The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California

Cook tackles one of the most contentious questions in California Indian history: how many people actually inhabited the North Coast before European contact and colonization. Rather than accepting the dramatically low figures that earlier observers propagated, Cook builds a careful case for substantially higher population estimates, drawing on mission records, early explorer accounts, and ethnographic data. His methodology acknowledges the difficulties of counting people through the fog of colonial memory while arguing that skepticism toward indigenous population figures has itself been a form of erasure. The book examines the Yurok, Wiyot, and related groups from the Oregon border to San Francisco Bay, treating each tribe as a distinct demographic unit while considering broader regional patterns. For readers willing to engage with numbers as a way of understanding human presence, this work offers both data and a framework for thinking about historical loss. It remains a foundational text for anyone serious about California Indian history, though those expecting narrative prose will find instead a meticulous demographic argument.