The Yurok people are an Algic languages Indigenous people of California that has existed along the Hehlkeek 'We-Roy or "Health-kick-wer-roy" (now known as the Klamath River) and on the Pacific coast, from Trinidad south of the Klamath’s mouth almost to Crescent City along the north coast.
The people of the Yurok Tribe traditionally identify as Oohl, a Yurok word simply meaning "the people."[Karuk Tribe of California v. Ammon, 209 F.3d 1366, 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2000)][Super v. Work, 3 F.2d at 90–91 (1926).] The name Yurok is derived from the Karuk language word yúruk va’áraaras, meaning "downriver people; i.e. Yurok Indians".[Andrew Garrett, Susan Gehr, Erik Hans Maier, Line Mikkelsen, Crystal Richardson, and Clare Sandy. (November 2, 2021) Karuk; To appear in The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide (De Gruyter Mouton), ed. by Carmen Jany, Marianne' Mithun, and Keren Rice [1]]
The Yurok people live primarily within the exterior boundaries of Yurok Reservation and surrounding communities in Humboldt, Del Norte and Trinity counties. Although the reservation comprises some of contiguous land along the Klamath River, only about of scattered plots are under partial tribal ownership. Most Yurok land is owned by Timber industry or is part of national parks and forests.
Etymology
The Yurok refer to themselves as 'Oohl ("person") or 'O'loolekweesh 'o'l / 'Oolekwoh (lit. "'o'loolekw = dwellers"). Ner'ernerh / Nert'ernerh ("Coast people, i.e. Coast Yurok") refers to Yurok on the coast and Hehlkeeklaa ("Klamath River people, i.e. Klamath River Yurok") refers to Yurok who live along the Klamath River. Pueleeklaa / Pueleekla' or Puelekuekla' / Puelekueklaa' ("down river/downstream people, i.e. River Yurok") is used to distinguish themselves from the upriver (Klamath River) living Karuk ( Pecheeklaa / Pecheekla = "up river/upstream people, i.e. Karuk people"). Saa'agoch' / Saa'agochehl ("Yurok language") is one of two Algic languages spoken in California, the other being Wiyot language (therefore they are culturally similar to the Wiyot) and is currently undergoing a successful revitalization effort.[Romney, Lee. (2013, February 6). Revival of nearly extinct Yurok language is a success story. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 7, 2013]
History
The Yurok have been living along the Klamath River for 10,000 years, with a lifestyle closely linked to the once abundant salmon.[Pritzker 159]
There are descriptions of some contact being made with Californian Indians as far back as June 1579 by Francis Drake and the crew of the Golden Hind.[ 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, following the Klamath and Salmon River War, the Lower Klamath River Indian Reservation was created by executive order. The reservation boundaries included a portion of the Yurok's territory and some Yurok villages.
]
Contemporary
The Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act of 1988,
Fishing, hunting, and gathering remain important to tribal members. Basket weaving and woodcarving are important arts. A traditional hamlet of wooden plank buildings, called Sumeg, was built in 1990. The Jump Dance and Brush Dance remain part of tribal ceremonies.[Pritzker 161] The tribe's involvement in condor reintroduction, along with traditional burning, environmental restoration, wildfire preparedness, the drought, and juvenile fish kill, was discussed with Governor Gavin Newsom when he visited in June 2021.
The tribe owns and operates a casino, river jet boat tours and other tourist attractions.
Environment
Carbon sequestration
Through oral tradition and archaeological records, it is estimated that the Yurok lands were originally some half-a-million acres.[ Carbon sequestration has enabled the Yurok to own approximately by 2021.][ Using the cap-and-trade scheme, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issues one offset credit ($12) for each metric ton the Yurok can prove its forests have sequestered.][
]
After starting negotiations in 2010, the Yurok have paid off loans, supported schools, youth programming, housing, road improvement and off-reservation businesses through carbon sequestration.[ Land reclamation using the cap-in-trade revenue has allowed them to take control of land management and to sustainably harvest timber. Tribal Vice Chairman Frankie Myers said: "the most beneficial thing we're doing with our land is giving members access to it".][ Through working with companies and organisations such as New Forests and The Trust for Public Land, the Yurok will employ a blend of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and western science to re-create the environmental conditions that existed in this region.]
