As stated earlier in the discussion of boundaries (p. 164) I have, following Merriam's data, assigned the Whilkut different territory than has heretofore been customary. In the present scheme they occupy the drainage of Mad River from the mouth of North Fork Mad River to the mouth of Bug Creek, the drainage of North Fork Mad River, and all the drainage of Redwood Creek above the lower ten miles. The subdivisions of the Whilkut are: Chilula Whilkut (Kroeber's Chilula) on lower Redwood Creek, Kloki Whilkut (part of Kroeber's Whilkut) on upper Redwood Creek, Mad River Whilkut (part of Kroeber's Whilkut) on Mad River above the mouth of North Fork, and North Fork Whilkut (part of Kroeber's Wiyot) in the drainage of North Fork Mad River.
Goddard (1914a) and Merriam together give a fairly complete picture of the organization of villages and subgroups of the Whilkut but aside from this we have next to nothing in the way of ethnographic information. They were evidently closely akin to the Hupa in both language and culture. With the Hupa they form a dialect group as against the Tolowa on the north and the other California Athabascan groups on the south.
The territory of the Whilkut lies in the dense redwood forest of the northern coast of California. Thus their economy was based primarily on the produce of rivers, and this fact is reflected in the placement of their villages.
Merriam has left a relatively complete record of his visits to the group which I am calling Whilkut and which he called Hoil´-kut or How´-wil-kut and Mā´-we-nŏk. (Merriam uses various spellings.) His first visit to these people was in 1910. The following account is taken from his California Journals for September 15, 1910.
Talked with several Indians at Blue Lake. The boundary between the Pah-te-waht [Wiyot] of Lower Mad River, and the 'Hoil´-kut or Ho-il-let-ha of Redwood Valley lies along North Fork of Mad River near its mouth, between Korbel and Blue Lake. The Pah-te-waht I saw today live on Mad River at Blue Lake (on south edge of town), while the Hoi-let'ha live on the extreme northeast beyond the town and cemetery.
Merriam's second visit there was in 1918 and the following quotation is from the California Journals for August 11, 1918.
Sunday, August 11, 1918 was foggy and misty in the forenoon; partly clear P.M. Took the early morning auto stage from Eureka to Korbel, but got off between Blue Lake and Korbel and went on an Indian hunt, landing back at Blue Lake without entering Korbel proper at all. Returned to Eureka in afternoon.
Went particularly to get additional material from the Redwood Creek Indians ('How´-wil-kut´-ka or 'HWilkut tribe) who were living in this region when I was here in September 1910 (see Calif. Journals, Vol. 1, 90-93, Sept. 15, 1910). Tried to find O'Haniel Bailey and John Stevens of Redwood Creek, and Stevens' daughter Laura, from whom I got much information before. After a fruitless search over the old ground, learned that O'Haniel Bailey died several years ago; that John Steven is visiting in Hoopa Valley, and that his daughter Laura is married to a white man.
But after a while I found two old men of the same tribe, who were born and raised at the Blue Lake rancheria 'Ko-tin´-net, the westernmost village of the Hă-whil´-kut-kā tribe. They call themselves and their language by the same name, 'Ho-tin´-net [North Fork Whilkut]. One is blind and both are old. The blind man's name is Nelinjak; the other's Denbrook. They were eating breakfast of fried potatoes, dried fish, and coffee in their poor old shack. I got some good material from them and after some persuasion took their photographs.
The blind one said he dreamed last night that a white man with a book was coming to see them.
I got from them the names of some Pah-te-waht [Wiyot] villages on lower Mad River and about Arcata.
Merriam's third visit to this group was in 1920. The following account is from his notes.
About the middle of September, 1920, I visited the site of the old Hoilkut rancheria called T'chil-kahn´-ting (or T'ch-kahn´-ting) on the east side of Redwood Creek near the Berry ranch, about a quarter of a mile below the highway bridge on the road from Arcata to Willow Creek and Hoopa. It was then abandoned, the Indians having established another village on higher ground about a mile below, and like the old one, on the east side of the river.
The old site is on an open sand and gravel bar or flat a little above high water mark and very near the river. The living houses were square—never round. The house excavations were about two feet deep. The excavation for the ceremonial house ("sweathouse") was sixteen or eighteen feet across and deeper than the others, averaging about three feet below the surface. The ground floor within was covered with large flattish pebbles. The building had fallen but I was told that it had a low gabled roof, with entrance toward the river (on the west side). Under the north end and still plainly visible was a ditch or flume to supply air and for a draft when starting the fire. The fireplace was in the middle.
The graveyard is on the downstream end of the same flat.
The flat is in a forest of Douglas spruce, black and white oaks, maples, tree alders, and dogwood, with a dense undergrowth of hazel, spirea (Spirea douglasii), syringa (Philadelphus lewisii), huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum), and the wild lilac (Ceanothus integerrimus). The "three-leaf" or "deer-foot" also called "sweet after death" (Achlys triphylla) is common throughout the shady forest.
In the immediate neighborhood the large gray tree squirrel (Sciurus griseus) was common, the big gray ground-squirrel (Citellus beecheyi) was abundant, and a few red squirrels and chipmunks were running about.
Ruffed grouse, mountain quail, and many pigeons were seen; also crested jays, robins, and flickers.
A few days later I visited the modern inhabited rancheria, nearly two miles below the bridge. It is on a rather steep slope about 500 feet above the river.
Among the Indians present were two very old men, the Wilson brothers, and a half-breed named Ned Woodward from Blue Lake, and his wife, the former widow of Nathaniel Bailey—with all of whom I had worked in previous years. With their help I checked my former vocabularies and added many words.
At Blue Lake during the latter part of October of the same year I found a number of Indians, mainly Hoilkut, and obtained additional material, including village names from Ned Woodward. Worked also with others, especially the Hoilkut Chief, Frank Lowry, and his wife. She is a full blood with the characteristic chin tattooing consisting of three broad vertical bars with a narrow one on each side between the middle and outer ones. [See fig. 1, a, b for different styles.] A married daughter had three children, a tiny girl and two boys—one of three and the other five, both big for their age.
Also of interest are Merriam's ideas about the position of the Whilkut groups. The following excerpt, taken from his notes, is dated 1939, but refers to a trip he made to Blue Lake in September, 1910.