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{{Short description|Group of Native Americans}}
{{Redirect|Yahi|the tax collection supervisor|Yahia Ben Yahi III}}
{{redirect|Yahi|the tax collection supervisor|Yahia Ben Yahi III}}
{{refimprove}}
{{refimprove|date=May 2020}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = Yana
| image =
| image_caption =
| popplace = {{flag|California}}
| languages = [[English language|English]], formerly [[Yana language|Yana]]
| religions =
| related = Yahi
| footnotes =
}}

[[Image:Yana lang.png|thumb|225px|Pre-contact Yana territory]]
[[Image:Yana lang.png|thumb|225px|Pre-contact Yana territory]]
The '''Yana''' are a group of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] indigenous to [[Northern California]] in the central [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]], on the western side of the range. Their lands, prior to invasion, bordered the [[Yuba River|Yuba]] and [[Feather River|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]].<ref>{{cite AV media |people=Redding Rancheria |year=2013 |title=With the Strength of Our Ancestors |medium=film |url=http://www.redding-rancheria.com/tribal-documentary.php |accessdate=2013-09-27 |location=United States}}</ref>
The '''Yana''' are a group of [[Native Americans in the United States|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 River|Pit]] and [[Feather River|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]].<ref>{{cite AV media |people=Redding Rancheria |year=2013 |title=With the Strength of Our Ancestors |medium=film |url=http://www.redding-rancheria.com/tribal-documentary.php |access-date=September 27, 2013 |location=United States}}</ref>


==Etymology==
==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 [xi] in the southern dialects.
The Yana-speaking people comprise four groups: the North Yana, the Central Yana, the Southern Yana, and the Yahi, of which two - the Central and Southern - remain. The noun stem ''Ya''- means "person"; the noun suffix is -''na'' in the northern Yana dialects and -''hi'' [xi] in the southern dialects.


==History==
==History==
{{further|Population of Native California}}
{{further|Population of Native California}}
The anthropologist [[Alfred L. Kroeber]] put the 1770 population of the Yana at 1,500,<ref>Kroeber, p.883</ref> and [[Sherburne F. Cook]] estimated their numbers at 1,900 and 1,850,<ref>Cook, 1976a:177, 1976b:16</ref> while other estimates of the total Yana population before the Gold Rush exceed 3,000. They lived on wild game, salmon, fruit, acorns and roots.<ref>Pritzker, Barry M. (2000). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxWJVc4ST0AC&pg=PA156 ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''], p. 156. Oxford University Press.</ref> Their territory was approximately 2400 square miles, or more than 6000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>, and contained mountain streams, gorges, boulder-strewn hills, and lush meadows. Each group had relatively distinct boundaries, dialects and customs.<ref name="NPS">[http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views1h39.htm "Ishi's Hiding Place", Butte County], ''A History of American Indians in California: HISTORIC SITES'', National Park Service, 2004, accessed 5 Nov 2010</ref>
Anthropologist [[Alfred L. Kroeber]] put the 1770 population of the Yana at 1,500,<ref>Kroeber, p.883</ref> and [[Sherburne F. Cook]] estimated their numbers at 1,900 and 1,850.<ref>Cook, 1976a:177, 1976b:16</ref> Other estimates of the total Yana population before the [[Gold Rush]] exceed 3,000. They lived on wild game, salmon, fruit, acorns and roots.<ref>Pritzker, Barry M. (2000). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxWJVc4ST0AC&pg=PA156 ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''], p. 156. [[Oxford University Press]].</ref>


Their territory was approximately 2,400 square miles, or more than 6,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>, and contained mountain streams, gorges, boulder-strewn hills, and lush meadows. Each group had relatively distinct boundaries, dialects and customs.<ref name="NPS">[http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views1h39.htm "Ishi's Hiding Place", Butte County] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060716172531/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views1h39.htm |date=July 16, 2006 }}, ''A History of American Indians in California: HISTORIC SITES'', National Park Service, 2004, accessed November 5, 2010</ref>
After [[James W. Marshall]] [[California gold rush|discovered gold]] in 1848, tens of thousands of gold-miners and ranchers flocked into Yana territory. Yana territory was seized, especially the lands around the Yuba and Feather rivers, where the Yana fished for salmon, a major source of food.<ref name="WAC"/> The food supply dropped dramatically, as gold mining damaged the streams and fish runs, and deer fled the crowded area.


