Handbook of the Indians of California 0486233685, 9780486233680

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HANDBOOK OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

With 419 illustrations and 40 Maps

Indians of California, by Stocks and Tribes (See also inside back cover)

BURL1NGAME HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY CAROLAN & OAK GROVE BURLINGAME, CALIF. 94010 (415) 342-8971

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2012

http://archive.org/details/handbookofindianOOkroe

BURLINGAME HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY CAROLAN

ft

OAK GROVE

BURLINGAME, CALIF. 94010 (415) 342-3971

HANDBOOK of the

INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

BWW-INGAME

H, GH

LIBRARY

SCHOO!

WIS) 342-837!

A.L. Kroeber

HANDBOOK of the

INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

Dover Publications, Inc.

Newark

031362

Published in Canada by General Publishing Company, Ltd., 30 Lesmill Road, Don Mills, Toronto, Ontario. Published in the United Kingdom by Constable

and Company, 7EG.

Ltd.,

10

Orange

Street,

London

WC2H

This Dover edition, first published in 1976, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by the Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1925 as Bulletin 78 of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution.

International Standard Book Number: 0-486-23368-5 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-19514

Manufactured in the United States of America Dover Publications, Inc. 180 Varick Street York, N.Y. 10014

New

H ° OL

40

tb

52

The fourth specimen

is a shaped but unsmoothed and unsinewed appears that breadth and thickness vary in inverse ratio, rather independently of length. Basically, this is the type of bow made throughout California as far as the Yokuts, at least for the nobler purposes of war and the deer hunt. But the extreme flatness is characteristic of the northwestern tribes, who often shave the sides of their bows to a knifeedge. Elsewhere even the most elaborate pieces become somewhat longer, narrower, and thicker. It may be that the material, which among far tribes is rarely yew, has something to do with this difference; or the northwestern extremity of form may be merely a trick of specialization. It is likely to have weakened rather than strengthened the weapon; but the workmanship commands admi-

stave.

It

ration.

The arrow is of Philadelphus lewisii, a syringa, foreshafted with a hard wood, and tipped with stone. The length is about 31

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

90 inches

— from

drawn

28 to 32

to the head.

the three feathers.

—or

(PL

so

18.)

[bull. 78

much that the arrow could not be The marking is in colored rings under

The straightener is a little board or flattened stick The arrow shaft was bent through the

perforated in the middle.

(PL

hole.

16.)

The usual arrow point was of whitish flint or obsidian. The former material was more abundant, but more difficult to work The points were small, slender, thin, and neat. Bone points nicely. were also known.

These were sharpened on sandstone.

The quiver was a skin turned inside out. Otter and fisher fur made the most prized quivers, such as were worthy of gifts or of display in the brush dance.

BASKETRY.

The basketry of the Yurok and their immediate neighbors is the ware made in a style that extended with only minute variations south to the Wailaki, east as far as the Achomawi, and north

finest

at least to the

yond.

Athabascan tribes on the

Umpqua

River,

if

not be-

number of specimens in the British Museum are reprethe ware of the Kalapuya in the Willamette Valley was

If a

sentative,

similar.

This type of basketry tation of

its

processes.

unknown.

is

unusually specialized in the rigid limi-

Coiling, wicker, checker, and twill

work

are

simple twining, with patterns throughout in " facing," that is, overlay. Threestrand twining is customary for starts and strengthening courses, and diagonal twining is known, but neither weave is regularly employed for entire vessels. Wrapped twining and false embroidery are common farther north, and lattice twining and three-strand all

Substantially the only technique

is

braiding are used to the south, but are never followed in the local area constituted by northwestern California and southwestern

Oregon. The Yurok employ hazel shoots almost exclusively for their warps. normal woofs are the split roots of conifers pine, redwood, or spruce.

—

The For

special purposes, such as the first courses of a basket or especially fine work,

strands split from the roots of willows, grapevines, and other bushes are subThe conifer roots are of a gray or buff color, which turns brown with age. Service baskets have their patterns made by facing certain woofs with glistening whitish strands of bear grass or squaw grass (XerophyUum tcna.r). a material used along the Pacific coast for long distances to the north. Ornamental baskets have the entire surface overlaid with this brilliant facing, except where it is replaced by patterns in glossy black maidenhair fern stems,

stituted.

Adiwntum pedatum, or fibers of the giant fern, W'oodwardia radican», dyed red with chewed alder bark. Occasionally both colors are used on one basket, but this is

uncommon except on caps. Rather infrequently yellow patterns are inmade by steeping Xerophyllum in boiled Evernia vulpina lichen, and

troduced,

PLATE

16

pestle; wooden arrow straight ener; "whale colored" flint knife for dressing salmon, the wooden handle lashed with cord and pitched; salmon grease dish of steatite.

Yurok stone

PLATE

KAROK

IN WAR COSTUME OF ROD ARMOR AND HELMET

KAROK DRAWING THE BOW

18

PLATE

a,

Yurok

stool of

redwood;

b, c,

stone-handled adzes, steel replacing the ancient blades mauls to drive horn wedges.

19

of shell; i,

c,

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

krobbbr]

91

more rarely porcupine quills are treated in the same manner and inThe use of quills seems to have filtered down the river from the Klamath and Modoc. The Yurok keep the overlay constantly toward the outside, so that no color shows on the interior of the hasket except where strand edges peep through the interstices. More easterly tribes twist the warp with its facstill

serted.

though rather roughly, on the inner side. by some tribes, but, on the whole, are employed without change as far as the type of basketry prevails. ing, so that the pattern is duplicated,

The materials mentioned are varied

Some 20 forms of by the Yurok. The cooking

slightly

vessels are, or were,

made

basket, used specially for acorn mush,

is

in this technique

a bowl with vertical

walls and usually a single band of rather light pattern. A smaller basket of the same kind is used by individuals to eat from, or some-

times to cook

A

in.

vessel like the cooking basket, but

somewhat

higher,

and often faced

solidly

with Xerophyllum, serves as a general receptacle around the house. The decoration runs either vertically or in horizontal bands, sometimes diagonally. Large baskets, up to 3 feet or more in diameter and height, serve for storage.

and diagonal patterns prevail. Similar baskets are made in coarse or open work, often on multiple warps, naturally without decoration. Loads are carried in a conical basket, which hangs across the shoulders from a strap passing over the forehead. These baskets are made very neatly in a wide spaced but even openwork. The type is known throughout California as (PI. 9.) far south as Tehachapi. Similar baskets for gathering seeds are made somewhat smaller in close stitch, usually faced and patterned. The seeds are whipped in with a beater, a disk of coarse openwork on a Vertical

handle.

Similar disks, somewhat more hollowed for individual portions of fish

;

and lacking handles, are plates and large trays of the same type abound in

every house.

A

close

diagonals,

woven is

tray, faced

and patterned either

in

bands or in radiating

1£ or 2 feet in diameter, and serves to gather and shake acorn

meal.

