Indigenous peoples of California
Encyclopedia
The Indigenous peoples of California are the indigenous inhabitants
who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. With over one hundred federally recognized tribes, California
has the largest Native American
population and largest number of distinct tribes of any US state. Californian tribes are characterized by linguistic and cultural diversity.
The California cultural area does not exactly conform to the state of California's boundaries, and many tribes on the eastern border with Nevada are classified as Great Basin tribes
, some tribes on the Oregon border are classified as Plateau tribes, and tribes in Baja California
that do not cross into California are classified as Indigenous peoples of Mexico
.
, Penutian, and Uto-Aztecan. Other language families, such as Algonquian
, Athapaskan, and Yukian were represented, as well as language isolates, such as Chimariko
, Esselen
, and Karuk
.
.
Early Native Californians were hunter-gatherer
s, with seed collection becoming widespread around 9,000 BCE. Due to the local abundance of resources, many tribes never had to develop agriculture. Two early southern California cultural traditions include the La Jolla Complex
and the Pauma Complex
, both dating from ca. 6050—1000 BCE. From 3000 to 2000 BCE, regional diversity developed with fine-tuned adaptations to the local environments. Traits recognizable to historic tribes were established by approximately 500 BCE.
Some other tribes like the Quechan
or Yuman Indians in southeast California and southwest Arizona were the first to meet Spanish explorers in the 1760s and 1770s. But others on the coasts of northwest California like the Miwok
, Yurok and Yokut
came across Russian explorers and seafarers coming from Alaska
in the late 18th century and Russians established a short-lived fortified colony Fort Ross 60 miles north of San Francisco in the early 1800s.
in San Diego, California
. The Spanish built 20 additional missions in California. The introduction of European invasive plant species and non-native diseases wreaked havoc on Native populations. Missionaries also tried to promote peace between the tribes, often risking their own lives in order to do so. They also educated the Indians in subjects such as reading.
was reduced by 90% during the 19th century—from over 200,000 in the late 19th century to approximate 15,000 at the end of the century. Epidemics swept through California Indian Country
, such as the 1833 malaria epidemic.
In 1834 the Spanish missions shifted to Mexican control and were secularized, but lands under their control were not reverted to tribes. Many landless Indians found wage labor on ranches. The United States took control of California in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
, that did not honor aboriginal land title.
s are a primarily tradition food throughout much of California. Other widely consumed aboriginal food sources included fish, shellfish, deer, elk, and antelope, and plants such as buckeye, sage seed, and yampah (Perideridia gairdneri
).
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. With over one hundred federally recognized tribes, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
has the largest Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
population and largest number of distinct tribes of any US state. Californian tribes are characterized by linguistic and cultural diversity.
The California cultural area does not exactly conform to the state of California's boundaries, and many tribes on the eastern border with Nevada are classified as Great Basin tribes
Great Basin tribes
The Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin are the Native American peoples of the Great Basin inhabited a cultural region between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, in what is now Nevada, and parts of Oregon, California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. There is very little precipitation in the...
, some tribes on the Oregon border are classified as Plateau tribes, and tribes in Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
that do not cross into California are classified as Indigenous peoples of Mexico
Indigenous peoples of Mexico
Mexico, in the second article of its Constitution, is defined as a "pluricultural" nation in recognition of the diverse ethnic groups that constitute it, and in which the indigenous peoples are the original foundation...
.
Languages
Before contact, California Indians spoke over 300 dialects of approximately one hundred distinct languages. Most indigenous languages of California belong to three language families: HokanHokan languages
The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken in California, Arizona and Mexico. In nearly a century since Edward Sapir first proposed the "Hokan" hypothesis, little additional evidence has been found that these families were related to each other...
, Penutian, and Uto-Aztecan. Other language families, such as Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
, Athapaskan, and Yukian were represented, as well as language isolates, such as Chimariko
Chimariko language
Chimariko is an extinct language isolate formerly spoken in Trinity County in northwestern California by Chimariko peoples.-Genetic relations:...
