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 17:00, 19 September 2008

The Yurok, whose name means "downriver people," are Native Americans whose ancestors have long lived along the Klamath River and the Trinity River, its longest tributary, near the Pacific coast of Northern California. They are known as fishermen, basket weavers, canoe makers, storytellers, dancers, and healers.

Following encounters with white settlers moving into their lands during the California Gold Rush in 1849, the Yurok were faced with disease and massacres that drastically reduced their population. In 1855, most of those that remained were forcibly relocated to the Yurok Indian Reservation on the Klamath River.

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, with those for the Yurok ranging from 2,500 (Kroeber 1925) to 3,100 (Cook 1956) in the 1770s. By 1870, the Yurok population had declined to 1,350 (Cook 1976) and by 1910 it was reported as 668 or 700 (Cook 1976; Kroeber 1925).

First contact was with Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century, but no continuous interaction occurred until the nineteenth century when American expeditions began to trade with them for furs. In the 1820s, reports from Jedediah Smith's expeditions resulted in an increase in the number of trappers exploring and settling the area.

The California gold rush of 1849 led to great numbers of settlers moving to the area. Mining efforts led to destruction of villages and encounters led to hostilities. By the end of the gold rush era, around 75 percent of the Yurok had perished due to conflict or disease and the Yurok had lost most of their land.

In 1855 the Yurok Reservation was established in an area considerably smaller than their ancestral territory, and Yurok people were required to stay within its boundaries. With the establishment of Fort Terwer, Yurok were forced to learn English. When the fort was destroyed, Yurok children were sent to boarding schools on the Hoopa Valley Reservation and were taught by missionaries who not only imposed English language but also Christian beliefs and culture. Children were punished for using the Yurok language and observing traditional ways. This period was one in which the Yurok language and culture almost became extinct.

Culture

Yurok in a canoe

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.

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

The Yurok, like the Hupa and the Karuk, lived a hunter-gatherer subsistence lifestyle. Acorns were a staple, and were ground and stored as flour. They also fished for salmon in the Klamath River and its tributary, the Trinity River. The Yurok are known for their skills in canoe making and especially basketry (O'Neale 2007).

and the redwood tree have been central to Yurok culture. Their family homes and sweathouses were made from the redwood, as were their canoes. The redwood was regarded as a sacred living creature, to be revered and respected as well as put into service for the good of the tribe.

Traditionally, dentalia shells harvested from the ocean were used for money, and as ceremonial decorations. Woodpecker scalps and deerskins were also highly valued. Acquiring wealth was important, and the Yurok, unlike other Native Americans, had private ownership of land. Land was counted as wealth, and could be sold to one another (Waldman 2006).

Language

The traditional language of the Yurok, known as Yurok (also Weitspekan) is an endangered Algic language. The standard reference on the Yurok language is the grammar by Robins (1958). The great majority of Yurok now speak English. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, among the speakers of the Yurok language were 75 individuals between the ages of 5 and 17, including 10 with limited English proficiency.

Religion

Yurok traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Yurok people. Their oral literature, together with the similar narratives of the Karuk and Hupa, constitutes a distinctive variant within Native California, with significant links to the tribes of the Northwest Coast. However, they did not practice the traditional potlatch, masked dancing, or totem pole carving typical of the Northwest Coast tribes.

White Deerskin Dance Costume

Traditional Yurok beliefs involve rituals to engage supernatural aid for healing and for public welfare. Vision quests, particularly to sacred sites high on the mountains of what is now part of the Six Rivers National Forest were an important part of Yurok life. Yurok, like the Karuk and Hupa, practice the World Renewal ceremonies. These rituals are intended to maintain the natural world and to ensure a continuation of the earth's resources—providing food and promoting tribal well-being. They also afforded opportunities for displays of wealth and elaborate costuming. Dancers in the White Deerskin dance wear regalia of deer hide or civet cat, dentalia necklaces, and wolf-fur bands around their forehead, while carrying poles mounted with a stuffed deer. The Jump Dance regalia includes a headdress consisting of large woodpecker scalps, long white feathers, strings of dentalia, and a deerskin robe.

Yurok spirituality can be understood as an arena in which:

... individual and society meet in dialogue—cooperating, resisting, negotiating, changing each other in manifold ways. 'Culture,' here, is not a thing but a process, and emergence through time (Buckley 2002).

