LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A lecture by U.S. Department of Forestry Service archaeologist Barbara White at the Feb. 26, 2012, Lake County Historical Society’s meeting revealed some interesting facts about the Yuki Indian tribe of Lake County.
The Yuki language is thought to be the oldest in California. Archaeologists working in northern Lake County on the CA LAK 104 site north of Lake Pillsbury have documented house pits, chert flakes and a midden site.
They have unearthed many other historically relevant tools and discoveries such as a hearthstone, handstones, petroglyphs and various obsidian arrowheads.
The Yuki name is derived from “yuke,” meaning “enemy” or “stranger” in the Wintu language.
According to the Handbook of North American Indians, in 1850 the Yuki territory comprised areas of the Coast Range Mountains in Northwest California, and the upper Eel River, but there were more than six subdivisions throughout Round Valley, extending to the coast (Coast Yuki).
It was traditional for both men and women to participate in social dances. During those times they wore feather capes, dance skirts of deerskin, and feather headdresses.
These artful adornments were sometimes comprised of flicker quill headbands and an eagle down-filled head net. A belt was worn which was made of woven hemp and clamshell beads. They danced to the sounds of split-stick rattles, songs and log drums.
One special ceremony was the girl's adolescence ceremony. After a girl reached puberty she was kept in seclusion for a month, then, after the seclusion a village feast was held.
Other ceremonies included one for both boys and girls called the “obsidian school,” which was a type of puberty rite.
Throughout day-to-day life Yuki men wore deerskin wraps around their hips, or went naked. In winter, deerskin capes were worn. Women’s attire included a leather apron. Tattooing was common, as were bone adornments for earlobes and the nasal septum.
Tools and equipment used by the Yukis included stone mauls, mortar and pestle, various basketry, scrapers, fishing spears and fire drills. Also used were spoons of mussel shells, elkhorn wedges, hemp nets, bow and arrows with flint points.
The Yuki diet was varied and abundant, with staples such as salmon, acorns and deer. Like the other Lake County American Indian tribes, theirs was a hunter-gatherer society and included nuts, tubers, berries, seeds, mushrooms, bird eggs and honey. Sometimes grasshoppers and other insect larvae were consumed.
Part of their belief system included the principle that when an animal was hunted and taken, then another animal would replace that one. At the time of a young hunter's first kill it was taboo for him to partake of the hunt.
It was common for male hunters to hunt alone, and to use a snare or bow and arrow. Then, a deer-head was worn to aid in the hunt.
Prior to a hunt it was common practice to spend time in the sweat house and fast. A ceremony was held each year to their creator, Taikomol, or, “he who walks alone,” to appease Taikomol so they may be blessed with an abundance of acorns and other foodstuffs during that particular year.
The Yuki’s home-sites were constructed in villages of up to 150 members, led by a local chief, or leader. This leader was elected primarily to keep order in the community, however, there was a distinctive, individual war chief.
Their homes were cone-shaped, constructed of bark and poles, and were circular and cone in shape. They were approximately 10 feet in diameter and slightly submerged. It was traditional to contain a fire-pit in the center of the abode.
The Yukis usually constructed a summer dwelling out of brush, and also a dance or sweat-house. In Yuki communities, as most Native American communities, trees, creeks and lands were communally owned.
Individuals could own tools or equipment, however, and men traditionally owned tools and items related to hunting and fishing. Women possessed items related to the household.
Other homes of note were the summer brush-huts and the dance-house. The dance house had a dual purpose, and was used as a sweat-lodge as well. These structures were built in the manner of the bark homes, but larger.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.
Lake County Time Capsule: The Yuki Indians
- Kathleen Scavone
- Posted On