Miwok Native Americans

The Miwok Native American peoples comprised three distinct indigenous groups of people who inhabited a large geographic area in central California stretching from the Sierras in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. A subgroup of the Penutian language family, the Miwok Native Americans were divided into Coast Miwok, Lake Miwok, and Eastern Miwok. The Eastern Miwok were further subdivided into five linguistic groups: Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok, Northern Sierra Miwok, Southern Sierra Miwok, and Central Sierra Miwok. Miwok means “people” in the indigenous language and is sometimes spelled Mewuk. Prior to Euroamerican contact, the Miwok Native American peoples are estimated to have numbered around 22,000, but with the arrival of Euroamericans their numbers took a sharp decline. By the middle of the nineteenth century there were fewer than 5,000 Miwok left and by the 1970s only 100 Miwok Native Americans were known. The Miwok have had a turn around in recent years, however, and in 1990 there were 3,381 Miwok registered. Today, the Miwok Native Americans live on several rancherias and continue to practice aspects of their traditional ways.

Name: Miwok: The name derives from a Central Sierra Miwok word for “people”.

Location: Central California, from the coast just north of San Francisco inland southeast of Clear Lake to the central valley and into the Sierra Nevadas.

Population: An estimated 22,000 prior to Euroamerican contact, around 3,400 today.

Language Family: Penutian.

First Contact by Euroamericans: In 1579 by Sir Francis Drake.

Return to California Native American Indigenous Peoples Tribal List