Tolowa

Their homeland, Taa-laa-waa-dvn (“Tolowa ancestral-land”) lies along the Pacific Coast between the watersheds of Wilson Creek and Smith River (Tolowa-Chetco: Xaa-wun-taa-ghii~-li, Xaa-wvnʼ-taa-ghii~-li~, or Nii~-li~) basin and vicinity in Del Norte in northwestern California. The area is bounded by the California/Oregon border to the north, and Wilson Creek, north of the Klamath River in California, to the south. They lived in approximately eight permanent villages on present-day Crescent City Harbor and Lake Earl (Tolowa-Chetco: Ee-chuu-leʼ or Chʼuu-let - "large body of water"). The neighboring Karuk called them Yuhʼára, or Yurúkvaarar ("Indian from downriver") and used this Karuk name also for the Yurok, their population soon dropped to 150 Among these killings the Yontoket Massacre left 150 (not including those whose bodies were left in the lake) and the Stundossun Massacre with 300 This means over 90% of the entire Tolowa population was killed in deliberate massacres. ==Language==

They have traditionally spoken Taa-laa-wa Dee-niʼ Wee-yaʼ (Tolowa Dee-niʼ Language), the Tolowa language, one of the Athabaskan languages. At the Siletz Reservation in central Oregon, tribes speaking 10 distinct languages were brought together in the mid-19th century. In the early 21st century, the remaining native language spoken is known as Siletz Dee-ni, related to Tolowa, although many of the original tribes spoke Salish languages. Alfred "Bud" Lane, among the last fluent native speakers of Siletz Dee-ni on the reservation, has recorded 14,000 words of the language in this effort. ==Culture==

The Tolowa organized their subsistence around the plentiful riverine and marine resources and acorns (san-chvn). Their society was not formally stratified, but considerable emphasis was put on personal wealth. Tolowa villages were organized around a headman and usually consisted of related men, in a patrilineal kinship system, where inheritance and status passed through the male line. The men married women in neighboring tribes. The brides were usually related (sisters), in order for the wealth to remain in the paternal families. ==Population==

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most Native groups in California have varied substantially. Various estimates for the 1770 population of Tolowa have ranged from as low as 450 to an upper end around 2,400. In 1910, there were reportedly 150 Tolowa. The 1920 census listed 121 Tolowa left in Del Norte County, California. By 2009, there were approximately 1,000 Tolowa Indians. ==See also==