Indigenous Tribes to the Elk Grove Region

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Elk Grove is a city in Sacramento County, California, located just south of the state capital of Sacramento. Today Elk Grove is known for its large population as well as its fast-paced residential expansion and economical development, but before Sacramento's discovery by Gabriel Moraga and Elk Grove's settlement by John Sutter there were four groups of indigenous people who coexisted in this region.

Contents

[edit] Indigenous tribes

[edit] Cultural aspects

[edit] Subsistence

Although diverse, many of these groups shared similar aspects in the lives they led. Before the winter of every year, it was a vital necessity to collect acorns in order to survive the harshness of the cold, as acorns provided dietary starch and fat for the times ahead. The abundance of the acorns made it possible to store in large quantities for the harder times, and the similar basket-weaving skills shared between the groups were used to construct above-ground acorn granaries. Local groves of oak trees were tended to as well, maximizing the production of acorns.

Aside from acorns, Elk Grove and outlining areas were rich in plant and animal life, and it was common for them to supplement their acorn diet with edible roots and fish from multiple nearby rivers, such as the American River, Sacramento River and the Cosumnes River.

[edit] Religion

Kuksu, also called the Kuksu Cult, was a shamanistic religion in Northern California practiced in different degrees by the Miwok, Nisenan, Nomlaki and Patwin before contact with the arriving European settlers. The religious belief system extended into Central California and Northern California from Sacramento Valley west to the Pacific Ocean.

Kuksu included elaborate acting and dancing ceremonies in traditional costume. The men of the tribe practiced rituals to ensure good health, bountiful harvests, hunts and good weather. Ceremonies included an annual mourning ceremony, rites of passage, and shamanic intervention with the spirit world. A male secret society met in underground dance rooms and danced in disguise at the public dances.[1][2]

[edit] Languages

The linguistics of the tribes were diverse, but unfortunately little knowledge of their language exists as it was poorly documented, possibly soon resulting in its extinction. Today, it is commonplace to find few or no survivors who still speak the native tongue.

  • The Nisenan (Southern Maidu) spoke Chico, now extinct, and Nisenan with what is believed to be only one remaining speaker. The Nisenan language is a subgroup of the Maiduan languages.
  • The Valley Miwok spoke Planes Miwok, a sub group of the Utian languages. All of the Untain languages are severely endangered.
  • The Patwin spoke a self-titled language known as Patwin, but it is also sometimes known as "Hill Patwin", which is part of the Wintuan language. One speaker of Patwin remained in 1997.

Although tribes each had a different language, it is believed they shared a common ancestral root. The Penutian hypothesis is believed to be the originating language from which all other dialects evolved and later branched into five other languages. Of these five branches, Maidu, Miwok and Wintuan are included.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Kroeber, Alfred L. The Religion of the Indians of California, 1907.
  2. ^ The Kuksu Cult paraphrased from Kroeber.

[edit] External links

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