, Esselen
Esselen language
Esselen is a language isolate that was spoken by the Esselen Native Americans on the Central Coast of California, south of Monterey....
, and Karuk
Karuk language
Karuk or Karok is an endangered language of northwestern California. It is the traditional language of the Karuk people, most of whom now speak English....
.
Precontact
Evidence of human occupation of California dates from at the very least 17,000 BCE. Prior to European contact, California Indians had 500 distinct sub-tribes or groups that consisted of 50 to 500 individual members. The size of California tribes today are small compared to tribes in other regions of the United States. Prior to contact with Europeans, the California region contained the highest native American population density north of what is now MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
Early Native Californians were hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
s, with seed collection becoming widespread around 9,000 BCE. Due to the local abundance of resources, many tribes never had to develop agriculture. Two early southern California cultural traditions include the La Jolla Complex
La Jolla Complex
The archaeological La Jolla Complex represents a prehistoric culture oriented toward coastal resources that prevailed during the middle Holocene period between c...
and the Pauma Complex
Pauma Complex
The Pauma Complex is a prehistoric archaeological pattern initially defined by Delbert L. True in northern San Diego County, California.The complex is dated generally to the middle Holocene period...
, both dating from ca. 6050—1000 BCE. From 3000 to 2000 BCE, regional diversity developed with fine-tuned adaptations to the local environments. Traits recognizable to historic tribes were established by approximately 500 BCE.
Contact with Europeans
Different tribes encountered non-Natives at widely different times. The southern and central coastal tribes encountered Spanish and English explorers in the mid-16th century. In remote interior regions, some tribes did not meet non-Natives until the mid-19th century.Some other tribes like the Quechan
Quechan
The Quechan are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California just north of the border with Mexico...
or Yuman Indians in southeast California and southwest Arizona were the first to meet Spanish explorers in the 1760s and 1770s. But others on the coasts of northwest California like the Miwok
Miwok
Miwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...
, Yurok and Yokut
Yokut
The Yokuts are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California.Prior to European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 separate tribes speaking the same language....
came across Russian explorers and seafarers coming from Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
in the late 18th century and Russians established a short-lived fortified colony Fort Ross 60 miles north of San Francisco in the early 1800s.
Mission era
The Spanish began their long-term occupation in California in 1769 with the founding of Mission San Diego de AlcaláMission San Diego de Alcalá
Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá, in San Diego, California, was the first Franciscan mission in the Las Californias Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. It was founded in 1769 by Spanish friar Junípero Serra in an area long inhabited by the Kumeyaay Indians...
in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
. The Spanish built 20 additional missions in California. The introduction of European invasive plant species and non-native diseases wreaked havoc on Native populations. Missionaries also tried to promote peace between the tribes, often risking their own lives in order to do so. They also educated the Indians in subjects such as reading.
19th century
The Population of Native CaliforniaPopulation of Native California
Estimates of the Native Californian population have varied substantially, both with respect to California's pre-contact count and for changes during subsequent periods. Pre-contact estimates range from 133,000 to 705,000 with some recent scholars concluding that these estimates are low...
was reduced by 90% during the 19th century—from over 200,000 in the late 19th century to approximate 15,000 at the end of the century. Epidemics swept through California Indian Country
Indian Country
Indian country is a term used to describe the many self-governing Native American communities throughout the United States. This usage is reflected in many places, both legal and colloquial...
, such as the 1833 malaria epidemic.
In 1834 the Spanish missions shifted to Mexican control and were secularized, but lands under their control were not reverted to tribes. Many landless Indians found wage labor on ranches. The United States took control of California in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
, that did not honor aboriginal land title.
Foods
AcornAcorn
The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...
s are a primarily tradition food throughout much of California. Other widely consumed aboriginal food sources included fish, shellfish, deer, elk, and antelope, and plants such as buckeye, sage seed, and yampah (Perideridia gairdneri
Perideridia gairdneri
Perideridia gairdneri is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common names common yampah and Gardner's yampah. It is native to western North America from southwestern Canada to California to New Mexico, where it grows in many types of habitat...
