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Hupa Indian Tribe
An
Athapascan tribe formerly occupying the valley
of Trinity river, California from south fork to its junction
with the Klamath, including Hupa valley. They were first
mentioned by Gibbs in 1852; a military post was established in
their territory in 1855 and maintained until 1892; and a
reservation 12 miles square, including nearly all the Hupa
habitat, was set apart in Aug. 1864. The population in 1888 was
given as 650; in 1900, 430; in 1905, 412. They are at present
self-supporting, depending on agriculture and stock raising.
When they first came in contact with the whites, in 1850, the Hupa were all under the control of a chief called Ahrookoos by
the Yurok (McKee in Sen. Ex. Doc. 4, 32d Cong.,
spec. sess., 161, 1853), whose authority is said to have
extended to other peoples southward along Trinity river. The
position of chief depended on the possession of wealth, which
usually remained in the family, causing the chieftainship to
descend from father to son. In feasts and dances a division of
the Hupa into two parts is manifest, but this division seems to
have no validity outside of religious matters. The tribe
occupied the following permanent villages: Cheindekhotding,
Djishtangading, Haslinding, Honsading, Howungkut, Kinchuwhikut,
Medilding,
Miskut, Takimilding, Tlelding, Toltsasding, and Tsewenalding.
Powers (Cont N. A. Ethnol., iii, 73, 1877)
gave Chailkutkaituh, Wissomanchuh, and Misketoiitok, which have
not been identified with any of the foregoing; Gibbs
(MS. on Klamath river, B. A. E., 1852), on information
furnished by the Yurok, gave Wangullewutlekauh, Wangullewatt,
Sehachpeya, and (Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes iii,
139, 1853) Tashuanta,Sokeakeit (Sokchit), and Meyemma.
The houses of the Hupa were built of cedar slabs set on
end, the walls being 4 ft high on the sides and rising to more
than 6 ft at the ends to accommodate the slope of the roof,
inclosing a place about 20 ft square, the central part of which
was excavated to form the principal chamber, which was about 12
ft square and 5 ft deep. The entrance was a hole 18 or 20 in. in
diameter and about a foot above the ground. This was the
storehouse for the family goods and the sleeping place of the
women. The men occupied sweat houses at night. The Hupa depended
for food on the deer and elk of the mountains, the salmon and
lamprey of the river, and the acorns and other vegetal foods
growing plentifully about them. They are noted for the beautiful
twined baskets produced by the women and the fine pipes and
implements executed by the men. The yew bows they used to make,
only about 3 ft long, strengthened with sinew fastened to the
back with sturgeon glue, were effective up to 75 yards and could
inflict serious wound at 100 yards.
Their arrows, made of syringa shoots wound with sinew, into
which foreshafts, of juneberry wood were inserted feathered with
three split hawk feathers and pointed with sharp heads of
obsidian, flint, bone, or iron, sometimes passed entirely
through a deer. The hunter, disguised in the skin of the deer or
elk, the odor of his body removed by ablution and smoking with
green fir boughs, simulated so perfectly the movements of the
animal in order to get within bowshot that a panther sometimes
pounced upon his back, but withdrew when he felt the sharp pins
that, for the very purpose of warding off such an attack, were
thrust through the man's hair gathered in a bunch at the back of
the neck. The Hupa took deer also with snares of a strong rope
made from the fiber of the iris, or chased them into the water
with dogs and pursued them in canoes. Meat was roasted before
the fire or on the coals or incased in the stomach and buried in
the ashes until cooked, or was boiled in water-tight baskets by
dropping in hot stones. Meat and fish were preserved by smoking.
Salmon were caught in latticed weirs stretched across the river
or in seines or poundnets, or were speared with barbs that
detached but were made fast to the pole by lines. Dried acorns
were ground into flour, leached in a pit to extract the bitter
taste, and boiled into a mush.
The men wore ordinarily a breechclout of deerskin or of
skins of small animals joined together, and leggings of painted
deerskin with the seam in front hidden by a fringe that hung
from the top, which was turned down at the knee. Moccasins of
deerskin with soles of elk hide were sometimes worn. The dance
robes of the men were made of two deerskins sewn together along
one side, the necks meeting over the left shoulder and the tails
nearly touching the ground. Panther skins were sometimes used.
The hair was tied into two clubs, one hanging down on each side
of the head, or into one which hung behind. Bands of deerskin,
sometimes ornamented with wood peckers' crests, were worn about
the head in dances, and occasionally feathers or feathered darts
were stuck in the hair. The nose was not pierced, but in the
ears were often worn dentalium shells with tassels of
woodpeckers' feathers. A quiver of handsome skin filled with
arrows was a part of gala dress, and one of plain buckskin or a
skin pouch or sack of netting was carried as a pocket for small
articles, Women wore a skirt of deerskin reaching to the knees,
with a long, thick fringe hanging below and a short fringe at
the waist. When soiled it was washed with the soap plant. At the
opening of the skirt in front an apron was worn underneath. The
skirts worn in dances were ornamented with strings of shell
beads, pieces of abalone shell, and Hakes of obsidian fastened
to the upper and of shells of pine nuts inserted at intervals in
the lower fringe. The apron for common wear was made of long
strands of pine-nut shells and braided leaves attached to a
belt. The dance aprons had strands of shells and pendants cut
from abalone shells. Small dentalium and olivella shells,
pine-nut shells, and small black fruits were strung for
necklaces. A robe of deerskin or of wildcat fur was worn with
the hair next to the body as a protection against the cold and
in rainy weather with the hair side out. The head covering was a
cap of fine basket work, which protected the forehead from the
carrying strap whereby burdens and baby baskets were borne.
Women, except widows, wore their hair long and tied in queues
that hung down in front of the ears, and were ornamented with
strips of mink skin, sometimes covered with woodpeckers' crests,
and shell pendants, and sometimes perfumed with stems of yerba
buena. From their ears hung pendants of abalone shell attached
to twine. All adult women were tattooed with vertical black
marks on the chin and sometimes curved marks were added at the
corners of the mouth.
The imagination of the Hupa has peopled the region
east, west, south, and above with mortals known as Kihunai. The
underworld is the abode of the dead. Their creator or culture
hero, Yimantuwingyai, dwells with Kihunai across the ocean
toward the north. A salmon feast is held by the southern
division in the spring and an acorn feast by the northern
division in the fall. They formerly celebrated three dances each
year: the spring dance, the white-deerskin dance, and the
jumping dance. They have a large and varied folklore and many
very interesting medicine formulas. See Goddard,
Life and Culture of the Hupa, Univ. Cal. Pub.,1903; Hupa Texts,
ibid., 1904.
Additional Athapascan Indian Resources
Source:
Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
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