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If we are to believe all that we read in Kroeber's Handbook of American Indians, we are doomed
to a distorted view of the Wailakki Wintu people. My name is Kaiit (pronounce Kate) White Lily, and I am one of the
eldest remaining members of my Great-Great-Grandmother's descendants. I had the good fortune to know her daughter,
my Great-Grandmother Alma Sears, and then of course, my Grandmother Erma Baker. For many, many years I was under the
impression that my "tribe" were the YUKI of Round Valley. About 1990 I began searching for the connection.
That early quest led down many rabbit trails until now I feel confident that I have the "real story".
 The lady in the photo is Millie Sears, daughter
of George and Caroline Sears. Caroline was a member of the Alexander Clan which was first in Trinity County but removed
to the Sacramento River Canyon where Millie was born. This photo was taken while Millie was at an Indian school in Oregon.
At the same school and at the same time were other children whose families lived in the Sacramento River Canyon, including
some of the Sperry and Sisk families.
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One of the first things I learned is that my People were
northspeaking Wintu. In other words, they were People who spoke the language shared among the wintu who lived north
of the swamplands which surround San Francisco Bay, and which run all the way up to Sacramento. The Wailakki (north-language-peoople)
were known to John Augustus Sutter and to his friend Pierson Barton Reading. Both of these men referred to the People
living north of what is now the Sacramento area as "Wylakkers". The Wailakki or Northspeakers, lived on the
west side of the Sacramento River, including along the river, the streams and tributaries which feed the river from the mountains
on the west, and they lived up into the foothills and then into the mountains. Every village of these early people (translate
to "wintu") was set up near a constant water source, whether it be a spring or a creek or a river. Water was a
center of life for the villagers. Most of the villages of the Wintu People from whom I am descended lived in small groups
of perhaps six to eight families. Most villages, especially the ones in the Hettenshaw region, were "moveable".
When the weather was warm, the able bodied were forageing in the high mountain areas for food to take back to their winter
camp which was usually "down low".
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Lucy Young (Mrs.Sam Young), in her later years,
telling a story to an avid listener .
I and my family own a great debt of gratitude to our
cousin, Lucy Rogers Young, pictured here on the left. Lucy was born about 1846 to Ell-ai and Ell-ai-taci of the White
Lily Clan. She lived long enough to be a primary informant to
the early anthropologists who began arriving around 1910. In the late 1930s, Lucy was interviewed by a man named Frank
Essene who was studying anthropology under the auspices of a. Kroeber and the University of California at Berkeley.
Lucy gave to Essene a list of family members as she remembered them, and Essene wrote them down as he understood them.
Lucky for us, we are able to interpret the lists well enough to create a genealogical chart of the family. Additionally, with
the help of United States Census, we can find the White Lily family in southwestern Trinity County, and later at Round Valley
Reservation.
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The Overland Monthly story of each village was carried
by stagecoach from wherever Powers happened to be near a stage stop, along dusty California trails which later became super-highways,
The articles would then be printed by a publisher "back east". Powers made his living by traveling from village
to village where he spent a very limited amount of time, gathered information, and then moved on. He traveled through
the Hettenshaw in the mid-1870s.
We learned more about the family by reading Stephen Powers' articles
written for the Overland Monthly which were later published by the Department of the Interior and became the basis
for the work which A. Kroeber was to publlsh many years later. One very important document we want to mention here is
a clipping from a publication of the Red Bluff Daily News in 1941.
Excerpted from this article are
these words: "...there lived upon the Mad River and Indian Chief named White Lily. His wife, also known as White
Lily, was a witch doctor of sorts, and was held in high esteem by the tribe." In this same article, Lucy (Rogers)
Young is mentioned and is referred to as "Lucy Yellowjacket". Stories about an Indian man called "Yellowjacket"
have been written and his photo is a prized possession of a few, but the facts about these two people are not well known.
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The word "Yellowjacket", for instance, is a convolution of a wailakki wintu word
which sounded like yellowjacket but was in fact, "Y'ell-ai-chah-gah". The man, Yellowjacket was
also known as Jack French and it has been stated that he was half-white and half-wintu. The first proof I have found
of his existence is in the 1880 census for Powellville, a portion of the Humboldt County census. There, he and other members
of the n'chah-gah family are living under the protection of Abram Rogers, at a place just west of the current village
of Zenia. It is certain that Lucy and Jack French were related and they lived along side each other in various places
through the years, which we can trace through the census and other records.
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