Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

The following article, which was originally published in 1870 in The American Naturalist (Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 129-148), is a vivid and sympathetic though seldom cited first-hand account of some of the Nisenan and Konkow peoples of the lower Sacramento Valley. Although it reflects some of the inherent biases characteristic of the period during which it was written, it nonetheless contains valuable ethnographic data that are still of considerable interest today. Except for slight changes in formatting and spelling, the article is reprinted verbatim. Bancroft, in his California Pioneer Register, states that Edward Chever lived in California from 1849 to 1854; his brother Henry was one of the founders of Yuba City.