Yurok (tribe)

Reconstruction of a Yurok Native American plankhouse constructed of redwood boards.

The Yurok, whose name means "downriver people," are Native Americans whose ancestors, by some estimates, have lived for at least 10,000 years^{[citation needed]} near the Pacific Ocean coast of Northern California and Southern Oregon, United States.

Following encounters with white settlers moving into their aboriginal lands during a gold rush in 1850, the Yurok were faced with disease and massacres that reduced their population by 75%. In 1855, most of those that remained were forcibly relocated to the Yurok Indian Reservation on the Klamath River.

On November 24 1993, the Yurok wrote a constitution that details the jurisdiction and territory of their lands. The Yurok are currently the largest group of Native Americans in the state of California. The Yurok reservation of 63,035 acres (255 km²) has an 80% poverty rate and 70% of the inhabitants do not have telephone service or electricity, according to the tribe's webpage.

Population

Yurok basketweaver, Northern California

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.) Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Yurok at 2,500. Sherburne F. Cook initially agreed (Cook 1976:165), but later raised this estimate to 3,100 (Cook 1956:84).

By 1870, the Yurok population had declined to 1,350, according to Cook (1976:237). By 1910 it was reported as 668 or 700 (Cook 1976:237; Kroeber 1925:883).

Yurok traditional narratives

Yurok traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Yurok people of the lower Klamath River in northwestern California.

Yurok oral literature, together with the similar narratives of the Karuk and Hupa, constitutes a distinctive variant within Native California. It has significant links with the Northwest Coast region. They clearly belong to the central California tradition. (See also Traditional narratives (Native California).)

Yurok Indian Reservation

The Yurok Indian Reservation is located in parts of Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, California on a 44-mile stretch of the Klamath River. The size of the reservation is 219.408 km² (84.714 sq mi), and with almost 5,000 enrolled members, the Yurok Tribe is California's largest Indian Tribe. The reservation is serviced by Highway 169 from the south, which dead ends within the reservation. It is bordered by the Hoopa Indian Reservation to the south. It is adjacent to Redwood National Park to the west. The 2000 census reported a resident population of 1,103 persons on reservation territory, mostly in the community of Klamath, at the reservation's north end.

References

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• Cook, Sherburne F. 1956. "The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California." Anthropological Records 16:81-130. University of California, Berkeley.
• Cook, Sherburne F. 1976. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization. University of California Press, Berkeley.
• Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.

Sources for Yurok Narratives

• Bushnell, John, and Donna Bushnell. 1977. "Wealth, Work and World View in Native Northwest California: Sacred Significance and Psychoanalytic Symbolism." In Flowers of the Wind: Papers on Ritual, Myth and Symbolism in California and the Southwest, edited by Thomas C. Blackburn, pp. 120-182. Ballena Press, Socorro, New Mexico. (Myths are used to illustrate themes concerning wealth, work, and emotion.)

• Cody, Bertha Parker. 1941. "Yurok Tales: Wohpekumen's Beads, as Told by Jan Van Stralen to Bertha P. Cody." The Masterkey 15:228-231.

• Curtis, Edward S. 1907-1930. The North American Indian. 20 vols. Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts. (Four myths collected from Weitchpec George, vol. 13, pp. 185-190.)

• Erikson, Erik H. 1943. "Observations on the Yurok: Childhood and World Image." University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 35:257-301. Berkeley. (Includes a psychological interpretation of Yurok myths.)

• Graves, Charles S. 1929. Lore and Legends of the Klamath River Indians. Press of the Times, Yreka, California. (Includes Yurok, Karok, and Shasta narratives.)

• Holsinger, Rosemary. 1992. Yurok Tales. Bell Books, Etna, California.

• Judson, Katharine Berry. 1912. Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest. A. C. McClurg, Chicago. (One myth, p. 80.)

• Kroeber, A. L. 1911. "The Languages of the Coast of California North of San Francisco." University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 9:273-435. Berkeley. (Includes Yurok myths, pp. 424-426.)

• Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C. (Assorted narratives, pp. 5, 25, 28, 47, 73-74.)

• Kroeber, A. L. 1976. Yurok Myths. University of California Press, Berkeley. (Many narratives, including Theft of Fire and Orpheus, collected in 1900-1908, with commentaries.)

• Kroeber, A. L., and E. W. Gifford. 1947. "World Renewal: A Cult System of Native Northwest California." Anthropological Records 13:1-156. University of California, Berkeley. (Yurok and Karok myths, pp. 112-125.)

• Kroeber, Theodora. 1959. The Inland Whale. University of California Press. (Retelling of two traditional narratives with commentaries, pp. 17-38, 91-96, 159-167, 185-189.)

• Luthin, Herbert W. 2002. Surviving through the Days: A California Indian Reader. University of California Press, Berkeley. (One traditional narrative previously published in Robins 1958, pp. 85-89.)

• Margolin, Malcolm. 1993. The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs, and Reminiscences. First edition 1981. Heyday Books, Berkeley, California. (Two narrtives, pp. 48-50, 141-142, from Sapir 1928 and from Spott and Kroeber 1942.)

• Powers, Stephen. 1877. Tribes of California. Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. 3. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. Reprinted with an introduction by Robert F. Heizer in 1976, University of California Press, Berkeley. (Four narratives, pp. 59-64.)

• Reichard, Gladys A. 1925. "Wiyot Grammar and Texts." University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 22:1-215. Berkeley. (Includes several Yurok tales recorded in 1922-1923.)

• Robins, Robert H. 1958. The Yurok Language: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon. University of California Publications in Linguistics No. 15. Berkeley. (Narratives collected in 1951.)

• Robins, Robert H. 1985. "The young Man from Serper: A Yurok Folktale." In Collectanea Philologica: Festschrift für Helmut Gipper zum 65, edited by G. Heinz and P. Schmitter, pp. 633-644. Valintin Koerner, Baden-Baden, Germany.

• Sapir, Jean. 1928. "Yurok Tales." Journal of American Folklore 41:253-261. (11 narratives, including Bear and Fawns, collected in 1928 from Mrs. Haydon.)

• Spott, Robert, and Alfred L. Kroeber. 1942. "Yurok Narratives." University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 35:143-356. Berkeley. (Legends and myths with analytical discussions, pp. 210-251.)

External links

• Yurok Tribe's webpage
• "The Northern California Indians" by Stephen Powers (1872)

• Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912)

• The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis (1924)

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