Plains Miwok and Sierra Miwok traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Miwok people of the central California, specifically those of Sacramento Valley and Sierra Mountains. These Miwoks are the linguistically related speakers of the Plains and Sierra Miwok languages and their descendants. At the time of European entry, local groups that spoke these languages participated in the general cultural pattern of central California. The record of Sierra Miwok oral literature is one of the most extensive in the state (see the ''Sources'' section below). The record of Plains Miwok narrative, on the other hand, is quite limited (see the Merriam

910 Year 910 ( CMX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. __NOTOC__ Events By place Europe * June 12 – Battle of Augsburg: The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army under ...

citation in the ''Sources'' section below).

On-Line examples of their narratives

''The Indians of Yosemite Valley and Vicinity''
by Galen Clark (1904)
''Indian Myths of South Central California''
by Alfred L. Kroeber (1907)
''The Dawn of the World''
by

C. Hart Merriam Clinton Hart Merriam (December 5, 1855 – March 19, 1942) was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the 'father of mammalogy', a ...

(1910)
''Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest''
by Katharine Berry Judson (1912)

by Edward W. Gifford (1917)
''The Lore and the Lure of the Yosemite''
by Herbert Earl Wilson (1922)
''The North American Indian''
by

Edward S. Curtis Edward Sherriff Curtis (February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952) was an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and on Native American people. Sometimes referred to as the "Shadow Catcher", Curtis traveled ...

(1924)

Sources for their narratives

* Barrett, Samuel A. 1919. "Myths of the Southern Sierra Miwok". ''University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology'' 16:1-28. Berkeley. (Collected in 1906; includes Earth Diver and Theft of Fire.) *. (Narratives collected in 1955-1961, including Theft of Fire and Bear and Fawns.) * Clark, Galen. 1904. ''Indians of the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity: Their History, Customs and Traditions. G. Clark, Yosemite Valley''. (Several myths and legends collected in the nineteenth century, pp. 2-5, 78-100.) * Curtis, Edward S. 1907-1930. ''The North American Indian''. 20 vols. Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts.(Two myths collected from Huwatpaye, vol. 14, pp. 176-177.) * Erdoes, Richard, and Alfonso Ortiz. 1984. ''American Indian Myths and Legends''. Pantheon Books, New York. (Retelling of a narrative from Gifford and Block 1930, pp. 216-218.) * Gifford, Edward Winslow. 1917. "Miwok Myths". ''University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology'' 12:283-338. Berkeley. (Fourteen versions, including Theft of Fire and Bear and Fawns, collected in 1913-1914 from Central Sierra informants William Fuller and Thomas Williams.) * Gifford, Edward Winslow, and Gwendoline Harris Block. 1930. ''California Indian Nights''. Arthur H. Clark, Glendale, California. (Six previously published narratives, pp. 94-99, 135-136, 205-209, 218-221, 237-240, 263-265.) * Judson, Katharine Berry. 1912. ''Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest''. A. C. McClurg, Chicago. (Three myths, pp. 51-53, 100-103.) * Kroeber, A. L. 1907. "Indian Myths of South Central California". ''University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology'' 4:167-250. Berkeley. (Southern Sierra Miwok myths, including Earth Diver, Theft of Fire, and Bear and Fawns, pp. 202-204.) * Latta, Frank F. 1936. ''California Indian Folklore''. F. F. Latta, Shafter, California. (Seven Eastern Miwok narratives, including Theft of Fire, Orpheus, and Bear and Fawns.) * Margolin, Malcolm. 1993. ''The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs, and Reminiscences''. First edition 1981. Heyday Books, Berkeley, California. (Two myths, pp. 156-157, from Kroeber 1907 and Barrett 1919.) * Merriam, C. Hart. 1910. ''The Dawn of the World: Myths and Weird Tales Told by the Mewan Indians of California''. Arthur H. Clark, Cleveland, Ohio. Reprinted as The Dawn of the World: Myths and Tales of the Miwok Indians of California, in 1993 with an introduction by Lowell J. Bean, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. (Numerous narratives, including Theft of Fire and Bear and Fawns.) * Powers, Stephen. 1877. ''Tribes of California''. Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. 3. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. Reprinted with an introduction by Robert F. Heizer in 1976, University of California Press, Berkeley. (Three narratives, pp. 358-360, 366-368.) * Wilson, Herbert Earl. 1922. ''The Lore and the Lure of the Yosemite: The Indians, Their Customs, legends, and Beliefs, and the Story of Yosemite''. A. M. Robertson, San Francisco. (Romanticized versions of Central Sierra Miwok myths and legends, including Earth Diver, Theft of Fire, and Bear and Fawns, pp. 68-94.) {{Traditional Narratives (California groups) Plains and Sierra Miwok Traditional narratives (Native California) History of the San Joaquin Valley History of the Sierra Nevada (United States)