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Yahi People
The Yana were a group of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California in the central Sierra Nevada, on the western side of the range. Their lands, prior to encroachment by white settlers, bordered the Pit and Feather rivers. They were nearly destroyed during the California genocide in the latter half of the 19th century. The Central and Southern Yana continue to live in California as members of Redding Rancheria. Etymology The Yana-speaking people comprised four groups: the North Yana, the Central Yana, the Southern Yana, and the Yahi. The noun stem ''Ya''- means "person"; the noun suffix is -''na'' in the northern Yana dialects and -''hi'' iin the southern dialects. History Anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber put the 1770 population of the Yana at 1,500, and Sherburne F. Cook estimated their numbers at 1,900 and 1,850. Other estimates of the total Yana population before the Gold Rush exceed 3,000. They lived on wild game, salmon, fruit, acorns and roots. Their terri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yana Language
The Yana language (also Yanan) was formerly spoken by the Yana people, who lived in north-central California between the Feather and Pit rivers in what is now the Shasta and Tehama counties. The last speaker of the southernmost dialect, which is called Yahi, was Ishi, who died in 1916. When the last fluent speaker(s) of the other dialects died is not recorded. Yana is fairly well documented, mostly by Edward Sapir. The names ''Yana'' and ''Yahi'' are derived from ''ya'' "people" plus an obligatory suffix, ''-na'' in the northern two dialects and ''-hi'' or ''-xi'' in the southern two dialects. Regional variation There are four known dialects: * Northern Yana * Central Yana * Southern Yana * Yahi Northern Yana, Central Yana, and Yahi were well recorded by Edward Sapir through work with Betty Brown, Sam Batwi, and Ishi respectively. Only a small collection of words and phrases of Southern Yana (more properly, Northern Yahi) were recorded by Sapir in his work with Sam Batwi, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
