Society-KLAMATH

The Klamath, who call themselves maklaks, are an American Indian ethnic
group located in southwestern Oregon. They are closely related to
the neighboring Modoc Indians. Both the Klamath and the Modoc speak
the Lutuami language, which has been assigned to the Klamath-Sahaptin
family of the Pneutian phylum. Originally, the Klamath-Modoc were
situated in an area which abounded in marshes and streams. According
to Stern (1965), the Klamath lived in a relatively isolated position,
with the Cascades on the west, hills on the south and east, and rather
harsh territory on the north. The Klamath Reservation is located in
Klamath County, Oregon, at approximately long. 121 degrees - 122 degrees
W and lat. 42 degrees - 43 degrees N. (For a map of Klamath Reservation
and surrounding peoples, see Stern 1965: 279.)

The Klamath were first contacted by Whites in 1826. Since there were
few fur-bearing animals in the area, Whites remained uninterested
in the Klamath for some time. It is reported that even by the middle
of the nineteenth century, there was only one gun among the Klamath.

In 1864, the Klamath ceded most of their land to the U.S. Government
and, with the Modoc and Paiute, were placed on the Klamath Reservation.
Due to extensive intermarriage and migration, the Klamath constituted
an "ethnic minority in the communities where they resided, even within
the reservation." There were 2,118 members of the Klamath tribe in
1955, and 40 percent of them lived off the reservation. As of 1963,
70 percent of the members were less than one-half Indian, and less
than one-sixth were full-bloods (Clifton and Levine 1963: 6). In 1954,
the membership voted for termination of federal administration of
the reservation. Stern feels that as a result of this termination,
the Klamath have become virtually extinct as a people.

The cultural position of the Klamath was the subject of much debate
among the authors of the 1930s, when tracing origins and the diffusion
of cultural elements was a primary concern of anthropologists. This
debate never resulted in any definitive conclusions. It is sufficient
to know that features from cultures in the Great Basin, the Plateau,
the Northwest Coast, and California were present in Klamath culture.

The Klamath derived most of their subsistence from rivers and marshes.
Fish was the staple of their diet, and pond lily seeds were also important.
Roots were gathered to some extent. Deer and other game were of minor
dietary importance.

Permanent settlements of earth and mat lodges were located on the
banks of rivers. These settlements were occupied during the winter
months. They ranged in size from "several score" to one or two lodges.
In the early spring, the people left the villages for fish runs. In
the summer, small bands of two or three families occupied the prairies
to collect roots and berries and other edible plants. Toward the end
of the summer the pond lily seeds ripened, and the people gathered
together at the marshes to harvest them. They returned to the same
winter villages year after year. In spite of the fact that the environment
had relatively abundant foodstuffs, the population was not very large.
It has been estimated that aboriginally the Klamath numbered between
800 and 1,400.

There were five or six geographical divisions of the Klamath. The
largest one was in the vicinity of Klamath Marsh. Other groups lived
in the vicinity of Agency Lake, the lower Williamson River, Pelican
Bay, Klamath Falls, and the Sprague River Valley. There was some tendency
toward endogamy within these divisions, but there was no political
unity. On the reservation, these divisions completely disappeared.

Warfare, feuds, and slave raiding took place between the subdivisions
of the Klamath and with non-Klamath. Most reports state that the Klamath
conducted slave raids yearly against the Achomawi and other Pit River
Indians. Kroeber (1953: 319-320), however, felt that these reports
were very exaggerated.

Headmanship of the villages was weakly developed, and some settlements
did not even have chiefs. The chiefs were people who had acquired
prestige through warfare, were wealthy, were good speakers, and had
had some spirit experiences. Most of Spier's (1930) informants indicated
that shamans were of greater importance to the community than chiefs.

Every Klamath sought spiritual power in vision quests, which took
place at life crises such as puberty and mourning. The spirits were
ill-defined, but primarily took the form of nature spirits or anthropomorphic
beings. Shamans were people who had acquired more spiritual power
than most people. Shamanistic performances, during which the shamans
became possessed, were the main form of ceremonialism among the Klamath.
These performances were held in the winter and lasted five days and
nights. In addition to curative functions, the shamans' services could
be invoked at any time during the year for such purposes as prophesy,
divination, or weather control. Klamath mythology was dominated by
the culture hero Kemukemps, a trickster figure who had created men
and women.

Comparatively little is known about Klamath social organization. Apparently
each house contained more than one nuclear family, and there was usually
some relationship between the members of a household. In addition,
most inhabitants of a village were related. There was no village exogamy,
although marriage to relatives was forbidden. There was a slight tendency
toward patrilocality, and some of the richer men had more than one
wife.

Summaries of Klamath life and culture may be found in most of the
sources listed below.

Culture summary by Marlene M. Martin



Clifton, James A. Klamath personalities: ten Rorschach case studies.
 By James A. Clifton and David Levine.
 Lawrence, University of Kansas, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 1963.
 3, 80 p. Farrand, Livingston.
 Klamath.
 In Frederick Webb Hodge, ed.
 Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Vol.
 1.
 New York, Pageant Books, 1959: 712.
 (Reprint of Bulletin 30 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1907) Gatschet, Albert Samuel.
 The Klamath Indians of southwestern Oregon.
 Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1890.
 106, 711 p. map.
 Kroeber, Alfred L. The Modoc.
 In his Handbook of the Indians of California.
 Berkeley, California Book Co., 1953: 318-335.
 (Reprint of Bulletin 78 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1925) Spier, Leslie.
 Klamath ethnography.
 Berkeley, University of California Press, 1930.
 10, 338 p. illus., maps.
 Stern, Theodore.
 The Klamath tribe;
 a people and their reservation.
 Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1965 [c.
 1966].
 16, 356 p. illus., maps.


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