Oketo, California

Opyuweg

Opyuweg was on the other side of this tree-covered promontory.
Alternative name	Oketo, Chwaltaike (Hupa)
Part of	Big Lagoon County Park
History
Builder	The Ner-'er-'ner people.
Abandoned	before 1909
Cultures	Yurok Ner-'er-'ner
Site notes
Condition	no traces visible
Management	County of Humboldt
Public access	yes

Oketo is a former Yurok settlement in Humboldt County, California, but experts differ on what the names were of the settlement itself and of the nearby waterway now called Big Lagoon. Yurok author Chenahwah Weitchahwah (Lucy Thompson) used the name Ah-ca-tah when mentioning the location of a religious practice but was unclear whether she was naming the village or lagoon. Peter Palmquist placed the village at the south shore of the lagoon.[1] A. L. Kroeber said the village was called Opyuweg (Chwaltaike by the Hupa), mapping it in more detail.[2] T. T. Waterman said the lagoon was named Oketo and pinpointed the village most precisely as Opyuweg, setting it west of a southern promontory of the lagoon and of a settlement called piNpa.[3] Coastal Yuroks call themselves Ner-'er-'ner or Ner-er-ner and upriver Yuroks call themselves Pue-lik-lo' or Polikla.[4] In his notes, C. H. Merriman recorded that Oketo was the name the Polikla or Pue-lik-lo' used for a Ner-er-ner village at Big Lagoon.[5]

Weitchahwah said a major religious performance called Wah-neck-wel-ah-gaw was performed there biannually and, when Europeans first arrived, it was also still held at Orick, Reck-woy, and Pec-wan, her birthplace.[1] Kroeber says Opyuweg was the largest settlement at Big Lagoon, and among the largest along the Ner-'er-'ner coast.

References

1. Weitch-ah-wah (Thompson), Cha-na-wah (Lucy) (1991) [1916]. To the American Indian : reminiscences of a Yurok woman. Internet Archive. Berkeley, CA : Heyday Books in conjunction with P.E. Palmquist. Map is on page xiv, reference to the village on page 146. ISBN 978-0-930588-47-2.
2. Kroeber, A. L. (Alfred Louis) (1976) [1925]. Handbook of the Indians of California. Internet Archive. New York : Dover Publications. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0-486-23368-0.
3. Waterman, T. T. (May 31, 1920). "Yurok Geography" (PDF). University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnography. 16 (5). Map 31, "Rectangle I," facing page 263. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 20, 2015 – via University of California at Berkeley.
4. "Our History". Yurok Tribe. Archived from the original on February 14, 2024. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
5. Merriam, C. Hart. "Ethnographic And Ethnosynonymic Data From Northern California Tribes" (PDF). at PDF page 21, manuscript page 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 13, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2024.

41.1648°N 124.1287°W / 41.1648; -124.1287