Bay Miwok
Encyclopedia
The Bay Miwok were a cultural and linguistic group of Miwok
, a Native American
people in Northern California
who lived in Contra Costa County
. They joined the Franciscan mission system during the early nineteenth century, suffered a devastating population decline, and lost their language as they intermarried with other native California ethnic groups and learned the Spanish language
. The Bay Miwok were not recognized by modern anthropologists or linguists until the mid-twentieth century. In fact, A.L. Kroeber, father of California anthropology, who knew of one of their constituent local groups, the Saclan (his Saklan), from nineteenth century manuscript sources, presumed that they spoke a Ohlone
(aka Costanoan) language. In 1955 linguist Madison Beeler recognized an 1821 vocabulary taken from a Saclan man at Mission San Francisco as representative of a Miwok language. The language was christened Bay Miwok and its territorial extent was rediscovered during the 1960s (see Landholding Groups or Local Tribes section below).
, and lived in small bands without centralized political authority. They spoke Bay Miwok
also known as Saclan. They were skilled at basketry
.
. As they were centrally located along an arc of Miwok-speaking groups across Central California, the Bay Miwok probably shared the Kuksu religion ceremonial motifs common to both the Coast Miwok to the west and Plains Miwok to the east. The Kuksu religion (dubbed the Kuksu Cult by early historians) included a cycle of elaborate dancing ceremonies, each with its own group of actors and distinctive feather-decorated regalia, an all-male society that met in subterranean dance rooms, puberty rites of passage
, shamanic intervention with the spirit world
, and, in some areas, an annual mourning ceremony. Varying forms of the Kuksu Cult were shared with other indigenous ethnic groups of Central California, such as their neighbors the northern Ohlone
, Maidu
, Patwin
, Pomo, and Wappo
. However Kroeber observed less "specialized cosmogony
" in the Miwok, which he termed one of the "southern Kuksu-dancing groups", in comparison to the Maidu
and other northern California tribes.
of the Bay Miwok are not well documented. C. Hart Merriam published a creation story, The Birth of Wek-Wek and the Creation of Man, centered on Mt. Diablo, that was told by a Hool-poom'-ne Miwok, perhaps a descendent of the Julpun Bay Miwok of Marsh Creek, eastern Contra Costa County.
One might suspect that the full corpus of Bay Miwok mythology and sacred narrative shared the motifs that the linguistically related and better-documented ethnographic Coast Miwok and Sierra Miwok held in common. All Miwok peoples believed in animal and human spirits, and saw the animal spirits as their ancestors. Coyote
was seen as the representation of their creator god. The Sierra and Plains Miwok, as well as the Bay Miwok, believed this world began at Mount Diablo, following a flood.
Another group, the Yrgin of present-day City of Hayward
and Castro Valley
, had Chochenyo
Ohlone signature female name endings, rather than Bay Miwok name endings. Yet they were so highly intermarried with the Jalquin that it seems possible that they and the Jalquin formed a single bi-lingual local tribe.
. Identification and references to the Bay Miwok tribes exists from California Mission records as early as 1794.
Spanish-American Franciscans set up Catholic missions in the Bay Area in the 1770s, but did not reach the Bay Miwok territory until 1794. Beginning in 1794, the Bay Miwoks began to migrate to the Franciscan missions, most to Mission San Francisco de Asís
(of San Francisco
), but some others to Mission San José (in present-day Fremont
). All but the Ompin and Julpun in the northeast were at the missions by the end of 1806; the latter two groups moved to Mission San José during the 1810-1812 period. The first baptisms and emigration to the missions of each tribe were:
Missionary linguist Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta obtained the only extant Bay Miwok vocabulary during a visit to Mission San Francisco in 1821.
.) Alfred L. Kroeber
put the 1770 population of the Plains and Sierra Miwok (but excluding the Bay Miwok, about whom he was not aware) at 9,000. Sherburne Cook carried out a more specific analysis of contact-period population in Alameda and Contra Costa counties west of the San Joaquin Valley, without regard to the Ohlone-Bay Miwok language boundary; he suggested a total population of 2,248. Richard Levy estimated 19,500 people for all five Eastern Miwok groups as a whole (Bay, Plains, Northern Sierra, Central Sierra, and Southern Sierra) prior to Spanish contact, and 1,700 specifically for the Bay Miwok.
