Yurok
Land: The Yoruk tribe settled at the mouth of the Klamath River and the
Pacific coast. Today they live on some small
reservations in California.Language:The Yurok
language is Macro- Algonquian, closely related to
many of the dialects of neighboring tribes.Traditions:The Yurok
traditionally lived in villages
in the winter and wandered in bands in the summer. The Yurok villages consisted
of small rectangular structures made of cedar posts and poles and split cedar
planks. These homes were owned by individual families. Along with these houses
came the rights to such privileges as fishing, hunting, and gathering. These
villages also had sweathouses that served as dormitories for the men, as well
as small separate women’s menstrual huts. The traditional dress of the
Yurok men included a deerskin loincloth and deerskin moccasins with elk hide
soles. The women wore knee length deerskin skirts that were heavily
ornamented.
The Yurok had two staple sources of food, acorns and
salmon. According to Encyclopedia Britannica Online, “Their basic food was
the acorn, which was ground and stored as flour.” Along with the acorn,
the Yurok tribe fished the Klamath River for the staple food of the Northwest
tribes - salmon. The Yurok also sgathered berries and
roots and hunting wild fowl and deer. The Yurok’s also produced a
magnificent array of basketry and produced canoes from plentiful redwood trees.
These objects were many times sold to inland tribes for currency.
The Yurok tribe had a monetary system which was based on
the shell of the dentalium. The denatlium is a type of mollusk found in Pacific
coastal waters. These small tube-shaped shells were strung into 27 inch long
strings that formed the basic unit of currency. Along with dentalium shells,
obsidian blades, woodpecker scalps, and albino deerskin were items of wealth.
Wealth was an extremely important concept in the Yurok culture. Unlike many of
the Native American tribes, the Yurok’s believed in individually owned
land. A man’s wealth was measured by the amount of land he owned and it
was often sold to one another. The value of a man’s life determined his
social status. History:In the early 1800’s, the British and American trappers started to
settle on the Yurok land. Soon afterwards a rush of settlers came to profit in
the California Gold Rush of 1826. As for the Yurok’s, they lost
most of their land, although some small reservations still exist in California
today.
Though this page has been carefully researched, the author does not
claim expertise on the Yurok.
Please send questions, comments, and corrections to emuseum@mnsu.edu and include the
web address of this page.
If you are Yurok, your feedback is much appreciated.
The Yurok Tribe Official Website http://www.yuroktribe.org/
Resources:
Curtis, Es. The North American Indian. 8 Feb. 2000 .
Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 1999-2000. 3 Feb. 2000 .
Readers Digest. Through Indian Eyes. New York: Reader’s Digest
Association, 1995.
Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. Facts on File,
1988.
Written by: Laura Pasek
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