).
List of indigenous peoples of California
- AchomawiAchomawiThe Achomawi are one of eleven bands of the Pit River tribe of Native Americans who lived in northeastern California, USA....
, Achumawi, Pit River tribePit River TribeThe Pit River Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of eleven bands of indigenous peoples of California. They primarily live along the Pit River in the northeast corner of California...
, northeastern California - AtsugewiAtsugewiThe Atsugewi are Native Americans residing in what is now northern California, United States. Their traditional lands are near Mount Shasta, specifically the Pit River drainage on Burney, Hat, and Dixie Valley or Horse Creeks. They are closely related to the Achomawi and consisted of two groups...
, northeastern California - Ahwahnechee, eastern-central California
- Cahuilla, southern California
- Chumash, coastal southern California
- BarbareñoBarbareño languageBarbareño is one of the extinct Chumash languages, a group of Native American languages previously spoken along the coastal areas of Southern California from as far north as San Luis Obispo to as far south as Malibu, California. The last first-language speaker of Barbareño was Mary...
- Cruzeño, Island Chumash
- Inezeño, Ineseño
- Obispeño, Northern Chumash
- Purisimeño
- Ventureño
- Barbareño
- ChilulaChilulaThe Chilula were an Athapaskan tribe who inhabited the area on or near lower Redwood Creek, in Northern California, some 500 to 600 years before contact with Europeans...
, northwestern California - ChimarikoChimarikoThe Chimariko were a Native American group living primarily in a narrow, 20-mile section of canyon on the Trinity River in Trinity County in northwestern California....
, extinct, northwestern California - CosoCoso PeopleThe Coso people are an indigenous people of the Americas and Native American tribe associated with the Coso Range in the Mojave Desert of California in the southwestern U.S.. They are of the Uto-Aztecan language and spoke one of several Numic languages, related to that of the Northern Paiute.They...
, southeastern California - CupeñoCupeñoThe Cupeño are a Native American tribe from Southern California. Their name in their own language is Kuupangaxwichem.They traditionally lived about inland and north of the modern day U.S.-Mexico border in the Peninsular Range of Southern California...
, southern California - Eel River Athapaskan peoples
- Lassik, northwestern California
- Mattole, Bear River, northwestern California
- Nongatl, northwestern California
- Sinkyone, northwestern California
- WailakiWailakiThe Eel River Athapaskans include the Wailaki, Lassik, Nongatl, and Sinkyone groups of Native Americans that traditionally live on or near the Eel River of northwestern California....
, Wai-lakki, northwestern California
- EsselenEsselenThe Esselen were a Native American linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who resided on the Central California coast and the coastal mountains, including what is now known as the Big Sur region in Monterey County, California...
, west-central California - HupaHupaHupa, also spelled Hoopa, are a Native American tribe in northwestern California. Their autonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinookwa, meaning "People of the Place Where the Trails Return." The majority of the tribe is enrolled in the federally recognized Hoopa Valley Tribe; however, some Hupa are...
, northwestern California- TsnungweTsnungweThe Tsnungwe are a Native American people settled along the Trinity River, South Fork of the Trinity River and New River, in Trinity and Humboldt County in California....
- Tsnungwe
- JuaneñoJuaneñoThe Juaneño or Acagchemem are a Native American group from Southern California. The Juaneño lived in what is now part of Orange and San Diego Counties and received their Spanish name from the priests of the California mission chain due to their proximity to Mission San Juan Capistrano...
, Acjachemem, southwestern California - Karok, northwestern California
- KatoKato (tribe)The Cahto are a indigenous Californian group of Native Americans in the United States. Today they are enrolled as the federally recognized tribe, the Cahto Indian Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria or a small group of Cahto are enrolled in the Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley...