The participation by the Yurok in the scheme has been met with concerns and criticism.[ "I'm not happy with it" said Jene McCovey, a tribal elder. "It's not viable. It allows polluters to pollute".][ Tribal member Marty Lamebear agreed that the carbon project had brought in money but said: "They buy our air, so they can, you know, pollute theirs."][ Angela Adrar, the executive director of Climate Justice Alliance, said: "The Yurok should have their land regardless of some program... The fact that they have to sell their forest to get back their land seems really backwards."][
]
Wind power
In February 2024, the Yurok had its first Tribal Offshore Wind Summit to help native communities gain more understanding about offshore wind power and how the ever-growing clean energy developments could impact on the food, culture and income for Native communities.[ A major topic of conversation were the two Humboldt area and how the industrialization involved might impact the local ports and surrounding areas. Robert Hemstead, vice-chairman for the Trinidad Rancheria said that people from the tribes had come together "to move forward in a good way on renewable energy".][ Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James said that the tribes did not want to see other industries "take advantage of our natural resources and contribute little or nothing to the local community."][
]
In 2023, Frankie Myers of the Yurok tribe wrote that since colonization began, natural resource extraction had devastated indigenous communities.[ Further, during Yurok sacred ceremonies, mountain peaks are often used "which offer an unobstructed view of the ocean" and some of the last places that they can see the world as their ancestors had seen it.][ Yet the Yurok, traditional managers of their local ecosystem, had a lack of outreach from the corporations involved. In the future, tribal nations may decide to support offshore wind development, but that they "must be in leadership positions through every phase of the process".][ While offshore wind can help provide the clean energy America needs, unless the industry "truly engages with the Native American tribes that suffered the impacts from previous natural resource extraction, it will be as dirty as the rest of them."][
]
On 6 March 2024, the Yurok Tribal Council voted to oppose offshore wind developments near the Yurok Coast.[
]
-
"The 900-foot-tall offshore wind turbines will indelibly tarnish sacred cultural sites from the coast to the high country."
[
]
-
"There is insufficient scientific research on the adverse environmental impacts associated with the massive floating wind turbines and platforms. The Tribe is gravely concerned about potential risks to the interlinked ecosystem extending from the deep ocean to the headwaters of the Klamath River."
[
]
-
"The federal government has not recognized the Yurok Tribe’s unceded ocean territory or its sovereign authority to determine whether and how this territory should be developed."
[
]
The Yurok join the Bear River Band and the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation in its opposition.[
]
Forestry
In 1995, researchers observed that "control of reservation and allotment of natural resources has been withheld from them Yurok under the auspices of scientific forest management." Managing the reservation for the benefit of the timber industry or a "fine stand of timber" prevented Yurok modes of subsistence. As such the researchers note that Yurok were divested from their forest resources for the following reasons: "by straightforward expropriation of their lands, as Yurok property rights were ignored and access to gathering sites was cut off; and through Ecology change brought about by a shift in management regimes."
Forest management impacts forests on Yurok lands, since the environment is interconnected despite political boundaries. In United States forestry programs, Indigenous peoples are only given the right to "alienate the land but not to manage the vegetation." In the case of the Yurok, "vegetation management and Yurok culture and economy are closely linked" and as a result "the increasing unsuitability of the changed forest for Yurok subsistence helped push the Yurok to sell their land."
