• Purpose of Yaquina.info
• Origins of "Yaquina," Its Pronunciation, and Its Symbolization of a Sense of Place
• Yaquina Birders & Naturalists (a natural history group in Lincoln County, Oregon)
  • Lincoln County (Oregon) Bird Information
  • Semimonthly Bird Checklists Project for Lincoln County, Oregon. A Project for Individuals, School Classes, or Groups
  • Lincoln County (Oregon) Natural History Information
• Journal of Oregon Ornithology
• Yaquina Studies in Natural History (formerly Studies in Oregon Ornithology)
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Lincoln Co. Birding & Nature Observing (LCBNO)(LCBNO is a Yahoo email discussion group)
• Range (Richard) Bayer, an independent not-for-money researcher since 1987
• Other Web Pages. I am trying to update to HTML 4.01 and revise web pages that had been on my previous web host that went out of business on 30 June 2009 and move them to this new web host. Unfortunately, some pages are not yet ready, and there will be some broken links until I complete the process. I may not have time to put all web pages here that I had before. Thank you for your patience!

Purpose of Yaquina.info

The goal of Yaquina.info is to host web pages about Oregon natural history, particularly along the Oregon central coast. Web pages about environmental issues may also be included.

Origins of "Yaquina," Its Pronunciation, and Its Symbolization of a Sense of Place

"Yaquina" originally referred to an Indian tribe. The language of the Yaquina tribe is now extinct, so I do not know how Yaquina tribal members would have pronounced Yaquina. Long-term residents of the Yaquina Bay area near Newport, Oregon now pronounce Yaquina something like "yah KWIN ah" or "yah kwin nah." Newcomers may try to pronounce it as if Yaquina was of Spanish origin or in another way that identifies them, like a shibboleth, as being from another place.

Transcription of the name of the Yaquina tribe has also resulted in different spellings. Examples include Iakon, Yakone, Youikeones, Youkone, Yacone, and Acona (p. 816 in L.A. McArthur. 1982. Oregon Geographic Names. Fifth Edition. Oregon Historical Society).

According to Dorsey (Jour. Am. Folk-lore, 111, 229, 1890), the Yaquina tribe had 19 villages to the north and 36 villages to the south of the Yaquina River and Bay. Byram's article Colonial Power and Indigenous Justice: Fur Trade Violence and Its Aftermath in Yaquina Narrative (2008, Oregon Historical Quarterly Vol. 109, Issue 3) reveals that the Yaquinas had a troubled history with fur traders.

Today, Yaquina also refers to a river, a bay, a headland, and an abandoned town along the central coast of Oregon where this tribe had formerly been.

Yaquina can symbolize a "sense of place" or sense of geography that long-term residents may have for wherever they may be. However, the current place-holders (residents) probably have a completely different sense of place than the former residents of the Yaquina tribe, who depended on the land for survival. The lack of concreteness in the pronunciation of Yaquina and in its spelling can also symbolize what may be difficult for us to put into words about our "sense of place" and how perspectives change over time.

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