A total of 859 Bay Miwok speakers were baptized at the Franciscan missions (479 at Mission San Francisco and 380 at Mission San Jose), most between 1794 and 1812. By the end of 1823, only 52 of the Mission San Francisco Bay Miwoks were still alive, along with 11 of their Mission-born children. No comparable data are available for Mission San Jose that year, but by 1840 only 20 Bay Miwok people were alive there. Late nineteenth century survivors from both missions intermarried with people from other language groups. Descendants are alive today (see Present Day section below).
and Mission San Jose, are members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area. (Mission records have assisted in substantiating native genealogical persistence.) The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe states that : "all of the known surviving Native American lineages aboriginal to the San Francisco Bay region who trace their ancestry through the Missions Dolores, Santa Clara and San Jose" and who descend from members of the historic Federally Recognized Verona Band of Alameda County
.
Miwok
Miwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...
, a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
people in Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
who lived in Contra Costa County
Contra Costa County, California
Contra Costa County is a primarily suburban county in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 1,049,025...
. They joined the Franciscan mission system during the early nineteenth century, suffered a devastating population decline, and lost their language as they intermarried with other native California ethnic groups and learned the Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. The Bay Miwok were not recognized by modern anthropologists or linguists until the mid-twentieth century. In fact, A.L. Kroeber, father of California anthropology, who knew of one of their constituent local groups, the Saclan (his Saklan), from nineteenth century manuscript sources, presumed that they spoke a Ohlone
Ohlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
(aka Costanoan) language. In 1955 linguist Madison Beeler recognized an 1821 vocabulary taken from a Saclan man at Mission San Francisco as representative of a Miwok language. The language was christened Bay Miwok and its territorial extent was rediscovered during the 1960s (see Landholding Groups or Local Tribes section below).
Culture
The Bay Miwok lived by hunting and gatheringHunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
, and lived in small bands without centralized political authority. They spoke Bay Miwok
Utian languages
Utian is a family of indigenous languages spoken in the central and north portion of California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages in the Utian linguistic group...
also known as Saclan. They were skilled at basketry
Basket weaving
Basket weaving is the process of weaving unspun vegetable fibres into a basket or other similar form. People and artists who weave baskets are called basketmakers and basket weavers.Basketry is made from a variety of fibrous or pliable materials•anything that will bend and form a shape...
.
Religion
The original Bay Miwok people's world view was a form of ShamanismShamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
. As they were centrally located along an arc of Miwok-speaking groups across Central California, the Bay Miwok probably shared the Kuksu religion ceremonial motifs common to both the Coast Miwok to the west and Plains Miwok to the east. The Kuksu religion (dubbed the Kuksu Cult by early historians) included a cycle of elaborate dancing ceremonies, each with its own group of actors and distinctive feather-decorated regalia, an all-male society that met in subterranean dance rooms, puberty rites of passage
Rites of Passage
Rites of Passage is an African American History program sponsored by the Stamford, Connecticut US public schools. The program consists of an extra day of schooling on Saturday for 12 weeks, service projects, and a culminating educational trip to Gambia and Senegal. Gambia and Senegal are the...
, shamanic intervention with the spirit world
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
, and, in some areas, an annual mourning ceremony. Varying forms of the Kuksu Cult were shared with other indigenous ethnic groups of Central California, such as their neighbors the northern Ohlone
Ohlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
, Maidu
Maidu
The Maidu are a group of Native Americans who live in Northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the drainage area of the Feather and American Rivers...
, Patwin
Patwin
The Patwin are a Wintun people native to the area of Northern California. The Patwin were a southern branch of the Wintun group and native inhabitants of California from 1,000 up to 4,000 years....
, Pomo, and Wappo
Wappo
The Wappo are a group of Native Americans who traditionally lived in Northern California in the areas of Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River. When Mexicans arrived to colonize California, Wappo villages existed near the present-day towns of Yountville,...
. However Kroeber observed less "specialized cosmogony
Cosmogony
Cosmogony, or cosmogeny, is any scientific theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. The word comes from the Greek κοσμογονία , from κόσμος "cosmos, the world", and the root of γίνομαι / γέγονα "to be born, come about"...
" in the Miwok, which he termed one of the "southern Kuksu-dancing groups", in comparison to the Maidu
Maidu
The Maidu are a group of Native Americans who live in Northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the drainage area of the Feather and American Rivers...
and other northern California tribes.
Traditional Narratives and Mythology
The specific myths, legends, tales, and historiesTraditional narratives (Native California)
The Traditional Narratives of Native California are the legends, tales, and oral histories that survive as fragments of what was undoubtedly once a vast unwritten literature.-History of Studies:...
of the Bay Miwok are not well documented. C. Hart Merriam published a creation story, The Birth of Wek-Wek and the Creation of Man, centered on Mt. Diablo, that was told by a Hool-poom'-ne Miwok, perhaps a descendent of the Julpun Bay Miwok of Marsh Creek, eastern Contra Costa County.
