Wintun

For other uses, see Wintun (disambiguation).
Wintun
Pre-contact distribution of Wintun peoples
Total population
2,500[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States United States (California California)
Languages
English, Wintun languages
Religion
Roundhouse religion, Christianity

The Wintun are members of several related Native American peoples of Northern California, including the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern).[2][3] Their range is from approximately present-day Lake Shasta to San Francisco Bay, along the western side of the Sacramento River to the Coast Range. Each of these tribes speak one of the Wintuan languages. Linguistic and archaeological evidence suggests that the Wintun people probably entered the California area around 500 AD from what is now southern Oregon, introducing bow and arrow technology to the region (Golla 2011: 205). There has been carbon dating of several artifacts by UC Berkeley that dates back to around 10,000 years, and several of these artifacts have now been repatriated. Despite being a major influence on the region's history, there is still very little history on the Wintu due to centuries of genocide and displacement that still occur today along with continued destruction of sacred ceremonial and religious sites, often due to companies that ignore legal or ethical considerations.

Wintu Dancers

Federally recognized Wintun tribes

See also

Notes

  1. ^ California Indians and Their Reservations: P. San Diego State University Library and Information Access. 2010 (retrieved 30 June 2010)
  2. ^ Pritzker, 152
  3. ^ California Indians and Their Reservations: W. San Diego State University Library and Information Access. 2010 (retrieved 30 June 2010)
  4. ^ "Home". yochadehe.org.
  5. ^ Pritzker, 154
  6. ^ "Wintun Indians." Archived 2013-09-30 at the Wayback Machine SDSU: California Indians and Their Reservations. 2011. Retrieved 25 Oct 2012.

References

  • Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-19-513877-1.
  • Golla, Victor. California Indian Languages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-520-26667-4.

Further reading

  • Goddard, Ives. 1996. "The Classification of the Native Languages of North America." In Languages, Ives Goddard, ed., pp. 290–324. Handbook of North American Indians Vol. 17, W. C. Sturtevant, general ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.
  • Liedtke, Stefan. 2007. The Relationship of Wintuan to Plateau Penutian. LINCOM studies in Native American linguistics, 55. Muenchen: Lincom Europa. ISBN 978-3-89586-357-8
  • Shipley, William F. 1978. "Native Languages of California." In California, Robert F. Heizer, ed., pp. 80–90. Handbook of North American Indians Vol. 8, W. C. Sturtevant, general ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.
  • Washington, F. B. 1989. Notes on the Northern Wintun Indians. Berkeley, Calif.: California Indian Library Collections Project [distributor].
  • Whistler, Kenneth W. 1977. "Wintun Prehistory: An Interpretation based on Linguistic Reconstruction of Plant and Animal Nomenclature." Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, February 19–21. pp. 157–174. Berkeley.