This meal is sifted by the Yurok from a smaller, stiff, and entirely fiat tray, which is tapped with a deer leg bone. The Hupa replace this sifter by one in the form of a very obtuse cone, which does not require tapping. Similar to the Hupa sifter is a water dipper, used by both tribes. It is usually unornamented. A very small bowl or tray, decorated inside, serves parched seed meal. The rumitsek is a more or less globular basket in openwork, hung about the house to hold spoons, awls, sinews, and odds and ends. It is sometimes made very prettily with courses of crossed or gathered warp and a pleasingly equal mesh.

The tobacco basket is small, globular or deep, and sometimes provided with It is overlaid, but commonly patterned a cover of basketry or deerskin. simply.

The hopper for the slab on which acorns are pounded is stiffly reinforced, and usually bears an elementary pattern of bars or dots. The dance basket serves for display only and has been described above.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

92

is

[bull. 78

The woman's cap has already been mentioned. The finest and evenest work best combined in this article. The disposition of the ornamentation is

fundamentally banded, but the principal zone most often contains a series of alternate blocks of triangular pattern. Sometimes the blocks are rhomboids disposed diagonally.

The

baby carrier is a huge sort of slipper of openwork, hung from the hoop which forms the heel. Some strands shut off the toe on these the child is set and tied in, its feet hanging free. A more or less dangling round hood may be added cradle or

stood on

its

toe or

:

commoner

in specimens made to trade This is a form of the "sitting cradle " that prevails in parts of northern California, as contrasted with the "lying cradle" that most Californians use. To the eastward of the Yurok, as among the northern Wintun, a simpler shape is used, which is little more than an ovate tray with a handle at the small end. To the south, the Porno, a people of great mastery of the textile art, have developed a somewhat different variety of the sitting to protect the face, but is

to

Americans than in used

cradle.

pieces.

(PI. 35.)

WOODEN IMPLEMENTS.

The only box known

to the

Yurok was

a

more or

tapering cyl-

less

inder of redwood, from 2 to 4 feet long, hollowed out from the top, Occasionally a reclid covered the opening and was lashed on.

A

tangular specimen

is to

be seen, but the usual old form

is

the cylinder.

by a transfer of the canoe-making technique. The boxes served to hold obsidians and other dance valuables and were normally transported by canoe but a square receptacle would have lain on the round bottom of the boat (PL 15.) substantially as well as the round form. Kectangular platters or trays for deer meat, and huge finger bowls carefully used after a repast of the same, were made of wood. The former are often white with hardened fat and black with smoke and dirt. From redwood or other lumber were also made the only two movable articles of furniture ever reported from aboriginal California a round block stool, from 3 to 9 inches high and somewhat flaring (pi. 19), of which several stood in every better house, and a pillow for The latter had somewhat the shape and size the sweat house (pi. 10) of a brick stood on edge with the ends a little spread and the top side hollowed. The stool, although in the living house, was used chiefly by men, who among the Yurok rarely follow the general Californian custom of sitting on the ground. Even outdoors they look about for a log or stone, and in default, kneel, squat, lean, or stand. This It is difficult to explain this peculiar shape, unless

;

:

.

little

habit

is

a powerful indication of a well-settled

mode

of

life.

krodber]

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

93

In the Southwest

it sharply marks off the town-dwelling Pueblos from their nomadic neighbors. In neither region does the custom extend to women. The standard fire drill was made both "man" and "woman," as the Yurok call the two parts of willow root. (PI. 77.)

—

—

UTENSILS OF ELK HORN.

Elk horn was used for the point of the flint flaker, for mesh spacers, and shuttles; sometimes for arrow straighteners, for spoons, and for purses. flat,

The spoon

cross-grained bowl.

is

truly such, not a ladle, with a rather

The handle always bears some

decoration,

and often is worked into fairly elaborate zigzags and notches. Sometimes it is cut through longitudinally. One extremely interesting specimen has a thread winding around the handle. Unfortunately there is nothing to prove whether this device is aboriginal or suggested by an American screw. The spoon served for eating acorn gruel, but

women

contented themselves with a mussel shell or

Kich houses kept a store of fine spoons to bring out when they entertained dance guests (pi. 20). Modern spoons are made of wood, but these are likely to be imitations, devised when the supply of antler was no longer obtainable. Most Calif ornians licked their daily gruel from the crooked index and middle fingers, but this does not seem to have been good Yurok manners. The purse or money box was of the same shape as the large wooden box for dance valuables. It averaged 6 to 7 inches in length. Deerhorn specimens were smaller and less used. Several strings of the top of a deer skull.

dentalia could be folded back and forth into an elk-antler purse.

The

was then sprung on under a projection at one end and held by a thong wrapping. Now and then a different purse was made from the antler where it forks. This type was triangular. All lid

in place

the horn purses were usually incised with the triangles or zigzags which are the basis of almost all Yurok decoration. (PI. 15.) There must have been a needle, since rush mats were made by sewing a cord through the stems; but whether the instrument was of wood, horn, or bone, is not known. The mats were sat and slept on by women in the living house.

RECEPTACLES.

A

known only

was a and with a stick fastened along each edge to spring it closed. The whole somewhat resembled a quiver in outline, but was flat and opened along one edge. It was conveniently carried clamped under the upper arm. curious receptacle,

to the northwestern tribes,

piece of deer hide, folded hair side out,

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

94

[bull. 78

A

network sack, with mesh small enough to hold acorns, was much used to carry little objects, from food to money. The shape was trapezoidal, with a deerskin strap. This type was known over most of California, and was chiefly if not wholly man's paraphernalia. Loose feathers and the like were rolled on a sort of mat of herb stems on which the leaves were allowed to remain and which were twined with string. The object is so shaped as to belly out some-

what when

rolled up.

A similar mat case of tules was sometimes made for obsidians. A up

small skin of soft fur, spread out

in

it.

At one end

a thong

flat,

was stitched

had dentalia rolled which was tied around

often

on,

the bundle. TOOLS.

The Yurok were tolerable workmen, but possessed few tools. Logs and planks were split with wedges of elk horn from a few inches to a foot and a half in length. Some of these were nearly flat, others sharply curved, according to the intended use. The edge was produced by rubbing on stone. The wedges were driven with pear-shaped mauls, 6 to 8 inches in height, of basalt or mottled metamorphic rock. They are usually quite symmetrical and sometimes beautifully finished. Most California tribes were content with convenient stones. These mauls were one of two kinds of tools on which the Yurok bestowed much care. (PL 19.) The other was the stone handle of the adze. The blade of this is declared to have been of heavy mussel shell. The handle was 6 to 10 inches long, curved up at the end, sometimes with a taper that seems almost too delicate for use. The other end was cut away to receive (PL 19.) Most pieces the butt of the blade, which was lashed on. bear two or three ridges or grooves to hold the lashings from slipping. Sometimes the handle end curls but slightly or is blunt and straight; but such pieces have probably been worked over after a break. Steel very early replaced the shell blades, but the stone handles continued in use as long as any members of the generation of discovery remained alive. This implement is restricted to the region in which the Yurok

type of culture prevailed, but, like most of the distinctive utensils that withstand time, existed there in prehistoric times. It is doubtful with what the Yurok did their finer wood carving, Elk-horn spoons had their designs as on the acorn mush stirrers. rubbed into form with sandstone. Purses, of the same material but hollow, must have been gouged with a sharper tool. The method of boring pipes of hard wood and stone is also unascertained. The old skin-dressing tools were quickly superseded by steel blades. It does not seem that there were well-formed implements for this

PLATE

20

CARVED ELK ANTLER SPOONS FOR ACORN GRUEL. YUROK

PLATE

KAROK MAN

21

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

kbobbeb]

95

purpose, else at least the handles would have been preserved.

