- Okwanuchu
The Okwanuchu were one of a number of small Shastan-speaking tribes of Native Americans in
Northern California , who were closely related to the adjacent larger Shasta tribe. The Okwanuchu occupied territory south, southwest, and southeast of Mount Shasta, California, USA, including the present-day cities ofMount Shasta, California ,McCloud, California andDunsmuir, California , the upperSacramento River downstream to North Salt Creek, the Squaw Valley Creek drainage, and the upperMcCloud River downstream to where it meets Squaw Valley Creek.The Okwanuchu were speakers of the older
Hokan -speaking family of languages, with archaeological sites associated with their range dating back in excess of 5000 years. Members of thePenutian -speaking family of languages, especially theWintu , arrived in central Northern California in the vicinity ofRedding, California about 1200 years ago, likely from southern Oregon. The Wintu possessed superior technology, were out-competing their Hokan-language family neighbors, and were expanding Wintu territory at the expense of the Okwanuchu and theAchomawi to the north, and the Yana to the east. It appears likely that even if Europeans and Americans not intervened (beginning in the 1820s), the Wintu would have absorbed or otherwise eliminated the Okwanuchu over the course of the coming centuries.Anthropologist
Alfred L. Kroeber suggested in 1918 that the Okwanuchu had become extinct. Although their language was closely related to that of the main Shasta tribe, it contained some elements of Wintu and Achomawi. Very little is known about the location of their villages and settlements, or about their culture, other than a presumed similarity to their Shasta and Achomawi neighbors.External links
* [http://www.californiaprehistory.com/tribmap.html Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770] (map after Kroeber)
* [http://www.siskiyous.edu/shasta/nat/sha/ter.htm Shasta tribal information] ;
* [http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/shastan/shastaindiantribe.htm Shasta tribal information]References
*Kroeber, A. L., “Handbook of the Indians of California.” New York, Dover Publications, 1976. Reprint. (Written in 1918, originally published as Kroeber, A.L., "Handbook of the Indians of California" (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78, Washington, D.C., 1925), subsequently reprinted in 1953 and 1976).
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