==Yahi==
==Yahi==
The Yahi were the southernmost portion of the Yana.<ref name="WAC">{{cite web|url=http://www.weareca.org/index.php/en/era/precontact/yana_yahi.html|title=We Are California: The Yana/Yahi People|last=|first=|date=|website=California Humanities|publisher=|access-date=|accessdate=November 16, 2014}}</ref> They were [[hunter-gatherer]]s who lived in small egalitarian bands without centralized political authority, and were reclusive and fiercely defended their territory of mountain canyons. The Yahi initially numbered around 400.<ref name="Guns Germs & Steel">{{citation |title=[[Guns, Germs, and Steel]] |last=Diamond |first=Jared |authorlink=Jared Diamond |year=1997 |page=374 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |location=New York |isbn=0-393-31755-2}}.</ref>
The Yahi were the southernmost portion of the Yana.<ref name="WAC">{{cite web |title=We Are California: The Yana/Yahi People |url=http://www.weareca.org/index.php/en/era/precontact/yana_yahi.html |website=California Humanities |access-date=November 16, 2014}}</ref> They were [[hunter-gatherer]]s who lived in small [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] bands without [[centralized]] political authority, were reclusive and fiercely defended their territory of mountain canyons. The Yahi initially numbered around 400.<ref name="Guns Germs & Steel">{{citation |last=Diamond |first=Jared |author-link=Jared Diamond |title=[[Guns, Germs, and Steel]] |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |location=New York |year=1997 |page=374 |isbn=0-393-31755-2}}</ref>


The Yahi were the first Yana group to suffer from the [[Californian Gold Rush]], as their lands were the closest to the gold fields.<ref name="WAC"/> They suffered great population losses from the loss of their traditional food supplies and fought with the settlers over territory. They lacked firearms and armed white settlers intentionally committed [[genocide]] against them through multiple raids.<ref name="Guns Germs & Steel" /> The settlers were led by Indian hunter Robert Anderson, whose men launched two raids in 1865 which killed about seventy people combined. The massacre reduced the Yahi, who were already suffering from starvation, to a population of less than 100.<ref name="WAC"/>
The Yahi were the first Yana group to suffer from the [[Californian Gold Rush]], as their lands were the closest to the [[gold]] fields.<ref name="WAC"/> They suffered great population losses from the loss of their traditional food supplies and fought with the settlers over territory. They lacked [[Firearm|firearms]], and armed white settlers committed [[genocide]] against them in multiple raids.<ref name="Guns Germs & Steel" /> These raids took place as part of the [[California genocide|California Genocide]], during which the U.S. Army and vigilante militias carried out killings as well as the relocation of thousands of indigenous peoples in California.<ref>Robert K. Hitchcock, and Charles Flowerday. “Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence.” ''Humboldt Journal of Social Relations'', no. 42, Department of Sociology, Humboldt State University, 2020, pp. 69–85.</ref> The massacre reduced the Yahi, who were already suffering from starvation, to a population of less than 100.<ref name="WAC"/>


On August 6, 1866, seventeen settlers raided a Yahi village at dawn. In the same year, more Yahis were massacred when they were caught by surprise in a ravine. Around 1867, thirty-three Yahis were killed after being tracked to a cave north of [[Mill Creek (Tehama County)|Mill Creek]]. Finally around 1871, four cowboys trapped and killed about thirty Yahis in Kingsley cave.<ref name="Guns Germs & Steel" />
On August 6, 1865, seventeen settlers raided a Yahi village at dawn. In 1866, more Yahis were massacred when they were caught by surprise in a ravine. Circa 1867, 33 Yahis were killed after being tracked to a cave north of [[Mill Creek (Tehama County)|Mill Creek]]. Circa 1871, four [[Cowboy|cowboys]] trapped and killed about 30 Yahis in Kingsley cave.<ref name="Guns Germs & Steel" />


