The Grindstone Indian Rancheria of Wintun-Wailaki Indians is a

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 ...

tribe and ranchería of

Wintun The Wintun are members of several related Native American peoples of Northern California, including the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern).Pritzker, 152Wailaki Indians from northern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

.California Indians and Their Reservations: G.
''San Diego State University Library and Information Access.'' 2010 (retrieved 30 June 2010) As of the 2010 Census the population was 164.

Reservation

1395R Grindstone Indian Rancheria Locator Map

The tribe's reservation is the Grindstone Rancheria, located in

Glenn County, California Glenn County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,917. The county seat is Willows. It is located in the Sacramento Valley, in the northern part of the California Central Valley. The ...

. It was founded in 1907 and is large. Approximately 98 of the tribe's 162 members live on the rancheria. The nearest outside community is Elk Creek, about 5 miles to the south.

Education

The reservation is served by the Stony Creek Joint Unified School District.

Government

The Grindstone Indian Rancheria is governed by a democratically elected tribal council. They are headquartered in

Elk Creek, California Elk Creek is a census-designated place in Glenn County, California. It is located northwest of Willows, at an elevation of 745 feet (227 m). The 2010 census reported that Elk Creek's population was 163. It is home to the smallest public high sc ...

, and their current tribal chairperson is Ronald Kirk.

Language

Traditionally, the members of tribe spoke the

Wailaki language Wailaki, also known as Eel River, is an extinct Athabaskan language spoken by the people of the Round Valley Reservation of northern California, one of four languages belonging to the ''California Athabaskan'' cluster of the Pacific Coast Ath ...

or the

Penutian language family Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penuti ...

, but the former is extinct and the latter has few speakers.Hinton, 27

Notes

References

* Hinton, Leanne. ''Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages''. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1994. . * Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Grindstone Indian Rancheria Of Wintun-Wailaki Indians Wintun Native American tribes in California Federally recognized tribes in the United States 1907 establishments in California