Plains and Sierra Miwok

Last updated
Plains and Sierra Miwok People
House Miwok Yosemite CA.jpg
A Sierra Miwok cedar bark umuucha cabin reproduction in Yosemite Valley. The material came from lumbering operations of 19th century miners. Previously the Miwok lived in rounded huts made of brush and mud. [1]
Total population
1770: 9,000-17,800
1848: 6,000
1880: 100
1910: 670
Regions with significant populations
Flag of the United States.svg  United States (Flag of California.svg  California):
Sierra Nevada, Central Valley
Languages
Utian:
Plains Miwok, Northern Sierra Miwok, Central Sierra Miwok, Southern Sierra Miwok
Religion
Kuksu
Miwok religion
Related ethnic groups
Other Miwok peoples: Coast Miwok, Lake Miwok, and Bay Miwok

The Plains and Sierra Miwok were once the largest group of California Indian Miwok people, Indigenous to California. Their homeland included regions of the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, and the Sierra Nevada.

Contents

Geography

The Plains and Sierra Miwok traditionally lived in the western Sierra Nevada between the Fresno River and Cosumnes River, in the eastern Central Valley of California. As well as in the northern Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta region at the confluences of the Cosumnes River, Mokelumne River, and Sacramento River.

In the present day, many Sierra Miwok live in or close to their traditional territories and Indian rancherias, including at: [2]

Culture

A basket woven by Miwok-Mono Paiute Native American artist Lucy Telles from the Yosemite Valley region Lucy Telles basket.jpg
A basket woven by Miwok-Mono Paiute Native American artist Lucy Telles from the Yosemite Valley region

The Plains and Sierra Miwok lived by hunting and gathering, and lived in small local tribes, without centralized political authority. They are skilled at basketry and continue the traditions today.

Religion

The original Plains and Sierra Miwok people world view included Shamanism. One form this took was the Kuksu religion that was evident in Central and Northern California, which included elaborate acting and dancing ceremonies in traditional costume, an annual morning ceremony, puberty rites of passage, shamanic intervention with the spirit world, and an all-male society that met in subterranean dance rooms. [3] [4] Kuksu was shared with other indigenous ethnic groups of Central California, such as the Pomo, Maidu, Ohlone, Esselen, and northernmost Yokuts. However, Kroeber observed less "specialized cosmogony" in the Miwok, which he termed one of the "southern Kuksu-dancing groups", in comparison to the Maidu and other northern California tribes. [5]

Traditional narratives

The record of myths, legends, tales, and histories from the Plains and Sierra Miwok is one of the most extensive in the state. These groups participate in the general cultural pattern of Central California. [3]

Mythology

Miwok mythology is similar to other natives of Central and Northern California. The Plains and Sierra Miwok believe in animal and human spirits, and see the animal spirits as their ancestors. Coyote is seen as their ancestor and creator god. [6]

Divisions

Map of the territory and villages (not exhaustive) of the Plains and Sierra Miwok (after Kroeber 1925). Map of the Plains and Sierra Miwok territories (colored).png
Map of the territory and villages (not exhaustive) of the Plains and Sierra Miwok (after Kroeber 1925).

There were four definite regional and linguistic sub-divisions: Plains Miwok, Northern Sierra Miwok, Central Sierra Miwok, and Southern Sierra Miwok.

Plains Miwok

The Plains Miwok inhabited a portion of the Central Valley's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and adjacent plains in modern southern Sacramento County, eastern Solano County, and northern San Joaquin County. They spoke Plains Miwok, a language of the Miwokan branch of the Utian language family. [7]

Villages and local tribes

Classical anthropologists recorded a number of specific Plains Miwok villages, but it remained for work by Bennyhoff in the 1950s and 1960s to recognize multi-village territorial local tribes as the signature land-use organization of the Plains Miwok. The published specific village locations were:

