Karkin

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Karkin
Regions with significant populations
Flag of the United States.svg  United States (Flag of California.svg  California)
Languages
Karkin, English
Religion
Traditional tribal religion

The Karkin people (also called Los Carquines in Spanish) were one of eight Ohlone peoples, indigenous peoples of California.

Indigenous peoples of California Native Californians

The indigenous peoples of California are the indigenous inhabitants who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. With over forty groups seeking to be federally recognized tribes, California has the second largest Native American population in the United States. The California cultural area does not conform exactly to the state of California's boundaries. Many tribes on the eastern border with Nevada are classified as Great Basin tribes, and some tribes on the Oregon border are classified as Plateau tribes. Tribes in Baja California who do not cross into California are classified as indigenous peoples of Mexico.

Contents

The Karkin people lived in the Carquinez Strait region in the northeast portion of the San Francisco Bay estuary. [1] They spoke the Karkin language, the only documentation is a single vocabulary obtained by linguist-missionary Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta at Mission Dolores in 1821. [2] Although meager, the records of Karkin show that it constituted a distinct branch of Costanoan, strikingly different from the neighboring Chochenyo Ohlone language and other Ohlone languages spoken farther south. [3] Karkin has probably not been spoken since the 19th century.

Carquinez Strait tidal strait in northern California

The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait in northern California. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay. The strait is eight miles (13 km) long and connects Suisun Bay, which receives the waters of the combined rivers, with San Pablo Bay, a northern extension of the San Francisco Bay.

The Karkin language is one of eight Ohlone languages. It was extinct by the 1950s and was formerly spoken in north central California.

Chochenyo is the spoken language of the Chochenyo people. Chochenyo is one of the Costanoan dialects in the Utian family. Linguistically, Chochenyo, Tamyen and Ramaytush are thought to have been dialects of a single language.

See also

Notes

  1. Milliken 1995:238
  2. Milliken 2008:6
  3. Beeler 1961

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Yelamu

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Chalon people

The Chalon people are one of eight divisions of the Ohlone (Costanoan) people of Native Americans who lived in Northern California. Chalon is also the name of their spoken language, listed as one of the Ohlone languages of the Utian family. Recent work suggests that Chalon may be transitional between the northern and southern groups of Ohlone languages.

Awaswas

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Tamyen people

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Tammukan is an alternate spelling of Tamcan, the name of a local tribe of Delta Yokuts-speaking natives in the U.S. that once lived on the lower reaches of California's San Joaquin River in what is now eastern Contra Costa County and western San Joaquin County, California. The Tamcans were absorbed into the system of the Spanish missions in California in the early nineteenth century; they moved to Mission San José, near the shore of San Francisco Bay, between 1806 and 1811. At the mission, they and their descendants intermarried with speakers of the San Francisco Bay Ohlone, Plains Miwok, and Patwin Indian languages. Mission Indian survivors of these mixed groups gathered at Alisal, near Pleasanton in Contra Costa County, in the late nineteenth century.

Ohlone languages

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The Tamyen language is one of eight Ohlone languages, once spoken by Tamyen people in Northern California.

The Ramaytush language is one of the eight Ohlone languages, historically spoken by the Ramaytush people, indigenous people of California. Historically, the Ramaytush inhabited the San Francisco Peninsula between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in the area which is now San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. Ramaytush is a dialect or language within the Costanoan branch of the Utian family. The term Ramaytush was first applied to them during the 1970s.

Rumsen

The Rumsen are one of eight groups of the Ohlone, an indigenous people of California.

Awaswas language

Awaswas, or Santa Cruz, is one of eight Ohlone languages. It was historically spoken by the Awaswas people, an indigenous people of California.

References

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The Survey of California and Other Indian Languages at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas. The survey also hosts events related to language revitalization and preservation.