It

is

was broken to convenient shape, or a bone rubbed down. The Hupa tell somewhat indefinitely of scrapers of stone and deer rib. The only part of the aboriginal technique that has rather likely that a rock

survived is the rubbing of deer brains into the hide. These are preserved in cakes of moss, which are soaked before use. The process softens the skin.

True tanning was, of course, unknown. MUSIC.

Music, like

art, is difficult to characterize

lary that has

grown up around

it.

without a special vocabu-

Such vocabularies do not

exist

for most primitive arts because their essential qualities are too for-

eign from our own.

Usually

it

is

only certain incidental features

of an alien art that have any meaning in our thinking and feeling.

We

detach these aspects of expression from their roots and describe

them

in terms

which seem

as they refer to our

own

significant but are of real

meaning only

only the individual endowed with exceptional sympathy or sensibility that can understand any primitive art without a long acquaintance and since most schemes.

It

is

;

people have not the interest to familiarize themselves with the art

own civilization they are wholly incapable of knowing remote foreign one is about. Hence they prefer Indian baskets with bastard European patterns and though they may find something vaguely pleasing in many primitive works of decoration if seen sufficiently rarely the quality which appeals is that of their

what

a

;

—

—

of strangeness and the grotesque.

The first impression of a native song is the same with music. one of funny noises, grunts, deflected intonations; and the almost invariable report is of plaintiveness, wailing monotony, minor wistfulness emotions which the hopeful lover, the religious devotee, the community celebrating a victory certainly were not trying to render when they uttered the song. A few examples in our inadequate notation convey but a. terribly distorted impression. The music must be heard and heard and heard by those both willing and able to listen to it before it can be understood. Nevertheless the most casual can discern with ease a distinctiveness in northwestern music. Hear again and again any half dozen songs of the Yurok, the Yana, the Porno, and the Yokuts. Then listen to a new song from one of the latter three nations. Only a fairly proficient musician would venture its definite attribution to one of the three peoples their range of stylistic peculiarity is slight. But let the additional song be from the Yurok, and even the novice could usually place it with confidence. It should be added that the It

is

—

:

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

96

Yurok themselves can not

[bull. 78

own music from that of from that of other near-by tribes. But the difference of northwestern songs from those of central California in mass is considerable. A few external traits can be mentioned. The northwesterner, particularly in the music of his great dances, loves to leap upward an octave or more to a long, powerful note, and then sink back from this by a series of slides, often of a continuous tonal transition. The accompanists at times chant a rhythmic bass pulse without definite melodic relation to the strain. The levels and climaxes vary enormously in pitch, in rhythm, in intensity of intonation. Central Californian music moves more uniformly in a narrower the

Hupa and Karok, and

distinguish their

in

many

cases

range of smaller intervals. These are inadequate hints; but they reveal the rich and unexplored field that lies cultivable for understanding to him with sympathy, patience, and a catholic musical sense. For centuries hundreds of thousands of human beings in California have been forming a style, a variety of styles, according to nation and occasion, in which they expressed some of their profoundest feelings; and we can not yet make a single exact and intelligible remark about their accomplishments.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. In instruments the Yurok are remarkable for their paucity. The one was the flute, an open tube of elder wood with three or four equally spaced holes. It was blown diagonally across one end. If a man could sniff a melody into it with his nose, he was rated a virtuoso. Many did not even learn to play it with the mouth. The flute was associated with young men's courtship or unexpressed desires but it was also played by their elders as they sat on sunny afternoons before the sweat house in idle meditation. The instrubone whistle used ment is incapable of accompanying the voice. in the Deerskin dance produces only a monotonous blast. The northwestern tribes of to-day cover a cracker box with horsehide. This makes an effective drum to go with the songs that intensify gambling. But the device is not aboriginal. The Yurok say that anciently their sole drum was a convenient plank, preferably of seasoned white cedar, thumped with a stick. If a passer-l>\ wished to join in, he brought his paddle up with him from the sole

;

A

boat.

No sort of rattle was used by the Yurok, though several types known from their nearest neighbors. The musical bow and

are the

rhythmic rasp of other parts of California were also unrepresented.

KBOEBKB]

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

97

This extreme poverty of instruments among a people not deficient in technical devices suggests a strong stylicization of their vocal

music.

CONCLUSION.

In addition to the

many

sorts of baskets

and a considerable number

of dance paraphernalia, nearly 100 different kinds of implements of

Yurok manufacture have been preserved in museums. Adding those which went out of use before they could be collected, it is safe to say that the group made at least 150, and perhaps 200, distinct types of utensils. This is evidence of a fairly rich civilization. Here ends the description of the Yurok. of the Karok, a group so similar to the

The next account will be Yurok in everything but

speech that their separate consideration will scarcely be necessary except as their life is conditioned by their geography; and of two smaller peoples, the

Wiyot and Chimariko.

Next

in order are the

Californian members of the great Athabascan family, in some ten divisions. The nearest of these, the Tolowa and Hupa, partake wholly of the Yurok type of civilization. From them southward a transition can be followed, from group to group, until with the Wailaki, and especially the ultimate Kato, another culture, that of north-central California, is wholly entered. The Yuki and Porno and a branch of the Miwok come next in sequence along the coast as far as the Bay of San Francisco. Here the review leaps northward again to the Shasta, neighbors, through the Karok, to the Yurok, and participants in their civilization, although in modified and often diminished state. Beyond the Shasta the central Californian type of culture predominates once more. Some considerable traces of the northwestern civilization are still discernible among the Modoc, the Achomawi, the northerly Wintun, and even certain of the Maidu, but they become fainter and finally fade out. The relations, intrinsic and distributional, of the northwestern culture to the others in California can thus be set forth with some distinctness. The bonds that link it northward with the cultures of Oregon can not yet be adequately portrayed, intimate as they appear to be. In comparisons in this direction lies the chief avenue to a broader understanding of this peculiar civilization.

;;

Chapter

5.

THE KAKOK. National relations, 98 settlements, 99 numbers, 101 new year ceremonies, 102 rites at Katimin, 103 rites at Panamenik and Inam, 104 rites at Amaikiara, 104 general character of the rites, 105 girls' adolescence ceremony, 106 scope of religion, 106 names, 107 conclusion, 108. ;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

NATIONAL RELATIONS.

