The Lake Miwok are a branch of the

Miwok 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 family. The word ' ...

, a Native American people of

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

. 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 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 tha ...

linguistic group. They lived by

hunting and gathering A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

, and lived in small bands without centralized political authority. They were skilled at

basket A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehai ...

ry.

Religion

The original Lake Miwok people world view included

Shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

ism, one form this took was the

Kuksu religion Kuksu, was a religion in Northern California practiced by members within several Indigenous peoples of California before and during contact with the arriving European settlers. The religious belief system was held by several tribes in Central Ca ...

that was evident in Central and Northern California, which included elaborate acting and dancing ceremonies in traditional costume, an annual mourning ceremony, puberty

rites of passage A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of ''rite ...

shamanic Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

intervention with the spirit world and an all-male society that met in subterranean dance rooms.Kroeber, 1907, Vol. 4 #6, sections titled "Shamanism", "Public Ceremonies", "Ceremonial Structures and Paraphernalia", and "Mythology and Beliefs". Kuksu was shared with other indigenous ethnic groups of Central California, such as their neighbors the Lake

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 grou ...

, also

Maidu The Maidu are a Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather and American rivers. They also reside in Humbug Valley. In Maiduan languages, ''Maidu'' means "man." ...

Ohlone The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...

Esselen The Esselen are a Native American people belonging to a linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who are indigenous to the Santa Lucia Mountains of a region south of the Big Sur River in Big Sur, Monterey County, Californi ...

, and northernmost

Yokuts The Yokuts (previously known as MariposasPowell, 1891:90–91.) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. ''Yokuts ...

. However Kroeber observed less "specialized

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used i ...

" in the Miwok, which he termed one of the "southern Kuksu-dancing groups", in comparison to the

and other northern California tribes.

Traditional Narratives

In their myths, legends, tales, and histories, the Lake Miwok participated in the general cultural pattern of Central California.

Mythology

Lake Miwok

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

and narratives were similar to other natives of Central and Northern California. The Lake Miwok believed in animal and human spirits, and saw the animal spirits as their ancestors.

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

was seen as their ancestor and

creator god A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatris ...

Authentic Villages

The authenticated Lake Miwok villages are:Access Genealogy. *''Near present-day town of Lower Lake'': Kado'(?)'-yomi-pukut (at Cookman Ranch), Tu'bud or Tu'bul (on Asbill property toward Lower Lake), Tule'-yomi (2–3 miles south town). *''Near present-day Middletown:'' Laka'h-yomi (on Weldon's ranch), La'lmak-pukut (north end). *''In Pope Valley:'' Kai-yomi-pukut, TsBk-yomi-pukut or ShOkomi (3 miles below the present-day store or town). *''In Coyote Valley:" Kala'u-yomi, Kilinyo-ke (at Eaton Ranch), Ki'tsin-pukut (at Gamble), Ole'-yomi (on the Berry place), Sha'lshal-pukut (at Ashbill), Shandk-yomi-pukut (at Asbill). *''In Jerusalem Valley:'' Wodi'daitepi. *'' Northern Clear Lake Basin:'' Kawi-yomi, (perhaps originally

), Tsitsa-pukut. *''Other villages:'' Tumi'stumis-pukut, 'Tsu'keliwa-pukut (At the 'new' Siegler swimming resort), Wi'lok-yomi (near the present rancheria or reservation but may have been

Wappo The Wappo (endonym: ''Micewal'') are an indigenous people of northern California. Their traditional homelands are in Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River valley. They are distantly related to the Yuki ...

), Yawl'-yomi-pukut (''North of Siegler swimming resort in a canyon),

History

The Lake Miwok were neighbors with the

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 Point ...

and

people. A percentage of the Lake Miwok were coaxed circa 1800-1840 into the Spanish Missions along with their neighbors the

, particularly to the

Mission San Francisco Solano Mission San Francisco Solano was the 21st, last, and northernmost mission in Alta California. It was named for Saint Francis Solanus. It was the only mission built in Alta California after Mexico gained independence from Spain. The difficulty of ...

in Sonoma once it was built. "The mission records show 21 baptism records exist from "Tuyeome and Oleyome indicating definite (mission) penetration by 1835 as far as the shores of Clear Lake, but not indicating wholesome conversion in that region." The natives of Clear Lake suffered tremendous loss of life and were virtually decimated during the regional smallpox epidemic of 1837 that came from

Fort Ross Fort Ross (Russian: Форт-Росс, Kashaya ''mé·ṭiʔni''), originally Fortress Ross ( pre-reformed Russian: Крѣпость Россъ, tr. ''Krepostʹ Ross''), is a former Russian establishment on the west coast of North America in ...

Population

In 1770 there about 400-500 Lake Miwok. In 1848 population estimated at 200, In 1850 it dropped to 100. In 1880 and 1920 it was estimated at 20.Cook, 1976, pages 236-245, 351; 1850-1880 was on L.L. Palmer, History of Napa and Lake Counties, 1881, p. 34-26, and "verbal communication by a Lakeport Indian."; 1920 based on Kroeber, Handbook of American Indians, page 275.

Notable Lake Miwokans

Little documentation exists.

Notes

External links

Access Genealogy: Indian Tribal records, Miwok Indian Tribe
(map after Kroeber)

References

Retrieved on 2006-08-01. Main source of "authenticated village" names and locations. * Callaghan, Catherine. ''Lake Miwok Dictionary''. University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. 39. * Callaghan, Catherine. 1978. "Lake Miwok", in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8 (California). William C. Sturtevant, and Robert F. Heizer, eds. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978. / 0160045754, pages 264-273. * Cook, Sherburne. ''The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization''. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1976. . * Kroeber, Alfred L. 1907. ''The Religion of the Indians of California'', ''University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology'' 4:6. Berkeley, sections titled "Shamanism", "Public Ceremonies", "Ceremonial Structures and Paraphernalia", and "Mythology and Beliefs"; available a
Sacred Texts Online
* 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. . {{authority control California Mission Indians Native American tribes in California History of Lake County, California Miwok People from Lake County, California de:Miwok fr:Miwok pl:Miwok