, Cahto, northwestern California - KawaiisuKawaiisuthumb|Kawaiisu FamilyThe Kawaiisu are a Native American group who lived in the southern California Tehachapi Valley and across the Tehachapi Pass in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains to the north, toward Lake Isabella and Walker Pass...
, southern-central California - KitanemukKitanemukThe Kitanemuk were a Native American tribe and people who lived in the Tehachapi Mountains and the Antelope Valley area of the western Mojave Desert of southern California, United States.-Language:...
, southern-central California - Konkow, northern-central California
- KucadikadiKucadikadiThe Kucadikadi are a band of Northern Paiute people who live near Mono Lake in Mono County, California. They are the southernmost band of Northern Paiute.-Name:...
, eastern-central California - KumeyaayKumeyaayThe Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai, Kamia, or formerly Diegueño, are Native American people of the extreme southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. They live in the states of California in the US and Baja California in Mexico. In Spanish, the name is commonly spelled...
, Diegueño, Kumiai, southern California- Cuyamaca complexCuyamaca ComplexThe Cuyamaca complex is a precolumbian complex, dating from the late Holocene, with archaeological sites in San Diego County, California. This complex is related to the Kumeyaay peoples....
, late HoloceneHoloceneThe Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
precolumbian culture - Ipai, southwestern California
- Jamul, southwestern California
- Tipai, southwestern California and northwestern Mexico
- Cuyamaca complex
- La Jolla ComplexLa Jolla ComplexThe archaeological La Jolla Complex represents a prehistoric culture oriented toward coastal resources that prevailed during the middle Holocene period between c...
, southern California, ca. 6050—1000 BCE - Luiseño, southwestern California
- MaiduMaiduThe Maidu are a group of Native Americans who live in Northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the drainage area of the Feather and American Rivers...
, northeastern California - MiwokMiwokMiwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...
, Me-wuk, central California- Coast MiwokCoast MiwokThe Coast Miwok were the second largest group of Miwok Native American people. The Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point and eastward to Sonoma Creek...
, west-central California - Lake MiwokLake MiwokThe Lake Miwok were a branch of the Miwok, a Native American people of Northern California. The Lake Miwok lived in the Clear Lake basin of what is now called Lake County.-Culture:...
, west-central California - Valley and Sierra MiwokValley and Sierra MiwokThe Plains and Sierra Miwok , were the largest group of Miwok Native American people...
, eastern-central California
- Coast Miwok
- Mohave, southeastern California
- Monache, Western Mono, central California
- Mono, eastern-central California
- NisenanNisenanThe Nisenan, also known as the Southern Maidu and Valley Maidu, are one of many native groups of the Central Valley. The name Nisenan, derives from the ablative plural pronoun nisena·n, "from among us"...
, eastern-central California - NomlakiNomlakiThe Nomlaki are a Wintun people native to the area of the Sacramento Valley, extending westward to the Coast Range in Northern California. Currently one person speaks Nomlaki...
, northwestern California - Ohlone, Costanoan, west-central California
- AwaswasAwaswasThe Awaswas people are one of eight divisions of the Ohlone Native Americans of Northern California...
- ChalonChalonThe Chalon are one of eight divisions of the Ohlone people of Native Americans who lived in Northern California. Chalon is also the name of their spoken language, listed as one of the Ohlone languages of the Utian family...
- ChochenyoChochenyoThe Chochenyo are one of the divisions of the indigenous Ohlone people of Northern California...
- KarkinKarkin languageKarkin is a name of one sub-group of the indigenous Ohlone people of California, as well as the name of the language they spoke....
- MutsunMutsun languageMutsun is both: a name of one sub-group of the Ohlone indigenous people of Alta California; and the name of the native language the Mutsun tribes spoke.-The people:...
- RamaytushRamaytushThe Ramaytush are one of the linguistic subdivisions of the Ohlone Native Americans of Northern California. Historically, the Ramaytush inhabited the San Francisco Peninsula between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in the area which is now San Francisco and San Mateo Counties.The Ramaytush...
