Achomawi

Achomawi basket-maker in 1923

The Achomawi (or Achumawi) were Native Americans who lived in northern California. They lived in the Pit River basin near Montgomery Creek in Shasta County to Goose Lake on the Oregon line. They were closely related to the Atsugewi.

The Achomawi spoke a Palaihnihan language.

Like other Northern Californians, the Achomawi lived by hunting and gathering. They lived in small groups with no centralized political authority.

Population

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.) Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) estimated the combined 1770 population of the Achomawi and Atsugewi as 3,000. A more detailed analysis by Fred B. Kniffen (1928) arrived at the same figure. T. R. Garth (1978:237) estimated the Atsugewi population at a maximum of 850, which would leave at least 2,150 for the Achomawi.

Kroeber estimated the combined population of the Achomawi and Astugewi in 1910 as 1,100. The population was given as about 500 in 1936.

See also

• Achumawi language
• Achomawi traditional narratives

External links

• Achumawi
• Achomawi - with many links
• Achomawi, Atsuwegi, & Shasta peoples
• Achumawi

References

• Garth, T. R. 1978. "Atsugewi". In California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 236-243. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• Kniffen, Fred B. 1928. "Achomawi Geography". University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 23:297-332.
• Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.

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