The Wappo ( endonym: ''Micewal'') are an indigenous people of northern California. Their traditional homelands are in

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...

, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River valley. They are distantly related to the

Yuki people The Yuki (also known as Yukiah) are an indigenous people of California, whose traditional territory is around Round Valley, Mendocino County. Today they are enrolled members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation. Bef ...

, from which they seem to have diverged at least 500 years ago. Their language, Wappo, has been influenced by the neighboring

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 ...

, who use the term ''A'shochamai'' or ''A'shotenchawi'' (transcribed as ''Ashochimi'' by some authors), meaning "northerners", to refer to the Wappo. Bulletin_(1925)_(20424273785)

Culture

Prior to European colonization, the Wappo 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 groups without centralized political authority, in homes built from branches, leaves and mud. Their woven baskets were so well-crafted that they were able to hold water. The Wappo are an indigenous people of northern California. Their traditional homelands are in Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, Sonoma Valley, and Russian River valley. :]

History

When Mexicans arrived to colonize California, Wappo villages existed near the present-day towns of Yountville, California, Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga. Those on the south shore of Clear Lake were completely absorbed and dispersed to the

Spanish missions in California The Spanish missions in California ( es, Misiones españolas en California) comprise a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. Founded by Catholic priests ...

. The mission accounted for at least 550 Wappo baptisms.Cook, p. 174 The name Wappo is an Americanization of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

term ''guapo'', which means, among other things, "brave." They were known as brave for their stubborn resistance to Mexican domination, particularly their resistance to all military attempts from General Vallejo and his enlisted allies. In 1836 the warring parties signed a peace treaty.1500 California Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning by William Bright. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998.

Population

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 ...

put the 1770 population of the Wappo at 1,000. Sherburne F. Cook (1976:174) raised this estimate to 1,650. By the early 1850s, the surviving Wappo were reported to number between 188 and 800. However population dropped by 1880 to 50, and the 1910 Census returned only 73.Cook, pp. 239, 351

Language

The

Wappo language Wappo is an extinct language that was spoken by the Wappo tribe, Native Americans who lived in what is now known as the Alexander Valley north of San Francisco. The last fluent speaker, Laura Fish Somersal, died in 1990. The loss of this language i ...

is an extinct member of the Yukian language family. A Wappo grammar has been written.

References

Sources

*Cook, Sherburne F. ''The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1976. . *Kroeber, Alfred L. 1925. ''Handbook of the Indians of California''. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.

External links

Robert Louis Stevenson State Park
* * {{authority control Native American tribes in California California Mission Indians Lake County, California Napa County, California History of Lake County, California History of Napa County, California History of Sonoma County, California St. Helena, California