The Karok

Yurok. The and customs, except

(PI. 21) are the up-river neighbors of the

two peoples are indistinguishable

in appearance

for certain minutiae; but they differ totally in speech. In language, the Yurok are a remote western offshoot of the great Algonquian family, of which the bulk resided east of the Mississippi and even on the Atlantic coast; the Karok, one of the northernmost members of

Hokan

group, which reaches south to Tehuantepec. The Yurok are the Wiyot, on their south and west of the Karok, the Chimariko and Shasta, southward and eastward. In spite of the indicated total separateness of origin, the two groups are wholly assimilated culturally. Except for a few transient bands of Hudson Bay Co. voyagers, the Karok knew nothing of the existence of white men until a swarm of miners and packers burst in upon them in 1850 and 1851. The usual friction, thefts, ambushing, and slaughters followed in

the scattered

nearest kinsmen of the ;

The two sacred villages near the mouth of the Salmon, and no doubt others, were burned by the whites in 1852 and a third, at Orleans, was made into a county seat. There were, however, no formal wars; in a few years the small richer placers were worked out; the tide flowed away, leaving behind only some remnants: and the Karok returned to what was left of their shattered existence. Permanent settlers never came into their land in numbers the Government established no reservation and left them to their own devices; and they yielded their old customs and their numbers much more slowly than the majority of Californian natives. The term " Karok," properly karuk, means merely " up-stream " in the language of the Karok. It is an adverb, not a designation of a group of people. The Karok have no ethnic name for themselves, contenting themselves, in general Californian custom, by calling themselves "people," arara, They will sometimes speak of themspots.

;

;

98

:

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

kbobbeb]

99

selves as Karuk-w-arara in distinction from the Yuruk-w-arara, the " do wnst reamers " or " Yurok " but this denomination seems wholly ;

In thinking of the Shasta above them on the Klamath, they would probably name themselves Yuruk-w-arara. relative.

Karok designations for their neighbors -am denoting " people," and -hi, " speech "

are as follows, -arara or

Kakamichwi-arara, the Shasta of Klamath River. This term may refer The speech seems to be called Karakuka or Karakuha. Shammai is mentioned as a village. Tishra-w-arara, the Shasta of Scott River. Mashn-arara, Mashu-hi, the Konomihu and New River Shasta; from Mashuto the residents of one village.

ashav, Salmon River.

Shamnam

is

the

Konomihu

village at the forks,

and

Hashuruk one below. Kasha-arara, Kasha-hara-hi, the Wintun, and probably the Chimariko of possibly also the tribes on the Sacramento. Kishake-w-arara, the Hupa on the lower Trinity. Yuruk-w-arara, Yu-hi, the Yurok. T Sufip-arara, the Y urok of Rekvvoi, probably also the Coast Yurok. Waiyat-hi, the Wiyot. Yuh-ara-hi, the Tolowa. Yuhanak seems to be a Tolowa village.

Trinity River

;

SETTLEMENTS.

Knowledge of

the

Karok

settlements

is still

involved in confusion.

were three principal clusters of towns: at the mouths of Camp Creek, Salmon River, and Clear Creek. Other stretches of the river held smaller villages, and in parts even these appear to have been few. The farthest Yurok settlement upstream was near the mouth of Bluff Creek, the lowest downstream of the Karok was Wopum, Yurok Opegoi, Hupa Haiwochitding, opposite Red Cap Creek, a considerable village. Between these two It is clear that there

towns a steep peak stands on the south or east bank of the Klamath. This cone may be regarded as the boundary between the two peoples, although the Indians, always thinking in terms of individuals or collections of individuals and their personal rights, and rarely in terms of groups as such, almost cerThen, until the vicinity of Camp tainly did not so regard the mountain. Creek was reached, followed several minor settlements of which for the most part only the Yurok names are recorded Aranimokw, Tu'i, Oler, Segoashkwu. Above Tu'i was a village called Shavuram or Sahwuram by the Karok, and Operger by the Yurok. Chiniki and Sanipa were also in this region. In the Orleans district there were, in order upstream, Chamikininich, Yurok Oketur, on the south or east bank; Tachanak, Yurok Olege'l, Hupa Dachachitding, on the opposite side at the mouth of Camp Creek; Panamenik, Yurok Ko'omen, Hupa Nilchwingakading, on the flat at Orleans and, once more on :

;

Yurok Tsano, Hupa Killaikyading. Then followed Sims Ferry, and Tsofkaram or Tasofkaram at Pearch. The Yurok

the east bank, Katipiara, Chinits, at

mention Wetsitsiko or Witsigo in this region. About a mile below the mouth of the Salmon the Klamath tumbles down a low fall, which was a famous fishing station (PI. 6). Directly at the fall, on the eas* side, was Ashanamkarak, Yurok Ikwanek. Opposite, a few hundred yards below, was the sacred town of Amaikiara, Hupa Djeloding, The Yurok

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

100

Lbui.l.

78

called this Enek, but distinguished the upstream portion of the settlement as

(PL 7.) Directly at the mouth of the Salmon, on its lower side, and well known as the spot on which the sacred Jumping dance of Amaikiara Tumitl.

concluded,

pipmam by

was a little flat, uninhabited in the historic period, called Ashathe Karok and Kworatem by the Yurok. The latter name seems

to be the source of the designation " Quoratean,"

of priority and

synonymy

which an

artificial

in nomenclature for a time affixed to the

system

Karok

nation.

Just above the mouth of the Salmon rises an isolated little peak, cut out between the Klamath and an old channel, which can not fail to impress every imagination A'uich. Adjoining it, on a bluff that overlooks a shallow rapids in which the river ceaselessly roars among its rocks, lay the most sacred spot of the Karok, the center of their world, isivsanen ach, Katimin. Strictly, there was Yutimin, " the lower dam," as well as Katimin, " the upper," and the Yurok distinguished Segwu' and Apyu. Opposite lay Ishipishi, Yurok Kepar, of which Yutuirup was a neighbor or suburb. (PI. 22.) Tishrawa, Unharik, Kaus, Inoftak, Iwatak, and Akoteli are villages or parts of villages that can not be exactly located, but which seem to have stood in the vicinity of the mouth of the Salmon. From this district up villages and information become scanter. A few miles above Katimin was Ashipak, " in the basket," Yurok Hohkutsor 10 or 12 miles farther, Ahoeptini and Ti. Aftaram, mentioned as rich, may have been in the same vicinity. For 20 or more miles, nothing is known, except Ayis, Yurok Rayoik, and a village called Kumawer by the Yurok. Then, at the mouth of Clear Creek, Inam is reached a large town, as shown by its boasting a Deerskin dance, and famous even to the Yurok as Okonile'l. Some 8 miles above, at the mouth of Indian Creek, at Happy Camp, was Asisufunuk, the last large Karok village, at which a fish weir was sometimes thrown across the river. The Shasta mention in this region Nupatsu, below Happy Camp, Aukni above it, and Ussini at the mouth of China Creek, beyond which, at Thompson Creek, their own villages commenced. The three words are probably Shasta equivalents of Karok names. 1 :

;

:

The land of

Karok

substantially defined by this array of There were few permanent settlements on any affluents. All of these were owned by the Karok, and more or less used as hunting and food gathering territories to their heads; so that technically their national boundary followed the watersheds bordering the Klamath. The only exception was in the case of the largest tributary, the Salmon, about whose forks, a dozen miles up, were the Shastan Konomihu. The Karok seem to have had rights along this stream about halfway up to the forks. Since the American settlement, the Karok have emigrated in some numbers, until now they form the sole Indian population on Salmon River, and are rather numerously mixed among the Shasta. The dialect of the uppermost Karok was somewhat differentiated,

the

villages along the

is

Klamath.

but speech was substantially uniform. 1 Recent unpublished statements obtained from several Karok put their boundary against the Shasta much farther upstream, nearly at Hamburg Bar, and claim Shamai, Seiad Valley, as Karok. If this is correct, the map (pi. 1) must be considerably altered.

