Achomawi

Achomawi (also Achumawi, Ajumawi and Ahjumawi) are the northerly nine (out of eleven) bands of the Pit River tribe of Palaihnihan Native Americans who live in what is now northeastern California in the United States. These 5 autonomous bands (also called "tribelets") of the Pit River Indians historically spoke slightly different dialects of one common language, and the other two bands spoke dialects of a related language, called Atsugewi. The name "Achomawi" means river people and properly applies to the band which historically inhabited the Fall River Valley and the Pit River from the south end of Big Valley Mountains, westerly to Pit River Falls. The nine bands of Achumawi lived on both sides of the Pit River from its origin at Goose Lake to Montgomery Creek, and the two bands of Atsugewi lived south of the Pit River on creeks tributary to it in the Hat Creek valley and Dixie Valley.

==Population== 250px|thumbnail|right|Achomawi man (circa 1923) Achomawi speaking territories reached from Big Bend to Goose Lake. This land was also home to the closely related Atsugewi peoples. Descendants of both cultures later were forcibly relocated onto the Pit River Reservation. Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber estimated the combined 1770 population of the Achomawi as 3,000 and the Atsugewi as 300. A more detailed analysis by Fred B. Kniffen arrived at the same figure. T. R. Garth estimated the Atsugewi population at a maximum of 900. Edward S. Curtis, a photographer and author in the 1920s, gave an estimate of there being 240 Atsugewi and 985 Achomawi in 1910. As of 2000, the Achomawi population is estimated at 1,500.