You excluded much of the Miwok history (A Look into Miwok Tribal
History, Free Lance Sept. 8).
Dear Editor,
You excluded much of the Miwok history (A Look into Miwok Tribal History, Free Lance Sept. 8). The modern enrollments of the Miwok and mixed-Miwok bands and tribes range from one person (Buena Vista Rancheria) to 200 (Jackson Rancheria), 300 (Tuolumne Rancheria), and nearly 600 (Mooretown Rancheria), while estimates of their precontact total populations through mission records, accounts of explorers, census records, and special federal enrollments indicate that the population was about 19,500 in 1800.
Mortality from disease and slaughter greatly reduced these populations, while the Russian fur-trading activities at Fort Ross and nearby coastal villages had a similarly negative impact.
Sierra and Plains Miwoks under the leadership of hereditary patrilineal leaders known as headmen or captains – such as Ha Pipia, Estanislao, Maximo, and their relations – fought the invaders in the 1820s and 1830s and attacked Mexican coastal settlements with the support of their Yokuts neighbors.
These activities played a role in the secularization of the missions, and Miwoks aided the United States in the war with Mexico.
Mariano Vallejo’s 1848 treaty with Lake and Coast Miwok headman availed the tribes nothing. The California Gold Rush and agricultural development brought waves of settlers into Miwok territories after 1850.
U.S. treaty commissioners signed treaties that ceded most Miwok lands, while reserving several parcels for the Miwoks’ permanent use. When the U.S. Senate refused to ratify these treaties, American settlers indentured or enslaved hundreds of Miwoks and murdered or drove away uncounted hundreds of others.
Survivors sought employment in timber, fishing, mining, ranching, farming, and other industries, where many continue to labor.
The 1990 U.S. Census and other recent Indian Health Service and California Office of Economic Opportunity estimates suggest that some 3,500 persons with some degree of Miwok Indian ancestry survive in California, at least 500 of whom are enrolled members of federally recognized tribes.
Moraino Patencio, submitted via e-mail