:

kroebeb]

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

101

Of the wars and feuds of the Karok, little is known, except that the Tolowa sometimes crossed the high southern spur of the Siskiyous to attack villages in the Clear Creek and Salmon River districts, and that the Karok probably reciprocated. Toward the Hupa and Yurok friendly feelings generally prevailed.

between individual villages, but there volving the nations as a whole.

There no doubt were feuds no record of these ever in-

is

NUMBERS.

The population of the Karok did not exceed

2,000 at the time of dis-

covery, and would unquestionably be put at about 1,500 were

it

not for

number of survivors. The Federal census of 1910 which makes them one of the largest surviving tribes,

the considerable

reckons 775, and even stocks, in California.

This figure seems open to some doubt. Five years before, with a rather high mortality prevailing in the interim, an official investigator, whose statistics everywhere else are more exhaustive than those of the general census, reported only twothirds as

many, distributed as follows

Panamenik (Orleans) Katimin (Salmon)

Inam (Clear Creek)

On Salmon

district

district district

River

178 192 160 46 576

Total

To this total would have to be added a number now Shasta territory; but quarter bloods, many of whom now live among the Americans and would be reckoned as whites by the ordinary census enumerator, are included. The last figures are of particular value because they show the population of the three districts to have been fairly balanced, with some preponderance in the middle one. The circumstances of contact with the whites were much the same in the three regions. Now, an early resident, observant and in unusual relation with the Indians, estimates 425 for the Panamenik district, and for the two above, with part of which he was less intimately acquainted, 1,500. His 425 would rather yield 1,500 for the whole nation. The official reconnaissance of 1851 reports 250 souls up to Katimin and 600 to 700 for the stock. But these figures are unquestionably too low. resident in ancient

The number of houses noted by the expedition of 1851 is a better 37 in and below the Panamenik district, 69 in the region of the mouth of the Salmon, total 106 for very nearly two-thirds of the stock. The maximum number of houses that can be attributed to the Karok is therefore 200 and at the inhabitant ratio of 7J deter-

index

:

;

mined for the Yurok, the population of the stock would be 1,500. This figure seems the most likely; yet, even if it be stretched somewhat, it is clear that the Karok were less numerous than the Yurok, but outnumbered the Hupa.

:

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

102

[BULL. 78

may be added that on the basis of 40 to 50 inhabitants per town, among the Yurok, this population implied something like 30 or 40 Karok villages, which is about the number for which names are It

as

recorded. It is also clear that the populational loss of the Karok in the past 65 years has been relatively mild, possibly not exceeding one-half.

NEW YEAR

CEREMONIES.

The Karok brought out more clearly than the Yurok the esoteric or new year's element that underlies all the great dances of the northwestern tribes. They named the ceremonies "world

first fruits

But they reckoned their neighbors' celebrations as equivaand visited them regularly. A Karok said that there were 10 of these ceremonies and listed them in geographical order

making."

lent to theirs

as follows

—actually he mentioned only 9

Inam Katimin Amaikiara

Panamenik Weitspus

Karok. Karok. Karok. Karok. Yurok.

Takimitlding Kepel

Hupa.

Pekwan

Yurok. Yurok.

Rekwoi

Yurok

Among all three nations the ceremonies were mostly held in early autumn, the remainder in spring, and undoubtedly all have reference either to the beginning of the acorn crop or the run of summer salmon. Among the Karok, that at Amaikiara came about April. Late in August the autumn series commenced at Inam. Some weeks later came Panamenik, and two days subsequently Katimin. The season of these last is close to that of the Takimitlding acorn feast and the Weitspus Deerskin dance; but, so far as evidence goes,

A

conflicts did not take place. great man could not bring his prop.erty to two dances at once; therefore the sequence was, no doubt,

nicely adjusted, although the Indians, of course, mention ancient

ordainment as the cause. They probably reason that the gods wished the wealth of the rich to be displayed at as many gorgeous dances as possible. The formula speaker at Panamenik, at any rate, began his 10 days' rites in the waning moon, timed so as to conclude with its death. That afternoon and the next day the dancers exhibited their deerskins; and then, as the new moon appeared, visitors and residents alike moved up to Katimin, where the local priest, notified of the start at Panamenik, had so gauged the beginning of spirit

was present for its ending. Then the five days. The Inam ceremony having come a month or so earlier, everyone had time to attend, return home from this remote spot, and prepare for the two subsequent his fast that the multitude

Deerskin dance was made for

ceremonies.

At Inam they

also

danced with white deerskins, but

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

kroeberI

103

only about a day and a half as at Panamenik. The Amaikiara rite falling in spring, had no competition except for the Salmon cere-

mony and

spring Jumping dance in Hupa, and possibly the similar Yurok ceremony at the far-away mouth of the river. It was followed by the Jumping dance, which the Karok made only at this place. It seems that the choice of seasons for the ceremonies may also have been determined in part by the climate. September is still normally dry and sunny, and the regalia become little exposed to rain. It is true that the Indians do not cease a dance if it begins to rain; but they do break it off or materially shorten it for a downpour or a storm. Moreover, as visitors can not begin to be accommodated in the houses of the town, and sleep in the open or under the rudest of brush coverings, the rainy season would be very un-

favorable for a 2 or 5 or 10 days' dance.

It is true that there is

considerable rain at the time of the spring ceremonies; but these are less numerous, and, while of no smaller religious import, still

on the whole, attended by less sumptuous dancing. All the surviving Deerskin dances, among Yurok and Hupa as well as Karok, come in autumn. In central California, where elaborate are,

regalia are again encountered, the Kuksu dances fall during the rainy season; but they are definitely held in the dry and roomy earth house. Southern California is so nearly arid that ceremonies

could be held in a roofless inclosure and their time determined other than by the weather. The esoteric portions of their four great dances were gone through with in full by the Karok priests each year, as is only proper for rites that renew and establish the world.

So far

as actual records go,

however, the Deerskin dances were made only in alternate years, although those of Panamenik and Katimin came in the same year. Biennially the war dance was substituted for them. This calls for no display of wealth and is likely, therefore, to have drawn visitors only from nearer towns, thus lessening the burden of entertainment on the rich men of the home village. Whether the great dances were made biennially or annually before the American intruded is not certain. RITES AT KATIMIN.

At Katimin the old man in charge of the ceremony sleeps for 10 nights in the sacred sweat house there. This, at least in its present form, is not a true sweat house, but a squarer and higher structure, not slept in at other times. (PI. 12.) During the days he is in the sacred living house but each day he visits a different rock or spot in the hills and speaks to it the requisite part of his long formula. ;

It it said

that this formula

sold or inherited outright

who evinced memory,

was not treated as private property

— but that the old man would teach

interest,

and concentration.

