This small group, occupying the entire drainage of Bear River and the
coast near its mouth, has been fairly well documented by ethnographers.
Aside from linguistic material, our chief source, a paper by Nomland
(1938), gives as complete an account as could be obtained at such a late
date. Although some villages are noted by Goddard (1929), Nomland, and
Merriam, they do not appear to have been recorded by any of the scholars
in a systematic fashion. The village count therefore is probably not
complete.
The resources of the Bear River group are substantially the same as
those of the Mattole, except that the salmon run is smaller.
Merriam's information on the Bear River tribe is limited but it helps to
augment the data now in print (Nomland, 1938; Goddard, 1929). Merriam's
informant among these people was an old woman named Mrs. Prince. She
came from Bear River, but at the time Merriam spoke to her (July and
September, 1921) she was living at the Rohnerville Reservation. She used
to visit her granddaughter, Ethel Hecker, at Scotia.
Merriam gives the following brief note about these people.
Nek´-an-ni´ ... Athapaskan coast tribe formerly inhabiting
Cape Mendocino and adjacent region from Bear River Hills southward
to Mattole River, and reaching inland (easterly) to the headwaters
of the Bear River. [Nek´-an-ni´ was] their own name for themselves.