Karuk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
This article has been tagged since January 2007.

Pre-contact distribution of the Karuk

Karuk (also Karok) are an indigenous people of California in the United States.

The tribal headquarters, located off Highway 96, are in the town of Happy Camp, California. Currently the tribe has three tribal board meeting places, in Yreka, Happy Camp, and Orleans. The current chairman of the tribe is Archie Super. Since time immemorial, the Karuk, whose name means "upriver people," have resided in small villages along the Klamath River, where they continue such cultural traditions as hunting, gathering, fishing, basket making and ceremonial dances. The Brush Dance, Jump Dance and Pikyavish ceremonies last for several days and are practiced to heal and "fix the world," to pray for plentiful acorns, deer and salmon, and to restore social good will as well as individual good luck.

1 Population
2 Culture
3 Present Day Tribal Organization
4 Karuk Tribal Lands
5 See also
6 External links
7 References

[edit] Population

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.) Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) proposed a population for the Karuk of 1,500 in 1770. Sherburne F. Cook (1956:98, 1976:170) initially estimated it as 2,000, later raising this figure to 2,700.

Kroeber reported the surviving population of the Karuk in 1910 as 800.

According to the Fall 2006 newsletter, the Karuk Tribe of California has 3,475 enrolled members. (Archived newsletters available on Tribal website at www.karuk.us.)

[edit] Culture

In the summers of 1871 and 1872 an amateur ethnographor by the name of Stephen Powers visited Indian groups in Northern California. His publishing observations offer an insight into the lives of the native survivors of the Gold Rush. According to Powers, the Karok (Karuk) were one of three groups living on the Klamath River (the others being the Yurok and Modok). He also noted that there was no recollection of any ancient migration to the region; instead there were legends of Creation and the Flood which were fabled to have occurred on the Klamath.

Some of Powers' other observations were:

"The Karok are very democratic. They have a headman or captain in each rancheria, though when on the war-path they are in a slight degree subject to the control of one chief ... In war they do not take scalps, but decapitate the slain and bring in the heads as trophies. They do battle with bows and arrows, and in a hand-to-hand encounter, which often occurs, they clutch ragged stones in their hands and maul each other with terrible and deadly effect" (21).

"There are two classes of shamans--the root doctors and the barking doctors ... It is the province of the barking-doctor to diagnose the case, which she (most doctors are women) does by squatting down ... before the patient, and barking at him ... for hours together. After her comes the root-doctor, and with numerous potions, poultices, etc., seeks to medicate the part where the other has discovered the ailment resides" (26).

"The first of September brings a red-letter day in the Karok ephemeris, the great Dance of Propitiation, at which all the tribe are present, together with the deputations from the Yurok, the Hupa, and others. They call it sif-san-di pik-i-a-vish ... which signifies, literally, "working the earth". The object of it is to propitiate the spirits of the earth and the forest, in order to prevent disastrous landslides, forest fires, earthquakes, drought, and other calamities" (28).

[edit] Present Day Tribal Organization

As a government organization, the Karuk Tribe of California has demonstrated its ability to administer a multitude of social, cultural and economic programs effectively, earning the status of a "Self-Governance Tribe." The Tribal government currently employs more than 100 people in administrative, child welfare, community/economic development, education, elders, energy assistance, health, housing, human services and natural resources programs. In little more than a decade the Karuk Tribe has developed housing divisions, health clinics and Head Start programs in Orleans, Happy Camp and Yreka, its three major population centers. Through the Tribally-chartered Karuk Community Development Corporation, the Karuk Tribe also has administered salmon fisheries enhancement projects, acquired and expanded a retail business, planned a small manufacturing plant, assisted a number of local people in starting small business enterprises and established a Community Computer Center.

[edit] Karuk Tribal Lands

The Karuk do not have a legally designated reservation, but do have a number of small tracts held in Trust by the Federal Government as well as tracts owned by the Tribe in fee-simple status. These small non-contiguous parcels of land are primarily located along the Klamath River in western Siskiyou County and northeastern Humboldt County in California. The total land area of these parcels is 2.908 km² (1.123 sq mi, or 718.49 acres). A resident population of 333 persons was reported in the 2000 census. There are also a number of tracts located within the city of Yreka.

The city of Happy Camp, California is located in the heart of the Karuk Tribe's Ancestral Territory, which extends along the Klamath River from Bluff Creek (near the community of Orleans in Humboldt County) through Siskiyou County and into southern Oregon.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

Cook, Sherburne F. 1956. "The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California". Anthropological Records 16:81-130. University of California, Berkeley.
Cook, Sherburne F. 1976. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.
Powers, Stephen 1976. "Tribes of California". University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles.
Karuk Reservation and Off-Reservation Trust Land, California United States Census Bureau