The language is a homogeneous one and, according to Mr. Gatschet who has made a special study of it, has no real dialects, the two divisions of the family, Klamath and Modoc, speaking an almost identical language.
The Klamaths’ own name is É-ukshikni, “Klamath Lake people.” The Modoc are termed by the Klamath Módokni, “Southern people.”
[TRIBES.]
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Klamath. Modoc. |
[Population.—]There were 769 Klamath and Modoc on the Klamath Reservation in 1889. Since then they have slightly decreased.
[MARIPOSAN FAMILY.]
> Mariposa, Latham in Trans. Philolog. Soc. Lond., 84, 1856 (Coconoons language, Mariposa County). Latham, Opuscula, 350, 1860. Latham, El. Comp. Philology, 416, 1862 (Coconoons of Mercede River).
= Yo´-kuts, Powers in Cont. N.A. Eth., III, 369, 1877. Powell, ibid., 570 (vocabularies of Yo´-kuts, Wi´-chi-kik, Tin´-lin-neh, King’s River, Coconoons, Calaveras County).
= Yocut, Gatschet in Mag. Am. Hist., 158, 1877 (mentions Taches, Chewenee, Watooga, Chookchancies, Coconoons and others). Gatschet in Beach, Ind. Misc., 432, 1877.
Derivation: A Spanish word meaning “butterfly,” applied to a county in California and subsequently taken for the family name.