Wintu

The Wintu (also Northern Wintun) are Native Americans who live in what is now Northern California.[2] They are part of a loose association of peoples known collectively as the Wintun (or Wintuan). Others are the Nomlaki and the Patwin. The Wintu language is part of the Penutian language family.

For the language, see Wintu language.
Wintu
Total population
2,500 (three major groups)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 United States Northern Sacramento Valley, California
Languages
English, formerly Wintu
Religion
Christianity, Native religion
Related ethnic groups
Wintun (Nomlaki and Patwin), Yokut

Historically, the Wintu lived primarily on the western side of the northern part of the Sacramento Valley, from the Sacramento River to the Coast Range. The range of the Wintu also included the southern portions of the Upper Sacramento River (south of the Salt Creek drainage), the southern portion of the McCloud River, and the upper Trinity River. They also lived in the vicinity of present-day Chico, on the west side of the river extending to the Coast Ranges.

History
See also: California Genocide

The first recorded encounter between Wintu and Euro-Americans dates from the 1826 expedition of Jedediah Smith, followed by an 1827 expedition led by Peter Skene Ogden. Between 1830 and 1833, many Wintu died from a malaria epidemic that killed an estimated 75% of the indigenous population in the upper and central Sacramento Valley.

In the following years, the weakened Wintu fell victim to competition for resources by incoming European-American settlers. The settlers' sheep and cattle herds destroyed the Wintu food supply while gold miners' processing activities caused pollution of rivers. The Wintu were also forced to work as laborers in gold mining operations. In 1846, John C. Frémont and Kit Carson killed 175 Wintu and Yana.[3]

Settlers tried to take over Wintu land and relocate them west of Clear Creek. At a "friendship feast" in 1850, whites served poisoned food to local Indians, from which 100 Nomsuu and 45 Wenemem Wintu died. More deaths of Wintu and destruction of their land followed in 1851 and 1852, in incidents such as the Bridge Gulch Massacre.[4]

Culture

The Wintu language is one of the Wintuan languages; it is also called Wintu.

The religious stories and legends of the Trinity River Wintu were told by Grant Towendolly to Marcelle Masson, who published them in A Bag of Bones (1966).

In the spring of 2015, Angel Gomez III, the son of Valerie Masson Gomez and grandson of Marcelle Masson, made a trip to Shasta County in search of the rock formation pictured on the cover of "A Bag of Bones." He successfully located this formation and was witnessed by fellow traveler Trina Duke. Photographs of the couple standing on the rock with the book in hand were taken and posted online, but the connection to these is broken. The rock formation stands to the east of Interstate 5 along a tributary of a river and a small falls and pool provide locals with a private swimming location. Mr. Gomez and Ms. Duke shared a dip with bats feeding at dusk. The date of discovery was Friday, June 15, 2015. Information is needed on the location of the river located along a local two-lane road. For book image go to https://www.amazon.com/Bag-Bones-Legends-Northern-California/dp/0911010262.

Population
Further information: Population of Native California

Scholars have disagreed about the historic population of the tribes before European-American contact. Alfred L. Kroeber estimated the combined 1770 population of the Wintu, Nomlaki, and Patwin as 12,000.[5] Sherburne F. Cook initially put the population of the Wintu proper as 2,950, but later nearly doubled his estimate to 5,300.[6][7] Frank R. LaPena estimated a total of 14,250 in his work of the 1970s.[8]

Kroeber estimated the population of the Wintu, Nomlaki, and Patwin in 1910 as about 1,000. Today the population has recovered somewhat and there are about 2,500 Wintun, many of whom live on the Round Valley Reservation, and on the Colusa, Cortina, Grindstone Creek, Redding, and Rumsey rancherias.[1]

See also

Notes
  1. "Wintun Indians". California Indians and Their Reservations: An Online Dictionary. San Diego State University Library. Archived from the original on 26 July 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2010. The Wintun Indian people have three divisions: the Wintu, Norel Muk (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern). Their traditional territories are located in the greater Sacramento Valley, with the Sacramento River a major feature of all the regions. Their lands vary from the Wintu mountain rivers in the north, through the Nomlaki plains, to the marshes, valleys, and hills of the Patwin. Their languages are of the Penutian family. Their diet came from the semiannual runs of king salmon up major rivers, to acorns and other vegetable foods, to game. In the early 1800s, there were approximately 12,000-15,000 members of the Wintun Tribe. Spanish settlers arrived in Wintun territory by 1808, and the Hudson Bay Company trappers arrived sometime before 1832. Tribal unity was destroyed by the taking of land and the destruction of traditional food and material-gathering areas. Due to the introduction of cattle, hogs, and sheep, the construction of dams, and the Copper processing plants in the 1880s and early 1900s, the Wintun suffered a heavy toll on their health and survival. Today there are over 2,500 people of Wintun descent. Many live on the Round Valley Reservation, and on the Colusa, Cortina, Grindstone Creek, Redding, and Rumsey rancherias.
  2. "(no title)". wintutribe.org. Retrieved 2018-06-09. Cite uses generic title (help)
  3. McMurtry, 2005
  4. LaPena, 1978:324
  5. Kroeber, p. 883
  6. Cook, The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization, p. 180
  7. Cook, The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970, p. 19
  8. LaPena, p. 325

References
  • Christopher Chase-Dunn, Christopher K., and Kelly M. Mann. 1998. The Wintu and Their Neighbors: A Very Small World-system in Northern California. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. ISBN 0-8165-1800-9.
  • Cook, Sherburne F. 1976. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization. University of California Press, Berkeley.
  • Cook, Sherburne F. 1976. The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970. University of California Press, Berkeley.
  • Demetracopoulou, Dorothy. 1935. "Wintu Songs". Anthropos 30:483-494.
  • Du Bois, Cora A. 1935. "Wintu Ethnography", University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 36:1-148.
  • Du Bois, Cora A., and Dorothy Demetracopoulou. 1931. "Wintu Myths", University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 28:279-403.
  • Hogue, Helen S., and Margaret Guilford-Kardell. 1977. Wintu Trails. Revised edition; originally published in 1948. Shasta Historical Society, Reading, California.
  • Hoveman, Alice R. 2002. Journey to Justice: The Wintu People and the Salmon. Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, California. ISBN 1-931827-00-1.
  • Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.
  • LaPena, Frank R. 1978. "Wintu", in California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 324–340. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
  • LaPena, Frank R. 1987. The world is a Gift. Limestone Press, San Francisco.
  • LaPena, Frank R. 2004. Dream Songs and Ceremony: Reflections on Traditional California Indian Dance. Great Valley Books, Berkeley, California. ISBN 1-890771-79-1.
  • McLeod, Christopher. 2001. In the Light of Reverence. Videocassette. Bullfrog Films, Oley, Pennsylvania. ISBN 1-56029-890-1.
  • McKibbin, Grace, and Alice Shepherd. 1997. In My Own Words: Stories, Songs, and Memories of Grace McKibbin, Wintu. Heyday Books, Berkeley, California. ISBN 0-930588-85-1.
  • Towendolly, Grant. 1966. A Bag of Bones: The Wintu Myths of a Trinity River Indian. Edited by Marcelle Masson. Naturegraph, Oakland, California. ISBN 0-911010-26-2; ISBN 0-911010-27-0.
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