On March 20, 2024, the Yurok began a first-of-its-kind land deal to manage tribal lands with the National Park Service under a memorandum of understanding between the tribe, Save the Redwoods League and Redwood National and State Parks.[ Joseph L. James, Yurok chairman, said: "Together, we are creating a new conservation model that recognizes the value of tribal land management".][ The Yurok see Sequoioideae as living beings and only used fallen trees to build their homes and canoes.][
]
The land that will be co-managed was bought by the Save the Redwoods League in 2013 after having been a lumber mill for 50 years.[ Plans for 'O Rew, originally one of dozens of villages on ancestral lands, include traditional redwood plank houses, a sweat house and a visitor and cultural center.][ The center will be displaying sacred artifacts from deerskins to baskets, as well as serving as a hub for the Yurok to carry out their traditions.][ Rosie Clayburn, the tribe's cultural resources said: "This is work that we’ve always done, and continued to fight for, but I feel like the rest of world is catching up right now and starting to see that Native people know how to manage this land the best".][
]
In addition to conservation partnerships with Federally protected lands, the Yurok Tribe established a long-term partnership with the nonprofit Western Rivers Conservancy (WRC) in 2011 to finance and buy 47,097 acres along Blue Creek and the lower Klamath River from Green Diamond Resource Company. Today, the area is protected as the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest and has been returned to the Tribe's landholdings. This adds more conserved lands in the Yurok traditional homelands that were not covered within the boundaries of the Tribe's reservation nor within any Federal or state forest lands. The Yurok Tribe is now managing the lands to recover forests and riverine habitats that were harmed for decades by the timber industry.
Language
Yurok or Saa'agoch' / Saa'agochehl ("Yurok language") is one of two Algic languages spoken in California, the other being Wiyot language.[Hinton 32] The language is passed on through master-apprentice teams and through singing.[Hinton 33] Language classes have been offered through Humboldt State University and through annual language immersion camps.[ "Yurok Language Project." University of California, Berkeley, Department of Linguistics. 2011 (retrieved 1 Feb 2011)]
An unusual feature of the language is that certain nouns change depending upon whether there is one, two, or three of the object. For instance, one human being would be ko:ra' or ko'r, two human beings would be ni'iyel, and three human beings would be nahkseyt.[Hinton 120]
Culture
Food culture
The Yurok traditionally fished for salmon along rivers, gathered ocean fish and shellfish, hunted game, and gathered plants.
Salmon is the vital source of food and nutrients for the Yurok.
Fish census from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries suggest an estimated 650,000 to 1 million adult salmon used to make the run from the mouth of the river to Upper Klamath Lake and beyond to spawn.[ Yet, by August 2023, the Yurok salmon festival missed its basic ingredient - salmon.]
But with a Climate change, the salmon which were once plentiful now face a drastic decline in numbers linked to water quality and fish health.[ This poses a serious problem for the Yurok whoose life and culture is closely tied with the fish of the Klamath River and Trinity rivers.][ Yurok Tribal Chairman Joe James has said that if the salmon did not survive, neither would the tribe.][ With the removal of four dams along the Klamath river which will open up near 400 miles of historic salmon habitat, it is hoped that the fish will return.][ Yurok fisherman Oscar Gensaw said "Once the dams are down, the salmon will know what to do."]
The Yurok are known globally for their arts that include basketry and regalia-making, and that salmon give the tribe the physical and mental strength for those arts.[ Tori McConnell, Miss Indian World 2023–2024, said that without salmon "we wouldn’t have had the brainpower or the physical power to create and maintain and preserve the beautiful culture that we see today."][
]
Material culture
major currency of the Yurok nations was the dentalium shell ( terkwterm). Alfred L. Kroeber wrote of the Yurok perception of the shell: "Since the direction of these sources is 'downstream' to them, they speak in their traditions of the shells living at the downstream and upstream ends of the world, where strange but enviable peoples live who suck the flesh of univalves."[Kroeber, Alfred L. catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002494436 Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1925, pp. 22-23.]
Condor restoration
California condors (Yurok name 'prey-go-neesh') are understood as beings of great spiritual power by the Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest and California.
