 A Sierra Miwok cedar barkumuucha cabin reproduction inYosemite 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 | |
 United States ( 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 | |
| OtherMiwok peoples:Coast Miwok,Lake Miwok, andBay Miwok |
ThePlains and Sierra Miwok were once the largest group ofCalifornia IndianMiwok people, Indigenous toCalifornia. Their homeland included regions of theSacramento Valley,San Joaquin Valley, and theSierra Nevada.
The Plains and Sierra Miwok traditionally lived in the western Sierra Nevada between theFresno River andCosumnes River, in the easternCentral Valley of California. As well as in the northernSacramento–San Joaquin River Delta region at theconfluences of the Cosumnes River,Mokelumne River, andSacramento River.
In the present day, many Sierra Miwok live in or close to their traditional territories andIndian rancherias, including at:[2]
The Plains and Sierra Miwok lived byhunting and gathering, and lived in small local tribes, without centralized political authority. They are skilled atbasketry and continue the traditions today.
The original Plains and Sierra 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 morning ceremony, pubertyrites 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 thePomo,Maidu,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 the Maidu and other northern California tribes.[5]
The record ofmyths, 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]
Miwokmythology 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 andcreator god.[6]
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There were four definite regional and linguistic sub-divisions: Plains Miwok, Northern Sierra Miwok, Central Sierra Miwok, and Southern Sierra Miwok.
The Plains Miwok inhabited a portion of the Central Valley's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and adjacent plains in modern southernSacramento County, easternSolano County, and northernSan Joaquin County. They spokePlains Miwok, a language of the Miwokan branch of theUtian language family.[7]
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:
Among the important landholding local tribes at the time of Spanish colonization in California were:
The majority of the members of the Plains Miwok local tribes moved to colonial FranciscanMission 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 1833malaria 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 theAlta California missions were secularized (closed as religious and agricultural communes). Many Plains Miwoks moved back to their home areas, where between 1839 and 1841John 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 withOhlone,Patwin, andYokuts peoples, and found work on localMexican ranchos.[11]
The Northern Miwok inhabited the upperwatersheds of theMokelumne River and theCalaveras River. One settlement site is within the present dayIndian Grinding Rock State Historic Park nearVolcano. They spoke Northern Sierra Miwok, a language in theUtian linguistic group.
The authenticated Northern Sierra Miwok villages are:[12]
TheCentral Sierra Miwok inhabited the upper watersheds of theStanislaus River and theTuolumne River. They spokeCentral Sierra Miwok, a language in theUtian linguistic group.
The authenticated Central Sierra Miwok villages are:[12]
The Southern Miwok inhabited the lower banks of theMerced River and theChowchilla River, as well asMariposa Creek. They spokeSouthern Sierra Miwok, a language in the Utian linguistic group.[13]
The Merced River flows from theHigh Sierras, throughYosemite Valley, and into theSan Joaquin Valley near present-day nearLivingston.
TheMono tribe people (consideredNorthern Paiute) occupied the higher eastern Sierras and theMono Lake Basin, and entered Yosemite from the east. TheMono name for the Southern Miwok wasqohsoo?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 ofEuropean 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 valleyawahni. 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 inawahni were known as theAwahnichi (also spelledAwani,Ahwahnechee, and similar variants), meaning "people who live in awahni".[16][17] The naming of theAhwahnee Hotel was derived from the Miwok word.
The authenticated Southern Sierra Miwok villages are:[12]
After Euro-Americans entered Yosemite Valley and the adjacent Sierras, and establishedYosemite 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]
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]
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