The Nogatl People and Language

Eel River Athapaskan peoples.

Athabaskan languages in California.

The Eel River Athabaskans include the Wailaki, Lassik, Nongatl, and Sinkyone (Sinkine) groups of Native Americans that traditionally live in present-day Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt counties on or near the Eel River and Van Duzen River of northwestern California.

These groups speak dialects of the Wailaki language belonging to the Pacific Coast Athabaskan group of the Athapaskan language family which is prominently represented in Alaska, western Canada, and the southwestern U.S. Other related Athapaskan groups neighboring the Eel River Athapaskans included the Hupa-Whilkut-Chilula to the north, the Mattole on the coast to the west, and the Kato to the south.

The Whilkut, Nongatl and Lassik were essentially annihilated during the Bald Hills War in the 1860s.

Part of Wailaki are registered members of Round Valley Indian Tribes.

Nongatl

The Nongatl (Hupa word meaning ″Athapaskan to the south″) lived traditionally in the territory around the Van Duzen River, from its outlet on the Eel River to its headwaters near Dinsmore, California, and along Yager Creek and Larabee Creek (Elsasser 1978; Golla 2011). They had at least 35 villages.[1]

Wailaki Language (Sinkyone, Lassik, Nongatl, Eel River Athabaskan)

Wailaki is an Athabascan language of California. Though the Wailaki people are culturally most closely associated with the Wintu, their language was most similar to Hupa. Unfortunately there are no native speakers of Wailaki any longer, though Wailaki people still live together with Yuki, Cahto, and Maidu Indians on the Round Valley Rancheria. Three other California Athabaskan languages, Sinkyone, Lassik, and Nongatl, are usually considered dialects of Wailaki; Kato is thought by some linguists to have been a dialect of the same language, by others a closely related but distinct language of its own. Unfortunately the point is moot, as none of these languages is still spoken today.

• http://www.native-languages.org/wailaki.htm

=== Ethnobotany The Wailaki weave the roots and leaves of Carex into baskets and use the leaves to weave mats.[5]

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) proposed a 1770 population for the Nongatl, Sinkyone, and Lassik as 2,000, and the population of the Wailaki as 1,000. Sherburne F. Cook (1976) suggested a total of 4,700 for the Nongatl, Sinkyone, Lassik, Wailaki, Mattole, and Kato. Martin A. Baumhoff (1958) estimated the aboriginal populations as 2,325 for the Nongatl, 4,221 for the Sinkyone, 1,411 for the Lassik, and 2,760 for the Wailaki, or a total of 10,717 for the four Eel River Athapaskan groups.

Kroeber estimated the combined population of the Nongatl, Sinkyone, and Lassik in 1910 as 100, and the population of the Wailaki as 200.

Today, some Wailaki people are enrolled in the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California,[6] the Grindstone Indian Rancheria of Wintun-Wailaki Indians, and the Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation (formerly: Covelo Indian Community Yuki, Wailaki, Concow, Little Lake Pomo, Nomlacki, and Pit River peoples).[7]

Sources

• SOCIAL STUDIES FACT CARDS CALIFORNIA INDIANS - SOUTHERN ATHAPASKANS - Lassik, Mattole, Nongatl, Sinkyone, Wailaki
• California Athapascan Home Page - Basic Database Searching
• Chestnut, V. K., 1902, Plants Used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California, Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium 7:295-408., page 315
• California Indians and Their Reservations. Archived 2009-03-11 at the Wayback Machine San Diego State University Library and Information Access. 2009 (retrieved 27 July 2009)
• Baumhoff, Martin A. 1958. "California Athabascan Groups". Anthropological Records 16:157-238. University of California, Berkeley.
• Cook, Sherburne F. 1976. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization. University of California Press, Berkeley.
• Driver, Harold E. 1937. "Culture Element Distributions: X Northwest California". Anthropological Records 1:297-433. University of California, Berkeley. [Includes data on Nongatl.]
• Elsasser, Albert B. 1976. "Mattole, Nongatl, Sinkyone, Lassik, and Wailaki". In California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 190–204. Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8, William C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• Essene, Frank. 1942. "Culture Element Distributions: XXI Round Valley". Anthropological Records 8:197. University of California, Berkeley. [Includes data on Lassik.]
• Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C., Volume 1, Page 142-158
• Keter, Thomas S. All Those Things that You’re Liable To Read in the Ethnographic Literature They Ain’t Necessarily So, Paper Presented to The Society for California Archaeology, Modesto, California, March 13, 2009