Yurok (tribe)
 Yurok plank house
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|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (2010: 6,567 alone and in combination) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States ( California) |
|
| Languages | |
| English, Yurok | |
| Religion | |
| traditional tribal religion, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Wiyot people |
The Yurok, whose name means "downriver people" in the neighboring Karuk language (also called yuh'ára, or yurúkvaarar in Karuk), are Native Americans who live in northwestern California near the Klamath River and Pacific coast. Their autonym is Olekwo'l meaning "Persons." Today they live on the Yurok Indian Reservation, on several rancherias, including the Trinidad Rancheria, throughout Humboldt County. They are enrolled in seven different federally recognized tribes today. They ate lots of berries and meats, but whale meat was prized above others. Yuroks did not hunt whales, instead, they waited until a dead whale washed up onto the beach or place near the water and dried the flesh.
Traditionally, Yurok people lived in permanent villages along the Klamath River. Some of the villages date back to the 14th century. They fished for salmon along rivers, gathered ocean fish and shellfish, hunted game, and gathered plants. The major currency of the Yurok nations was the Dentalium shell. Alfred Kroeber wrote of the Yurok perception of the shell: "Since the direction of these sources is 'downstream' to them, they speak in their traditions of the shells living at the downstream and upstream ends of the world, where strange but enviable peoples live who suck the flesh of univalves."
Their first contact with non-Natives was when Spanish explorers entered their territory in 1775. Fur traders and trappers from the Hudson's Bay Company came in 1827. Following encounters with white settlers moving into their aboriginal lands during a gold rush in 1850, the Yurok were faced with disease and massacres that reduced their population by 75%. In 1855, following the Klamath and Salmon River Indian War the Lower Klamath River Indian Reservation was created by executive order. The Reservation boundaries included a portion of the Yurok's aboriginal territory and most of the Yurok villages. As a result, the Yurok people were not forcibly removed from their traditional homelands. They continue to live in these same villages today.
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Wikipedia