TheLake Miwok are a branch of theMiwok, aNative American people ofNorthern California. TheLake Miwok lived in theClear Lake basin of what is now calledLake County. While they did not have an overarching name for themselves, the Lake Miwok word for people,Hotsa-ho, was suggested byA. L. Kroeber as a possibleendonym,[1] keeping with a common practice among tribal groups and the ethnographers studying them in the early 20th Century and with the termMiwok itself, which is theCentral Sierra Miwok word for people.
The Lake Miwok spoke their ownLake language in theUtian linguistic group. They lived byhunting and gathering, and lived in small bands without centralized political authority. They were skilled atbasketry.
The original Lake Miwok people world view includedShamanism, one form this took was theKuksu religion that was evident in Central and Northern California, which included elaborate acting and dancing ceremonies in traditional costume, an annual mourning ceremony, pubertyrites of passage,shamanic intervention with the spirit world and an all-male society that met in subterranean dance rooms.[2][3] Kuksu was shared with other indigenous ethnic groups of Central California, such as their neighbors the LakePomo, alsoMaidu,Ohlone,Esselen, and northernmostYokuts. However Kroeber observed less "specializedcosmogony" in the Miwok, which he termed one of the "southern Kuksu-dancing groups", in comparison to theMaidu and other northern California tribes.[4]
Lake Miwokmythology and narratives were similar to other natives of Central and Northern California. The Lake Miwok believed in animal and human spirits, and saw the animal spirits as their ancestors.Coyote was seen as their ancestor andcreator god.[5]
Near present-day town of Lower Lake: Kado'(?)'-yomi-pukut (at Cookman Ranch), Tu'bud or Tu'bul (on Asbill property toward Lower Lake), Tule'-yomi (2–3 miles south town).
Near present-day Middletown: Laka'h-yomi (on Weldon's ranch), La'lmak-pukut (north end).
In Pope Valley: Kai-yomi-pukut, TsBk-yomi-pukut or ShOkomi (3 miles below the present-day store or town).
In Coyote Valley: Kala'u-yomi, Kilinyo-ke (at Eaton Ranch), Ki'tsin-pukut (at Gamble), Ole'-yomi (on the Berry place), Sha'lshal-pukut (at Ashbill), Shandk-yomi-pukut (at Asbill).
In Jerusalem Valley: Wodi'daitepi.
Northern Clear Lake Basin: Kawi-yomi, (perhaps originallyPomo), Tsitsa-pukut.
Other villages: Tumi'stumis-pukut, 'Tsu'keliwa-pukut (At the 'new' Siegler swimming resort), Wi'lok-yomi (near the present rancheria or reservation but may have beenWappo), Yawl'-yomi-pukut (North of Siegler swimming resort in a canyon),
The Lake Miwok were neighbors with thePomo,Coast Miwok andWappo people. A percentage of the Lake Miwok were coaxed circa 1800-1840 into the Spanish Missions along with their neighbors theCoast Miwok, particularly to theMission San Francisco Solano inSonoma once it was built. "The mission records show 21 baptism records exist from "Tuyeome and Oleyome indicating definite (mission) penetration by 1835 as far as the shores of Clear Lake, but not indicating wholesome conversion in that region."[7]
The natives of Clear Lake suffered tremendous loss of life and were virtually decimated during the regional smallpox epidemic of 1837 that came fromFort Ross.[8]
In 1770 there about 400-500 Lake Miwok.[9] In 1848 population estimated at 200, In 1850 it dropped to 100. In 1880 and 1920 it was estimated at 20.[10]
^Kroeber, Alfred L. (1925).Handbook of the Indians of California. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. p. 274.
^abKroeber, 1907, Vol. 4 #6, sections titled "Shamanism", "Public Ceremonies", "Ceremonial Structures and Paraphernalia", and "Mythology and Beliefs".
^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.]".
^Cook 1976, pages 174-175, 239, says "Probably 400 is a liberal estimate", and quotes Kroeber "not in excess of 500."
^Cook, 1976, pages 236-245, 351; 1850-1880 was on L.L. Palmer, History of Napa and Lake Counties, 1881, p. 34-26, and "verbal communication by a Lakeport Indian."; 1920 based on Kroeber, Handbook of American Indians, page 275.
Callaghan, Catherine.Lake Miwok Dictionary. University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. 39.
Callaghan, Catherine. 1978. "Lake Miwok", in Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8 (California). William C. Sturtevant, and Robert F. Heizer, eds. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.ISBN0-16-004578-9 / 0160045754, pages 264-273.
Cook, Sherburne.The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1976.ISBN0-520-03143-1.
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 atSacred 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 atYosemite Online Library
Silliman, Stephen.Lost Laborers in Colonial California, Native Americans and the Archaeology of Rancho Petaluma. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2004.ISBN0-8165-2381-9.