- RumsenRumsenRumsen is one of eight language divisions of the Ohlone Native American people of Northern California...
- TamyenTamyenThe Tamyen are one of eight linguistic divisions of the Ohlone people groups of Native Americans who lived in Northern California. The Tamyen lived throughout the Santa Clara Valley...
- YelamuYelamuThe Yelamu were a Native American tribe of Ohlone people from the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California.-History:The Yelamu lived on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in the region comprising the City and County of San Francisco before the arrival of Spanish missionaries in 1769...
- Awaswas
- PatayanPatayanPatayan is a term used by archaeologists to describe prehistoric and historic Native American cultures who inhabited parts of modern day Arizona, west to Lake Cahuilla in California, and in Baja California, between 700–1550 CE...
, southern California - PatwinPatwinThe Patwin are a Wintun people native to the area of Northern California. The Patwin were a southern branch of the Wintun group and native inhabitants of California from 1,000 up to 4,000 years....
, central California- Suisun, Southern Patwin, central California
- Pauma ComplexPauma ComplexThe Pauma Complex is a prehistoric archaeological pattern initially defined by Delbert L. True in northern San Diego County, California.The complex is dated generally to the middle Holocene period...
, southern California, ca. 6050—1000 BCE - PomoPomo peopleThe Pomo people are an indigenous peoples of California. The historic Pomo territory in northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point...
, northwestern and central-western California - SalinanSalinanThe Salinan Native Americans lived in what is now the Central Coast of California, in the Salinas Valley. Said to have gone extinct by the Census of 1930, the Salinan Native Americans survived and are now in the process of applying for tribal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.There...
, coastal central California- AntoniañoAntonianoAntoniano can refer to:People:* Giovanni Antoniano , Dutch scholar* Silvio Antoniano , Italian cardinalPlaces:* Institute of Antoniano, an educational and charitable institution in Bologna, ItalyOther:...
- Migueleño
- Antoniaño
- SerranoSerrano (people)The Serrano are a Native American tribe of present day California, United States. They use the autonyms of Taaqtam, meaning "people"; Maarenga'yam, "people from Morongo"; and Yuhaviatam, "people of the pines." The Serrano historically populated the San Bernardino Mountains and extended east into...
, southern California - ShastaShasta (tribe)The Shasta are an indigenous people of Northern California and Southern Oregon in the United States. They spoke one of the Shastan languages....
northwestern California- Konomihu, northwestern California
- Okwanuchu, northwestern California
- TataviamTataviamThe Tataviam , were called the Alliklik by their neighbors the Chumash , are a Native American group in southern California...
, Allilik (Fernandeño), southern California - TimbishaTimbishaThe Timbisha are a Native American tribe federally recognized as the Death Valley Timbisha Shoshone Band of California. They are known as the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe and are located in south central California, near the Nevada border.-History:The Timbisha have lived in the Death Valley region of...
, southeastern California - TolowaTolowaThe Tolowa are a Native American tribe. They still reside in their traditional territories in northwestern California and southern Oregon. Tolowa are members of the federally recognized Smith River Rancheria, Elk Valley Rancheria, Confederated Tribes of Siletz, as well as the unrecognized Tolowa...
, northwestern California - Tongva, Gabrieleño, Fernandeño, San Clemente tribe, coastal southern California
- TubatulabalTübatulabal peopleThe Tübatulabal are Native Americans whose ancestral home was in the Kern River basin, in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California.Their traditional culture was similar to that of the Yokuts, who occupied most the of the southern half of the California's Central Valley. Acorns, piñon...
, south-central California- Bankalachi, on west slopes of the Greenhorn Mountains.
- Palagewan, on the Kern RiverKern RiverThe Kern River is a river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfield. Fed by snowmelt near Mount Whitney, the river passes through scenic canyons in the mountains and is a popular destination for...
above its confluence with the South Fork of the Kern River. - TubatulabalTübatulabalTübatulabal may refer to:*Tübatulabal people, Native Americans whose ancestral home was in the Kern River basin*Tübatulabal language, a Uto-Aztecan language...