  • On the Cosumnes River: Chuyumkatat, Lulimal, Mayeman, Mokos-unni, Sukididi, Supu, Tukui, Yomit [8]
  • Near the Cosumnes River: Umucha, Yumhui; on the Mokelumne River: Lel-amni, Mokel(-unni), Sakayak-unni; on the east bank of Sacramento River below Sacramento: Hulpu-mni; on Jackson Creek: Ochech-ak [9]

Among the important landholding local tribes at the time of Spanish colonization in California were:

  • Anizumne at Rio Vista on the west side of the Sacramento River
  • Chilamne at Bellota on the Calaveras River
  • Chucumne at Liberty Island on the west side of the Sacramento River
  • Cosomne at the Wilton Rancheria Miwok on the Cosumnes River
  • Gualacomne at Freeport on both sides of the Sacramento River
  • Guaypemne at Terminous on the Mokelumne River delta
  • Lelamne at Clements on the Mokelumne River
  • Muquelemne at Ione on the Mokelumne River
  • Musupum at Andrus Island at the confluence of the Mokelumne and San Joaquin rivers
  • Ochejamne at Courtland on the east side of the Sacramento River
  • Quenemsia at Grand Island among the distributary channels of the Sacramento River
  • Seuamne at Jenny Lind on the Calaveras River (intermediate to Northern Sierra Miwok)
  • Sonolomne probably on Dry and Laguna creeks east of Galt
  • Unizumne at Thornton at the confluence of the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers
  • Ilamne at Yolano on the west side of the Sacramento River (northwest of Freeport) [10]

Post-contact history

The majority of the members of the Plains Miwok local tribes moved to colonial Franciscan Mission San José, in some cases through attraction and in other cases through intimidation, between 1812 and 1833. By 1815 they represented 14% of the Indian people at that mission, and by 1830 they had reached 42% of the mission's population. In 1834 and 1835, hundreds of Plains Miwok survivors of the Central Valley's 1833 malaria epidemic were baptized at Mission San José. By the end of 1835, Plains Miwok was the native language of 60% of the Indian people at the mission.

Between 1834 and 1838 the Alta California missions were secularized (closed as religious and agricultural communes). Many Plains Miwoks moved back to their home areas, where between 1839 and 1841 John Sutter played the local groups off against one another in order to gain control of the lower Sacramento Valley. Other Plains Miwok families remained in the San Francisco Bay area, intermarried with Ohlone, Patwin, and Yokuts peoples, and found work on local Mexican ranchos. [11]

Northern Sierra Miwok

The Northern Miwok inhabited the upper watersheds of the Mokelumne River and the Calaveras River. One settlement site is within the present day Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park near Volcano. They spoke Northern Sierra Miwok, a language in the Utian linguistic group.

Historic villages

The authenticated Northern Sierra Miwok villages are: [12]

  • At present-day San Andreas: Huta-sil
  • At present-day Jackson: Tukupe-su
  • Near present-day Jackson: Pola-su
  • On the Calaveras River Headwaters: Kechenti, Kaitimii, Mona-sti
  • Between Calaveras River and Mokelumne Rivers: Apautawilti, Heina, Ketina
  • On the Cosumnes River: Noma (South Fork), Omo (South Fork), Yule (south of river)
  • On the Mokelumne River. Ktiniisti, Uptistini, Penken-sii (inland south of river), Sopochi (towards Jackson Creek)
  • On Jackson Creek: Chakane-sii?, Seweu-sii, Tumuti (on the headwaters), Yuloni, on Jackson Creek

Central Sierra Miwok

The Central Sierra Miwok inhabited the upper watersheds of the Stanislaus River and the Tuolumne River. They spoke Central Sierra Miwok, a language in the Utian linguistic group.

