The Okwanuchu were one of a number of small Shastan-speaking tribes of Native Americans in

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

, who were closely related to the adjacent larger Shasta tribe.

Geography

The Okwanuchu occupied territory south, southwest, and southeast of

Mount Shasta Mount Shasta ( ; Shasta people, Shasta: ''Waka-nunee-Tuki-wuki''; Karuk language, Karuk: ''Úytaahkoo'') is a Volcano#Volcanic activity, potentially active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California. A ...

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 ...

, including the present-day cities of

Mount Shasta, California Mount Shasta (also known as Mount Shasta City) is a city in Siskiyou County, California, United States, at about above sea level on the flanks of Mount Shasta, a prominent northern California landmark. The city is less than southwest of the s ...

McCloud, California McCloud is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Siskiyou County, California, United States. Its population is 945 as of the 2020 census, down from 1,101 from the 2010 census. Commerce and touris ...

and

Dunsmuir, California Dunsmuir is a city in Siskiyou County, California. It is on the upper Sacramento River. Its population is 1,707 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 1,650 from the 2010 United States census, 2010 census. Dunsmuir is curren ...

; on the upper

Sacramento River The Sacramento River () is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River D ...

downstream to North Salt Creek; in the Yet Atwam Creek drainage; and on the upper

McCloud River The McCloud River is a longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 10, 2011 river that flows east of and parallel to the upper Sacramento River, in Siskiyou County, Cal ...

downstream to where it meets Yet Atwam Creek. Anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber suggested in 1918 that the Okwanuchu had become extinct. Very little is known about the location of their villages and settlements, or about their culture, other than a presumed similarity to their Shasta and Achomawi neighbors. The archaeological sites associated with their range date back in excess of 5,000 years.

Language

The Okwanuchu were speakers of the Okwanuchu language, an older Hokan-speaking family of languages. Although their language was closely related to that of the

Shasta language The Shasta language is an extinct Shastan language formerly spoken from northern California into southwestern Oregon. It was spoken in a number of dialects, possibly including Okwanuchu. By 1980, only two first language speakers, both elderly, ...

of the main Shasta tribe, it contained some elements of Wintu and Achomawi. Members of the

Penutian Penutian is a proposed grouping of language family, language families that includes many Native Americans in the United States, Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington ( ...

-speaking family of languages, especially the

Wintu The Wintu (also Northern Wintun) are Native Americans who live in what is now Northern California. They are part of a loose association of peoples known collectively as the Wintun (or Wintuan). There are three major groups that make up the Wi ...

, arrived in central Northern California in the vicinity of

Redding, California Redding is a city in and the county seat of Shasta County, California, and the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, California, Sacrame ...

about 1200 years ago, likely from southern Oregon. The Wintu possessed superior technology, were out-competing their Hokan-language family neighbors, and were expanding Wintu territory at the expense of the Okwanuchu and the

Achomawi Achomawi (also Achumawi, Ajumawi and Ahjumawi) are the northerly nine (out of eleven) bands of the Pit River tribe of Palaihnihan Native Americans who live in what is now northeastern California in the United States. These 5 autonomous bands ( ...

to the north, and the

Yana Yana may refer to: Locations *Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma * Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India * Yana, Nigeria, an administrative c ...

to the east. It appears likely that even if Europeans and Americans not intervened (beginning in the 1820s), the Wintu would have absorbed or otherwise eliminated the Okwanuchu over the course of the coming centuries.

References

* Kroeber, A. L., “Handbook of the Indians of California.” New York, Dover Publications, 1976. Reprint. (Written in 1918, originally published as Kroeber, A.L., "Handbook of the Indians of California" (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78, Washington, D.C., 1925), subsequently reprinted in 1953 and 1976).

External links

Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770
(map after Kroeber)

siskiyous.edu

Access Genealogy {{authority control Indigenous peoples of California Shasta people History of Siskiyou County, California People from Siskiyou County, California Trinity Mountains (California)

Geography

Language

See also

References

External links