===Ishi===
===Ishi===
{{main|Ishi}}
{{main|Ishi}}
[[File:Ishi 1914.jpg|thumb|225px|Ishi, the last known survivor of the Yahi.]]
[[File:Ishi 1914.jpg|thumb|225px|Ishi, the last known survivor of the Yahi]]
The last known survivor of the Yahi was named [[Ishi]] by American anthropologists. Ishi had spent most of his life in hiding with his tribe members in the Sierra wilderness, emerging at the age of about 49, after the deaths of his mother and last relatives. He was the only Yahi known to European-Americans. Ishi emerged from the mountains near [[Oroville, California]] on August 29, 1911, having lived his entire life outside of the European-American culture.{{citation needed|date = October 2019}}
The last known survivor of the Yahi was named [[Ishi]] by American anthropologists. Ishi had spent most of his life hiding with his tribe members in the Sierra wilderness, emerging at the age of about 49, after the deaths of his mother and remaining relatives. He was the only Yahi known to Americans. Ishi emerged from the mountains near [[Oroville, California]], on August 29, 1911, having lived his entire life outside of the settler-colonial culture.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ishi in Three Centuries|page=377|isbn=0-8032-2757-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFghGGXLJ7IC&pg=PA377 |last1=Kroeber |first1=Karl |last2=Kroeber |first2=Clifton B. |date=January 2003 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press }}</ref>

Professors from the [[University of California, Berkeley]], read about him and brought him to San Francisco both for study and for his protection. Called the "last wild Indian", he had been treated as a curiosity by the public. Under the auspices of the anthropologist [[Alfred Kroeber]], director of the Museum of Anthropology, Ishi lived there until his death from [[tuberculosis]] (then incurable) in 1916. [[Yana language|His language]] was studied in 1911 by the [[linguist]] [[Edward Sapir]], who had previously done work on the northern dialects.{{citation needed|date = October 2019}}


Ishi would teach Saxton T. Pope archery as referenced in Pope's book on archery by the last Yana Indian.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pope |first=Saxton T. (Saxton Temple) |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8084 |title=Hunting with the Bow & Arrow |date=2005-05-01 |language=English}}</ref>
By tribal custom, he was not to 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, although he made some later at the University of California. Tradition demanded that he never speak his name. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley gave him the name [[Ishi]], the Yana word for "man". He accepted this and adopted the term "Mr. Ishi" when he learned enough English. Ishi worked as a research assistant at the Museum of Anthropology. He taught [[Saxton Pope]], a professor at the medical school and his physician, how to make arrows and bows, and to hunt with them. Pope came to be considered to be the "father" of modern bow hunting, as he published extensively on techniques.{{citation needed|date = October 2019}}


==See also==
==See also==
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==Notes==
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
{{reflist}}


==References==
==References==
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==External links==
==External links==
*[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104531/ ''Ishi: The Last Yahi'' (1992), documentary], IMDB
*[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104531/ ''Ishi: The Last Yahi'' (1992), documentary], IMDB
*[http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moajrnl;cc=moajrnl;rgn=full%20text;idno=ahj1472.1-12.005;didno=ahj1472.1-12.005;view=image;seq=0408;node=ahj1472.1-12.005%3A4 [[Stephen Powers]], "Yana and local groups"], ''[[Overland Monthly]] Journal'', 1875, online at University of Michigan
*[http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moajrnl;cc=moajrnl;rgn=full%20text;idno=ahj1472.1-12.005;didno=ahj1472.1-12.005;view=image;seq=0408;node=ahj1472.1-12.005%3A4], ''[[Overland Monthly]] Journal'', 1875, online at University of Michigan
*[http://www.californiaprehistory.com/tribmap.html Map: "Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families, and Dialects of California region in 1770"], California Prehistory
*[http://www.californiaprehistory.com/tribmap.html Map: "Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families, and Dialects of California region in 1770"], California Prehistory


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{{Populations of Native California Groups}}
{{Populations of Native California Groups}}


{{authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


[[Category:Yana| ]]
[[Category:Yana people| ]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in California]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of California]]
[[Category:History of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.)]]
[[Category:History of the Sierra Nevada (United States)]]
[[Category:Extinct Native American tribes]]
[[Category:Extinct Native American peoples]]

Latest revision as of 01:00, 28 April 2024

"Yahi" redirects here. For the tax collection supervisor, see Yahia Ben Yahi III.

