The
Yana people were a group of
Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
indigenous to
Northern CaliforniaNorthern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose , Sacramento , as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern California coast, the Big Sur coastline area, the Sierra Nevada...
in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the western side of the range. The Yana people comprised four groups: the
Northern Yana, the
Central Yana, the
Southern Yana, and the
Yahi. The noun stem
Ya- means
person and the noun suffix is
-na in the northern dialects and
-hi [xi] in the southern dialects.
The
Yana people were a group of
Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
indigenous to
Northern CaliforniaNorthern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose , Sacramento , as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern California coast, the Big Sur coastline area, the Sierra Nevada...
in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the western side of the range. The Yana people comprised four groups: the
Northern Yana, the
Central Yana, the
Southern Yana, and the
Yahi. The noun stem
Ya- means
person and the noun suffix is
-na in the northern dialects and
-hi [xi] in the southern dialects. Each group had relatively distinct boundaries, dialects and customs. Both groups are now extinct as functional tribes, though some individuals still survive.
The Yana people lived on wild game, fished salmon, fruit, acorns and roots. Their territory was approximately 40 miles by 60 miles and contained mountain streams, gorges, boulder-strewn hills, and some lush meadows.
History
When
James W. MarshallJames Wilson Marshall was an American carpenter and sawmill operator, whose discovery of gold in the American River in California on January 24, 1848 set the stage for the California Gold Rush...
discovered goldThe California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered by James Wilson Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000 men, women, and children coming to California from the rest of the United States and...
in 1848, the gold-miners and ranchers flocked into Yana territory, and the food supply changed dramatically. The tribe suffered great loss and fought with the settlers. By 1865, there were fewer than 50 Yahi combined. The Three Knolls Massacre of 1865 left only 30 survivors. The remaining Yahi retreated after the 1865 massacre and concealed their existence in the mountain wilderness for over 40 years.
Population
Alfred L. KroeberAlfred Louis Kroeber was one of the most influential figures in American anthropology in the first half of the twentieth century....
put the 1770 population of the Yana at 1,500.
Sherburne F. CookSherburne Friend Cook was a physiologist by training, and served as professor and chairman of the department of physiology at the University of California, Berkeley...
estimated their numbers at 1,900 and 1,850.
Yahi
The Yahi were the southern portion of the Yana people. They were
hunter-gathererA hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either...
s who lived in small eglitarian bands without centralized political authority. They were reclusive, fiercely defending their diminishing territory of mountain canyons.
The last known survivor of this people was from the Yahi tribe. Tribal custom demanded that he never reveal his name to an enemy. Rather, one would be introduced by a friend, and then the name could be offered. Since he was the last of his people, he had no friends - though he made some friends later. Still, tradition demanded that he never speak his name until he died. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley gave him the name
IshiIshi was the pseudonym of the last member of the Yahi, in turn the last surviving group of the Yana people of California. Ishi is believed to be the last Native American in Northern California to have lived most of his life completely outside the European American culture...
, the Yana word for "man". He accepted this name and even went by the name "Mr. Ishi" when he learned enough to speak pidgin English. Ishi taught his physician
Saxton PopeSaxton Temple Pope was an American doctor, teacher, author and outdoorsman. He is most famous as the father of modern bow hunting, and for his close relationship with Ishi, the last member of the Yahi tribe and the last known American Indian to be raised outside of Western influence.-Early...
who is considered to be the father of modern bow hunting how to make arrows and bows and to hunt.
He had spent his life in hiding with his tribe members in the Sierra wilderness. He was the most famous Yahi, indeed the only one known to us. Ishi emerged from the mountains near
Oroville, CaliforniaOroville is the county seat of Butte County, California. The population was 13,004 at the 2000 census, and it is one of the faster growing towns in California, with an 11.9% increase in population from 2000 to June 2007. The national average population increase is less than one percent...
on August 29, 1911 after the last of his family died, having lived his entire life outside of the European-American culture. Known as the
"last wild Indian", Ishi was taken to the University of California, Berkeley for study and for his protection, where under the auspices of Alfred Kroeber he lived in and near the Museum of Anthropology in evident contentment until his death from
tuberculosisTuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria...
in 1916. His language was recorded and studied in 1911 by
Edward SapirEdward Sapir , was a German-born American anthropologist-linguist and a leader in American structural linguistics. He was one of the creators of what is now called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis...
, who had previously done work on the northern dialects.
External links