Miwok

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Miwok People

A Sierra Miwok cedar bark umuucha cabin reproduction in Yosemite Valley.[1]
Total population
1770: over 11,000 1910: 670 1930: 491
Regions with significant populations
California: Sierra Nevada Mountains, Central Valley, Marin County, Sonoma County, Lake County, Contra Costa County
Languages
Utian languages: Miwok family
Religion
Shamanism: Kuksu Miwok mythology
Related ethnic groups
Subgroups: Plains & Sierra Miwok Coast Miwok Lake Miwok Bay Miwok

Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) can refer to any one of four linguistically-related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family. The word Miwok means people in their native language.

In 2008, ancient Miwok artifacts were unearthed, some as many as 5000 years old in Calaveras County. Many of the artifacts will be reburied with a special ceremony. Miwoks believe the artifacts belong to the land.^[2]

Contents 1 Subgroups 1.1 Federally recognized tribes 1.2 Non-federally recognized tribes 2 Culture 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Subgroups

There are four geographically and culturally diverse ethnic subgroups of Miwok people:

• Plains and Sierra Miwok: from the western slope and foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

• Coast Miwok : from present day location of Marin County and southern Sonoma County. (This includes the Bodega Bay Miwok and Marin Miwok).

The Miwok also ate fish, deer, berries, as well as acorns or flour.

• Lake Miwok: from Clear Lake basin of Lake County.

• Bay Miwok: from present-day location of Contra Costa County.

[edit] Federally recognized tribes

The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs officially recognizes eleven tribes of Miwok, Mi-Wuk or Me-Wuk descent in California, as follows:

• Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians^[3]
• California Valley Miwok Tribe (formerly known as the Sheep Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians)^{[4] [5]}
• Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians
• Ione Band of Miwok Indians, of Ione ^[6]
• Jackson Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians
• Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, of Shingle Springs Rancheria (Verona Tract)
• Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians, of the Tuolumne Rancheria
• United Auburn Indian Community, of the Auburn Rancheria^[7]
• Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok^[8]
• Middletown Rancheria (Members of this tribe are of Pomo, Lake Miwok, and Wintun descent)
• Wilton Rancheria Indian Tribe ^[9]

[edit] Non-federally recognized tribes

• Miwok Tribe of the El Dorado Rancheria
• Nashville-Eldorado Miwok Tribe
• Colfax- Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe of the Colfax Rancheria
• Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation
• Calaveras Band of Mi-Wuk Indians

[edit] Culture

Generally, the Miwok were a hunting and gathering people who lived in small bands without centralized political authority before contact with European Americans in 1769. Generally, Miwok mythology and narratives are similar to other natives of Northern California. Miwok believe in animal and human spirits and see the animal spirits as their ancestors. Coyote was their ancestor and creator god.

In 1770, there was an estimated 500 Lake Miwok, 1,500 Coast Miwok, and 9,000 Plains and Sierra Miwok, totaling about 11,000 people, according to historian Alfred L. Kroeber, although this may be a serious undercount; for example, he did not identify the Bay Miwok. ^[10] The 1910 Census reported only 670 Miwok total, and the 1930 Census, 491. See history of each Miwok group for more information.^[11]

The Sierra Miwok preferentially exploited acorns from the California Black Oak, Quercus kelloggii; in fact, the modern day extent of the California Black Oak forests in some areas of Yosemite National Park is partially due to preferential cultivation by Miwok tribes, who burned understory vegeation as the tribes reduces the fraction of Ponderosa Pine.^[12]

[edit] See also

• Kule Loklo
• Utian languages

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Access Genealogy: Indian Tribal records, Miwok Indian Tribe. Retrieved on 2006-08-01. Main source of "authenticated village" names and locations.
• Barrett, S.A. and Gifford, E.W. Miwok Material Culture: Indian Life of the Yosemite Region. Yosemite Association, Yosemite National Park, California, 1933. ISBN 0-939666-12-X
• Cook, Sherburne. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1976. ISBN 0-520-03143-1.
• Kroeber, Alfred L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Washington, D.C: Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. (Chapter 30, The Miwok); available at Yosemite Online Library.
• Silliman, Stephen. Lost Laborers in Colonial California, Native Americans and the Archaeology of Rancho Petaluma. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8165-2381-9.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Miwok

• California Historical Society:The First Californians, The Miwok
• Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770 (map after Kroeber)
• Tribe information from Angel Island State Park
• U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs

v • d • e Miwok indigenous peoples of California Distinct ethnic groups Plains and Sierra · Coast · Lake · Bay Regions inhabited Sierra Nevada / Central Valley · Marin County / Sonoma County · Lake County / Contra Costa County Culture Mythology · Plains and Sierra Narratives · Coast Narratives  · Lake Narratives Utian languages · Kuksu religion · Hunting and gathering