Yana people

The Yana are Hokan -speaking Californian Indians, who formerly lived on the western slopes and foothills of the Sierra Nevada in northern California. The Yana no longer exist as a tribal group, although there are still some survivors.

Residential area and language

The 100 km long and 60 km wide residential area of Yana in Northern California included the eastern tributaries of the upper Sacramento River, the Pit River in the north to the Feather River in the south. It was characterized by an infinite number of rocky hills and narrow, craggy canyons, which partly wooded, but were mostly covered with bushes and shrubs.

The language of the Yana is isolated within the Hoka - Sprachfamlie. There were four Yana departments, the northern, central, southern Yana and Yahi whose dialects were mutually intelligible. An essential characteristic of the Yana language was the use of separate expressions of men and women. The differences were small; but women used their words always, while men used the male form only to themselves and the female form in salutation of a woman.

The American anthropologist Alfred Kroeber estimated the population of the Yahi around 1770 to around 1,500 tribesmen. The combined population of Yana tribes before the California Gold Rush is estimated at about 3,000.

Culture

General life was hard in the harsh, barren environment. The Yana lived in earth-covered winter huts and thatched summer houses. They hunted various wild species caught salmon and gathered edible roots, acorns and wild fruits. Little is known about their social organization, except that they were divided into small groups and knew class or rank differences. The Yana were relatively warlike, a common trait among the hills of northern California residents. Although the individual groups shared a language, however, had different dialects and cultural traditions. In particular, the Yahi were independent and lived in a remote and inaccessible area. This fact protected them until the 19th century explorers and settlers.

History

In 1848, was found near the residential area of Yana gold, it came as everywhere in contact with the Native whites to conflict. The Yahi lived closest to the gold fields and had to lament the most losses. Prospectors and settlers streamed into the country of the Yana and blocked access to the rivers, such as Feather and Yuba River, from which the salmon wealth Yana lived. As a result, most Yana and Yahi died of malnutrition or have been victims of brutal attacks by the white settlers. 1865 had survived less than 100 Yahi. The Settlers intended not only to expel the Indians but to eradicate. 1871 fled the few surviving Yahi in the mountains, talking from now hidden in the wilderness of remote canyon for more than 40 years and disappeared from the memory of the white settlers. A few years later, of the last 100 Yahi only seven people left. This small group retreated into the almost inaccessible Deer Creek Valley, in order to survive.

The last known Yahi Ishi was. He was discovered in Oroville in 1911 by a sheriff. Ishi was brought to the Anthropology Museum of the University of California, Berkeley, where he now lived, and became famous. He helped the local anthropologists, Alfred Kroeber in particular, the study of the Yahi language and culture. The Yahi were the diseases of civilization of the white strangers and accordingly Ishi infected with tuberculosis. He died on 25 March 1916 at the Medical College of Parnassus. 1931, the Anthropological Museum was moved to Berkeley and is now merged into the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. The artifacts produced by Ishi are exhibited there.

Descendants of Yana now live in the Redding Rancheria Reservation in Northern California. In the U.S. census 2000 45 residents of the Rancheria were counted. In the Rancheria but also descendants live other tribes from the region.