The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the

Utian Utian (also Miwok–Costanoan, previously Mutsun) is a family of indigenous languages spoken in Northern California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages of the Utian language family. It has recently been argued that ...

family. The word ''Miwok'' means ''people'' in the Miwok languages.

Subgroups

Anthropologists An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

commonly divide the Miwok into four geographically and culturally diverse ethnic subgroups. These distinctions were not used among the Miwok before European contact. *'' Plains and Sierra Miwok'': from the western slope and foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Sacramento Valley,

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta *''

Coast Miwok Coast Miwok are an indigenous people that was the second-largest group of Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Poi ...

'': from present day location of Marin County and southern

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa. It is to the north of Marin County and the south of Mendocino ...

(includes the ''Bodega Bay Miwok'' and ''Marin Miwok'') *''

Lake Miwok The Lake Miwok are a branch of the Miwok, a Native American people of Northern California. The Lake Miwok lived in the Clear Lake basin of what is now called Lake County. Culture The Lake Miwok spoke their own Lake language in the Utian li ...

'': from Clear Lake basin of Lake County *'' Bay Miwok'': from present-day location of Contra Costa County

Federally recognized tribes

The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Bureau of Indian Affairs officially recognizes eleven tribes of Miwok descent in California. They are as follows: *

Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians The Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California is a federally recognized tribe of Miwok in Amador County, California. The Buena Vista Miwok are Sierra Miwok, an indigenous people of California.California Valley Miwok Tribe The California Valley Miwok Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of Miwok people in San Joaquin County and Calaveras County, California.Sheep Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians The California Valley Miwok Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of Miwok people in San Joaquin County and Calaveras County, California.Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians *

Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians. The tribe was officially restored to federal recognition in 2000 by th ...

, formerly known as the

Federated Coast Miwok The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians. The tribe was officially restored to federal recognition in 2000 by th ...

Ione Band of Miwok Indians The Ione Band of Miwok Indians is a federally recognized tribe of Miwok people in Amador County, California.

, of Ione, California * Jackson Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians * Middletown Rancheria (members of this tribe are of

Pomo The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small ...

, and

Wintun The Wintun are members of several related Native American peoples of Northern California, including the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern).Pritzker, 152Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Shingle Springs Rancheria (Verona Tract) * Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the Tuolumne Rancheria * United Auburn Indian Community of Auburn Rancheria * Wilton Rancheria Indian Tribe

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 * Miwok of Buena Vista Rancheria * River Valley Miwok Indians, formally known as Historical Families of Wilton Rancheria

History

Bierstadt Albert Mariposa Indian Encampment Yosemite Valley California

The predominant theory regarding the

settlement of the Americas The settlement of the Americas began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers entered North America from the North Asian Mammoth steppe via the Beringia land bridge, which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering o ...

date the original migrations from Asia to around 20,000 years ago across the Bering Strait land bridge, but anthropologist Otto von Sadovszky claims that the Miwok and some other northern California tribes descend from

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

ns who arrived in California by sea around 3,000 years ago.

Culture

The Miwok lived in small bands without centralized political authority before contact with European Americans in 1769. They had domesticated dogs and cultivated tobacco, but were otherwise hunter-gatherers.

Cuisine

The Sierra Miwok harvested acorns from the California Black Oak. In fact, the modern-day extent of the California Black Oak forests in some areas of

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

is partially due to cultivation by Miwok tribes. They burned

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abo ...

vegetation to reduce the fraction of

Ponderosa Pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...

. Nearly every other kind of edible vegetable matter was used as a food source, including bulbs, seeds, and fungi. Animals were hunted with arrows, clubs or snares, depending on the species and the situation. Grasshoppers were a highly prized food source, as were mussels for those groups adjacent to the Stanislaus River. Coastal Miwok were known to have predominantly relied on food gathered from the inland side of the Marin peninsula (modern San Pablo bay, lakes, and land based foods), but to have also engaged in diving for abalone in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. The Miwok ate meals according to appetite rather than at regular times. They stored food for later consumption, primarily in flat-bottomed baskets.

Religion

The Miwok creation story and narratives tend to be similar to those of other natives of Northern California. Miwok had totem animals, identified with one of two moieties, which were in turn associated respectively with land and water. These totem animals were not thought of as literal ancestors of humans, but rather as predecessors.Kroeber, 1925

Languages

Sports

Miwok people played mixed-gender games on a playing field called poscoi a we'a. A unique game was played with young men and women. Similarly to soccer, the object was to put an elk hide ball through the goalpost. The girls were allowed to do anything, including kicking the ball and picking it up and running with it. The boys were only allowed to use their feet, but if a girl was holding it he could pick her up and carry her towards his goal.

Population

In 1770, there were 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 Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...

, although this may be a serious undercount; for example, he did not identify the Bay Miwok. The 1910 Census reported only 671 Miwok total, and the 1930 Census, 491. See history of each Miwok group for more information.Cook, 1976, pages 236-245. Today there are about 3,500 Miwok in total.

Influences on popular culture

The '' Star Wars'' films feature a fictional species of forest-dwelling creatures known as Ewoks, who are ostensibly named after the Miwok. The Miwok people are encountered in Kim Stanley Robinson's book, ''

The Years of Rice and Salt ''The Years of Rice and Salt'' is an alternate history novel by American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2002. The novel explores how world history might have been different if the Black Death plague had killed 99 per ...

''. In an alternate history scenario depicted in the book they are the first group of Native Americans encountered by the first Chinese to discover the continent.

Notes

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. * Cook, Sherburne. ''The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization''. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1976. . * 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 a
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. .

External links

* ttp://www.californiaprehistory.com/tribmap.html Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770(map after Kroeber)
Tribe information
from

Angel Island State Park Angel Island is an island in San Francisco Bay. The entire island is included within Angel Island State Park, administered by California State Parks. The island, a California Historical Landmark, has been used by humans for a variety of purposes, ...

U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
*Short radio episod

from Coast Miwok lore in ''Californian Indian Nights Entertainments'', 1930, California Legacy Projec.
Mewuktribe.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miwok People Native American tribes in California Sierra Nevada (United States) Central Valley (California) History of the San Francisco Bay Area