Difference between revisions of "Yurok (tribe)" - New World Encyclopedia

Yurok
	Basketweaver of the Yurok people
Total population
	5,000+
Regions with significant populations
	California
Languages
	Yurok, English
Religions
	Shamanism, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
	Karuk, Hupa

Revision as of 22:31, 10 September 2008

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, 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.

History

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

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).

The US Census for the year 2000 indicated that there were 4,413 Yurok living in California, combining those of one tribal descent and those with ancestors of several different tribes and groups. There were 5,793 Yurok living in all of the United States.

Culture

Baskets woven by Yurok Native Americans, California - from the collection of Redwood National Park

Yurok, Karuk dance skirt (late 1800s) made of leather, abalone, pine nuts, beads, and metal on display at the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California.

Yurok language

Yurok (also Weitspekan) is a moribund Algic language. It is the traditional language of the Yurok tribe of Humboldt County on the far North Coast of California, U.S., most of whom now speak English. As of 2000 among the speakers of the language were 75 individuals between the ages of 5 and 17, including 10 with limited English proficiency.

The standard reference on the Yurok language is the grammar by Robins (1958).

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.

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
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Buckley, Thomas. 2002. Standing Ground: Yurok Indian Spirituality, 1850-1990. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520233898
Cook, Sherburne F. 1956. "The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California." Anthropological Records 16: 81-130.
Cook, Sherburne F. 1976. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0520031431
Kroeber, A. L. [1925] 1976. Handbook of the Indians of California (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78). Dover Publications. ISBN 0486233685
Robins, Robert H. 1958. The Yurok Language: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon. Berkeley, CA: University of California Publications in Linguistics 15.
Thompson, Lucy. 1991. To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman. Heyday Books. ISBN 0930588479
O'Neale, Lila. [1932] 2007. Yurok-Karok Basket Weavers. Berkeley, CA: Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. ISBN 978-0936127040
Kroeber A. L. 1978. Yurok Myths. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0520036395
Waldman, Carl. 2006. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, NY: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-0816062744.

Luthin, Herbert W. 2002. Surviving through the Days. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0520222709
Curtis, Edward S. [1924] 2007. The North American Indian, Volume 13. Classic Books. ISBN 1404798137. CD-ROM ISBN 140474813X
Erikson, Erik H. 1943. Observations on the Yurok: Childhood and world image, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 35: 257-301.
Margolin, Malcolm. [1981] 2001. The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs, and Reminiscences. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books. ISBN 093058855X
Yurok Reservation, California United States Census Bureau. Retrieved September 6, 2008.

External links

The Yurok Tribe
"The Northern California Indians" by Stephen Powers (1872)
Yurok
Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912)
Yurok Culture and History Links
The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis (1924)
Yurok Four Directions Institute
Yurok Ron Johnson's collection of images
Yurok Language Project at University of California, Berkeley

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

History of "Yurok (tribe)"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

@@ Line 57: / Line 57: @@
 * Waldman, Carl. 2006. ''Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes.'' New York, NY: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-0816062744.
+* Luthin, Herbert W. 2002. ''Surviving through the Days''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0520222709
 * Curtis, Edward S. [1924] 2007. ''The North American Indian, Volume 13''. Classic Books. ISBN 1404798137. CD-ROM ISBN 140474813X
 * Erikson, Erik H. 1943. Observations on the Yurok: Childhood and world image, ''University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology'' 35: 257-301.