As stated earlier in the discussion of boundaries (p. 164) I have,
following Merriam's data, assigned the Whilkut different territory than
has heretofore been customary. In the present scheme they occupy the
drainage of Mad River from the mouth of North Fork Mad River to the
mouth of Bug Creek, the drainage of North Fork Mad River, and all the
drainage of Redwood Creek above the lower ten miles. The subdivisions of
the Whilkut are: Chilula Whilkut (Kroeber's Chilula) on lower Redwood
Creek, Kloki Whilkut (part of Kroeber's Whilkut) on upper Redwood Creek,
Mad River Whilkut (part of Kroeber's Whilkut) on Mad River above the
mouth of North Fork, and North Fork Whilkut (part of Kroeber's Wiyot) in
the drainage of North Fork Mad River.
Goddard (1914_a_) and Merriam together give a fairly complete picture of
the organization of villages and subgroups of the Whilkut but aside from
this we have next to nothing in the way of ethnographic information.
They were evidently closely akin to the Hupa in both language and
culture. With the Hupa they form a dialect group as against the Tolowa
on the north and the other California Athabascan groups on the south.
The territory of the Whilkut lies in the dense redwood forest of the
northern coast of California. Thus their economy was based primarily on
the produce of rivers, and this fact is reflected in the placement of
their villages.
Merriam has left a relatively complete record of his visits to the group
which I am calling Whilkut and which he called Hoil´-kut or How´-wil-kut
and M[=a]´-we-n[)o]k. (Merriam uses various spellings.) His first visit
to these people was in 1910. The following account is taken from his
California Journals for September 15, 1910.
Talked with several Indians at Blue Lake. The boundary between
the Pah-te-waht [Wiyot] of Lower Mad River, and the 'Hoil´-kut or
Ho-il-let-ha of Redwood Valley lies along North Fork of Mad River
near its mouth, between Korbel and Blue Lake. The Pah-te-waht I saw
today live on Mad River at Blue Lake (on south edge of town), while
the Hoi-let'ha live on the extreme northeast beyond the town and
cemetery.
Merriam's second visit there was in 1918 and the following quotation is
from the California Journals for August 11, 1918.
Sunday, August 11, 1918 was foggy and misty in the forenoon;
partly clear P.M. Took the early morning auto stage from Eureka
to Korbel, but got off between Blue Lake and Korbel and went on
an Indian hunt, landing back at Blue Lake without entering Korbel
proper at all. Returned to Eureka in afternoon.
Went particularly to get additional material from the Redwood
Creek Indians ('How´-wil-kut´-ka or 'HWilkut tribe) who were living
in this region when I was here in September 1910 (see Calif.
Journals, Vol. 1, 90-93, Sept. 15, 1910). Tried to find O'Haniel
Bailey and John Stevens of Redwood Creek, and Stevens' daughter
Laura, from whom I got much information before. After a fruitless
search over the old ground, learned that O'Haniel Bailey died
several years ago; that John Steven is visiting in Hoopa Valley,
and that his daughter Laura is married to a white man.
But after a while I found two old men of the same tribe, who
were born and raised at the Blue Lake rancheria 'Ko-tin´-net, the
westernmost village of the H[)a]-whil´-kut-k[=a] tribe. They call
themselves and their language by the same name, 'Ho-tin´-net [North
Fork Whilkut]. One is blind and both are old. The blind man's name
is Nelinjak; the other's Denbrook. They were eating breakfast of
fried potatoes, dried fish, and coffee in their poor old shack.
I got some good material from them and after some persuasion took
their photographs.
The blind one said he dreamed last night that a white man with
a book was coming to see them.
I got from them the names of some Pah-te-waht [Wiyot] villages
on lower Mad River and about Arcata.
Merriam's third visit to this group was in 1920. The following account
is from his notes.