One might suspect that the full corpus of Bay Miwok mythology and sacred narrative shared the motifs that the linguistically related and better-documented ethnographic Coast Miwok and Sierra Miwok held in common. All Miwok peoples believed in animal and human spirits, and saw the animal spirits as their ancestors. Coyote
Coyote (mythology)
Coyote is a mythological character common to many Native American cultures, based on the coyote animal. This character is usually male and is generally anthropomorphic although he may have some coyote-like physical features such as fur, pointed ears, yellow eyes, a tail and claws...
was seen as the representation of their creator god. The Sierra and Plains Miwok, as well as the Bay Miwok, believed this world began at Mount Diablo, following a flood.
Landholding Groups or Local Tribes
The names and general territorial areas of seven Bay Miwok-speaking land-holding groups have been inferred through indirect methods, based for the most part on information in the ecclesiastical records of missions San Francisco and San Jose. In a 1961 Ph.D. dissertation, James Bennyhoff used data from the Alphonse Pinart transcripts of the mission records to identify four more East Bay local territorial groups, in addition to the Saclan, as members of this unique Miwok language group. "The major clues to the linguistic affiliation of these river mouth tribelets are provided by the personal names of female neophytes recorded in the baptismal registers ... Ompin, Chupcan, Julpun, and Wolwon [Volvon-ed.] are linked together by the use of a distinctive constellation of endings which appear in female personal names," he wrote. Milliken subsequently used the same technique, applied to the original mission records, to identify two additional local tribes—Jalquin and Tatcan—as Bay Miwok speakers. Milliken then inferred and mapped the relative locations of all seven groups, using clues from historic diaries together with mission register information regarding intermarriage patterns among East Bay local tribes. The locations of the seven Bay Miwok local tribes are generally as follows:- At and surrounding present-day City of ConcordConcord, CaliforniaConcord is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California, USA. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 122,067. Originally founded in 1869 as the community of Todos Santos by Salvio Pacheco, the name was changed to Concord within months...
: Chupcan. - In south portion of present-day City of OaklandOakland, CaliforniaOakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, in present City of San LeandroSan Leandro, CaliforniaSan Leandro is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is considered a suburb of Oakland and San Francisco. The population was 84,950 as of 2010 census. The climate of the city is mild throughout the year.-Geography and water resources:...
, and on San Leandro Creek to the east: Jalquin. - Along lower Marsh Creek (east of AntiochAntioch, CaliforniaAntioch is a city in Contra Costa County, California. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area along the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, it is a suburb of San Francisco and Oakland. The city's population was 102,372 at the U.S...
): Julpun. - At present-day City of PittsburgPittsburg, CaliforniaPittsburg is a city located in eastern Contra Costa County, California, the outer portion of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 63,264 at the 2010 census....
and north to rural south Solano County: Ompin . - At and surrounding present-day cities of LafayetteLafayette, CaliforniaLafayette is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 23,893. It was named after the Marquis de Lafayette, a French military hero of the American Revolutionary War...
and Walnut CreekWalnut Creek-Communities:United States of America*Walnut Creek, California*Walnut Creek, North Carolina*Walnut Creek, Ohio-Schools:*A middle school in Metropolitan Detroit that belongs to the Walled Lake Consolidated Schools District in Oakland County, Michigan.-Streams:...
: Saclan. - At and surrounding present-day City of Danville, on San Ramon Creek: Tatcan.
- At Mt. Diablo and along Marsh Creek: Volvon (also spelled Wolwon, and Bolbon).
Another group, the Yrgin of present-day City of Hayward
Hayward, California
Hayward is a city located in the East Bay in Alameda County, California. With a population of 144,186, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 37th most populous municipality in California. It is included in...
and Castro Valley
Castro Valley, California
Castro Valley is a census-designated place in Alameda County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, it is the fifth most populous unincorporated area in California, and the twenty-third in the United States...
, had Chochenyo
Chochenyo
The Chochenyo are one of the divisions of the indigenous Ohlone people of Northern California...
Ohlone signature female name endings, rather than Bay Miwok name endings. Yet they were so highly intermarried with the Jalquin that it seems possible that they and the Jalquin formed a single bi-lingual local tribe.
History
Documentation of Miwok peoples dates back as early as 1579 by a priest on a ship under the command of Francis DrakeFrancis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...
. Identification and references to the Bay Miwok tribes exists from California Mission records as early as 1794.
