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From “The Natural World of the California Indians” we can learn that :

“ There is no question but that in the time before the discovery of America by Columbus the California region was one of the most densely populated areas of the continent north of Mexico. “

“It is calculated that at the time of the first Spanish settlement in 1769 there were 310,000 Indians in California. With a land of 155,650 square miles, the population density was thus about 1 person for each 2 square miles. “

“Although this population is very low in terms of modern population in excess of 22 million, for native North America before the white man came, California was a densely occupied area – a favored area fir settlement as it is today. “

This population of a little over 300,000 was distributed in two main areas – the plains ( coastal and interior large valleys ) held about 200,000 inhabitants; the backcountry ( coastal and interior mountains and remote islands ) held the remaining 100,000. Now consider that the backcountry makes up about 50% of the geographic land mass, then 1/3 of the people were enjoying existence on 50% of the land, while the remaining 2/3s shared the use of the other 50% of the land. The reason that the plains attracted twice the population base was probably because they were areas of milder weather, and abundant local food sources when settlements were beside rivers and marshes as was common in the interior San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, and along the coastal plains from San Francisco south to San Diego.

This then tells us that :

Only half as many people lived in the backcountry than on the plains
The weather was a greater challenge for survival in the backcountry
Food may have required more work to obtain in the backcountry
The people who lived in the backcountry had less human competition for resources