Our Home Forever

Our Home Forever: The Hupa Indians of Northern California – December 12, 1978

The book is about the Hupa Tribe, one of the oldest tribes in the Country. Scientific evidence indicates the tribe has lived continuously in their small beautiful valley in Northern California for at least 7,000 years. It is a highly researched book combining long hours of work in the National Archives with extensive oral history sessions. It tells of their struggle over the past 150 years to survive and remain in their location. It paints a picture of not only of what was happening with the Hupa during this time, but all of California.

Editorial Review

“Our Home Forever is…in a word, outstanding. The writing style is simple, honest, even graceful; the scholarship is exhaustive… The book is also outstanding for its clarity of focus. All history is seen from Hoopa Valley, the center of the Hupa world, the place where according to legend people came into being.’ It was to and from this center that a steady parade of almost Dickensian characters arrived and departed: Indian agents who ran the gamut from humane to utterly corrupt, missionaries, superintendents, surveyors, and others. It was here at the center of their world that the Hupa fought, and are still fighting, skillfully and persistently, to preserve their land and their culture…

“Our Home Forever is not the study of a distant, exotic tribe. Rather, it is family history, the story of grandparents and great-grandparents, the story of a culture still remembered, still cherished, and – one rejoices in the miracle – still very much alive. The kindliness and familiarity that suffuse the writing make this a book that one comes to admire, but more than that, a book that one comes to love.” — California Historical Society Quarterly