Pujunan Family

 Native American Nations | Linguistic Families                    

• Pujuni, Latham in Trans. Philolog. Soc. Lond., 80, 1856 (contains Pujuni, Secumne, Tsamak of Hale, Cushna of Schoolcraft). Latham, Opuscula, 346, 1860.
• Meidoos, Powers in Overland Monthly, 420, May, 1874.
• Meidoo, Gatschet in Mag. Am. Hist., 159, 1877 (gives habitat and tribes). Gatschet in Beach, Ind. Misc., 433, 1877.
• Mai´-du, Powers in Cont. N.A. Eth., III, 282, 1877 (same as Mai´-deh; general account of; names the tribes). Powell, ibid., 586 (vocabs. of Kon´-kau, Hol-o´-lu-pai, Na´-kum, Ni´-shi-nam, “Digger,” Cushna, Nishinam, Yuba or Nevada, Punjuni, Sekumne, Tsamak).
• Neeshenams, Powers in Overland Monthly, 21, Jan., 1874 (considers this tribe doubtfully distinct from Meidoo family).
• Ni-shi-nam, Powers in Cont. N.A. Eth., III, 313, 1877 (distinguishes them from Maidu family).
• Sacramento Valley, Keane, App. Stanford’s Comp. (Cent. and So. Am.), 476, 1878 (Ochecumne, Chupumne, Secumne, Cosumne, Sololumne, Puzlumne, Yasumne, etc.; “altogether about 26 tribes”).

The following tribes were placed in this group by Latham: Pujuni, Secumne, Tsamak of Hale, and the Cushna of Schoolcraft. The name adopted for the family is the name of a tribe given by Hale.⁷⁷ This was one of the two races into which, upon the information of Captain Sutter as derived by Mr. Dana, all the Sacramento tribes were believed to be divided. “These races resembled one another in every respect but language.”

Hale gives short vocabularies of the Pujuni, Sekumne, and Tsamak. Hale did not apparently consider the evidence as a sufficient basis for a family, but apparently preferred to leave its status to be settled later.

Geographic Distribution
The tribes of this family have been carefully studied by Powers, to whom we are indebted for most all we know of their distribution. They occupied the eastern bank of the Sacramento in California, beginning some 80 or 100 miles from its mouth, and extended northward to within a short distance of Pit River, where they met the tribes of the Palaihnihan family. Upon the east they reached nearly to the border of the State, the Palaihnihan, Shoshonean, and Washoan families hemming them in in this direction.

Principal Tribes

Indian Linguistic Families of America North of Mexico, 1891

Linguistic Families