While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Lutuamian Family. A linguistic family
consisting of two branches, the
Klamath and the
Modoc, residing in south
west Oregon east of the Cascade range and along the California
border. Their former boundary extended from the Cascades to the
headwaters of Pit and McCloud rivers, thence east to Goose lake,
thence north to lat. 44°, and thence west to the Cascades. The
more permanent settlements of the of family were on the shores
of Klamath lakes, Tule lake, and Lost river, the remainder of
the territory which they claimed being hunting ground. In
1864 both divisions of the family entered into a treaty with the
United States whereby ceded the greater part of their
lands to the Government and were placed on
Klamath
Reservation in Oregon. It was an attempt on the part of the
Modoc to return to their former seat on the California frontier
that brought about the
Modoc war of 1872-73 (see
Kintpuash). The climate and productions of their country
were most favorable, edible roots and berries were plentiful,
and the region abounded in game and fish. As a consequence the
tribes were fairly sedentary and seem to have made no extensive
migrations. They were not particularly warlike, though the
Modoc had frequent
struggles with the tribes to the south, and after the coming of
the whites resisted the aggressions of the latter with
persistence and fierceness.
Slavery seems to have been an institution of long
standing, and the Modoc, assisted by the Klamath, made annual
raids on the Indians of Pit river for the capture of slaves,
whom they either retained for themselves or bartered with the
Chinook of Columbia
river. The habitations were formerly of logs, covered with mud
and circular in shape, a type of building which is still
occasionally seen on the reservation. The women were noted
as expert basket weavers. No trace of a clan or gentile system
has been discovered among them. The family organization is a
loose one and inheritance is in the male line. The language
spoken by two divisions of the Lutuamian family is ordinarily
called Klamath, and while there are dialectic differences
between the speech of the Klamath proper and the Modoc the are
so slight that they may be disregarded. The Lutuamian language
is apparently entirely independent, though further study may
disclose relationship with the Shahaptian.