About the middle of September, 1920, I visited the site of the
old Hoilkut rancheria called T'chil-kahn´-ting (or T'ch-kahn´-ting)
on the east side of Redwood Creek near the Berry ranch, about a
quarter of a mile below the highway bridge on the road from Arcata
to Willow Creek and Hoopa. It was then abandoned, the Indians
having established another village on higher ground about a mile
below, and like the old one, on the east side of the river.
The old site is on an open sand and gravel bar or flat a
little above high water mark and very near the river. The living
houses were square--never round. The house excavations were
about two feet deep. The excavation for the ceremonial house
("sweathouse") was sixteen or eighteen feet across and deeper than
the others, averaging about three feet below the surface. The
ground floor within was covered with large flattish pebbles. The
building had fallen but I was told that it had a low gabled roof,
with entrance toward the river (on the west side). Under the north
end and still plainly visible was a ditch or flume to supply air
and for a draft when starting the fire. The fireplace was in the
middle.
The graveyard is on the downstream end of the same flat.
The flat is in a forest of Douglas spruce, black and white
oaks, maples, tree alders, and dogwood, with a dense undergrowth
of hazel, spirea (_Spirea douglasii_), syringa (_Philadelphus
lewisii_), huckleberry (_Vaccinium ovatum_), and the wild lilac
(_Ceanothus integerrimus_). The "three-leaf" or "deer-foot"
also called "sweet after death" (_Achlys triphylla_) is common
throughout the shady forest.
In the immediate neighborhood the large gray tree squirrel
(_Sciurus griseus_) was common, the big gray ground-squirrel
(_Citellus beecheyi_) was abundant, and a few red squirrels and
chipmunks were running about.
Ruffed grouse, mountain quail, and many pigeons were seen;
also crested jays, robins, and flickers.
A few days later I visited the modern inhabited rancheria,
nearly two miles below the bridge. It is on a rather steep slope
about 500 feet above the river.
Among the Indians present were two very old men, the Wilson
brothers, and a half-breed named Ned Woodward from Blue Lake, and
his wife, the former widow of Nathaniel Bailey--with all of whom I
had worked in previous years. With their help I checked my former
vocabularies and added many words.
At Blue Lake during the latter part of October of the same
year I found a number of Indians, mainly Hoilkut, and obtained
additional material, including village names from Ned Woodward.
Worked also with others, especially the Hoilkut Chief, Frank Lowry,
and his wife. She is a full blood with the characteristic chin
tattooing consisting of three broad vertical bars with a narrow one
on each side between the middle and outer ones. [See fig. 1, _a_,
_b_ for different styles.] A married daughter had three children, a
tiny girl and two boys--one of three and the other five, both big
for their age.
Also of interest are Merriam's ideas about the position of the Whilkut
groups. The following excerpt, taken from his notes, is dated 1939, but
refers to a trip he made to Blue Lake in September, 1910.
M[=a]´-we-n[)o]k [Mad River Whilkut] ... An Athapascan
tribe on Mad River, reaching from the junction of North Fork
with main Mad River near Korbel (where they came in contact with
the Pah´-te´waht of Lower Mad River [a Wiyot subgroup] and the
h'Whilkut of North Fork and Redwood Valley) upstream (southward)
for many miles to the ranch of a white man named John Ahlgren,
where their territory ended. This is on or near Bug Creek.
It was told me by a h'Whilkut ('Hoilet´-hah) who stated
further that the M[=a]´-we-n[)o]k spoke a language so similar to
his own that he could understand most of their talk.
The statement in the last paragraph comes from an informant Merriam had
in Blue Lake in 1910. Merriam returned to the region in 1920 and at that
time spoke to a member of the Mad River Whilkut group itself. Presumably
the village list given for that group is derived from the second visit.
Merriam discusses the other Whilkut groups as follows.
The Hoil´-kut or Redwood Creek Indians (commonly called
Chilula, Hwilkut, or Whilkut) were until recent years one of the
dominant Athapaskan tribes of Humboldt County in northwestern
California.
Their territory consisted of the whole valley of Redwood Creek
and the adjacent mountains from a point on the creek 10 or 12 miles
above its mouth to Chaparral Mountain at the head of the creek, and
included also the North Fork of Mad River and a short stretch on
the north side of the main Mad River between Blue Lake and Korbel.
