Hupa

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A smoky day at the Sugar Bowl
Edward Curtis, photographer

The Hupa (also spelled Hoopa; Hupa: Natinixwe) are an Athabaskan tribe that inhabit northwestern California.

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) thought that the 1770 population of the Hupa was 1,000 and that the Chilula and Whilkut accounted for another 1,000. In 1943, Sherburne F. Cook (1976:170) proposed an aboriginal population of 1,000 for the Hupa and 600 for the Chilula. He subsequently suggested a population for the Hupa alone of 2,000 (Cook 1956:99-100). William J. Wallace (1978:176) felt that the latter estimate was "much too high", and allowed 1,000 for the Hupa, 500-600 for the Chilula, and 500 for the Whilkut.

Kroeber estimated the population of the Hupa in 1910 as 500.

Early history

Hupa are Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Athabaskan language family. Hupa tradition suggests that they lived in the Hoopa valley for over 4,000 years, but their language suggests that they are relatively recent immigrants from what is now western Canada.

Modern history

In the 19th century, they occupied the South Fork of the Trinity River to the Hoopa valley to the Klamath River in California. Their red cedar-planked houses, dugout canoes, basket hats, and many elements in their mythology identify them with the Northwest Coast culture, of which they are the southernmost representatives; however, some of their customs, the use of a sweat house for ceremonies and the manufacture of acorn bread, are not characteristic of that culture area.

In 1864, the U.S. government signed a treaty that recognized the Hupa tribe's sovereignty to their land. The United States called the reservation the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, where the Hupa now reside next to the territory of their neighbors, the Yurok at the connection of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers in northeastern Humboldt County. The reservation has a land area of 365.413 km² (141.087 sq mi) and a resident population of 2,633 persons in the 2000 census.

Culture

The Hupa's clothing was made from braided bear grass.

Notable Hupa Peoples

Sonoma State basketball team forward Thomas Ammon is of Hupa decent, and still has family living in the Hoopa Valley Reservation.

Language

Main article: Hupa language

See also

• Hupa traditional narratives
• Hupa language

References

• Cook, Sherburne F. 1956. "The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California". Anthropological Records 16:81-130. University of California, Berkeley.
• Cook, Sherburne F. 1976a. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization. University of California Press, Berkeley.
• Goddard, Pliny E. 1903. "Life and Culture of the Hupa". University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 1:1-88.
• Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.
• Wallace, William J. 1978. "Hupa, Chilula, and Whilkut". In California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 91-98. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• Hoopa Valley Reservation, California United States Census Bureau

External links

• Hoopa Valley Tribe
• San Francisco State University - Hupa

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