Steve Hilton Research Paper 1 History 472 October 24, 2011

Evidence for Agriculture Among the Owens Valley Paiute Based Upon Captain J.W. Davidsons Expedition of 1859 In trying to understand Native Californian subsistence patterns and agriculture in Owens Valley, Julian Steward in Ethnography of the Owens Valley Paiute (1933) suggests that the Owens Valley Paiute irrigated native crops but did not practice true agriculture. Harry Lawton, Phillip Wilke, Mary Dedecker, and William Mason in Agriculture Among the Paiute of Owens Valley as found in Blackburn and Andersons 1993 compilation entitled Before The Wilderness; Environmental Management by Native Californians argue that the Owens Valley Paiute practiced full agriculture at the time of contact. Looking at Captain J. W. Davidsons Report of An expedition to Owens Lake in 1859 suggests that a form of irrigation was definitely practiced by the Owens Valley Paiute, and suggests that this irrigation may indeed have been full scale agriculture, and appears to have some antiquity. Using these resources I will examine what irrigation and/or agricultural practices are apparent in 1859, how those practices relate to Steward and Lawton et al.s work about agriculture, and what it may mean about Owens Valley Paiute subsistence patterns and land use prior to 1859. Julian Stewards work with the Owens Valley Paiute suggests these Native Californians practiced a semi nomadic economy organized by seasonal migrations between the mountain ranges and the valley floor. This seasonal round was based upon the use of pion pine nuts, which were gathered in the mountains east of the Sierra Nevada. Stewards informants also describe using acorns similar to other Native Americans in central California (Steward 1933:246). Steward suggests that the tilling, planting and cultivating of plants was unknown, he suggests that the Owens Valley Paiute were on the verge of agriculture, but actually practiced irrigation to enhance native crops, without achieving true agriculture. Steward gives three reason for what he believes brought about this practice. The first is that the Owens Valley Paiute practiced irrigation which was an early form of agriculture, and never needed to make the move to planting, tilling and seeding crops. The second was that the Owens Valley Paiute learned irrigation as a diffused practice from a southwestern group of Native Americans that practiced agriculture. The Mohave lived approximately 300 miles to the southwest, and they are known to have practiced agriculture. The third way irrigation of crops may have reached the Owens Valley Paiute is that it had a local and independent origin, that the Owens Valley lowlands and

marsh areas replete with riparian habitat and resources was naturally attractive to the Native Peoples, and therefore they practiced enhancing other areas with irrigation. Lawton, et al., asserts that the Owens Valley Paiute were engaged in the practice of agriculture. These authors believe that the Owens Valle Paiute had developed a complex farming system on an agronomic scale that required substantial communal labor. This farming system organized labor to construct and maintain a vast system of ditches and canals. The authors suggest that this form of agriculture is no different and just as sophisticated as the Owens Valley Paiute contemporaries in the Southwest, Asia and South America. Lawton et al, argue that domestication of crops is a result of agriculture, not its prerequisite (Lawton et al, 1993:367). Lawton et al., then provide two additional hypotheses for the origins of agriculture in the Owens Valley. One of the hypotheses is that irrigation practices of the Owens Valley Paiute at the time of contact were acquired from Caucasian contact after 1850. The other hypothesis forwarded is that the Owens Valley Paiute learned irrigation practices from a renegade neophyte this line of reasoning suggests that a Christianized Indian from one of the missions found shelter in the Owens Valley and taught the Native Americans there agricultural practices. After dismissing most of these hypotheses the authors declare It is our conclusion, and we believe the most reasonable one given the present state of knowledge of aboriginal conditions, that agriculture was a local independent origin in Owens Valley and probably developed slowly over a long period prior to European contact(Lawton et al 1993:373). In July 1859, J.W. Davidson, Captain of the 1st Dragoons at Fort Tejon was charged with leading his company to the borders of Owens Lake in order to locate and return stolen stock, that was reportedly stolen from inhabitants of the San Fernando and Santa Clara valleys. Davidson was told that should you meet with resistance in any attempt you may make for the recapture of stock, which you may find in their possession, you will inflict such chastisement upon them as may be in your power, and is conformable to military usage.make yourself acquainted with the various tribes inhabiting that section of the country, their numbers, habits, and arms, and examine the country well with reference to its fitness for the purpose of an Indian Reservation, its agricultural resources, timber, water, &cc. (Davidson 1859:18). Fortunately for scholars and archaeologists study of the Owens Valley Paiute, Davidson performed his duties exemplary and submitted a well written, and informative report of his findings.

In trying to understand the origins irrigation and/or agriculture by the Owen Valley Paiute it is first necessary to determine what defines agriculture. In this particular case agriculture is defined as the planting and irrigating of crops to increase the overall yield of the crop. This type of agricultural practice does not necessitate the planting of seeds, but demands a close understanding of the landscape and the natural processes that take place when plant resources grow, and harvested as food resources. This type of agriculture is defined as vegeculture, which is the planting, care and management of a planted crop to maturity or harvest. There is no doubt that the Owens Valley Paiute were practicing this type of agriculture when Davidson visited them in 1859. The origins of this type of agriculture are up to debate. The processes to which the Owens Valley Paiute developed agriculture prior to European contact are also up to debate. Lawton et al., use Stewards hypotheses and argue that the Owens Valley Paiute practiced agriculture, as defined above, prior to contact, and that type of agriculture originated in the Owens Valley. Davidsons observations attest to the fact that not only did the Native Americans in 1859 practice irrigation and agriculture, but that the entire Owens Valley was so rich that it was not necessary to do much to make the land productive. As Davidson states when discussing the soil in the Owens Valley Wherever water touches it, it produces abundantly (Davidson 1859:18) I should think it well suited to the growth of weath [sic], barly[sic], oats, rye and various fruits, the apple, pear, the grasses were of luxuriant growth. In one meadow, the Winn Valley, the grass over two feet in height, broad leaved and juicy, extended for miles..To the Indian, nature, unaided by cultivation, kindly bears on her bosom the means of his subsistence. (Davidson 1859:26-27). There is no doubt that the Owens Valley is well suited for agriculture, and the Native Americans certainly took advantage of this rich land and soil. As Davidson remarks every step now taken shows you that nature has been lavish of her stores. The mountains are filled with timber, the valleys with water, and meadows of luxuriant grass, some of these meadows contain at a moderate estimate ten thousand acres, every foot of which can be irrigated (Davidson 1859:25). Certainly the Native Americans were aware of this fact. They lived closely tied to nature, and the Owens Valley with its marshy lowlands, and every few miles are crossed with numerous water courses, which take their rise amid the perennial snows of the Sierra Nevada (Davidson 1859:17) certainly the fact that this water supplied ample food supply and resources was not unknown to them. These observations made by Davidson on his first trip to the Owens

