Athapascan Indians; Indians of North America -- California
_Sayings about birds._--Dove (_Zenaidura_). Called Mi-yo.
Mi-yo, the Dove, was a great gambler. He always gambled all winter.
Once when gambling someone told him that his grandmother was dead.
He said there would be plenty of time to cry next summer. So he
kept on playing. When summer came he cried for his grandmother. And
every summer we hear him crying for his grandmother.
Hummingbird. Called Ko-sos. Ko-sos, the Hummingbird, was a
war bird. His bill was like a long needle. With it he pierced his
enemies. Once he told another bird to start from one end of the
world and he would start from the other. They did this and met in
the middle where they danced.
_Notes on adjacent tribes._--Yin´-nah´-chin ("South People,"
Chemar´eko). Extended from Hyampom northerly to Cedar Flat,
easterly along main Trinity to Canyon Creek; and northerly between
the high mountains that form the divide between French Creek and
North Fork Trinity River on the west to Canyon Creek on the east,
as far north as Rattlesnake Creek. (Previously learned from the
Nor´-rel-muk of Hay Fork, a Wintoon Tribe, that the dividing line
on the west between themselves and the Chemareko, called by them
Hyembos, lay along Minor Creek.) Language wholly different from
Hoopah. The Hoopah say that the presence of this tribe on Trinity
River west of Cedar Bar, and on lower New River, is a comparatively
recent intrusion.
Klo´-m[)e]-tah´-wha ... Salmon River Indians. Ranges south
over summit to Grizzly Creek and headwaters New River. Language
wholly different.
Ho-ning wil-tatch (meaning "tattooed faces") ... "Yuke" of
Covelo region. Round Valley. Also called Devils, Kit-tung-whoi--a
name applied to the First People, who finally turned into animals.
Language wholly different.
_Geography._--There used to be a great fall in Trinity River
at a huge rock which stood in the middle of the river at Burnt
Ranch. Below the fall was a big pool and eddy, which at the proper
season was full of salmon. Everybody came here to catch salmon.
Indians from several tribes met here and feasted and had a
"big time." Finally a terrible earth slide came down the side of
the canyon and moved the rock away. This destroyed the falls.
This occurred during the boyhood of my informant. He tells
me that besides the Hoopah the Indians who used to visit the pool
below the falls for salmon were Poliklah from Wetchpek on Klamath
River, 'Hwilkut from Redwood Creek, and Chemareko from Hyampom.
They used to camp a little below the falls.
_Hoopa Geographic Names_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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