YUROK

The Yurok were neighbors of the KAROK, both peoples living in ancestral territory along the Klamath River in territory now mapped as part of northern California. The Karok, whose name translates as “upstream,” lived farther inland up the river. The Yurok, whose name, pronounced YOUR-ock, means “downstream” in the Karok language, lived near the mouth of the river along the Pacific coast. Their Native name is Olekwo’l, meaning “the people.”

It is interesting to note that even though these two peoples had similar cultures and that the Karok even gave the Yurok the tribal name that has lasted to modern times, the Karok language isolate is considered part of the Hokan language phylum, and the Yurok isolate is considered part of the Macro-Algonquian phylum. That would make the Yurok the westernmost ALGONQUIANS, along with a people known as Wiyot.

The Yurok, Karok, and HUPA, a neighboring Athapascan-speaking people with a similar culture, are grouped by scholars in the California Culture Area. The northern CALIFORNIA INDIANS were hunter-gatherers, who depended heavily on acorns. They lived in villages in the winter and wandered in bands in the summer, like other California peoples. And like the tribes to their south, they crafted tightly woven baskets. But they also were influenced by the NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS to their north. For example, they fished the Klamath River for the staple food of the Northwest Coast tribes—salmon. They built rectangular

Yurok headdress of sea lion's teeth

Houses with slanted roofs out of cedar planks. They carved dugout canoes out of redwood trunks. And they determined social status by an individual’s wealth.

The Yurok practiced annual World Renewal ceremonies, as did the Karok and Hupa, one more cultural trait used to distinguish northern California Indians from other California peoples. The purpose of the rituals was to renew the world, or “firm the earth,” as the Indians described it, provide food, and perpetuate tribal well-being.

There is one cultural element, however, that the Yurok did not share with their neighbors, or with any other Indians in North America for that matter. For Native Americans, land was considered a source of life shared by the entire tribe. There was no such thing as private ownership of land. The Yurok individually owned land, measured wealth by it, and even sold it to one another.

Non-Indians came to Yurok territory—British and American trappers starting in 1826—27, and a rush of settlers in 1849, after the California gold rush, leading to permanent settlement—and the Yurok eventually lost most of their land once and for all. The tribe presently holds several small rancherias, one of them adjoining Hupa lands. Many Yurok still live by hunting, fishing, and gathering, as their ancestors did. Migrant farm work also provides income as does a tribally run hotel and a gaming operation.

In 1983, the Yurok, along with the Karok and TOLOWA (another Athapascan-speaking people) won a 10-year battle over a sacred site in the mountainous Six Rivers National Forest of northern California, just south of the Oregon border. Members of the three tribes climb into the unspoiled high country in order to be closer to the spirit world.