Historic villages

The authenticated Central Sierra Miwok villages are: [12]

  • At present-day Sonora: Akankau-nchi (1), Kuluti. Also in this vicinity: Hunga, Kapanina, Chakachi-no, Akankau-nchi (2), Kesa, Kotoplana, Olaw_ye, Pokto-no, Pota, Siksike-no, Sopka-su, Suchumumu, Sukanola, Sukwela, Telese-no, Tel'ula, Tunuk-chi, Waka-che.
  • On the Calaveras River: Humata, Katuka, Newichu (between Stanislaus River and a head branch)
  • On the Stanislaus River: Akutanuka (northwest), Hangwite (South Fork), Kawinucha (North Fork), Kewe-no, Loyowisa (near the junction of Middle and South Forks), Oloikoto, Sutamasina (South Fork), Takema (Middle Fork), Tipotoya, Tulana-chi, Tulsuna (between the South and Middle Forks), Tuyiwu-nu, Wokachet (South Fork), Wolanga-su (south of the junction between the South and Middle Forks), Wtiyu Yungakatok (near the junction of the North and Middle Forks)
  • On the Tuolumne River: Akawila (between a branch of Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers), Hechhechi (at headwaters), Hochhochmeti, Kulamu, Pangasema-nu (northern), Pasi-nu (southeast of Sonora), Pigliku (southern), Singawu-nu, Sala
  • Near present-day San Andreas: Alakani (east), Kosoimuno-nu (towards Stanislaus River), Sasamu (almost due east), Shulaputi (southeast)

Southern Sierra Miwok

Miwok-Paiute ceremony in 1872 at current site of Yosemite Lodge in Yosemite Valley Miwok-Paiute ceremony in 1872 at current site of Yosemite Lodge.jpeg
Miwok-Paiute ceremony in 1872 at current site of Yosemite Lodge in Yosemite Valley

The Southern Miwok inhabited the lower banks of the Merced River and the Chowchilla River, as well as Mariposa Creek. They spoke Southern Sierra Miwok, a language in the Utian linguistic group. [13]

The Merced River flows from the High Sierras, through Yosemite Valley, and into the San Joaquin Valley near present-day near Livingston.

The Mono tribe people (considered Northern Paiute) occupied the higher eastern Sierras and the Mono Lake Basin, and entered Yosemite from the east. The Mono name for the Southern Miwok was qohsoo?moho. [14] Miwoks occupied the lower western foothills of the Sierras and entered from the west. Disputes between the two tribes were violent, and the residents of the valley, in defense of their territory, were considered to be among the most aggressive of any tribes in the area.

When encountered by immigrants of European descent, the neighboring Southern Sierra Miwok tribe referred to the Yosemite Valley residents as "killers". [15] It is from this reference and a confusion over the word for "grizzly bear" that Bunnell named the valley Yosemite. The native residents called the valley awahni. Today, there is some debate about the original meaning of the word, since the Southern Miwok language is virtually extinct, but recent Southern Miwok speakers defined it as "place like a gaping mouth." Those living in awahni were known as the Awahnichi (also spelled Awani, Ahwahnechee, and similar variants), meaning "people who live in awahni". [16] [17] The naming of the Ahwahnee Hotel was derived from the Miwok word.

Historic villages

The authenticated Southern Sierra Miwok villages are: [12]

  • Near present-day Mariposa: Kasumati, Nochu-chi
  • On the Chowchilla River headwaters: Nowach, Olwia
  • On the Fresno River: Wasema, Wehilto
  • On the Merced River: Alaula-chi, Angisawepa, Awal, Hikena, Kakahula-chi, Kitiwana, Kuyuka-chi, Owelinhatihu, Palachan, Sayangasi, Siso-chi, Sope-nchi, Sotpok, WilitoYawoka-chi

Post-contact history

After Euro-Americans entered Yosemite Valley and the adjacent Sierras, and established Yosemite National Park, the residents were of both Paiute-Mono and Miwok origin. They had either fought to a stalemate or agreed to peaceful coexistence and had intermixed to a limited extent. [16]

Population

Alfred L. Kroeber estimated there to be 9,000 Plains and Sierra Miwok combined in 1770, but this is an arguably low estimate. [18] Richard Levy estimated there were 17,800. [19] In 1848 their population was estimated at 6,000, in 1852 at 4,500, in 1880 at 100, and in 1910 the population was estimated at 670. [20]

