The Yurok tribe settled at the mouth of the Klamath River and the Pacific coast. They spoke a language of Macro- Algonquian, closely related to many of the dialects of neighboring tribes. The Yurok’s 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 tribe survived on mainly two 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 tribe also spent much of their time gathering 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 highly advanced 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.
The religion of the Yurok people was based on individual effort through ritual cleanliness and rituals including the entire tribe. In accordance to Es Curtis, author of The North American Indian, “Yurok religious practices are founded on the belief that ages ago the earth was inhabited by a race of prenaturals in human form.” The Yurok’s practice the annual World Renewal Ceremonies. The purpose of the rituals was to renew the world or “firm the earth”, as the tribe described it. This ritual included recitation of magical formulas, by repeating the words of an ancient spirit race and other acts. Most of these rituals were considered to have connection with medicine. Medicine included not only that which was administered to cure sickness, but anything; root, herb, stick, or bark that is used in formula form. This power was restricted to women, giving them prestige and a source of wealth.
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 forever lost most of their land, although some small reservations still exist in California today.
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.
Author: Laura Pasek