—that

is,

not

younger one This might often be his it

to a

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

104 assistant,

seem

it

may

be assumed,

or, if not,

[bull. 78

then a son or nephew.

edge to pass to Besides his assistant the priest girls not yet adolescent,

who seem

is

accompanied by two

to gather

wood

does not

It

Karok would allow so important a possession as any other than a kinsman in some degree.

likely that a

this knowl-

virgins, or

perhaps

for his fire in the living house

on which alone he subsists. For head to look or listen, and is addressed by no one. On each visit to a sacred spot he is followed by a band of young men, who shoot at marks and play along the way. Meanwhile visitors begin to arrive and camp on the sand bar by the river. The 10 days come to a climax on the last night at the yuhpit, a foot-high hillock of clean sand near a large pepper tree at the edge of the bluff on which Katimin stands. (PI. 22.) The two maidens clean this of any rubbish that may have accumulated and add to it each year one basketful of clean sand from the river. They descend to this, cook acorn gruel at the water's edge, and, carrying it up to the yuhpit, give it to the young men who have accompanied the priest on his daily journeyings. In the evening the old man brings out a sacred stool or seat from the sweat house, sets it on the sand pile, and, with his drill, kindles new fire before the assembled people. As he throws something on and the blaze burns up he calls out, and all except he cover their faces until he orders them to cease. Whoever looked would be bitten by a snake during the year. For the remainder of the night he sits or stands on his holy seat, perhaps reciting prayer or formula at times, and the people, or some of them, remain about, " helping him to keep awake " by their jests and laughter. The combination of the use of sand in the yuhpit and of the fact that the Karok name for the world which is established by the rite is isivsanen, has led to strange reports that this is a " sift sand " ceremony. The next day begins the Deerskin dance. The priest is still attended by the two girls, and daily mutters his story while casting angelica root into the fire before the dancers commence. For the last day's dance they line up between the yuhpit and the pepperwood. Two parties, representing Aftaram and Katimin, compete in the dance. In old days there may have been more.

and the

to cook the light portions of acorn gruel

same 10 days he speaks

to no person, does not turn his

RITES AT

PANAMENIK AND INAM.

At Orleans the course

of the ceremony is similar. Its central feature, the which may not be looked at, is called wileWo by the Yurok. Whether there is anything corresponding to the yuhpit is not known. Elements of this kind are often local among the northwestern tribes. There is some doubt whether the ceremony begins in the Panamenik or Tachanak sweat house. The dance is at Chamikininich, concluding at a spot on the opposite

kindling of a

fire

western shore called Tishanishunukich. Of the Inam ceremony nothing is known except that

it

is

called irahiri.

and the two foregoing esoteric rites, as well as public dances, are said to have been instituted by the same ikhareya or ancient spirit as he traveled downstream. The formulas are, however, distinct, although no doubt of It

similar tenor.

RITES AT AMAIKIARA.

The Amaikiara new year ceremony also centers about a may not see; but this is made during the day, and there is a of the first salmon of the season.

The

priest or formula

fatawenan, and with his assistant has fasted

—that

is,

fire

that mortals

ritualistic eating

reciter

is

called

subsisted on thin acorn

"

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

kroebeb]

—

mush for " many days/' probably men who have been with him

the

shout to the people of the leave. Everybody packs up the summit of the ridge is mark, but never look back, sicken before long.

10.

105

Early on the morning of the great day Amaikiara sweat house emerge and

in the

town and of Ashanamkarak across the river to and starts uphill. No one may eat until reached. There they feast, play, and shoot at a for whoever saw the sacred smoke arising would his food

A woman

assistant is ferried across the river to Ashanamkarak. Going she cuts down a small madrona tree, splits the whole of it into kindling, and carries the load down to the river's edge at Ashanamkarak, after which she returns to Amaikiara and spends the remainder of the day fasting in the sacred house wenaram. Toward noon the priest and his assistant leave the sweat house, bathe, paint themselves, and cross to Ashanamkarak. Here, in a small cleared space among uphill,

the tumbled rocks, stands an altar (PI. 6), a rude cube of stone about a foot known in California of a true altar, unless the southern California ground paintings be so reckoned. This the assistant repairs, then high, the only instance

with the madrona wood. He also cooks and eats a this is taken, and whether it is caught at the spot, which is noted for its fish eddies, are not certain. The priest himself merely deposits tobacco to the deities, directs by signs, and speaks his formula " inside " that is, thinks or mumbles it. He utters no word and is in too holy a state to perform any act. Later in the afternoon the pair return to Amaikiara, where they are received in the sweat house by the men who have remained within, to the same song to whose strains they left it. Toward evening these men come out and shout to the people to return. For 10 days more the fatawenan and his assistant remain seated in the wenaram and sleep in the sacred sweat house. The people, however, make the Jumping dance at Ashatak, opposite the mouth of the Salmon, and conclude the last day by dancing at Ashapipmam, while those of Katimin come down and dance simultaneously across the mouth at Itiwuntunuta. In the Jumping dance the Karok use eight long poles, ahuvareiktin, painted red and black, which afterwards the young men try to take from one another and break. This is a feature not known from the Yurok and Hupa, except for an incident in the customs of the former when they build the dam at Kepel. starts

salmon.

a

fire

How

near

it

and when

—

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE

RITES.

unquestionably of " new year type, and have calendrical association with the moon. Yet, to judge by Yurok analogy, the Karok year, or reckoning of the moons, began at the winter solstice, when there were no public rites. The concept of a renewal or reestablishing of the world for another round of the seasons was, however, strong in all four of the ceremonies, each of

The ceremonies

described are

which was believed

The new

all

to contribute an indispensable part to this end.

element, which

is so marked, has not yet been discovered any part of California other than the northwest; some form of first salmon rite appears to have been in use in nearly all those parts of the State in which the fish abounded.

in

fire

:

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

106

GIRLS'

:

[bull. 78

ADOLESCENCE CEREMONY.

Like the Hupa, but unlike the Yurok, the Karok made a dance Contrary to the usual Californian custom, this dance was performed chiefly by men a distinctly northwestern attitude. The opening was especially reminiscent of the Deerskin dance men stood in line, the singer in the middle, the girl danced back and forth before them. Then followed a round dance such as is most common in the ceremony elsewhere in California. ring of men surrounded the maiden, a circle of women stood outside, and both revolved dextrally. One by one the men took the girl from behind and danced with her. Finally the war or defiance dance was made, apparently by the men only, lined up abreast. No one wore regalia of much moment. The girl herself had on a little visor of jay feathers, and carried a rattle of deer hoofs, an implement used in this dance by almost all groups of California. Neither object is employed by the Yurok. The dance was made at night to keep the girl awake; she herself shook the rattle. For 10 days she ate no flesh and drank no water, might not look at the sun or sky, could not touch water to her face. Each morning she carried to the house 10 loads of wood cut by a female relative. On the last day she emerged early and ran back and forth 10 times, motioning at the morning star as if to catch it, and asking it to give her long life and many dentalia. The entire observfor adolescent girls.

