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Hupa ( Yurok language term: Huep'oola' / Huep'oolaa = "Hupa people") are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in northwestern California. Their
endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinook-wa, meaning "People of the Place Where the Trails Return". The Karuk name was Kishákeevar / Kishakeevra ("Hupa (Trinity River) People", from ''kishákeevar-sav'' = "Hupa River, i.e. Trinity River"). The majority of the tribe is enrolled in the federally recognized Hoopa Valley Tribe.


History

Hupa people migrated from the north into northern California around 1000 CE and settled in
Hoopa Valley, California Hoopa Valley (Tolowa: ''Xee-stin’'')) is a valley on the lower course of the Trinity River between the confluence of South Fork Trinity River and the Klamath River. The valley opens up above the confluence of Campbell Creek with the Trinity Rive ...
(Hupa: ''Natinook''). Their heritage language is
Hupa Hupa (Yurok language term: Huep'oola' / Huep'oolaa = "Hupa people") are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in northwestern California. Their endonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinook-wa, meaning "Peopl ...
, which is a member of the
Athabaskan language family Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific Co ...
. Their land stretched from the South Fork of the Trinity River to Hoopa Valley, to the
Klamath River The Klamath River (Karuk: ''Ishkêesh'', Klamath: ''Koke'', Yurok: ''Hehlkeek 'We-Roy'') flows through Oregon and northern California in the United States, emptying into the Pacific Ocean. By average discharge, the Klamath is the second larges ...
in California. Their red cedar-planked houses, dugout canoes, basket hats, and many elements of their
oral literature Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...
identify them with their northern origin; however, some of their customs, such as the use of a
sweat house A sweat lodge is a low profile hut, typically dome-shaped or oblong, and made with natural materials. The structure is the ''lodge'', and the ceremony performed within the structure may be called by some cultures a purification ceremony or simply ...
for ceremonies and the manufacture of acorn bread, were adopted from surrounding indigenous peoples of California. Close associated peoples - both by language and custom - were/are the Tsnungwe (South Fork Hupa), the Chilula (Lower Redwood Creek Hupa) and Whilkut (Redwood Creek Hupa). Hupa people had limited contact with non-native peoples until the 1849 Gold Rush brought an influx of miners onto their lands. In 1864, the United States government signed a treaty that recognized the Hupa tribe's sovereignty to their land. The United States called the reservation the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation (located at ), where Hupa people now reside, one of very few California tribes not forced from their homeland. The reservation is next to the territory of the Yurok at the connection of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers in northeastern Humboldt County. The reservation has a land area of . Hupa are involved in the talks to remove hydroelectric dams along the Klamath and Trinity rivers, and were a party to a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Marine Fisheries Service. On February 8, 2017 the federal district court judge ruled in favor of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the three other Klamath River fishing tribes, and other stakeholders. The judge agreed to plans designed by the Tribes' scientists to reduce outbreaks of a deadly fish disease that had infected 90% of juvenile salmon in 2014 and 2015.


Culture


Arts

Hupa people have been excelling at basketry and elk horn carving since the 17th century,
petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
s.


Ethnobotany

Traditionally, Hupa people have used the acorns of '' Notholithocarpus densiflorus'' to make meal, from which they would make mush, bread, biscuits, pancakes, and cakes. They also roast the acorns and eat them. They also use the dyed fronds of '' Woodwardia radicans'' for basketry. They also use ''
Xerophyllum tenax ''Xerophyllum tenax'' is a North American species of plants in the corn lily family. It is known by several common names, including bear grass, soap grass, quip-quip, and Indian basket grass. Ecology ''Xerophyllum tenax'' has flowers with si ...
'' to create a border pattern in baskets.


Fishing

Hupa, like many tribes in the area, fish for salmon in the
Klamath Klamath may refer to: Ethnic groups *Klamath people, a Native American people of California and Oregon **Klamath Tribes, a federally recognized group of tribes in Oregon *Klamath language, spoken by the Klamath people Places in the United States * ...
and Trinity rivers. One of the methods they once used to capture fish was the fish weir, which tribal members would maintain. Hupa share all of their fishing practices with the neighboring Yurok Tribe. Hupa tribal fishers and their families rely on the Spring and Fall Chinook Salmon runs. Acorns, once abundant, were a main staple until they grew scarce. Because Hupa were not located as close to the sea as their neighboring Yurok Tribe, they traded supplies with them, such as salt in exchange for baskets, or acorns for canoes.


Population

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber thought that the 1770 population of Hupa was 1,000 and that
Chilula Chilula (Yurok language term: Chueluela' / Chueluelaa' , ''Tsulu-la'', "People of Tsulu, the Bald Hill", locally known as the "Bald Hills Indians") were a Pacific Coast Athabaskan tribe speaking a dialect similar to the Hupa to the east and Whilku ...
and
Whilkut The Whilkut (variants: ''Whiylqit, Hwil'-kut, Hoilkut, Hoilkut-hoi'') also known as "(Upper) Redwood Creek Indians" or "Mad River Indians" were a Pacific Coast Athabaskan tribe speaking a dialect similar to the Hupa to the northeast and Chilula ...
accounted for another 1,000. Kroeber estimated the population of Hupa in 1910 as 500. In 1943,
Sherburne F. Cook Sherburne Friend Cook (1896-1974) was an American physiologist, who served as professor and chairman of the department of physiology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was notable as a pioneer in population studies of the native peopl ...
proposed an aboriginal population of 1,000 for Hupa and 600 for Chilula. He subsequently suggested a population for Hupa alone of 2,900. William J. Wallace felt that the latter estimate was "much too high", and allowed 1,000 for Hupa, 500–600 for Chilula, and 500 for Whilkut. The Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation has a resident population of 2,633 persons according to the 2000 census.


Reservations

Hupa descendants have since been incorporated mainly into the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation and another tribes: * Hoopa Valley Tribe ( Hoopa, Humboldt County, Population 2013: 3,139) (Hupa, Tsnungwe, Chimalakwe, Chilula, Whilkut) * Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria ( Trinidad, Humboldt County, Population 2011: 154) (Yurok, Wiyot, Tolowa sowie Chetco, Hupa und Karuk) * Blue Lake Rancheria ( Blue Lake, Humboldt County, Population 2010: 58) (Wiyot, Yurok, Hupa, Whilkut)


See also

* Hoopa, California—the name for the town ( Unincorporated community) in the Hupa Valley. The name was changed at various times related to the post office.


References


Sources

* * * * * * * *


Bibliographies


Hupa Bibliography
fro


External links

* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hupa Bald Hills War Federally recognized tribes in the United States Native American tribes in California