Wailaki Woman.
The Wailaki people were an Athapascan tribe, or group of many villages, formerly located on the main Eel River and its north fork, from Kekawaka Creek to within a few miles of Round Valley, California. After some fighting with the whites, they were placed on the Round Valley Reservation, where some of them still reside. Their houses were circular. They had no canoes but crossed streams by weighing themselves down with stones while they waded. They lived by the river during the wet months of the year when their chief occupation was fishing, done at especially favorable places using nets and spears. In summer and fall, they spent time on the sides and tops of the ridges, where women gathered bulbs, seeds, and nuts, and men united in deer drives and other hunting methods.
They usually buried their dead but burned those who fell in battle. They took the whole heads of their enemies as trophies, which they used in dances. Like the Yuki, the women tattooed their noses, cheeks, and chins. An adolescent ceremony was held for the girls, and most of the boys were trained with the candidates for medicine men, who were restricted to their food, drink, and sleep for many days. The candidates gave public exhibitions consisting of dancing. They occasionally erected large conical dance houses and dedicated them to ceremonies of dancing and singing; these were important occasions of a mingled social and religious character.
Many descendants live on the Grindstone Indian Rancheria of Wintun-Wailaki Indians in Elk Creek, California, and the Round Valley Reservation in Covelo, California.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated September 2026.
Also See:
Native American Photo Galleries
Native Americans – First Owners of America
See Sources.