Mondo's NAT #211

Native American Tribes series.

Hanis

The Hanis language was spoken by the Indian people living around the estuary and watershed that is present day Coos Bay, Oregon. It is closely related to Miluk, another language spoken in the area south of the bay. Mooney (1928) estimates that the Hanis and the Miluk together numbered 2,000 in 1780. In 1805 Lewis and Clark estimated 1,500 Hanis. The census of 1910 returned 93 for the entire stock and that of 1930, 107, while, again for the stock, the United States Office of Indian Affairs reported 55 in 1937.

In 1824 Smallpoks had entirely wiped out the Hanis Coos Indian village at Tenmile Lakes. Such European diseases as smallpox arrived with the white man's penetration into the area and sickened the tribes. Settlers made their appearance in the 1850s. They were hungry for land, but federal law precluded acquisition of Indian territories without a signed treaty. Along with loss of their homelands to white settlement, federal promises of just treatment were persistently broken over the ensuing 100 years.

The Hanis lived in cedar longhouses. Men hunted and fished; while Women collected berries, roots and nuts. In addition, their rich diet consisted of seafood, game, sea bird eggs and other delicacies. Deer and elk skins were fashioned into garments and blankets. Baskets were woven using a variety of materials, from conifers to grasses. Nearly everything had a spirit, and spirits could exert a positive influence on people's lives. Young people set out on vision quests to locate their spirit power. To become a shaman, one had to possess five powers.