The People of the Land, Part 2: Pomo and Miwok

     The Pomo were the rivals of the Wintun tribes living in the Coast Ranges and down to the Pacific Ocean. They lived semi-nomadic lives, picking up and moving whenever they felt like it. Their diet was the same as the Wintun, consisting of acorns, salmon, deer, rabbit, and wild berries. In 1812, first contact with Europeans was made when the Russians settled Fort Ross. They called the Pomo "Kashaya", and the two eventually came to accept each other. They traded and even intermarried. The Californios came in contact with Pomo in 1826-1827. A decade later, the smallpox epidemic that swept across California killed most of the Pomo. The American settlers displaced the rest who moved to reservations around Clear Lake.
     The Miwok were one of the largest and most wide-spread groups of Native Californians. Most historians hold that they are related to tribes from western Canada and Alaska and moved into California very early on. Still, others say that they are the descendants of Siberians who landed on the coast of Northern California 3,000 years ago. Their territory is by far the largest and most varied of any tribe. It stretched from the Sierra Nevadas to the Pacific Ocean and from the Fresno River to Clear Lake. In order to better understand them, the Miwok have been divided into Sierra and Plains Miwok, Coast Miwok, Lake Miwok, and Bay Miwok based on their religion and dialect.
     The Sierra and Plains Miwok settled the Sierras from southern Yosemite to just south of the American River. One interesting thing about them is that the famous Ahwahee Hotel in Yosemite gets its name from the Sierra Miwok word Awahni "grizzly bears" or "killers". This was what they called the area where Americans settled in Yosemite Valley in the late 1850s. The Americans themselves were called Awahnichi, "those who live in Awahni".
     From the Golden Gate to Duncans Point north of Bodega Bay was Coast Miwok territory. One of their settlements remains and is now know as Petaluma, from the Coast Miwok words peta luuma, "backside of the hill". These Miwok have a long history of contact with Europeans stretching back to 1579 when they encountered Sir Francis Drake's ships in San Pablo Bay. Both Russian and Spanish expeditions ran into Coast Miwok in the 1600s-1800s. In 1783, a group of them was recorded at Mission Dolores in San Francisco. In 1817, Mission San Rafael was established in the heart of Coast Miwok territory, but by that time most of them were baptized Catholics. When the missions were secularized in 1834, some went to work for General Vallejo in Petaluma or other powerful dons while the rest requested from the Mexican government land grants to live and work on their own land as Mexican citizens. Rancho Olompali was granted by the governor that same year, and Rancho Nicasio came through in 1835. Rancho Olompali was granted to the chief of the Coast Miwok, Camilo Ynita. Camilo, also known by his Miwok name Hueñux, seriously deserves his own post. The two most influential native Californians ever were Chief Solano and Camilo Ynita, also the only two chiefs to ever ally themselves with General Vallejo. Rancho Nicasio was granted to the Coast Miwok in general and was used by the entire tribe. No one is sure how many have survived to modern times, but in 1880 the estimate was 60.
     Lake Miwok were always small (estimates from Fort Ross guessed about 200) and out-of-reach. They were not contacted very often by Russians, Californios, or Americans as their home on Clear Lake was surrounded by Pomo territory. By 1920, only 20 descendants remained. No one has contacted them since the 30s, so it is believed that they died out. Very little is known about them.
     Finally, there are Bay Miwok. They lived in East Bay, from the Bay to the Coast Ranges that separate the Bay Area and Central Valley and from Carquinez Straits to Pleasanton. What's interesting about them is that their religion differs a little from the others. All the other Miwok, as well as the Pomo, Wintun, and some other tribes practiced the Kuksu religion, a form of animism and shamanism. While Bay Miwok did have elements of Kuksu, they had their own narratives and practices unlike anyone else. For example, there is the creation story that there was a great flood covering the whole earth. Then Mount Diablo came out of the water. Coyote was the greatest of all the animals on the mountain and he formed man there. Later, though, the devil came and took it an now it is the portal to hell. The Bay Miwok intermarried and assimilated with the Californios, and thus there are innumerable descendants of them today.