Shamans were believed to have the power to cure disease; this power being given only to women. Spiritual aid was invoked through ritual, medicine songs, which often had a "sobbing" vocal quality, and spoken formulas (Keeling 1993). The Brush dance is a special ceremony held to heal a sick child. Conducted by the shaman, the family of the sick person hosted the dance which often took place in their home, the roof of the plank house being removed. Members of the tribe, and other local tribes would participate, or just spectate, as the dance continued all night.

Contemporary Yurok

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 from several different tribes and groups. There were 5,793 Yurok living in all of the United States.

The majority of contemporary Yurok live in reservations in Northern California. The largest, the Yurok Indian Reservation, is located in parts of Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, 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 and 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.

Despite the dark period of Yurok history in which their language and culture was suppressed, almost to extinction, revitalization occurred in the latter part of the twentieth century.

Efforts have been made to revive the apparently moribund Yurok language. The Yurok Tribe developed a language program in the 1990s, using old recordings of native speakers as well as the few remaining native speakers to teach young people. The Yurok Language Project, established at University of California Berkeley, with the goal of contributing language-learning material to Yurok language revitalization programs sponsored by the Yurok Tribe language office and others, both on and off the reservation. They have gathered material on the Yurok language together into a single digital archive, incorporating material from as early as 1850 to the present day. They also published a dictionary in 2005. Much of the material is available on the internet.

The knowledge and beliefs of the Yurok have also re-emerged. Traditional dances, such as the Brush Dance for healing, the Jump Dance and the White Deerskin Dance, two of the most sacred religious ceremonies and part of the World Renewal cycle, are now held in several communities.

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.
Keeling, Richard. 1993. Cry for Luck: Sacred Song and Speech Among the Yurok, Hupa, and Karok Indians of Northwestern California. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0520075609
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

