-edited by Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California, will focus on the Gold
Rush and the migration and settlement of peoples, cultures, organizations, and in-
stitutions. Volume 4 (2000), being co-edited by John Burns, Chief Archivist of the
California State Archives, will investigate the inception of government and
politics—statehood, early constitution-building, law, bureaucracy, and civil rights.
The California Historical Society's issuing of these major Sesquicentennial pub-
lications is made possible through the contributions of all the Society's members, as
well as a host of direct and indirect supporters. Chief among the helping agencies are
the University of California Press, the California State Archives, California State
University, Hayward, which furnishes ongoing support for editing the quarterly,
and the Mericos Foundation of South Pasadena, which has provided a generous
grant specifically for the Sesquicentennial Series.
PREFACE xi
Many individuals have also shared their time, knowledge, energy, and resources.
The Historical Society's particular appreciation goes to Lynne Withey, associate
director of the University of California Press, who has been an indispensable part of
the project from the beginning; Ramon A. Gutierrez, the pioneering co-editor of the
first series volume, who not only contributed immeasurably to conceptualizing the
volume, selecting authors, and evaluating and editing manuscripts, but also estab-
lished a very high standard for subsequent editors; Anthony Kirk, illustrations edi-
tor, who applied his unequaled knowledge and appreciation of California iconogra-
phy to discover and edit a stunning series of images, many of them never before
published; and Marlene Smith-Baranzini, associate editor of California History and
true partner-editor in every facet of the Sesquicentennial History Series. Other im-
portant contributors include graduate assistants Sandra DeSalles and Mary-Jo
Wainwright, and Liz Ginno, historian and member of the library faculty at Cali-
fornia State University, Hayward. Our thanks also go to all the institutions and in-
dividuals who made it possible to use images from their collections in this work or
who provided other valuable assistance. Although space precludes listing all their
names, special mention should be made of Mina Jacobs, assistant archivist at the An-
chorage Museum of History and Art; Barbara Allgaier, lecturer in the Department
of History at California State University, Hayward; Dace Taube, curator of the Cal-
ifornia Historical Society/Title Insurance and Trust Photo Collection, Department
of Special Collections, University of Southern California Library; Peter Blodgett at
the Huntington Library; Richard Ogar and William Roberts at the Bancroft Li-
brary; John Cahoon, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles County; Linda Agren, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural
History; David Bisol, Santa Barbara Historical Society; Joy Tahan, Oakland Mu-
seum; Robin Inglis, director of North Vancouver Museum and Archives; Iris Eng-
strand, professor of history at the University of San Diego; and Larry Campbell, Pa-
tricia Keats, Katherine Holland, Emily Wolff, Bo Mompho, and other members of
the professional staff of the California Historical Society, San Francisco.
Michael McCone
Executive Director
California Historical Society
Richard}. Orsi
Professor of History
California State University, Hayward
Editor, California History
