Tolowa people

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Tolowa
Total population
400[1] to 1,000[2]
Regions with significant populations
United States United States
(California California, Oregon Oregon)
Languages

Tolowa language, English language
Religion

Traditional tribal religion,
previously Indian Shaker religion[1]
Related ethnic groups

Chetco and Tutuni[1]

The Tolowa people 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,[3] Elk Valley Rancheria, Confederated Tribes of Siletz, Trinidad Rancheria,[4] as well as the unrecognized Tolowa Nation.[5]

Contents

[edit] History

The Tolowa people traditionally lived in the Smith River basin and vicinity in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. The area was bounded by Port Orford, Oregon to the north and Wilson Creek, north of the Klamath River, in California to the south. They lived in approximately eight permanent villages in what is now California and Oregon, including on Crescent Bay and Lake Earl.[5] The name "Tolowa" is an Algonquian name given to them by the Yurok people. Their autonym is Xus, meaning "person."[1] (Their Karuk name, yuh'ára, "Indian from downriver" was also used for the Yurok).[6]

They have traditionally spoken the Tolowa language, one of the Athapaskan languages. Their subsistence was oriented around riverine and marine resources and acorns. Their society was not formally stratified, but considerable stress was put on personal wealth.[7]

Tolowa villages were organized around a headman and usually consisted of related men. The men brought wives in from neighboring tribes. The brides were usually related (sisters), in order for the wealth to remain in the paternal families.

Epidemics hit the Tolowa before face-to-face contact with non-natives. Jedediah Smith and his exploration party were the first known non-native to contact the Tolowa in 1828. During the 1850s, over half of the Tolowa people died from disease and mass murders by Anglo-Americans, such as the Yontoket Massacre and the Achulet Massacre. In 1860, after the Chetco/Rogue River War, 600 Tolowas were forcibly relocated to Indian reservations in Oregon. Later, some were moved to the Hoopa Valley Reservation in California. The tribe embraced the Ghost Dance religion from 1872 to 1882.[1]

[edit] Population

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially.[8] Various estimates for the 1770 population of Tolowa have ranged from as low as 450 to an upper end around 2,400.[9][10][11][12]

In 1910, there were reportedly 150 Tolowa.[9] The 1920 census listed 121 Tolowa left in Del Norte County, California. By 2009, there were approximately 1,000 Tolowa Indians.[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-19-513877-1, p. 147
  2. ^ California Indians and Their Reservations: Population. San Diego State University Library and Information Access. 2009 (retrieved 5 Dec 2010)
  3. ^ The Smith River Rancheria. (retrieved 8 April 2009)
  4. ^ "Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria." Alliance for California Traditional Arts. 2009. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  5. ^ a b c California Indians and Their Reservations. San Diego State University Library and Information Access. 2009 (retrieved 8 April 2009)
  6. ^ Bright, William; Susan Gehr. "Karuk Dictionary and Texts". Retrieved 6 January 2013. 
  7. ^ Gould, Richard A. (18 February 1966). "The Wealth Quest Among the Tolowa Indians of Northwestern California". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 110 (1): 67–89. Retrieved 6 January 2013. 
  8. ^ See Population of Native California
  9. ^ a b Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C., p. 883
  10. ^ Baumhoff, Martin A. 1963. "Ecological Determinants of Aboriginal California Populations". University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 49:155-236.231
  11. ^ Cook, Sherburne F. 1943. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization I: The Indian Versus the Spanish Mission. Ibero-Americana No. 21. University of California, Berkeley, p. 170
  12. ^ Cook, Sherburne F. 1956. "The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California". Anthropological Records 16:81-130. University of California, Berkeley, p.101

[edit] Further reading

  • Collins, James. 1996. Understanding Tolowa Histories: Western Hegemonies and Native American Responses. London: Routledge.
  • Drucker, Philip. 1937. "The Tolowa and their Southwest Oregon Kin". University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 36:221-300. Berkeley.
  • Gould, Richard A. 1978. "Tolowa". In California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 128–136. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

[edit] External links

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