The Indians of this family lived in villages, the villages as a whole apparently having no political connection, and hence there appears to have been no appellation in use among them to designate themselves as a whole people.
Dialects of this language were spoken at the Missions of San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Inez, Purisima, and San Luis Obispo.
Kindred dialects were spoken also upon the Islands of Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz, and also, probably, upon such other of the Santa Barbara Islands as formerly were permanently inhabited.
These dialects collectively form a remarkably h.o.m.ogeneous family, all of them, with the exception of the San Luis Obispo, being closely related and containing very many words in common. Vocabularies representing six dialects of the language are in possession of the Bureau of Ethnology.
The inland limits of this family can not be exactly defined, although a list of more than one hundred villages with their sites, obtained by Mr.
Henshaw in 1884, shows that the tribes were essentially maritime and were closely confined to the coast.
_Population._--In 1884 Mr. Henshaw visited the several counties formerly inhabited by the populous tribes of this family and discovered that about forty men, women, and children survived. The adults still speak their old language when conversing with each other, though on other occasions they use Spanish. The largest settlement is at San Buenaventura, where perhaps 20 individuals live near the outskirts of the town.
COAHUILTECAN FAMILY.
= Coahuilteco, Orozco y Berra, Geografia de las Lenguas de Mexico, map, 1864.
= Tejano o Coahuilteco, Pimentel, Cuadro Descriptivo y Comparativo de las Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico, II, 409, 1865. (A preliminary notice with example from the language derived from Garcia"s Manual, 1760.)
Derivation: From the name of the Mexican State Coahuila.
This family appears to have included numerous tribes in southwestern Texas and in Mexico. They are chiefly known through the record of the Rev. Father Bartolome Garcia (Manual para administrar, etc.), published in 1760. In the preface to the "Manual" he enumerates the tribes and sets forth some phonetic and grammatic differences between the dialects.
On page 63 of his Geografia de las Lenguas de Mexico, 1864, Orozco y Berra gives a list of the languages of Mexico and includes Coahuilteco, indicating it as the language of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas.
He does not, however, indicate its extension into Texas. It would thus seem that he intended the name as a general designation for the language of all the cognate tribes.
Upon his colored ethnographic map, also, Orozco y Berra designates the Mexican portion of the area formerly occupied by the tribes of this family Coahuilteco.[33] In his statement that the language and tribes are extinct this author was mistaken, as a few Indians still survive who speak one of the dialects of this family, and in 1886 Mr. Gatschet collected vocabularies of two tribes, the Comecrudo and Cotoname, who live on the Rio Grande, at Las Prietas, State of Tamaulipas. Of the Comecrudo some twenty-five still remain, of whom seven speak the language.
[Footnote 33: Geografia de las Lenguas de Mexico, map, 1864.]
The Cotoname are practically extinct, although Mr. Gatschet obtained one hundred and twenty-five words from a man said to be of this blood.
Besides the above, Mr. Gatschet obtained information of the existence of two women of the Pinto or Pakawa tribe who live at La Volsa, near Reynosa, Tamaulipas, on the Rio Grande, and who are said to speak their own language.
PRINc.i.p.aL TRIBES.
Alasapa. Pajalate.
Cachopostate. Pakawa.
Casa chiquita. Pamaque.
Chayopine. Pampopa.
Comecrudo. Pastancoya.
Cotoname. Patacale.
Mano de perro. Pausane.
Mescal. Payseya.
Miakan. Sanipao.
Orejone. Tacame.
Pacuache. Venado.
COPEHAN FAMILY.
> Cop-eh, Gibbs in Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, III, 421, 1853 (mentioned as a dialect).
= Copeh, Latham in Trans. Philolog. Soc., Lond., 79, 1856 (of Upper Sacramento; cites vocabs. from Gallatin and Schoolcraft). Latham, Opuscula, 345, 1860. Latham, El. Comp. Phil., 412, 1862.
= Wintoons, Powers in Overland Monthly, 530, June, 1874 (Upper Sacramento and Upper Trinity). Gatschet in Mag. Am. Hist., 160, 1877 (defines habitat and names tribes). Gatschet in Beach, Ind.
Miscellany, 434, 1877.
= Win-tun, Powell in Cont. N.A. Eth., III, 518-534, 1877 (vocabularies of Wintun, Sacramento River, Trinity Indians). Gatschet in U.S. Geog.
Surv. W. 100th M., VII, 418, 1879 (defines area occupied by family).
X Klamath, Keane, App. to Stanford"s Comp. (Cent. and So. Am.), 475, 1878 (cited as including Copahs, Patawats, Wintoons). Bancroft, Nat.
Races, III, 565, 1882 (contains Copah).
> Napa, Keane, ibid., 476, 524, 1878 (includes Myacomas, Calayomanes, Caymus, Ulucas, Suscols). Bancroft, Nat. Races, III, 567, 1882 (includes Napa, Myacoma, Calayomane, Caymus, Uluca, Suscol).
This name was proposed by Latham with evident hesitation. He says of it: "How far this will eventually turn out to be a convenient name for the group (or how far the group itself will be real), is uncertain." Under it he places two vocabularies, one from the Upper Sacramento and the other from Mag Redings in Shasta County. The head of Putos Creek is given as headquarters for the language. Recent investigations have served to fully confirm the validity of the family.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION.
The territory of the Copehan family is bounded on the north by Mount Shasta and the territory of the Sastean and Lutuamian families, on the east by the territory of the Palaihnihan, Yanan, and Pujunan families, and on the south by the bays of San Pablo and Suisun and the lower waters of the Sacramento.
The eastern boundary of the territory begins about 5 miles east of Mount Shasta, crosses Pit River a little east of Squaw Creek, and reaches to within 10 miles of the eastern bank of the Sacramento at Redding. From Redding to Chico Creek the boundary is about 10 miles east of the Sacramento. From Chico downward the Pujunan family encroaches till at the mouth of Feather River it occupies the eastern bank of the Sacramento. The western boundary of the Copehan family begins at the northernmost point of San Pablo Bay, trends to the northwest in a somewhat irregular line till it reaches John"s Peak, from which point it follows the Coast Range to the tipper waters of Cottonwood Creek, whence it deflects to the west, crossing the headwaters of the Trinity and ending at the southern boundary of the Sastean family.
PRINc.i.p.aL TRIBES.
A. Patwin: B. Wintu: Chenposel. Daupom.
Gruilito. Nomlaki.
Korusi. Nommuk.
Liwaito. Norelmuk.
Lolsel. Normuk.
Makhelchel. Waikenmuk.
Malaka. Wailaki.
Napa.
Olelato.
Olposel.
Suisun.
Todetabi.