Valley were not lost on the prehistoric inhabitants that called the Owens Valley and the shore of Owens Lake home for thousands of years. Davidson was not the first person to look out from atop a ridge at a creek running through a grove of magnificent oaks, and far away to the river, which now washes the base of the eastern range, the eye wanders over a sea of green (Davidson 1859:25). It is nave and ethnocentric to believe that only Europeans looked at the land and wondered what management of water and careful planning could do to make it more productive. Indeed the Native Americans near Owens Lake in 1859 were practicing the movement and management of water to enhance the natural production. The Native Americans present during Davidsons 1859 visit practiced water management and irrigation to enhance the natural conditions present within the Owens Valley to promote the growth and yield of certain crops. Davidson states Upon the seeds of various grasses, The Acorn, Pion-nut, and the tuber of a species of nutritious grass, miles in extent, are irrigated with great care, yielding an abundant harvest of what is one of their principle articles of food. The tuber is about the size of a large marrowfat pea, has a coarse rind or covering, and tastes something like the Chinquapin, they are reproduced by planting (Davidson 1859:29). Certainly this quote suggests that not only were the Native Americans irrigating their crops, but they were actively reproducing these crops by planting seedlings. This may not be the harvesting of seeds for the next planting of a crop, but it is still planting small seedlings, much like tubers are planting in modern times. If we take the observations of Davidson as proof that irrigation and agriculture were taking place in 1859, the question becomes what is the antiquity of these practices. Davidsons observations shed some light onto the question of antiquity of agriculture in the Owens Valley. If the Owens Valley Paiute had developed or diffused agriculture from another neighboring tribe, or a renegade neophyte, then the agricultural practice evident in 1859 would have been much more advanced and contained introduced species. The agricultural societies of the Southwestern deserts practiced corn, beans and squash agriculture, which has complex origination in northern or central Mexico. Likewise, early Spanish agriculture was focused on wheat, pumpkins and grains. None of these crops were evident to Davison at the time of his visit. Not only were the Owens Valley Paiute not planting introduced crops, as one would expect if they copied the practices of others, but they were growing local varieties that were useful to them as food. Davidson also observes that They have already some idea of

tilling the ground, as the ascequias [sic] which they have made with labor of their rude hands for mile in extent, and care which they bestow upon their fields of grass nuts, abundantly show(Davidson 1859:19). This suggest that the practice of irrigating fields was being practiced well before 1859, as miles of trenches and canals were in place by the time of Davidsons visit. If the practice of agriculture was learned from Europeans it would follow that the Native American would also have knowledge of the axes and spades, those instruments crucial to European ideas of agriculture, yet Davidson states upon his leaving that I gave them all the spade and axes that could be spared from my command, explaining to them their uses (Davidson 1859:20). These observations leave little doubt that the Owens Valley Paiute were practicing agriculture in 1859, and that practice may very well have originated from within the Owens Valley. The writing of Captain Davidson about his exploration of the Owens Valley and its native inhabitants suggest that the Owens Valley Paiute were practicing agriculture through the irrigation and planting of native crops. There is evidence that groups of individuals were involved in the management and transport of water by mile of managed canals, and the Owens Valley Paiute were unaware of European agriculture implements such as shovels and axes. These clues lead to the observation that this type of agricultural practice was indeed in place within the Owens Valley prior to European contact. The trained observer easily recognized the potential of agriculture in the Owens Valley, and the Native Americans who lived intimately with the land were keenly aware of the increased plant production of irrigated land. So aware, that most likely the Owens Valley Paiute developed agriculture in an original fashion right in the Owens Valley. What Davidson observed upon his arrival, the Native Owens Valley Paiute already knew Wherever the water touches this soil of disintegrated granite, it acts like the wand of an Enchanter, and it may with truth be said that these Indians have made some portions of their Country, which otherwise were desert, to bloom and blossom as the rose. (Davidson 1859:20).

References Cited Davidson, J.W. 1859 Report of the Results of an Expedition To Owens Lake, and River, With The Topographical Features Of The Country, The Climate, Soil, Timber, Water, And Also The Habits, Arms and Means of Subsistence of The Indian Tribes Seen Upon The March. In The Expeditions of J.W. Davidson From Fort Tejon to The Owens Valley, edited by Philip J. Wilke and Harry W. Lawton. Ballena Press, New Mexico. Lawton, Harry, Phillip J. Wilke, Mary Dedecker, and William M. Mason 1993 Agriculture Among The Paiute of Owens Valley. In Before The Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians, edited by Thomas C. Blackburn and Kat Anderson. Ballena Press, California. Steward, Julian H. 1933 Ethnography of The Owens Valley Paiute. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol 33, No. 3, pp. 233-350. University of California Press, Berkeley, California.