—

A

ance was repeated twice subsequently.

SCOPE OF RELIGION.

Some of more

the present-day

Karok

state that they, the Shasta,

and

Hupa in able shamans as well as Hupa formula for purification from

easterly tribes excelled the

powerful wizards, but that the

was longer and more exacting. This belief is probably The formulas are a more specialized development than They should therefore be belief in guardian spirits and poisons. worked out more fully at the center of the area in which they prevail, the generalized practices rather in the marginal and surround-

a corpse

significant.

ing regions. The following religious vocabulary

may

be of interest

em, supernatural power, such as a shaman possesses. em-yav, " good shaman." patunukot, sucking shaman.

maharav, clairvoyance. anav, a sacred formula. anava-kiavan, one who knows formulas, either to cure sickness with herbs or for any other purpose. ara-tanwa, " person die," a pain, i. e., disease object.

; ;

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

kbobber]

107

" Indian devil," i. e., a person secretly possessing a magical object that produces death also apparently the object it-

apuruwan, an

;

self.

yumara, ghost,

spirit of a

dead human being.

c, member of the race of beings that preceded mankind. Yurok irogc, Hupa kihunai. yasli-arara, "real person," a human being; nlso, a true man, one of wealth and authority, a " chief." kemish, any monster; also poison; also wickedly fearless.

ikhareya, ancient

spirit,

i.

ipshanmaskarav, poison. pikship, " shadow," soul.

{my a, breath,

life.

ikhareya-kupa, ordained by the former spirit race, sacredly established. pikuah, myths. ih, to dance; ih-an. dancer. ih-uk, girl's adolescence dance. hapish, to make the " brush " or curing dance. wuwuhina, any great dance, either the Jumping or the Deerskin dance; wuwuhansh, those who make or provide for such a dance. ishkaship, " leap up," the Jumping dance. isivsanen pikiavish, " making the world," the " new year's " ceremonies at Katimin, Amaikiara, etc. isivsanen pikiavan, " world maker," the old man who recites the for-

mula

for this rite.

fata-iven-an, another "

down

hill

name for him at Amaikiara. " down hill he eats salmon,"

or sharuk-amavan, he leaves salmon," the assistant in the Amaikiara cere-

sharuk-iruhishrihan,

mony. ahup-pikiavan, "

wood maker," the woman

assistant

who

cuts firewood

there are two at Katimin.

imushan, the male assistant at Katimin. wen-aram, the sacred house at Amaikiara associated with the " new year's" rite. kimachiram iship, the sacred " sweat house " of the corresponding Katimin ceremony. isivsanen iktatik, "

makes

firm the world," a sacred stone kept in this

house.

NAMES. Children were named only after they had attained several years Karok say, so that, "if they died young, they would not be thought of by their names." People will not tell their own names, and are exceedingly reluctant to mention those of their kinsmen and as the

friends, even if the latter are not present to be embarrassed.

penalized offense to speak the

name

It is a

of a dead person and the height

of bad manners to use that of a living person to his face, unless the

Even in reference to living people clumsy circumlocutions spring up, such as Panamenik-wapu, " born at (or closest intimacy exists.

belonging to) Orleans," or designations by allusion to the particular house inhabited. This feeling causes even derogatory nicknames,

;;

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

108

[bull. 78

such as Pihnefich, " coyote," to be preferred to the real name. In adu married dress, terms such as " old man," " Hupa man," " widower," woman," "widow," are very frequent. Most of the personal names trivial, when they are not based on some peculiarity of but in the case of girls there appears some inclination to be-

seem to us very habit

;

stow names that are pretty.

Perhaps these are secondary pet names, by occupation or characteristic are probably not true personal names. A few examples are Akuni-hashki, " shoots swiftly " Kemhisem, " roamer " or " traveler " Anif akich, " walks down hill slowly " Ma'ikiviripuni, " runs down from up the hill " Sichakutvaratiha, " wide belt " Taharatan, " flint flaker " or " bullet inolder"; and for girls, I'niwach, "dripping water"; Hatimnin, just as the designations

:

;

;

;

;

"butterfly."

CONCLUSION.

Karok in one or two museum an Oregonian form of game, and may have reached the Karok only since the American occupation. It is true that the upper Karok are geographically nearer to tribes like the Klamath and Modoc than to the mussel-gathering Yurok of the coast but their culture as a whole being so thoroughly northwestern, and showing so little eastward leaning, raises a generic presumption against any eastern practices that are not definitely corroborated. Data are scarcely available for a fuller sketch of Karok culture. Nor is such an account necessary in the present connection. In at least ninety-five institutions out of every hundred, all that has been said of the Yurok or is on record concerning the Hupa applies identically to the Karok. Here nothing further has been attempted than to depict their relation to their land and to note some of the minor peculiarities of their culture and its departure from the most integral Beaver-teeth dice are attributed to the

collections.

This

is

form of northwestern

civilization.

PLATE

* ,

, a

/ .

» wwtw*

1

'

h '^" s

m

: :

mm**® \ WIYOT BASKETS For eating

(a),

carrying

(b),

and cooking

(c).

23

Chapter

6.

THE CHIMARIKO AND WIYOT. The Chimariko,

109 the Wiyot, 112 habitat and affiliations, 112 settlements, 115; numbers, 116; place names, 116; material culture, 117; shamanism, 117; ethics, 118; ceremonials, 118; beliefs, 119. ;

;

;

The Chimariko. The Chimariko were one

of the smallest distinct tribes in one of

They are now known to be an from the large and scattered Hokan stock, but as long as they passed as an independent family they and the Esselen served ethnologists as extreme examples of the degree to which aboriginal speech diversification had been carried in California. Two related and equally minute nations were neighbors of the Chimariko the New River Shasta and the Konomihu. The language of these clearly shows them to be offshoots from the Shasta. But Chimariko is so different from both, and from Shasta as well, that it must be reckoned as a branch of equal age and independence as Shasta, which deviated from the original Hokan stem in very ancient times. It seems likely that Chimariko has preserved its words and constructions as near their original form as any Hokan language; better than Shasta, which is much altered, or Porno, which is worn down. The entire territory of the Chimariko in historic times was a 20mile stretch of the canyon of Trinity River from above the mouth of South Fork to French Creek (Fig. 8). Here lay their half dozen hamlets, Tsudamdadji at Burnt Ranch being the largest. In 1849 the whole population of the Chimariko was perhaps 250. In 1906 there remained a toothless old woman and a crazy old man. Except for a few mixed bloods, the tribe is now utterly extinct. The details of the fighting between the Chimariko and the miners in the sixties of the last century have not been recorded, and perhaps well so but the struggle must have been bitter and was evidently the the smallest countries in America. offshoot

:

;

chief cause of the rapid diminution of the little tribe.

