The Miwok tribe: history and culture

Miwok Culture

According to the archeological record the Miwok peoples, sometimes called the Coast Miwok were occupants of a rather large territory in present day California reaching from Bodega Bay through Point Reyes Peninsula to the present town of Sonoma. The tribe inhabited all of present Marin County, where to date there have been over 600 village sites uncovered, with a high saturation of village sites being found near the coast and on the Peninsula. Carbon dating and other techniques estimate that the Miwok inhabited the area for at least 5,000 years. Spanish mission building finally brought the long historical record to a close as the Miwok all but disappeared as a result of being utilized by the Spanish as a labor force for mission building and agriculture. (Holzman, ND, "Culture: Coast Miwok Indians")

The Miwok, as evidenced by Archeological evidence had a rich cultural history which included a diverse language, many dances, ceremonies and a broad diet that included, fishing, hunting or trapping large and small game as well as gathering several staple and seasonal crops for processing. It is also clear that many of the Miwok staple foods were consumed fresh. The Miwok's main crop was the acorn which was processed and stored in small huts, resembling smaller versions of Miwok homes to protect the crop from weather and predators. (Holzman, ND, "Culture: Coast Miwok Indians")

Gender roles were relatively clear as men were hunters and held leadership roles and women gathered and prepared food while grandparents tended to care for young children. Yet, as you will se later there was an integral leadership role for women and men or women could become doctors (a high ranked position in the village) Boys and girls worked at a relatively early age, gathering wood and hauling water. Boys could also hunt for small game but girls were relegated to the home, caring for the domestic needs of the house. (Holzman, ND, "Culture: Coast Miwok Indians")

The Miwok had a community headman, headwoman and doctors who all held relatively high regard and power. The hoypu or headman was predominantly a mediator or judge and an advisor and represented the village when outsiders came. The maayen or headwoman was the calendar keeper, choosing the appropriate time for ceremonies and dances. She was also the head of the women's dancehouse. Men or women could hold the third position, that of a doctor. Each village had at least one doctor and he or she was responsible for healing of both the body and the mind with ritual song, prayer, ceremonies and herbal medicines. According to the record doctors also used at least one surgical tool, which was a hollow bone, that was used to "extract foreign objects from the body." c

The Miwok also had distinct and unique architecture. Miwok built and lived in dome or cone shaped homes that were covered either in redwood boards kotcha or grasses known as tule kaawul kotcha. Willow frames were covered by grass bundles and hide or grass weaving was used as a flap door in grass houses while the more permanent structure redwood house was built from harvested bark covering a Douglas fir frame. In addition, as was mentioned before each family also had a granary, made of grass but built in miniature of a grasshouse shaped a bit like an acorn.

The Miwok also had community buildings, sweat lodges and roundhouses which were used for ceremonies, dances and purification rituals. Men's and women's sweathouses were separate, with the men's being large enough to sleep in and women's not. Both these types of structures were semi-subterranean and made with walls and roofs of grass. Roundhouses were more common in larger villages, where meetings and dances took place on a regional level. (Holzman, ND, "Culture: Coast Miwok Indians")

Miwok people have a strong cultural tradition of music, for ceremony healing, to teach and even as recreation. Music and dancing are a proud tradition that was almost lost when the Spanish enslaved the Miwok and the life change, disease and close quarters took their toll on the Miwok peoples. Miwok developed a strong sense of music as a thread that collectively holds the Miwok people together, a tradition that still holds today as stories of the people are retold and even put into print to be continued into the next generation and shared with other cultures. Miwok legend and stories are often filled with stories of music as a foundation of ideas and concepts of every day living, in both the super and natural worlds.

One of the most foundational of all Miwok legends surrounds the music of nature and how a Falcon tried to capture the music and the tree that made it, the lah'pahi, the elderberry tree. "The tree sang; it sang all the time, day and night, and the song was good to hear. Wek'wek [the falcon] looked and listened and wished he could have the tree." (Merriam, 2004, p. 70) the falcon then asked the star people [gods] about the tree and the two goddesses told him; "the tree whistled songs tat kept them awake all day and all night so they could work all the time and never grow sleepy." (p. 70) the falcon wanted the elderberry tree so much that when he returned home he began a quest to buy it from the goddesses. He was successful in his quest and brought it back to his home, where he was instructed by his father and grandfather that he could not have it alone that they had to plant it all over the country to provide music, medicine and food for the Mew'ko people they were going to make.