The Nomlaki (also Noamlakee, Central Wintu, Nomelaki) are a

Wintun The Wintun are members of several related Native American peoples of Northern California, including the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern).Pritzker, 152Sacramento Valley, extending westward to the Coast Range in Northern California. Today some Nomlaki people are enrolled in the

federally recognized tribes This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

: Round Valley Indian Tribes, Grindstone Indian Rancheria or the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians. The Nomlaki were bordered by the

Wintu The Wintu (also Northern Wintun) are Native Americans who live in what is now Northern California. They are part of a loose association of peoples known collectively as the Wintun (or Wintuan). Others are the Nomlaki and the Patwin. The Wintu ...

(Wintun) in the north, the

Yana Yana may refer to: Locations *Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma *Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India * Yana, Nigeria, an administrative ca ...

in the northeast and east, the

Konkow The Maidu are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather River, Feather and American River, American ...

(

Maiduan Maiduan (also Maidun, Pujunan) is a small endangered language, endangered language family of northeastern California. Family division The Maiduan consists of 4 languages: # Maidu language, Maidu ''†'' (also known as Maidu proper, Northeaste ...

) in the east, the

Patwin The Patwin (also Patween, Southern Wintu) are a band of Wintun people native to the area of Northern California. The Patwin comprise the southern branch of the Wintun group, native inhabitants of California since approximately 500 AD. The Patw ...

(Wintun) in the south, and the Yuki in the west.

Nomlaki groups

There are two main groups: * The River Nomlaki lived in the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento� ...

region of the valley. * The Hill Nomlaki lived west of the River Nomlaki. Their territory is now within Glenn and Tehama counties and the River Nomlaki region. The Nomlaki spoke a Wintuan language known as

Nomlaki The Nomlaki (also Noamlakee, Central Wintu, Nomelaki) are a Wintun people native to the area of the Sacramento Valley, extending westward to the Coast Range in Northern California. Today some Nomlaki people are enrolled in the federally recogni ...

. It was not extensively documented, however, some recordings exist of speaker Andrew Freeman and Sylvester Simmons.

Population

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. ''(See

Population of Native California The population of Native California refers to the population of Indigenous peoples of California. Estimates prior to and after European contact have varied substantially. Pre-contact estimates range from 133,000 to 705,000 with some recent schol ...

.)''

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 ...

(1925:883) put the combined 1770 population of the Nomlaki, Wintu, and Patwin at 12,000.

Sherburne F. Cook Sherburne Friend Cook (1896-1974) was an American physiologist, who served as professor and chairman of the department of physiology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was notable as a pioneer in population studies of the native peopl ...

(1976:180-181) estimated the combined population of the Nomlaki and northern Patwin as 8,000.

Walter Goldschmidt Walter Rochs Goldschmidt (February 24, 1913 – September 1, 2010) was an American anthropologist. Goldschmidt was of German descent, born in San Antonio, Texas, on February 24, 1913, to Hermann and Gretchen Goldschmidt. He earned a bachelor's de ...

(1978:341) thought that the pre-contact population of the Nomlaki was probably more than 2,000. Kroeber estimated the population of the Nomlaki, Wintu, and Patwin in 1910 as 1,000.

Today

The US federal government restored the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians to full tribal status in 1994. They were able to acquire land, the Paskenta Rancheria (), and establish the Rolling Hills Casino outside of

Corning, California Corning is a city in Tehama County, California, that is located about south of Red Bluff and about north of Sacramento. The population was 8,244 at the 2020 census, up from 7,663 at the 2010 census. History Corning had its start in ...

. Nomlaki people are also enrolled in the

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

Grindstone Indian Rancheria and Round Valley Indian Tribes.

Notes

References

* Cook, Sherburne F. 1976a. ''The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization''. University of California Press, Berkeley. * Goldschmidt, Walter. 1978. "Nomlaki". In ''California'', edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 341–349. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. * Goldschmidt, Walter Rochs. ''Nomlaki Ethnography''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951. * Kroeber, A. L. 1925. ''Handbook of the Indians of California''. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C. * Mithun, Marianne. 1999. ''The Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge University Press. (hbk); . * Smythe, Charles W., and Priya Helweg. ''Summary of Ethnological Objects in the National Museum of Natural History Associated with the Nomlaki Culture''. Washington, D.C.: Repatriation Office, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 1996.
A closely related Wintun dialect directly north of the Nomlaki, the Wintu

External links