The Tolowa people or Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni’ are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethno-linguistic group. Two

ranchería The Spanish word ranchería, or rancherío, refers to a small, rural settlement. In the Americas the term was applied to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, native villages or bunkhouses. Anglo-Americans adopted the term with both these meaning ...

s (Smith River and Elk Valley) still reside in their traditional territory in northwestern California. Those removed to the Siletz Reservation in Oregon are located there. Related to current locations, Tolowa people are members of several

federally recognized tribes This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation The Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation, previously known as Smith River Rancheria, is a federally recognized tribe of Tolowa people in Del Norte County, California.Elk Valley Rancheria The Elk Valley Rancheria is a ranchería and federally recognized tribe of Tolowa and Yurok people. It is located in the census-designated place of Bertsch-Oceanview, Del Norte County, California, just east of Crescent City. As of the 2010 Cen ...

(Tolowa and Yurok),

Confederated Tribes of Siletz The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in the United States is a federally recognized confederation of more than 27 Native American tribes and bands who once inhabited an extensive homeland of more than 20 million acres from northern Califo ...

(more than 27 native tribes and bands, speaking 10 distinct languages, including Athapascans speaking groups of SW Oregon, like Upper Umpqua, Coquille, Tututni, Chetco, Tolowa, Galice and Applegate River people),

Trinidad Rancheria Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in t ...

(Chetco, Hupa, Karuk, Tolowa, Wiyot, and Yurok),

Big Lagoon Rancheria The Big Lagoon Rancheria is a federally recognized tribe of Yurok tribe, Yurok and Tolowa Indians. They are located in Humboldt County, California, and their tribal headquarters is in Arcata, California. Government The tribe was first recognized ...

(Yurok and Tolowa),

Blue Lake Rancheria The Blue Lake Rancheria is a federally recognized tribe of Wiyot, Yurok, and Hupa Indians located northwest of the city of Blue Lake in Humboldt County, California, on approximately .

(Wiyot, Yurok, and Tolowa) as well as the unrecognized Tolowa Nation.California Indians and Their Reservations.
''San Diego State University Library and Information Access.'' 2009 (retrieved 8 April 2009)

History

Their homeland, Taa-laa-waa-dvn (“Tolowa ancestral-land”) lies along the Pacific Coast between the watersheds of Wilson Creek and Smith River (Tolowa-Chetco: ''Xaa-wun-taa-ghii~-li'', ''Xaa-wvn’-taa-ghii~-li~'', or ''Nii~-li~'') basin and vicinity in Del Norte in northwestern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The area is bounded by the California/Oregon border to the north, and Wilson Creek, north of the

Klamath River The Klamath River (Karuk language, Karuk: ''Ishkêesh'', Klamath language, Klamath: ''Koke'', Yurok language, Yurok: ''Hehlkeek 'We-Roy'') is a long river in southern Oregon and northern California. Beginning near Klamath Falls, Oregon, Klama ...

(Tolowa-Chetco: ''Tʽáˑtʃʽɪᵗˑʼdɜn'') in California, to the south. They lived in approximately eight permanent villages on present-day Crescent City Harbor and

Lake Earl Lake Earl is a lagoon on the extreme northern California coast, just south of the Oregon border. A navigable body of water, it lies partly within Tolowa Dunes State Park and partly within Lake Earl Wildlife Area in Del Norte County, California ...

(Tolowa-Chetco: ''Ee-chuu-le' '' or ''Ch'uu-let'' - "large body of water"). The most important Tolowa village is

Yontocket, California Yontocket (Tolowa: ''Yan’-daa-k’vt'') is an unincorporated community in Del Norte County, California located west-southwest of Smith River, at an elevation of 26 feet (8 m) alongside Yontocket Slough.Michael Love and AssociatesPDF:Yontock ...

(Tolowa-Chetco: ''Yan’-daa-k’vt''). Their tribal neighbors were the Chetco (Tolowa-Chetco: ''Chit Dee-ni’'' or ''Chit-dv-ne' '', also: ''Chit-dee-ni / Chit-dee-ne''),

Tututni The Tututni tribe is a historic Native American tribe, one of Lower Rogue River Athabascan tribes from southwestern Oregon who signed the 1855 Coast Treaty, and were removed to the Siletz Indian Reservation in Oregon. They traditionally lived a ...