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@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 }}
-The '''Yurok''', whose name means "downriver people," are [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]]s whose ancestors have long lived along the [[Klamath River]] and the [[Trinity River]], its longest [[tributary]], near the [[Pacific Ocean]] coast of [[Northern California]], [[United States]]. They are known as fishermen, [[basket]] weavers, [[canoe]] makers, storytellers, dancers, and healers.
+The '''Yurok''', whose name means "downriver people," are [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]]s whose ancestors have long lived along the [[Klamath River]] and the [[Trinity River]], its longest [[tributary]], near the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast of Northern [[California]]. They are known as fishermen, [[basket]] weavers, [[canoe]] makers, storytellers, dancers, and healers.
-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 percent. In 1855, most of those that remained were forcibly relocated to the [[Yurok Indian Reservation]] on the Klamath River.
+Following encounters with white settlers moving into their lands during the [[California Gold Rush]] in 1849, the Yurok were faced with [[disease]] and massacres that drastically reduced their population. In 1855, most of those that remained were forcibly relocated to the [[Yurok Indian Reservation]] on the Klamath River.
 ==History==
 [[Image:Yurok plankhouse05.jpg|left|200 px|thumb|Reconstruction of a Yurok [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] plankhouse constructed of [[Sequoia|redwood]] boards.]]
-Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially, with those for the Yurok ranging from 2,500 (Kroeber 1925) to 3,100 (Cook 1956). By 1870, the Yurok population had declined to 1,350 (Cook 1976) and by 1910 it was reported as 668 or 700 (Cook 1976; Kroeber 1925).
+Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially, with those for the Yurok ranging from 2,500 (Kroeber 1925) to 3,100 (Cook 1956) in the 1770s. By 1870, the Yurok population had declined to 1,350 (Cook 1976) and by 1910 it was reported as 668 or 700 (Cook 1976; Kroeber 1925).
-First contact was with Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century, but no continuous interaction occurred until the nineteenth century when American expeditions began to trade for [[fur]]s. Reports from [[Jedediah Smith]]'s expeditions resulted in an increase in the number of trappers exploring and settling the area from the 1820s.
+First contact was with Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century, but no continuous interaction occurred until the nineteenth century when American expeditions began to trade with them for [[fur]]s. In the 1820s, reports from [[Jedediah Smith]]'s expeditions resulted in an increase in the number of trappers exploring and settling the area.
-The [[California gold rush]] led to great numbers of settlers moving to the area in 1849. [[Mining]] efforts led to destruction of villages and encounters led to hostilities. By the end of the [[gold rush]] era, at least 75 percent of the Yurok had perished due to [[conflict]] or [[disease]] and the Yurok lost most of their land.
+The [[California gold rush]] of 1849 led to great numbers of settlers moving to the area. [[Mining]] efforts led to destruction of villages and encounters led to hostilities. By the end of the [[gold rush]] era, around 75 percent of the Yurok had perished due to [[conflict]] or [[disease]] and the Yurok had lost most of their land.
-In 1855 the Yurok Reservation was established in an area considerably smaller than their ancestral territory, and Yurok people were required to stay within its boundaries. With the establishment of [[Fort Terwer]], Yurok were forced to learn English. When the fort was destroyed, Yurok children were sent to live at the Hoopa Valley Reservation and were taught by missionaries at [[boarding school]]s. They not only imposed English language but also [[Christian]] beliefs and culture. Children were punished for using the Yurok language and observing traditional ways. This period was one in which the Yurok language and culture almost became extinct.
+In 1855 the Yurok Reservation was established in an area considerably smaller than their ancestral territory, and Yurok people were required to stay within its boundaries. With the establishment of [[Fort Terwer]], Yurok were forced to learn English. When the fort was destroyed, Yurok children were sent to  [[boarding school]]s on the Hoopa Valley Reservation and were taught by missionaries who not only imposed English language but also [[Christian]] beliefs and culture. Children were punished for using the Yurok language and observing traditional ways. This period was one in which the Yurok language and culture almost became extinct.
 ==Culture==
@@ Line 34: / Line 32: @@
 [[Image:Yurok dance skirt 1 CAC.JPG|thumb|200 px|left|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.]]
 [[Image:Yurok 20061109192219.jpg|thumb|200 px|Baskets woven by Yurok Native Americans, California - from the collection of Redwood National Park]]
-The Yurok, like the [[Hupa]] and the [[Karuk]], lived a [[hunter-gatherer]] subsistence lifestyle. [[Acorn]]s were a staple, and were ground and stored as [[flour]]. They also fished for [[salmon]] in the river.
+The Yurok, like the [[Hupa]] and the [[Karuk]], lived a [[hunter-gatherer]] subsistence lifestyle. [[Acorn]]s were a staple, and were ground and stored as [[flour]]. They also fished for [[salmon]] in the [[Klamath River]] and its [[tributary]], the [[Trinity River]]. The Yurok are known for their skills in [[canoe]] making and especially [[basketry]] (O'Neale 2007).
-The [[Klamath River]] and its [[tributary]], the [[Trinity River]], and the [[sequoia|redwood tree]] have been central to Yurok culture. Their family homes and [[sweathouse]]s were made from the redwood, as were their canoes. The redwood was regarded as a sacred living creature, to be revered and respected as well as put into service for the good of the tribe. The Yurok are also skilled at [[basketry]] (O'Neale 2007).
+and the [[sequoia|redwood tree]] have been central to Yurok culture. Their family homes and [[sweathouse]]s were made from the redwood, as were their canoes. The redwood was regarded as a sacred living creature, to be revered and respected as well as put into service for the good of the tribe.
-Traditionally, [[Dentalium|dentalia]] [[shell]]s harvested from the ocean were used for [[money]], and as ceremonial decorations. [[Woodpecker]] scalps and deerskins were also highly valued. Acquiring wealth was important, and the Yurok, unlike other Native Americans, had individual ownership of land. Land was counted as wealth, and could be sold to one another (Waldman 2006).