Spanish-American Franciscans set up Catholic missions in the Bay Area in the 1770s, but did not reach the Bay Miwok territory until 1794. Beginning in 1794, the Bay Miwoks began to migrate to the Franciscan missions, most to Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...
(of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
), but some others to Mission San José (in present-day Fremont
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
). All but the Ompin and Julpun in the northeast were at the missions by the end of 1806; the latter two groups moved to Mission San José during the 1810-1812 period. The first baptisms and emigration to the missions of each tribe were:
- In 1794-1795, 143 Saclans were baptized at the San Francisco Mission (25 more in later years).
- In 1799-1805, 152 Yrgins were baptized at the San Jose Mission.
- In 1801-1803, 77 Jalquins were baptized at the San Francisco Mission.
- In 1804, 127 Tatcans were baptized at San Francisco Mission.
- In 1805, 44 Volvons were baptized at the San Jose Mission; another 54 were baptized at Mission San Francisco over 1805-1806.
- In 1810, 146 Chupcans were baptized at the San Francisco Mission.
- In 1811, 103 Julpuns were baptized at the San Jose Mission; others fled to the east and north, and continued to come in for baptism until as late as 1827.
- In 1811, 99 Ompins were baptized at the San Jose Mission; 15 more were baptized in 1812.
Missionary linguist Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta obtained the only extant Bay Miwok vocabulary during a visit to Mission San Francisco in 1821.
Population Change over Time
Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native CaliforniaPopulation of Native California
Estimates of the Native Californian population have varied substantially, both with respect to California's pre-contact count and for changes during subsequent periods. Pre-contact estimates range from 133,000 to 705,000 with some recent scholars concluding that these estimates are low...
.) Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber was an American anthropologist. He was the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as director from 1909 through...
put the 1770 population of the Plains and Sierra Miwok (but excluding the Bay Miwok, about whom he was not aware) at 9,000. Sherburne Cook carried out a more specific analysis of contact-period population in Alameda and Contra Costa counties west of the San Joaquin Valley, without regard to the Ohlone-Bay Miwok language boundary; he suggested a total population of 2,248. Richard Levy estimated 19,500 people for all five Eastern Miwok groups as a whole (Bay, Plains, Northern Sierra, Central Sierra, and Southern Sierra) prior to Spanish contact, and 1,700 specifically for the Bay Miwok.
A total of 859 Bay Miwok speakers were baptized at the Franciscan missions (479 at Mission San Francisco and 380 at Mission San Jose), most between 1794 and 1812. By the end of 1823, only 52 of the Mission San Francisco Bay Miwoks were still alive, along with 11 of their Mission-born children. No comparable data are available for Mission San Jose that year, but by 1840 only 20 Bay Miwok people were alive there. Late nineteenth century survivors from both missions intermarried with people from other language groups. Descendants are alive today (see Present Day section below).
Present day
Some descendents of the Bay Miwok from the Mission San FranciscoMission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...
and Mission San Jose, are members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area. (Mission records have assisted in substantiating native genealogical persistence.) The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe states that : "all of the known surviving Native American lineages aboriginal to the San Francisco Bay region who trace their ancestry through the Missions Dolores, Santa Clara and San Jose" and who descend from members of the historic Federally Recognized Verona Band of Alameda County
Verona Band of Alameda County
The Verona Band of Alameda County were a group of Ohlone Native Americans granted federal recognition in 1906.-History:The ancestors of the Verona Band were various Ohlone peoples living in Contra Costa County and Alameda counties in California...
.
Notable Bay Miwok People
- 1795 – Potroy, leader of a 1795 revolt and flight from Mission San Francisco by newly Christianized Saclans, he was arrested by Spanish soldiers in 1797, tried, and sentenced to three sets of whippings and one year in shackles at the San Francisco Presidio.
- 1801 – Liberato Culpecse, born Jalquin, baptized at the Mission San Francisco in 1801, one of the main ancestors of the present day Muwekma Tribal community.
Further reading
- Callaghan, Catherine A. 1971. Saclan: A Re-examination. Anthropological Linguistics 13:448-456.
- Tullus, Margo Diane. 1978. Diablo's Children, The History of Contra Costa County. Self published.
External links
- Access Genealogy: Indian Tribal records, Miwok Indian Tribe
- Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770 (map after Kroeber)
- Saclan language overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian LanguagesSurvey of California and Other Indian LanguagesThe Survey of California and Other Indian Languages at the University of California at Berkeley documents, catalogs, and archives the indigenous languages of the Americas...