(Tolowa-Chetco: ''T’uu-du’-dee-ni’'' or ''Ta-́a te ́ne'', also: ''Tu-́tutûn t̟ûn-nĕ'') to the north;

Shasta Costa The Shasta Costa (also known as the Chasta Costa, Shastacosta, Chastacosta, Shastao-Skoton, Shista-Kkhwusta or Shistakwasta) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe, one of Tututni people, Lower Rogue River Athabascan tr ...

(Tolowa-Chetco: ''Shis-taa-k'wvs-sta-dv-ne'' or ''See-staa-k’wvt-sta Dee-ni’''),

Takelma The Takelma (also Dagelma) are a Native American people who originally lived in the Rogue Valley of interior southwestern Oregon. Most of their villages were sited along the Rogue River. The name ''Takelma'' means "(Those) Along the River". H ...

(Tolowa-Chetco: ''Ghan’-ts’ii-ne''), Galice Creek / Taltushtuntede (Tolowa-Chetco: ''Talh-dash-dv-ne' '') to the northeast, all of which were removed to the Siletz Reservation, and

Karuk The Karuk people ()Andrew Garrett, Susan Gehr, Erik Hans Maier, Line Mikkelsen, Crystal Richardson, and Clare Sandy. (November 2, 2021) ''Karuk; To appear in The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide (De G ...

(Tolowa-Chetco: ''Ch'vm-ne Dee-ni' '', also: ''Ch’vm-ne Xee-she’ '') to the east; and the

Yurok The Yurok people are an Algic-speaking Indigenous people of California that has existed along the or "Health-kick-wer-roy" (now known as the Klamath River) and on the Pacific coast, from Trinidad south of the Klamath’s mouth almost to Cresc ...

(Tolowa-Chetco: ''Dvtlh-mvsh'', also: ''Dvtlh-mvsh Xee-she’ '') to the south. The name "Tolowa" is derived from ''Taa-laa-welh (Taa-laa-wa),'' an

Algic The Algic languages (also Algonquian–Wiyot–Yurok or Algonquian–Ritwan) are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian subfamily, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to ...

name given to them by the Yurok (Klamath River People) (meaning "people of Lake Earl"). Their autonym is Hush, Xus or Xvsh, meaning "person" or "human being".Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. , p. 147 The neighboring Karuk called them ''Yuh'ára'', or ''Yurúkvaarar'' ("Indian from downriver") and used this

name also for the Yurok, and the Tolowa territory ''Yuh'aráriik / Yuh'ararih'' (″Place of the Downriver Indians″). Today the Karuk use also the term ''Imtípaheenshas'' (from ''Imtipahéeniik'' - ″Tolowa Indian place, i.e.

Crescent City, California Crescent City ( Tolowa: ''Taa-’at-dvn''; Yurok: ''Kohpey''; Wiyot: ''Daluwagh'') is the only incorporated city in Del Norte County, California, of which it is also the county seat. The city is on the North Coast of California and had a tota ...

″). They called themselves in a political sense also Dee-ni’ , Dee-ne, Dvn-’ee, Dee-te which means "(is a)

citizen Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality ...

of a ''yvtlh-’i~'' (

polity A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any group of people org ...

)" or "a person belonging to a place or village." The Tolowa or Dee-ni’ population exceeded 10,000. In the 19th century, epidemics of new

infectious diseases infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

, such as

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

, broke out among the Tolowa, resulting in high mortality. These occurred before they had face-to-face encounters with non-natives because of contact through intermediaries. In 1828 the American

Jedediah Smith Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartography, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western Unit ...

and his exploration party were the first known non-natives to contact the Tolowa. The Tolowa embraced the

Ghost Dance The Ghost Dance (, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) is a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the millenarian teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilson), pro ...

religion from 1872 to 1882, in hopes of getting relief from European-American encroachment.

Genocide

In 1770 the Tolowa had a population of 1,000; their population soon dropped to 150 in 1910; this was almost entirely due to deliberate mass murder in what has been called genocide which has been recognized by the state of California. In a speech before representatives of Native American peoples in June 2019, California governor

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...

apologized for the genocide. Newsom said, "That’s what it was, a genocide. No other way to describe it. And that’s the way it needs to be described in the history books." Among these killings the Yontoket Massacre left 150 to 500 Tolowa people recorded dead. Because their homes had burned down, the place received the name "Burnt Ranch". The Yontoket massacre decimated the cultural center of the Tolowa peoples. The natives from the surrounding areas would gather there for their celebrations and discussions. The survivors of the massacre were forced to move to the village north of Smith's River called Howonquet. The slaughtering of the Tolowa people continued for some years. They were seemingly always caught at their Needash celebrations. These massacres caused some unrest which led in part to the Rogue River Indian war. Many Tolowa people were incarcerated at Battery Point in 1855 to withhold them from joining an uprising led by their chief. In 1860, after the Chetco/ Rogue River War, 600 Tolowa were forcibly relocated to

