how the estimates can
be carried much lower.
_Nongatl, Lassik, and Sinkyone ... 7,700_
THE WAILAKI
The Wailaki were studied by Goddard (1923, 1924), who published two
papers concerning them. The first covered the main portion of the tribe
along the Eel River and the second the Pitch group which lived along
some of the tributaries of that river. Goddard found the Wailaki
proper, as they may be termed, to consist of 18 communities or
subtribes, each living in one to several villages, and the Pitch group
to consist of 4 subtribes. One peculiarity of the villages was that
they were inhabited only during the six winter months, the people in
the summer dispersing through the hills in search of small game and
plant food. Although the villages were occupied only half the year,
nevertheless they can be used for computation of population since there
were no other fixed abodes with which they can be confused.
In addition to Goddard's monographs, we have a tribe list for a portion
of the Wailaki from Merriam entitled "Tsennahkennes Bands and
Rancherias." Both investigators surveyed independently 11 of the 18
subtribal areas and obtained the names of villages from informants. In
his list on page 109 and in his text Goddard identifies 53 inhabited
places. For two other subtribes, the Chiskokaiya and the Kaikichekaiya,
he cites the villages by name in the textual descriptions on pages 106
and 107. There are a total of 18 for the two subtribes. Villages were
not determined at all for the five northern subtribes.
For the first 11 subtribes Merriam gives a total of 46 villages. Of
these, 30 can be identified with names furnished by Goddard, whereas 16
are in addition to Goddard's list. Goddard on the other hand gives 23
which were not secured by Merriam. Since both these workers operated
carefully through informants and both were thoroughly conversant with
the local dialects, we may accept the combined total of 69 villages,
large and small, occurring within the territory of Goddard's first, or
southernmost, 11 subtribes. The average is 6.27 villages per subtribe.
For the Chiskokaiya and the Kaikichekaiya, Merriam mentions only one
village each, that bearing the subtribal name. It is quite clear from
his list that he did not push his field investigations into these
groups. Hence we must fall back on Goddard's data, which include 18
villages in all. The average for the 13 subtribes therefore is 6.7
villages, and the total
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