The Miwok of Northern California

Tribe: The Miwok

Meaning of Name: The name "Miwok" is Miwokan for "People."

Location: A wide, but not long, geographical area from Marin County north of San Francisco, to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite National Park to south of San Francisco. The Miwok have occupied that area since at least 1000 BC and have been in the Sierra Nevadas since 500 AD.

Original Language: Miwokan, a branch of the Utian linguistic family, or possibly the Penutian, or Uto-Aztecan linguistic family.

Tribal Affiliations: Ohlone, Patwin, Pomo and Yokut tribes.

Traditional Enemies: The Mono and, depending on the location of the tribe, the Spanish, the English, the Mexicans, the Russians and the Americans, especially during the Gold Rush, since gold was found on what was once their land. (The Miwok's form of money were strings of disks made out of punched-out rounds of Washington clam shells.)

Traditional Style of Housing:  Depending on the location, either a rounded dome-like wickiup made of woven tule, or a teepee-like lean-to made of cedar bark and branches. Villages typically had storehouses, granaries, sweat-lodges, menstrual-lodges, and round male-only "spirit dance" lodges that was fairly large and partially subterranean.

Traditional Attire: Loincloths, tunics, and boots. Both women and men wore their hair long, and had tattoos and piercings. The men sometimes wore headbands decorated with feathers.

Traditional Foods: Depending on where the tribe lived, the women gathered acorns, seaweed, bulbs, clams, oysters, mussels, abalone, grasshoppers, greens, seeds and berries while the men hunted for deer, rabbit, skunk, bat, salmon, trout, sea lions, seals, sea otters, ducks, brown bears, and antelope, but they did not hunt more dangerous animals like king snakes, rattlesnakes and grizzly bears.

Position of Women: Relatively low. Descent was patrilineal and the culture was male-dominant. However, the work that women did in terms of cooking, basket-making, food-gathering, childcare and keeping the home-fires burning was valued equally or nearly equally with the work that men did of hunting, boat-making, fishing and warfare.

Miwok Courtship: How the Miwok courted remains a mystery.

Interesting Tidbits: The word "Yosemite" comes from the Miwok word "asamati" which means "bear.".... The Miwok were the inspiration for Ewoks in the Star Wars movies.... And the Miwok had dogs and smoked pipe-tobacco.

Traditional Religion: Only men were allowed to be Shamans, and only men were allowed in the round wooden ceremonial "spirit dance" houses.

Slavery and the Miwok: Miwok men and women were often enslaved or made indentured servants, which is like short-term slavery.

Current Population: There are more than 3,500 registered Miwok.

Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Most Miwokan live in poverty or near-poverty on reservations or Rancherias. Some rely on logging, basketry and tourism for income, and others rely on casinos.

Famous Miwok: None.