Native Americans of California

With our first day with Chromebooks, students were already challenged to use them to use resources to find out the variety of California Indian tribes in California by clicking on a name and seeking out information such as their main food/resource lifestyle, where they were located, and major events in their history with accompanying years. Here are some highlights of what they found.

Maddie found that in the Southern Palute were visited as early as 1776 by Father Escalanted. In 1871 they were visited by 1871. Surprisingly, in 1970, The Southern Palute received $7.25 million from the US government for being mistreated.

Mihir researched the Koso tribe. The Death Valley party passed through their territory and their territory was surveyed by Von Schmidt. The Koso were the ones to start the Borax trade.

In addition, Sierra learned that the Koso, a hunting and gathering group, lived in the barren country between the Sierras and Nevada state line. The Koso spoke Central Numic and in the 1860's discovered gold in the Coso Mountains.

Kiana researched the Kawaiisa. They spoke Southern Numic and between 1844-1850 were visited by John C. Fremont. Unfortunately, the Kawaiisa were devestated by the gold rush miners.

Jakob looked into the Shasta tribe. They unsurprisingly spoke a language called Shastan and practiced a ghost dance. The Shasta tribe had over 2,000 in 1800 but had dropped to 600 by 1900 and in 1921 the tribe was infected by small pox.

Mateo also studied the Shasta and found that relied heavily on fishing and had their first contact with white trappers in 1821.