Due to the cultural and ecological importance of the condor, the tribe began a program in 2008 to reintroduce the condor.[ While based on the latest scientific protocols, Yurok Traditional Ecological Knowledge provided by the tribal elders informs the restoration program.]
Sacred artifact repatriation
In 2010, 217 sacred artifacts were returned to the Yurok tribe by the Smithsonian Institution.
Spirituality/Religion
Yurok cosmology has been described as a "polytheistic monism", with various gods and spirits as a facet of the Great Spirit. "Evil" is said to come from imbalance, rather than there being evil spirits like Satan.
Society
Villages
Yurok Villages ('o'loolekw - "village") were composed of individual families that lived in separate, single-family homes.
Social organization
Yurok society had no chiefs, but in each village, a wealthy man known as a peyerk acted as leader, who was trained by elders. The peyerk's training would include a vision quest in which he would communicate with the natural environment and the spirit world. Peyerk from many villages came together to settle tribal disputes and also hosted tribal ceremonies. At these times, the peyerk would supply food and shelter for the Yurok people and special clothing for the dancers. Peyerk lived in homes at higher elevation, wore finer clothing, and sometimes spoke foreign languages.
Yurok medicine people were usually women. Women would become shamans after dreaming of being told to do so. Another shaman would then assist her in a ritual dance. Shamans would use plants, prayer, and rituals to heal people and also performed ceremonies to ensure successful hunting, fishing, and gathering.
Every year the Yurok came together for what was known as the World Renewal Ceremony, where songs and dances which had been passed on through many generations would be performed. Dancers would wear elaborate clothing for the occasion.
Some sources refer to it Yurok society as socially stratified because communities were divided between syahhlew ("rich"), wa's'oyowok' / wa'soyowok' ("poor"), and ka'aal ("slaves").
Marriage
) in her wedding dress]]When daughters got married, Yurok families would receive a payment from her husband. For the most part, girls were highly valued in the family.
Men who were unable to pay the full sum of money could pay half the cost for the bride. In doing so, the couple was considered "half-married." Half-married couples lived with the bride's family and the groom would then become a slave for them. Furthermore, their children would take on the mother's last name.
Demographics
Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber put the 1770 population of the Yurok at 2500.[Kroeber 1925:883] Sherburne F. Cook initially agreed,[Cook 1976:165] but later raised this estimate to 3100.[Cook 1956:84]
By 1870, the Yurok population had declined to 1350.[Cook 1976:237] By 1910 it was reported as 668 or 700.[Cook 1976:237; Kroeber 1925:883]
There were 5,793 Yurok living throughout the United States. The Yurok Indian Reservation is California's largest tribe, with 6357 members as of 2019.
On November 24, 1993, the Yurok Tribe adopted a constitution that details the jurisdiction and territory of their lands. Under the Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Act of 1988, Pub. L. 100–580, qualified applicants had the option of enrolling in the Yurok Tribe. Of the 3,685 qualified applicants for the Settlement Roll, 2,955 people chose Yurok membership. 227 of those members had a mailing address on the Yurok reservation, but a majority lived within 50 miles of the reservation. The Yurok Tribe is currently the largest group of Native Americans in the state of California, with 6357 enrolled members living in or around the reservation.
Notable people
-
Rick Bartow (1946–2016), painter, printmaker, and sculptor
-
Cutcha Risling Baldy, associate professor Cal Poly Humboldt
-
Archie Thompson (1919–2013), elder who helped revitalize the Yurok language
-
Lucy Thompson (1856–1932), first indigenous Californian woman to be published
See also
-
Yurok traditional narratives
-
Un-Dam the Klamath
-
Restoration of the Elwha River
-
Manifest destiny
Notes
-
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.
-
Kroeber, A. L. 1976. Yurok Myths. University of California Press, Berkeley.
-
Hinton, Leanne. Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1994. .
-
Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. .
External links