Since

known

to the Americans, the

Chimariko have been

hostile to

Hupa downstream,

but friendly with the Wintun upriver from them. Yet their location, with reference to that of the latter people and the other Penutians, makes it possible that at some former time

the

109

— BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

110

[BULL. 78

the Chimariko were crowded down the Trinity River by these same Wintun. The Chimariko called themselves Chimariko or Chimaliko, from chi?nar, person. The Hupa they called Hichhu the Wintun, Pachhuai perhaps from pachhu, "willow "; theKonomihu,Hunomichu possibly from hunoi-da, " north " the Hyampom Wintun, Maitroktada from maitra, " flat, river bench " the Wiyot, Aka-traiduwa;

— —

;

;

4r,

\ aJ*'

^SuramprviUe laiTotoudji

/TrinityCenter "yji*! v*?*™? dJ

JortttPork

^eaverville mction °

lity

JougUte City

TheQumariko Villages

Places Places

Pio.

8.

—

—Chimariko

land, towns,

in Alien Territory

and neighbors.

perhaps from aka, "water." Djalitasum was New River, probably so called from a spot at its mouth. They translated into their own language the names of the Hupa villages, which indicates that distrust and enmity did not suppress all intercourse or intermarriage. Takimitlding, the " acorn-feast-place," they called Hopetadji, from hopeu, "acorn soup"; Medilding, "boat-place," was Mutuma-dji, from mutuma, "canoe." The Hupa knew the Chimar-

ktada,

iko as Tl'omitta-hoi.

;

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

khoeber]

111

The customs of the Chimariko were patterned after those of the Yurok and Hupa in the degree that a poor man's habits may imitate those of his more prosperous neighbor. Their river was too small and rough for canoes, so they waded or swam it. They used Vancouver Island dentalium shells for money, when they could get them but were scarcely wealthy enough to acquire slaves, and too few to hold or sell fishing places as individual property. Their dress and tattooing were those of the downstream tribes; their basketry

was

and refinements of industry of the Hupa, the soapstone dishes, wooden trunks, curved stone-handled adzes, elaborately carved soup stirrers and spoons, and rod armor, they went without, except as sporadic pieces might reach them in similar, but the specializations

barter.

With

all

their rudeness they had, however, the outlook

on

life

—a sort of poor relation's pride.

the other northwestern tribes

of

Thus

they would not touch the grasshoppers and angleworms which are nutritious to commend themselves as food to the unsophisticated Wintun and tribes farther inland, but which the

sufficiently

prouder Hupa and Yurok disdained. The only custom in which the Chimariko are known to have followed Wintun instead of Hupa precedent though there may have been other instances which have not been recorded was their manner of playing the guessing game, in which they hid a single short stick or bone in one of two bundles of grass, instead of mingling one marked rod among 50 unmarked

—

—

ones.

The Chimariko house

illustrates their imperfect carrying out of

the completer civilization of their neighbors.

and a

It

had walls of

verti-

no earth covering. These points show it to be descended from the same fundamental type of all wood dwelling which prevails, in gradually simplifying form, from Alaska to the Yurok. But walls and roof were of fir bark instead of split planks. The length was 4 or 5 yards as against 7 on the Klamath River, the central excavation correspondingly shallow. The corners were rounded. A draft hole and food passage broke the wall opposite the door where the Yurok or Hupa would only take out a corpse. And the single ridgepole gave only two cal slabs, a ridgepole,

laid roof with

—

a construction known also to the lower tribes, but designated by them as marking the " poor man's house," the superior width of their normal dwelling requiring two ridge

pitches to the roof officially

poles and three slants of roof.

Chimariko religion was a similar abridged copy. Sickness, and, on the other hand, the medicine woman's power to cure it, were caused by the presence in the body of " pains," small double-pointed animate objects, which disappeared in the extracting doctor's palm.

;

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

112

The fast and uncleanness after and had to be washed away.

[bull. 78

contact with the dead lasted five days,

Such more elementary beliefs and Chimariko shared with the But the great national dances of the other northwestern tribes. Yurok, Karok, and Hupa, held at spots hallowed by myth, colored by songs of a distinctive character, dignified by the display of treasures of native wealth, and connected with sacred first-fruit or even world-renewal ceremonies, these more momentous rituals the Chimariko lacked even the pretense of, nor did they often visit their neighbors to see them. They were a little people in its declining old age when civilization found and cut them off. ritual practices for the individual the

The Wiyot. habitat and affiliations.

The Wiyot, a small body of shore-dwelling people, join with the Yurok to constitute the Algonkins of California. A certain

adjacent

resemblance between the two languages was noted on first acquaintance, and their ultimate affinity suspected. Fuller data revealed a great difference. When a beginning of analysis was finally possible, the structure of the two idioms was seen to be very similar after which comparison showed a certain number of common stems. They were then united as the single Ritwan stock; but renewed examination established this as but a member and distant outpost on the Pacific of the great Algonquian family of central and eastern

North America (Fig.

9).

Wiyot territory fell into three natural divisions lower Mad River, Humboldt Bay, and lower Eel River. The natives had a name for each district Batawat, Wiki, and Wiyot. The people of each region were called by names formed from these words by the suffixion of the element -dcuredalil. Wiyot, while thus properly only the name of a district, was used for the entire stock by most of the neighboring The groups: the Yurok say Weyet or Weyot, the Karok Waiyat. Athabascan Sinkyone, up Eel River, are more correct in restricting the :

:

term to the country, and call the inhabitants Dilwishne, which they explain as an onomatopoetic word descriptive of the strange sound of Wiyot speech. As the stock has no name for itself as a body, the designation Wiyot is perhaps as appropriate as can be found. Wishosk, which for a time was in vogue in the books, is a misapplication of the Wiyot denotation of their Athabascan neighbors: The Their own language the Wiyot call Sulatelak. Wishashk. Athabascan language. Wishi-lak, ending of this word is also found in The Mad River Wiyot associated considerably with the Coast Yurok and were tolerably acquainted with their language. This fact has led to con-

HANDBOOK OF INDIANS OF CALIFOKNIA

krobber]

flicting

113

statements as to the northern boundary of Wiyot holdings.

As nearly

as can be ascertained, this lay just south of Little River, at whose mouth stood the Yurok town of Metskwo. The upper part of Little River was Chilula

hunting ground. On Mad River, Blue Lake, near the forks, was still Wiyot. The main stream from here up was Whilkut, that is, Athabascan. The North Fork was without villages and is in doubt. The Wiyot owned at least the lower portion

;

and on Map 10 the whole of

Fig.

9.

— Wiyot

and Yurok

its

drainage

in relation to the

lias

been assigned to

Algonkin family.

From Mad River south

to Eel River Wiyot territory extended to the Jacoby, Freshwater, and Salmon Creeks, Elk River, and Boynton Prairie were thus Wiyot; Kneeland Prairie and Lawrence Creek,

them. first

range inland.

Whilkut and Nongatl Athabascan. On Eel River the boundary came at Eagle Prairie, near Riodell. Southwest of Eel River, the Bear River mountains T separated the W iyot from another Athabascan division, the Mattole. The spurs of this range reach the sea at Cape Fortunas, between Guthrie Creek and Oil Creek.

— \r

\

i

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

114

The

[bull. 78

Wiyot

greatest extension of

territory is only about 35 miles, Their ocean frontage is low and sandy, as compared with the precipitous and rocky coast for long distances on both sides. Three or four miles north of their boundary

the greatest breadth barely 15.

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