Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
History
When European explorers first arrived in the 16th century, more than 100,000
Native Americans called this land home. Spanish conquistadors and priests
marched through in search of a fabled 'city of gold' before establishing Cath-
olic missions and presidios (military forts). After winning independence from
Spain, Mexico briefly ruled California, but then got trounced by the fledgling
USA just before gold was discovered in 1848, sparking a population boom.
Waves of immigrants haven't stopped washing up on these Pacific shores
ever since.
The precise etymology of 'California' has never been convincingly established. Many think
it derives from a 16th-century Spanish romance novel about a legendary island, fabulously
rich in gold and inhabited only by black women warriors ruled by Queen Califía.
Native Californians
Immigration is hardly a new phenomenon here, since human beings have been migrating to
California for millennia. Archaeological sites have yielded evidence - from large middens
of seashells along the beaches to campfire sites on the Channel Islands - of humans making
their homes along this coast as early as 13,000 years ago.
Speaking some 100 distinct languages, California's indigenous people mostly lived in
small communities and a few migrated with the seasons. Their diet was largely dependent
on acorn meal, supplemented by small game such as rabbits and deer, and fish and shellfish.
They were skilled craftspeople, making earthenware pots, animal-skin and plant-fiber cloth-
ing, dugout canoes carved from redwood logs, fishing nets, bows, arrows and spears with
chipped stone points. The most developed craft was basketry; baskets were often decorated
with intricate geometric designs and some were so tightly woven they could hold water.
On the North Coast, fishing communities such as the Ohlone, Miwok and Pomo built
subterranean roundhouses and sweat lodges, where they held ceremonies, told stories and
gambled. Kumeyaay and Chumash villages dotted the Central Coast, where tribespeople
