FOUR DIRECTIONS INSTITUTE

Karuk
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Ethnie: KARUK
Language: Karuk
Family: Shastan
Stock: Western Hokan
Phylum: Hokan
Macro-Culture: Northwestern Californian

 

 

 

 

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The Karuk were a sedentary hunter/gatherer tribe that relied heavily on salmon fishing. They were located on the middle course of the Klamath River and its tributaries from just above the Trinity to about the mouth of Bluff Creek. They suffered severely from the depredations of the gold rush miners.
Aboriginal Locations
Lower and Upper Karuk, totaling 36 villages
Present Locations
KARUK TRIBE, Happy Camp
Year History
1820 Visited by Hudson Bay Company traders, first contact with Whites
1850 Swarmed upon by miners
1852 Villages burned by whites, 15 killed; in all, 75 killed that year; Karuk fled but returned to claim lands when small gold claims played out
1871 Began practice of Ghost Dance
Year Population Source
2,700 Cook aboriginal estimate
1700 2,700 NAHDB calculation
1800 2,700 NAHDB calculation
1848 2,000 Cook estimate
1852 1,800 Cook estimate
1880 1,000 Cook estimate
1900 1,000 NAHDB calculation
1904 994 Per Kroeber
1910 775 Census
1930 755 Census
1948 24 Kennedy
1989 2,133 BIA
2000 2,300 NAHDB calculation
Other speakers of the same language:
None
Karuk Sites
The Gold Rush Legacy:  Greed, Pollution, and Genocide    http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/spring98/sp98g_wr.htm
The Karuk    http://www.csus.edu/org/natamer/karuk.htm
Karuk Acorn Soup Cooking Basket    http://www.manyhandsgallery.net/baskets/bas8.htm
Karuk Ceremonies - Klamath River    http://www.r5.fs.fed.us/klamath/vvc/water/klamathriver/karukklamath.html
Karuk Ceremonies - Salmon River    http://www.r5.fs.fed.us/klamath/vvc/water/salmonriver/karuksalmon.html
Karuk Cooking Basket    http://www.manyhandsgallery.net/baskets/bas9.htm

Karuk Fire Race Story    http://home.earthlink.net/~nativelit/coyote/coyofire.htm
Karuk Language    http://www.ncidc.org/karuk/
Karuk Lidded Gift Baskets    http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~rwj1/kar.html
Karuk Page  http://www.clipper.net/~mlenk/karuk/
Karuk Religion and Creation Stories    http://members.tripod.com/sawols/karukstories.html
Karuk Songs (downloadable)    http://www.ncidc.org/sounds/sndindex.htm
Karuk Tribal Design Works    http://www.woodguild.com/karukcdc/main.htm
Karuk Woman on a Horse    http://www.ncidc.org/photos/gallery3/85_5.htm
Karuk Work Hat    http://www.manyhandsgallery.net/baskets/bas5.htm
The Place of Writing in Preserving Oral Languages    http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/RIL_7.html

Copyright © 2000 by Four Directions Institute