Indian reservation An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...

s in Oregon, including what is now known as the

Siletz Reservation The Siletz Reservation is a 5.852 sq mi (15.157 km2) Indian reservation in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States, owned by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. The reservation is made up of numerous non-contiguous parcels of land in east-centr ...

in the Central Coastal Range. Later, some were moved to the Hoopa Valley Reservation in California. Adding to the number of dead from the Yontoket Massacre and the Battery Point Attack are many more in the following years. These massacres included the Chetko Massacre with 24 dead, the Smith creek massacre with 7 dead, the Howonquet Massacre with 70 dead, the Achulet massacre with 65 dead (not including those whose bodies were left in the lake) and the Stundossun Massacre with 300 dead. In total, 902 Tolowa Native Americans were killed in 7 years. There are no records that any of the perpetrators were ever held accountable. This means over 90% of the entire Tolowa population was killed in deliberate massacres.

Language

They have traditionally spoken Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni' Wee-ya' (Tolowa Dee-ni' Language), the

Tolowa language The Tolowa language (also called Chetco-Tolowa, or Siletz Dee-ni) is a member of the Pacific Coast Athabaskan, Pacific Coast subgroup of the Athabaskan languages, Athabaskan language family. Together with three other closely related languages (Lo ...

, one of the

Athabaskan languages Athabaskan ( ; also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large branch of the Na-Dene languages, Na-Dene language family of North America, located in western North America in three areal language ...

. At the

in central Oregon, tribes speaking 10 distinct languages were brought together in the mid-19th century. In the early 21st century, the remaining native language spoken is known as Siletz Dee-ni, related to Tolowa, although many of the original tribes spoke

Salish languages The Salishan languages ( ), also known as the Salish languages ( ), are a family of languages found in the Pacific Northwest in North America, namely the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Ida ...

. In 2007, in coordination with the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, the

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in the United States is a federally recognized confederation of more than 27 Native American tribes and bands who once inhabited an extensive homeland of more than 20 million acres from northern Calif ...

produced a "talking dictionary" in this language to aid in preservation and teaching."Guide to using the Siletz Dictionary" by Amy Smolek, in Anderson, Gregory D.S. and K. David Harrison. (2007) ''Siletz Talking Dictionary,'' Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages; accessed 25 November 2016
/ref> Alfred "Bud" Lane, among the last fluent native speakers of Siletz Dee-ni on the reservation, has recorded 14,000 words of the language in this effort.

Culture

The Tolowa organized their subsistence around the plentiful riverine and marine resources and acorns (san-chvn). Their society was not formally stratified, but considerable emphasis was put on personal wealth. Tolowa villages were organized around a headman and usually consisted of related men, in a

patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

kinship system In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says tha ...

, where inheritance and status passed through the male line. The men married women in neighboring tribes. The brides were usually related (sisters), in order for the wealth to remain in the paternal families.

Population

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Various estimates for the 1770 population of Tolowa have ranged from as low as 450 to an upper end around 2,400. Kroeber, A. L. 1925. ''Handbook of the Indians of California''. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C., p. 883 Cook, Sherburne F. 1943. ''The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization I: The Indian Versus the Spanish Mission''. Ibero-Americana No. 21. University of California, Berkeley, p. 170Cook, Sherburne F. 1956. "The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California". ''Anthropological Records'' 16:81-130. University of California, Berkeley, p.101 In 1910, there were reportedly 150 Tolowa. The 1920 census listed 121 Tolowa left in

Del Norte County, California Del Norte County ( Spanish for "Of The North") is a county located at the far northwest corner of the U.S. state of California, along the Pacific Ocean adjacent to the Oregon border. Its population was 27,743 as of the 2020 census, down from ...

. By 2009, there were approximately 1,000 Tolowa Indians.

Notes

External links

Elk Valley RancheriaOfficial Tolowa Tribe of the Smith River Rancheria website
*
Clinton Hart Merriam photograph collection, Images of Tolowa People
{{authority control Athabaskan peoples California genocide Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians Native Americans in Del Norte County, California Indigenous peoples of California Native American tribes in Oregon History of Del Norte County, California