So this was a research-y weekend with tales of Russian sea captains, HBC fur traders and early Mendocino names to sort through. Tappe and Grinnell of course said that beavers were not native over 1000 feet elevation in California or in any coastal streams. Which pretty much means they were in the Delta. Period. If we’re going to be able to argue that protecting beaver in our coastal streams is good for salmon populations we have to prove they belong there first.
After Kate’s proud discovery in the Russian River I wanted to contribute, so I heaved and ho’d for the weekend searching around the state by river, by tribe, by historic name. I came up with a lovely creation myth recorded by [of course] Kroeber from the eastern Pomo (Clear Lake) about a flood that changed the rules so that “beaver and otter could marry”. I thought it was adorable but Rick said it wasn’t coastal enough and to keep looking.
The beaver family and the otter family were not destroyed. These families were named that way, because they could turn into these animals when they desired. They could not turn into any other kind of animals. They survived because they could live amidst the waters. From that time on the beavers could marry into the otter family, or the otter could marry into the falcon family, but one family could not intermarry with each other. That is the way in which the second people started.
There was the diary of John Work first explorer of the Hudson Bay Company to the California Coast. He went to Eureka, Mendocino, and Russian River looking for beavers. Either the natives were lying to him or he wasn’t looking very hard, but he trotted back whining about only having killed a few beavers. Okay, no beaver myths, no beaver skins documented. Where to look next?
What’s that old saying? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure?
California has but few characteristic archaeological remains such as are found in the mounds of the Mississippi valley or the ancient pueblos and cliff-dweller ruins of the South. In the shellmounds along this section of the Pacific coast it possesses, however, valuable relics of very ancient date. These are almost the only witnesses of a primitive stage of culture which once obtained among the early inhabitants of this region. One of the largest and best preserved shellmounds was selected as the object of the present investigation, The mound selected is situated on the eastern side of the Bay of San Francisco at Shellmound Station near Emeryville, and is commonly known as the Emeryville mound. At present it forms a conspicuous feature of the recreation grounds known as Shellmound Park (pI. 1).
The occupants of the mound at Emeryville at all periods were huntsmen to a great degree, besides being fishermen; those of the mound at West Berkeley seem to have depended largely upon fishing; hence the stone sinkers were far more numerous in that mound than at Emeryville.
So far the fauna of only the lowest strata up to 3 feet above the base have been studied. The following species obtained in this horizon were determined by Dr. W. J. Sinclair.
Deer, Cervus sp. Elk; Cervus canadensis. Sea-otter, Enhydrus lutris. Beaver, Castor canadensisDing Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! Beaver in Emmeryville! Beaver in Berkeley! Beaver in middens stretching as far north along the coast as the Russian River! A finding which was notable enough even at the TIME (1909) to merit this defensive footnote:
21 Extinct in California and in fact south of Washington; J. Wyman found the remains of elk, wild turkey, and large auk in the shellmounds of New England. The elk, though still in existence, is no longer to be found·east of the Allegheny Mountains; the wild turkey is still in existence, but is not to be found in New England, while the auk lives only in the Arctic regions, or at least not farther south than the northern part of Newfoundland (Amer. Naturalist, I, p. 572).
Thanks to the Ohlone we have our beaver evidence. Seems early Californians didn’t care enough about the animal or the early humans to pay attention to either.