Their proper tribal name as spoken by themselves is
Hoi^{ch}-let´-kah or Ho-[=e]^{ch}-kut-k[)a], usually slurred
to Hoil´-kut. They also call themselves Ho-[=e]^{ch}-kut
kew-yahn´-ne-ahm, meaning Redwood Acorn eaters.
There are three divisions or subtribes, more or less distinct
according to the point of view: Upper Redwood, Lower Redwood, and
Blue Lakes or North Fork Mad River Indians. In their own language
they are:
1. The Ho-[=e]^{ch}-ke-e´-te (from Ho-[=e]^{ch}-kut,
"Redwood", and e´-te, "north"), the Northern or Lower Redwood
Indians [Chilula Whilkut], inhabiting the valleys and adjacent
slopes of Redwood Creek from its mouth upstream about 12 miles to
the Tom Blair Ranch at the junction of Minor Creek--a distance in
an air line of about 17.5 miles. Goddard thought this division was
the whole tribe and called it Chilula, adopting the term from the
Hoopa, Polikla [Yurok], and Nererner [Coast Yurok] Indians, who
however apply it in a wider sense to both upper and lower divisions
of the Redwood Creek tribe.
2. The Ho-[=e]^{ch}-ki´-e-nok (from Ho-[=e]^{ch}-kut,
"Redwood", and e´-nok, "south"), the Upper or Southern Redwoods
[Kloki Whilkut], inhabiting the valley of Redwood Creek from Minor
Creek (Tom Blair Ranch) up southerly to the head of the river, near
Chaparral Mountain--a distance in an air line of nearly 20 miles.
They also call themselves 'Klo-ke Ching´-ching-e´-nok, meaning
"Prairie place south."
3. The 'Ho^{ch}-tin´-net (or 'Ko-tin´-net), the Blue Lake and
North Fork Mad River Indians [North Fork Whilkut], inhabiting the
valley of North Fork Mad River from its head to Korbel and Blue
Lake, and separated from the other divisions by a continuous lofty
ridge 2,000 to 4,000 feet in altitude. At Blue Lake they had a
large village called Kaw-cho´-sish-tin-tang.
South of the 'Ho^{ch}-tin´-net are the M[=a]´-we-nok [Mad
R. Whilkut], a related Athapaskan tribe inhabiting the valley of
Mad River from the junction of North Fork near Korbel, southerly
(upstream) to the Algrehn Ranch on Bug Creek--a distance in a
straight line of about 21 miles. The 'Ho^{ch}-tin´-net and the
M[=a]´-we-nok say that their languages are so similar that either
can understand most of the words of the other.
The Hoilkut do not reach the coast, being separated from it by
a long mountain ridge, on the west side of which dwell two tribes
belonging to widely different linguistic stocks--the Nererner (the
southwestern division of the Polikla or Yurok) and the Pahtewaht
(the northern division of the Humboldt Bay Soolahteluk [Wiyot]).
The Hoilkut say that the coast tribe they call Teswan (the
Nererner) owned the land fronting the ocean from Orick at the mouth
of Redwood Creek south to Trinidad and extending up Redwood Creek
for ten or twelve miles; and that farther south the Pahtewaht
of the coast and lower Mad River owned the country up to Blue
Lake--possibly to the mouth of North Fork Mad River--all of which
agrees with what I have been told by members of these tribes.
The Hoilkut state that their lowermost (northernmost)
villages, Ha-wung´-ah-kut and No-l[)e]´-tin, were ten or twelve
miles up from the mouth of the river. Below these they claim no
territory. Above, they had twenty-three permanent villages.
The language is uniform throughout Redwood Creek Valley except
for one or two slight differences of pronunciation. Thus the first
syllable of the tribal name as spoken by the Upper Redwoods is
Hoi´^{ch}; by the Lower Redwoods, Ho-[=e]^{ch}.