Yana
Regions with significant populations
 California
Languages
English, formerly Yana
Related ethnic groups
Yahi
Pre-contact Yana territory

The Yana are 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.[1]

Etymology[edit]

The Yana-speaking people comprise four groups: the North Yana, the Central Yana, the Southern Yana, and the Yahi, of which two - the Central and Southern - remain. The noun stem Ya- means "person"; the noun suffix is -na in the northern Yana dialects and -hi [xi] in the southern dialects.

History[edit]

Further information: Population of Native California

Anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber put the 1770 population of the Yana at 1,500,[2] and Sherburne F. Cook estimated their numbers at 1,900 and 1,850.[3] Other estimates of the total Yana population before the Gold Rush exceed 3,000. They lived on wild game, salmon, fruit, acorns and roots.[4]

Their territory was approximately 2,400 square miles, or more than 6,000 km2, and contained mountain streams, gorges, boulder-strewn hills, and lush meadows. Each group had relatively distinct boundaries, dialects and customs.[5]

Yahi[edit]

The Yahi were the southernmost portion of the Yana.[6] They were hunter-gatherers who lived in small egalitarian bands without centralized political authority, were reclusive and fiercely defended their territory of mountain canyons. The Yahi initially numbered around 400.[7]

The Yahi were the first Yana group to suffer from the Californian Gold Rush, as their lands were the closest to the gold fields.[6] They suffered great population losses from the loss of their traditional food supplies and fought with the settlers over territory. They lacked firearms, and armed white settlers committed genocide against them in multiple raids.[7] These raids took place as part of the California Genocide, during which the U.S. Army and vigilante militias carried out killings as well as the relocation of thousands of indigenous peoples in California.[8] The massacre reduced the Yahi, who were already suffering from starvation, to a population of less than 100.[6]

On August 6, 1865, seventeen settlers raided a Yahi village at dawn. In 1866, more Yahis were massacred when they were caught by surprise in a ravine. Circa 1867, 33 Yahis were killed after being tracked to a cave north of Mill Creek. Circa 1871, four cowboys trapped and killed about 30 Yahis in Kingsley cave.[7]

Ishi[edit]

Main article: Ishi
Ishi, the last known survivor of the Yahi

The last known survivor of the Yahi was named Ishi by American anthropologists. Ishi had spent most of his life hiding with his tribe members in the Sierra wilderness, emerging at the age of about 49, after the deaths of his mother and remaining relatives. He was the only Yahi known to Americans. Ishi emerged from the mountains near Oroville, California, on August 29, 1911, having lived his entire life outside of the settler-colonial culture.[9]

Ishi would teach Saxton T. Pope archery as referenced in Pope's book on archery by the last Yana Indian.[10]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Redding Rancheria (2013). With the Strength of Our Ancestors (film). United States. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  2. ^ Kroeber, p.883
  3. ^ Cook, 1976a:177, 1976b:16
  4. ^ Pritzker, Barry M. (2000). A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples, p. 156. Oxford University Press.
  5. ^ "Ishi's Hiding Place", Butte County Archived July 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, A History of American Indians in California: HISTORIC SITES, National Park Service, 2004, accessed November 5, 2010
  6. ^ a b c "We Are California: The Yana/Yahi People". California Humanities. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c Diamond, Jared (1997), Guns, Germs, and Steel, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, p. 374, ISBN 0-393-31755-2
  8. ^ Robert K. Hitchcock, and Charles Flowerday. “Ishi and the California Indian Genocide as Developmental Mass Violence.” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, no. 42, Department of Sociology, Humboldt State University, 2020, pp. 69–85.
  9. ^ Kroeber, Karl; Kroeber, Clifton B. (January 2003). Ishi in Three Centuries. U of Nebraska Press. p. 377. ISBN 0-8032-2757-4.
  10. ^ Pope, Saxton T. (Saxton Temple) (May 1, 2005). Hunting with the Bow & Arrow.

References[edit]

  • 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.
  • Johnson, Jerald Jay. 1978. "Yana" in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8 (California), pp. 361–369. Robert F. Heizer, ed. (William C. Sturtevant, general ed.) Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-004578-9/ISBN 0160045754.
  • 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.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yana_people&oldid=1221123437"