, on the lower reaches of South Fork of the Kern River.
- WappoWappoThe Wappo are a group of Native Americans who traditionally lived in Northern California in the areas of Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River. When Mexicans arrived to colonize California, Wappo villages existed near the present-day towns of Yountville,...
, north-central California - WashoeWashoe peopleThe Washoe are a Great Basin tribe of Native Americans, living in California and Nevada. The name "Washoe" is derived from the autonym waashiw meaning "people from here" in the Washo language .-Territory:Washoe people have lived in the Great Basin for at least the last 6000 years...
, northeastern California - WhilkutWhilkutThe Whilkut were an Athapaskan tribe, speaking a dialect similar to the Hupa and Chilula, who inhabited the area on or near the upper Redwood Creek and along the Mad River except near its mouth, up to Iaqua Butte, and some settlement in Grouse Creek in the Trinity River drainage in Northwestern...
, northwestern California - WintuWintuThe Wintu are Native Americans who live in what is now Northern California. They are part of a loose association of peoples known collectively as the Wintun . Others are the Nomlaki and the Patwin...
, northwestern California - WiyotWiyot peopleThe Wiyot people are a native people of the Humboldt Bay, California and nearby environs.-History:The Wiyot and Yurok are the farthest southwest people whose language has Algic roots; Wiyot and Yurok are distantly related to the Algonquian languages...
, northwestern California - YanaYana peopleThe Yana people were a group of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the western side of the range. The Yana-speaking people comprised four groups: the Northern Yana, the Central Yana, the Southern Yana, and the Yahi...
, northern-central California- Yahi
- Yokuts, central and southern California
- Chukchansi, Foothill Yokuts, central California
- Northern Valley Yokuts, central California
- Tachi tribe, Southern Valley Yokuts, south-central California
- YukiYuki tribeThe Yuki are a Native American people from the zone of Round Valley, in what today is part of the territory of Mendocino County, Northern California. Yuki tribes are thought to have settled as far south as Hood Mountain in present-day Sonoma County...
, Ukomno'm, northwestern California- Huchnom, northwestern California
- YurokYurok tribeThe Yurok, whose name means "downriver people" in the neighboring Karuk language, are Native Americans who live in northwestern California near the Klamath River and Pacific coast...
, northwestern California
See also
- Aboriginal title in CaliforniaAboriginal title in CaliforniaAboriginal title in California refers to the aboriginal title land rights of the indigenous peoples of California. The state is unique in that no Native American tribe in California is the counterparty to a ratified federal treaty...
- California State Indian MuseumCalifornia State Indian MuseumThe California State Indian Museum is a museum in the state park system of California, USA, interpreting the diverse cultures of the indigenous peoples of California. It is located in downtown Sacramento. The museum exhibits traditional items illustrating the varying cultures of the state's first...
- Federally recognized tribes by state#California
- Mission IndiansMission IndiansMission Indians is a term for many Native California tribes, primarily living in coastal plains, adjacent inland valleys and mountains, and on the Channel Islands in central and southern California, United States. The tribes had established comparatively peaceful cultures varying from 250 to 8,000...
- Population of Native CaliforniaPopulation of Native CaliforniaEstimates of the Native Californian population have varied substantially, both with respect to California's pre-contact count and for changes during subsequent periods. Pre-contact estimates range from 133,000 to 705,000 with some recent scholars concluding that these estimates are low...
- Survey of California and Other Indian LanguagesSurvey of California and Other Indian LanguagesThe Survey of California and Other Indian Languages at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas...
External links
- Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival
- California Indian Museum and Cultural Center, Santa Rosa
- "California Indian History," California Native American Heritage Association
- "California Indians," SDSU Library and Information Access
- Bibliographies of Northern and Central California Indians
- "A Glossary of Proper Names in California Prehistory", Society for California Archaeology