The Miwok live on the Wilton, Shingle Springs, Jackson, Buena Vista, Sheep Ranch, Tuolomne and Chicken Ranch Rancherias. Yosemite was originally the home of the Southern Sierra Miwok.

You can visit the Indian Grinding Rocks State Park in Amador County to see their petroglyphs, the place where they prepared acorns, and a roundhouse where dances are held during the September "Big Time".(Eargle: 1986) Miwok houses had oaken posts, cottonwood or willow rafters, and thatched with cottonwood or willow branches, and with grass, then covered with earth. Their roundhouses, where they danced to celebrate the Kuksu ceremony of World Renewal, were built in the same way, but larger, as much as 50 or 60 feet in diameter. In the Sierras, the Miwok used redwood bark to make a circular hut. They gathered acorns, and caught fish, and hunted elk, antelope and deer, like other people in Central California. They stored their acorns in granaries.

Another site with information on Miwok is the Marin County Historical Society Page at http://www.marinweb.com/marinhistory/miwok.html

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California Native American Language Map