Miwok people didn't wear much clothing. Miwok men generally went naked, and Miwok women wore only
short grass skirts
. In mountain villages, though, women sometimes wore buckskin dresses instead and the men wore leggings and deerskin shirts.
What did the Miwok children wear?
Clothing was fairly simple for all Miwok.
Young children usually wore no clothing
, while girls and women had two-piece skirts or double aprons made of deerskin or grass.
What did the Miwok eat?
Their food included staple diet of
acorns
which they ground into acorn meal that were stored for up to one year, ground into acorn meal and leached to make soup, cakes and bread. The Miwok hunted deer (venison), black bear, elk, fowl, and small game such as jack-rabbits and quail.
Does the Miwok tribe still exist?
Today there are
about 3,500 Miwok in total
.
What traditions did the Miwok tribe have?
Ceremonies/Traditions/Rituals:
They only took what they needed from the land and were never wasteful. The Bay Miwok believed totally in
the power of animal spirits
and the spirits of each other. They worshipped animals as ancestors, imitated them in dance, and told myths about them.
How did the Miwok tribe dress?
Miwok people didn't wear much clothing. Miwok men generally went naked, and
Miwok women wore only short grass skirts
. In mountain villages, though, women sometimes wore buckskin dresses instead and the men wore leggings and deerskin shirts.
What plants did the Miwok use?
Coast Miwok are known to have used split roots of
the yellow bush lupine
, which grows in sandy soil behind the dunes, and fiber from the riparian shrub, ninebark, for twine and rope.
Did the Miwok tribe use any form of money?
Clamshell disks were used as money
, though they were considered less valuable among the Miwok than among their neighbors to the north. Pieces of clamshell were shaped into small circles, holes bored in them, and strung on strings. Miwok men and women wore strings of clamshells as necklaces, and to show their wealth.
What was the Miwok tribe known for?
Traditionally, the groups near and on the coast—the Coast, Lake, and Bay Miwok—
gathered acorns, fished, and hunted deer and other game with bow and arrow
. They lived in semisubterranean pole- and earth-covered lodges and produced watertight basketry ornamented with beads or feathers.
How did the Miwok tribe trade?
The Central Miwok, dwelling in the foothills near Knights Ferry, were in the habit of
trading certain seeds for digger pine nuts
from people who dwelt somewhat higher in the foothills. Fish taken and dried at Knights Ferry were traded for salt from people still higher in the mountains.
Is the Miwok tribe federally recognized?
The California Valley Miwok Tribe
is a federally recognized tribe of Miwok people in San Joaquin County and Calaveras County, California. They were previously known as the Sheep Ranch Rancheria or the Sheep Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indian of California.
What are Miwok houses called?
Their traditional houses, called
“kotcha”
, were constructed with slabs of tule grass or redwood bark in a cone-shaped form. Miwok people are skilled at basketry.
How many Native American tribes are there?
At present, there are
574
federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages.
What is the climate for the Miwok tribe?
The easterly Plains Miwok lived along the rivers in the Lower Sonoran zone, the westerly in the Upper Sonoran of the Delta, chiefly regions
of hot summer Mediterranean climate
.
What year did the Miwok tribe start?
The Miwok, he claims, came
around 1000 BC
while they were following salmon, as opposed to some other tribes who migrated from Asia 20,000 years ago.
Where are the Miwok today?
The Miwok Indians reside in
north-central California
, from the coast to the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There are three divisions of the tribe — the Coast Miwok, the Lake Miwok, and the Sierra Miwok.