Notable Plains and Sierra Miwoks

Notes

  1. Craig D. Bates Museum Anthropology 17(2):13 (June 1993)
  2. "California Indians and Their Reservations: Miwok." San Diego State University Library and Information Access. 2011 . Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  3. 1 2 Kroeber, 1907, Vol. 4 #6, sections titled "Shamanism", "Public Ceremonies", "Ceremonial Structures and Paraphernalia", and "Mythology and Beliefs".
  4. The Kuksu Cult paraphrased from Kroeber. Archived October 11, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Kroeber, 1925, page 445. "A less specialized type of cosmogony is therefore indicated for the southern Kuksu-dancing groups. [1. If, as seems probable, the southerly Kuksu tribes (the Miwok, Costanoans, Esselen, and northernmost Yokuts) had no real society in connection with their Kuksu ceremonies, the distinctness of their mythology appears less surprising.]".
  6. Clark 1910, Gifford 1917.
  7. Callaghan 1984; Mithun 1999:535-538.
  8. Merriam 1907.
  9. Kroeber 1925:444-445, Plate 37.
  10. Bennyhoff 1977
  11. Milliken 2008
  12. 1 2 3 Kroeber 1925:445, Plate 37.
  13. Broadbent, 1964.
  14. Sydney M. Lamb. 1957. Mono Grammar. University of California. Berkeley PhD dissertation.
  15. "Origin of the word Yosemite". Yosemite.ca.us. 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2013-02-15.
  16. 1 2 Bunnel, 1892.
  17. Anderson, 2005.
  18. Kroeber
  19. Levy, 1978, page 401.
  20. Cook, 1976, pages 236-245.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohlone</span> Native American people of the Northern California coast

The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans, 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 area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley. At that time they spoke a variety of related languages. The Ohlone languages make up a sub-family of the Utian language family. Older proposals place Utian within the Penutian language phylum, while newer proposals group it as Yok-Utian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merced River</span> River in California

The Merced River, in the central part of the U.S. state of California, is a 145-mile (233 km)-long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin Valley. It is most well known for its swift and steep course through the southern part of Yosemite National Park, where it is the primary watercourse flowing through Yosemite Valley. The river's character changes dramatically once it reaches the plains of the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, where it becomes a slow-moving meandering stream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miwok</span> Members of four linguistically related Native American groups

The Miwok 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 Miwok means people in the Miwok languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coast Miwok</span> Tribe of Native American people

The Coast Miwok are an Indigenous people of California that were the second-largest tribe of the 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 eastward to Sonoma Creek. Coast Miwok included the Bodega Bay Miwok, or Olamentko (Olamentke), from authenticated Miwok villages around Bodega Bay, the Marin Miwok, or Hookooeko (Huukuiko), and Southern Sonoma Miwok, or Lekahtewutko (Lekatuit). While they did not have an overarching name for themselves, the Coast Miwok word for people, Micha-ko, was suggested by A. L. Kroeber as a possible endonym, keeping with a common practice among tribal groups and the ethnographers studying them in the early 20th Century and with the term Miwok itself, which is the Central Sierra Miwok word for people.

The Bay Miwok are a cultural and linguistic group of Miwok, a Native American people in Northern California who live in Contra Costa County. They joined the Franciscan mission system during the early nineteenth century, suffered a devastating population decline, and lost their language as they intermarried with other native California ethnic groups and learned the Spanish language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosumnes River</span> River in northern California, United States

The Cosumnes River is a river in northern California in the United States. It rises on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and flows approximately 52.5 miles (84.5 km) into the Central Valley, emptying into the Mokelumne River in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utian languages</span> Language family of Northern California, US

Utian 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 that the Utian languages and Yokuts languages are sub-families of the Yok-Utian language family. Utian and Yokutsan have traditionally been considered part of the Penutian language phylum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central California</span> Region of California in the United States

Central California is generally thought of as the middle third of the U.S. state of California, north of Southern California and south of Northern California. It includes the northern portion of the San Joaquin Valley, part of the Central Coast, the central hills of the California Coast Ranges and the foothills and mountain areas of the central Sierra Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mokelumne River</span> River in northern California

