- Miwok people
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Miwok people 
Total population 1770: over 11,000
1910: 670
1930: 491
current: 3,500[1]Regions with significant populations California: Sierra Nevada Mountains, Central Valley, Marin County, Sonoma County, Lake County, Contra Costa County Languages Religion Shamanism: Kuksu
Miwok mythologyRelated ethnic groups Subgroups:
Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family. The word Miwok means people in their native language.
In 2008, ancient artifacts related to Miwok ancestors were unearthed in Calaveras County, some as many as 5000 years old. Many of the artifacts will be reburied with a special ceremony. The Miwok believe the artifacts belong to the land.[2]
Contents
Subgroups
Anthropologists commonly divide the Miwok into four geographically and culturally diverse ethnic subgroups. These distinctions were unknown among the Miwok before European contact.[3]
- Plains and Sierra Miwok: from the western slope and foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
- Coast Miwok : from present day location of Marin County and southern Sonoma County. (This includes the Bodega Bay Miwok and Marin Miwok).
- Lake Miwok: from Clear Lake basin of Lake County.
- Bay Miwok: from present-day location of Contra Costa County.
Federally recognized tribes
The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs officially recognizes eleven tribes of Miwok, Mi-Wuk or Me-Wuk descent in California, as follows:
- Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians[4]
- California Valley Miwok Tribe (formerly known as the Sheep Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians)[5][6]
- Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians
- Ione Band of Miwok Indians, of Ione, California[7]
- Jackson Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians
- Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Shingle Springs Rancheria (Verona Tract)[8]
- Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the Tuolumne Rancheria
- United Auburn Indian Community of Auburn Rancheria[9]
- Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok[10]
- Middletown Rancheria (Members of this tribe are of Pomo, Lake Miwok, and Wintun descent)
- Wilton Rancheria Indian Tribe[11]
Non-federally recognized tribes
- Miwok Tribe of the El Dorado Rancheria
- Nashville-Eldorado Miwok Tribe
- Colfax- Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe of the Colfax Rancheria
- Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation
- Calaveras Band of Mi-Wuk Indians
Culture
The Miwok lived in small bands without centralized political authority before contact with European Americans in 1769. They had domesticated dogs and cultivated tobacco, but were otherwise hunter-gatherers.
Food
The Sierra Miwok preferentially exploited acorns from the California Black Oak, Quercus kelloggii; in fact, the modern-day extent of the California Black Oak forests in some areas of Yosemite National Park is partially due to preferential cultivation by Miwok tribes. They burned understory vegetation to reduce the fraction of Ponderosa Pine.[12] Nearly every other kind of edible vegetable matter was exploited as a food source, including bulbs, seeds, and fungi. Animals were hunted with arrows, clubs or snares, depending on the species and the situation. Grasshoppers were a highly prized food source, as were mussels for those groups adjacent to the Stanislaus River.
The Miwok ate meals according to appetite rather than at regular times. They stored food for later consumption, primarily in flat-bottomed baskets.
Mythology
Miwok mythology and narratives tend to be similar to those of other natives of Northern California. Miwok had totem animals, identified with one of two moieties, which were in turn associated respectively with land and water. These totem animals were not thought of as literal ancestors of humans, but rather as predecessors.[13]
Population size
In 1770, there were an estimated 500 Lake Miwok, 1,500 Coast Miwok, and 9,000 Plains and Sierra Miwok, totaling about 11,000 people, according to historian Alfred L. Kroeber, although this may be a serious undercount; for example, he did not identify the Bay Miwok.[13] The 1910 Census reported only 671 Miwok total, and the 1930 Census, 491. See history of each Miwok group for more information.[14] Today there are about 3,500 Miwok in total.[1]
Influences on popular culture
The Ewok, a fictional species of forest-dwelling creatures featured in the Star Wars films, are named after the Miwok.[15]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b "Miwok", California Indians and Reservations, San Diego State University, Library, accessed 30 Jun 2010
- ^ "Ancient Artifacts Found At Construction Site", CBS 13 Retrieved: April 26, 2008
- ^ Eugene L. Conrotto (1973). Miwok Means People: The Life and Fate of the Native Inhabitants of the California Gold Rush Country. Fresno, Calif.: Valley Publishers. p. 4. ISBN 0913548138.
- ^ Buena Vista Rancheria - Me-Wuk Indians
- ^ California Valley Miwok Tribe (CVMT GovPortal) - Official Website of the California Valley Miwok Tribe
- ^ California Valley Miwok Tribe (CVMT WebPortal)
- ^ Ione Band of Miwok Indians
- ^ See this notice dated Tuesday, August 11, 2009 from the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs Agency entitled "Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs" (Federal Register Vol. 74, No. 153)http://www.bia.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/text/idc002655.pdf). The "Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Shingle Springs Rancheria (Verona Tract)" is a single federally recognized Tribe.
- ^ Welcome — United Auburn Indian Community
- ^ Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
- ^ "Wilton Rancheria Announces Restoration of Status as Federally Recognized Indian Tribe", Sacramento Business Journal
- ^ C. Michael Hogan (2008) Quercus kelloggii, Globaltwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg
- ^ a b Kroeber, 1925, p. 456
- ^ Cook, 1976, pages 236-245.
- ^ NYtimes.com
References
- Access Genealogy: Indian Tribal records, Miwok Indian Tribe. Retrieved on 2006-08-01. Main source of "authenticated village" names and locations.
- Barrett, S.A. and Gifford, E.W. Miwok Material Culture: Indian Life of the Yosemite Region. Yosemite Association, Yosemite National Park, California, 1933. ISBN 0-939666-12-X
- 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. 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.
- Silliman, Stephen. Lost Laborers in Colonial California, Native Americans and the Archaeology of Rancho Petaluma. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8165-2381-9.
External links
- California Historical Society:The First Californians, The Miwok
- Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770 (map after Kroeber)
- Tribe information from Angel Island State Park
- U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
- Short radio episode Mouse Steals Fire from Coast Miwok lore in Californian Indian Nights Entertainments, 1930, California Legacy Project.
- Mewuktribe.com
Miwok indigenous peoples of California Distinct ethnic groups Regions inhabited Culture Mythology · Plains and Sierra Narratives · Coast Narratives · Lake Narratives
Utian languages · Kuksu religion · Hunting and gatheringCategories:- Miwok
- Federally recognized tribes in the United States
- Indigenous peoples in the United States
- Native American tribes in California
- Native American history of California
- Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
- Central Valley of California
- History of the San Francisco Bay Area
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