UCPAAE 8 pl. 4, detail [1908] (Public Domain Image)

A Mission Record of the California Indians by A. L. Kroeber UCPAAE Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 1-27 [1908]

This is an 'interrogatorio,' a survey taken in 1811 by the Spanish government of Mexico regarding the status of the Native Californians at each mission in Alta California, translated and heavily annotated by A.L. Kroeber. Along with Boscana's account, this one of the few glimpses we have of the Native Californians, when pre-contact individuals were still alive. The accounts vary from friar to friar, but some are very detailed and mention completely unknown placenames and languages. There are reasonably value-free descriptions of religious beliefs, mythology, language, dance, music and ethnobotany.

Most notably, this includes one of the few published accounts of the elusive Esselen people, who inhabited the Big Sur coast (see San Carlos). Herein is recorded probably the only remaining complete sentence in Esselen: egenoch lalucuimxs talogpami ege salegua lottos tahezapami laxlachis, "The men who shoot well with a bow are esteemed and well liked."