The Mokelumne River is a 95-mile (153 km)-long river in northern California in the United States. The river flows west from a rugged portion of the central Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley and ultimately the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, where it empties into the San Joaquin River-Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel. Together with its main tributary, the Cosumnes River, the Mokelumne drains 2,143 square miles (5,550 km2) in parts of five California counties. Measured to its farthest source at the head of the North Fork, the river stretches for 157 miles (253 km).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mono people</span> People group

The Mono are a Native American people who traditionally live in the central Sierra Nevada, the Eastern Sierra, the Mono Basin, and adjacent areas of the Great Basin. They are often grouped under the historical label "Paiute" together with the Northern Paiute and Southern Paiute – but these three groups, although related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, do not form a single, unique, unified group of Great Basin tribes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yokuts</span> Ethnic group native to the United States

The Yokuts 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 is both plural and singular; Yokut, while common, is erroneous. 'Yokut' should only be used when referring specifically to the Tachi Yokut Tribe of Lemoore. Some of their descendants prefer to refer to themselves by their respective tribal names; they reject the term Yokuts, saying that it is an exonym invented by English-speaking settlers and historians. Conventional sub-groupings include the Foothill Yokuts, Northern Valley Yokuts, and Southern Valley Yokuts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patwin</span> Indigenous people in Northern California

The Patwin are a band of Wintun people in Northern California. The Patwin comprise the southern branch of the Wintun group, native inhabitants of California since approximately 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area codes 209 and 350</span> Area codes in northern Central Valley, California

Area codes 209 and 350 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. Their service area includes Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, Merced, Winton, Atwater, Livingston, Manteca, Ripon, Tracy, Lodi, Galt, Sonora, Los Banos, San Andreas, Mariposa, and Yosemite, the northern San Joaquin Valley, and the Sierra Foothills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Miwok</span> Branch of the Miwok

The Lake Miwok are a branch of the Miwok, a Native American people of Northern California. The Lake Miwok lived in the Clear Lake basin of what is now called Lake County. While they did not have an overarching name for themselves, the Lake Miwok word for people, Hotsa-ho, was suggested by A. L. Kroeber as a possible endonym, keeping with a common practice among tribal groups and the ethnographers studying them in the early 20th Century and with the term Miwok itself, which is the Central Sierra Miwok word for people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuksu (religion)</span> Religion in Northern California

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 California and Northern California, from the Sacramento Valley west to the Pacific Ocean.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilton Rancheria</span> Native American tribe

Wilton Rancheria is a federally recognized Native American tribe of Miwok people based in northern California. They were formed from Wilton Rancheria Miwok and the Me-Wuk Indian Community of the Wilton Rancheria. It regained recognition in 2009.

The Miwok are four Native American groups in Northern California.

References

  • Anderson, Daniel. Origin of the word Yosemite. Retrieved on 2006-08-01.
  • Broadbent, Sylvia. (1964). The Southern Sierra Miwok Language. University of California publications in linguistics. Vol. 38. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Bennyhoff, James A. 1977. Ethnogeography of the Plains Miwok. Center for Archaeological Research at Davis Publication Number 5. University of California at Davis.
  • Bunnell, Dr. Lafayette. Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian war of 1851, which led to that event, 3d ed. New York City and Chicago, IL: F. H. Revell Company, 1892.
  • Callaghan, Catherine A. 1984. Plains Miwok Dictionary. University of California Publications in Linguistics, Volume 105.
  • Cook, Sherburne. The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1976. ISBN   0-520-03143-1.
  • 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 at 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 at Yosemite Online Library.
  • Levy, Richard. 1978. Eastern Miwok, in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8 (California). William C. Sturtevant, and Robert F. Heizer, eds. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978. ISBN   0-16-004578-9 / 0160045754, pp. 398–413.
  • Milliken, Randall. 2008. Native Americans at Mission San Jose. Banning, CA: Malki-Ballena Press. ISBN   978-0-87919-147-4
  • Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. University Press, Cambridge.