Yana people

Yana people

The Yana people were a group of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California 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 Marshall discovered gold 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. Kroeber put the 1770 population of the Yana at 1,500. [Kroeber, p.883] Sherburne F. Cook estimated their numbers at 1,900 and 1,850. [Cook, 1976a:177, 1976b:16]

Yahi

The Yahi were the southern portion of the Yana people. They were hunter-gatherers 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 San Francisco gave him the name Ishi, 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 Pope 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, California 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 in San Francisco 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 tuberculosis in 1916. His language was recorded and studied in 1911 by Edward Sapir, who had previously done work on the northern dialects.

ee also

* Yana language
* Yana traditional narratives
* Ishi

Notes

References

* Cook, Sherburne F. 1976a. "The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization". University of California Press, Berkeley.
* Cook, Sherburne F. 1976b. "The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970". University of California Press, Berkeley.
* Heizer, Robert F., and Theodora Kroeber (editors). 1979. "Ishi the Last Yahi: A Documentary History". 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.
* Kroeber, Theodora. 1961. "Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America". University of California Press, Berkeley.
* Sapir, Edward. 1910."Yana Texts". University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 1, no. 9. Berkeley: University Press. ( [http://www.archive.org/details/yanatexts00sapirich Online version] at the Internet Archive).

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104531/ "Ishi: The Last Yahi" on Imdb]
* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views1h39.htm Ishi's Hiding Place]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Yana traditional narratives — include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Yana people of the eastern Sacramento Valley and foothills of northeastern California.Yana oral literature belongs primarily to the central California tradition, but it also shows …   Wikipedia

  • Yana — Things and people known as Yana include:* Yana Gupta, an Indian model. * Yana (Buddhism), a Buddhist term (path). * Yana River, a river in eastern Russia. * Yana, Sierra Leone, a town in western Africa. * Yana, a part of Kisarazu city, Japan. *… …   Wikipedia

  • Yana Mintoff — is a peace activist, the daughter of Baroness Moyra De Vere Bentinck and the former Prime Minister of Malta, Dom Mintoff.In 1968, at the age of 17, Yana Mintoff, travelled to Czechoslovakia on her own, outraged by the Soviet occupation of that… …   Wikipedia

  • Yana (Buddhism) — For other uses, see Yana (disambiguation). Part of a series on Buddhism Outline · Portal History …   Wikipedia

  • Yana — /yah neuh/, n., pl. Yanas, (esp. collectively) Yana for 1. 1. a member of a North American Indian people who once resided in the eastern portion of the upper Sacramento River valley in California. 2. the now extinct Hokan language of the Yana,… …   Universalium

  • Yana language — The article is about a Californian language. For the Chinese city, see Yan an. Yana (also Yanan) is an extinct language isolate formerly spoken in north central California between the Feather and Pit rivers in what is now Shasta and Tehama… …   Wikipedia

  • Yana — noun 1. a member of an extinct North American Indian people who lived in northern California • Hypernyms: ↑Hokan, ↑Hoka 2. the Yanan language spoken by the Yana • Hypernyms: ↑Yanan …   Useful english dictionary

  • Dogon people — Dogon people, Mali Total population 400,000 to 800,000 Regions with significant populations …   Wikipedia

  • Toboso Yana — ] *Kuroshitsuji is a 2006 ongoing manga published in Square Enix s Monthly GFantasy magazine. It follows Sebastian Michaelis, butler of the twelve year old head of an English noble family Ciel Phantomhive, who carries out all of his master s… …   Wikipedia

  • Smart People — Dennis Quaid, lors du tournage du film au Carnegie Mellon University, à Pittsburgh (9 novembre …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”