+Traditionally, [[Dentalium|dentalia]] [[shell]]s harvested from the ocean were used for [[money]], and as ceremonial decorations. [[Woodpecker]] scalps and deerskins were also highly valued. Acquiring [[wealth]] was important, and the Yurok, unlike other Native Americans, had private ownership of land. Land was counted as wealth, and could be sold to one another (Waldman 2006).
 ===Language===
-The traditional language of the Yurok, known as Yurok (also ''Weitspekan'') is an endangered [[Algic languages|Algic language]]. The standard reference on the Yurok language is the grammar by Robins (1958). The great majority of Yurok now speak [[English language|English]]. As of 2000 among the speakers of the Yurok language were 75 individuals between the ages of 5 and 17, including 10 with limited English proficiency.
+The traditional language of the Yurok, known as Yurok (also ''Weitspekan'') is an endangered [[Algic languages|Algic language]]. The standard reference on the Yurok language is the grammar by Robins (1958). The great majority of Yurok now speak [[English language|English]]. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, among the speakers of the Yurok language were 75 individuals between the ages of 5 and 17, including 10 with limited English proficiency.
 ===Religion===
-Yurok traditional narratives include [[myth]]s, [[legend]]s, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Yurok people. Their oral literature, together with the similar narratives of the [[Karuk]] and [[Hupa]], constitutes a distinctive variant within Native California, with significant links with the [[Northwest Coast Indians|tribes of the Northwest Coast]]. However, they did not practice the traditional [[potlatch]], masked dancing, or [[totem pole]] carving typical of the Northwest Coast tribes.
+Yurok traditional narratives include [[myth]]s, [[legend]]s, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Yurok people. Their oral literature, together with the similar narratives of the [[Karuk]] and [[Hupa]], constitutes a distinctive variant within Native California, with significant links to the [[Northwest Coast Indians|tribes of the Northwest Coast]]. However, they did not practice the traditional [[potlatch]], masked dancing, or [[totem pole]] carving typical of the Northwest Coast tribes.
 [[Image:Hupa-indian-white-deerskin-dance-costume.jpg|thumb|right|180 px|White Deerskin Dance Costume]]
-Traditional Yurok beliefs involved rituals to engage [[supernatural]] aid for [[healing]] and for public welfare. [[Vision quest]]s, particularly to sacred sites high on the mountains of what is now part of the [[Six Rivers National Forest]] were an important part of Yurok life. Yurok, as did Karuk and Hupa, practiced the World Renewal ceremonies. These rituals were intended to maintain the natural world and to ensure a continuation of the earth's resources—providing food and promoting tribal well-being. They also afforded opportunities for displays of [[wealth]] and elaborate costuming. Dancers in the White Deerskin dance wore regalia of [[deer]] hide or [[civet cat]], [[dentalium|dentalia]] necklaces, and [[wolf]]-fur bands around their forehead, while carrying poles mounted with a stuffed deer. The Jump Dance regalia included a headdress consisting of large [[woodpecker]] scalps, long white feathers, strings of dentalia, and a deerskin robe.
+Traditional Yurok beliefs involve rituals to engage [[supernatural]] aid for [[healing]] and for public welfare. [[Vision quest]]s, particularly to sacred sites high on the mountains of what is now part of the [[Six Rivers National Forest]] were an important part of Yurok life. Yurok, like the Karuk and Hupa, practice the World Renewal ceremonies. These rituals are intended to maintain the natural world and to ensure a continuation of the earth's resources—providing food and promoting tribal well-being. They also afforded opportunities for displays of [[wealth]] and elaborate costuming. Dancers in the White Deerskin dance wear regalia of [[deer]] hide or [[civet cat]], [[dentalium|dentalia]] necklaces, and [[wolf]]-fur bands around their forehead, while carrying poles mounted with a stuffed deer. The Jump Dance regalia includes a headdress consisting of large [[woodpecker]] scalps, long white feathers, strings of dentalia, and a deerskin robe.
 Yurok spirituality can be understood as an arena in which:
 <blockquote>... individual and society meet in dialogue—cooperating, resisting, negotiating, changing each other in manifold ways. 'Culture,' here, is not a thing but a process, and emergence through time (Buckley 2002).</blockquote>
 [[Shaman]]s were believed to have the power to cure [[disease]]; this power being given only to women. Spiritual aid was invoked through ritual, medicine songs, which often had a "sobbing" vocal quality, and spoken formulas (Keeling 1993). The Brush dance is a special ceremony held to heal a sick child. Conducted by the shaman, the family of the sick person hosted the dance which often took place in their home, the roof of the plank house being removed. Members of the tribe, and other local tribes would participate, or just spectate, as the dance continued all night.
 ==Contemporary Yurok==
-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.
+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 from several different tribes and groups. There were 5,793 Yurok living in all of the United States.
-The Yurok Indian Reservation is located in parts of [[Del Norte County, California|Del Norte]] and [[Humboldt County, California|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 [[United States Census, 2000|2000 census]] reported a resident population of 1,103 persons on reservation territory, mostly in the community of [[Klamath, California|Klamath]], at the reservation's north end.
+The majority of contemporary Yurok live in [[Indian reservation|reservation]]s in Northern California. The largest, the Yurok Indian Reservation, is located in parts of [[Del Norte County, California|Del Norte]] and [[Humboldt County, California|Humboldt]] Counties, 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 and is adjacent to [[Redwood National Park]] to the west. The [[United States Census, 2000|2000 census]] reported a resident population of 1,103 persons on reservation territory, mostly in the community of [[Klamath, California|Klamath]], at the reservation's north end.
 Despite the dark period of Yurok history in which their language and culture was suppressed, almost to extinction, revitalization occurred in the latter part of the twentieth century.