The Coast Miwok are an Indigenous people of California that were the second-largest tribe of the Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of present-day Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point and eastward to Sonoma Creek. Coast Miwok included the Bodega Bay Miwok, or Olamentko (Olamentke), from authenticated Miwok villages around Bodega Bay, the Marin Miwok, or Hookooeko (Huukuiko), and Southern Sonoma Miwok, or Lekahtewutko (Lekatuit). While they did not have an overarching name for themselves, the Coast Miwok word for people, Micha-ko, was suggested by A. L. Kroeber as a possible endonym, keeping with a common practice among tribal groups and the ethnographers studying them in the early 20th century and with the term Miwok itself, which is the Central Sierra Miwok word for 'people'.
Culture
The Coast Miwok spoke their own Coast Miwok language in the Utian linguistic group. They lived by hunting and gathering, and lived in small bands without centralized political authority. In the springtime they would head to the coasts to hunt salmon and other seafood, including seaweed. Otherwise their staple foods were primarily acorns—particularly from black and tan oak–nuts and wild game, such as deer and cottontail rabbits and black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus), a coastal subspecies of the California mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). When hunting deer, Miwok hunters traditionally used Brewer's angelica (Angelica breweri) to eliminate their own scent. Miwok did not typically hunt bears. Yerba buena tea leaves were used medicinally.
Tattooing was a traditional practice among Coast Miwok, and they burned poison oak for a pigment. Their traditional houses, called "kotcha", were constructed with slabs of tule grass or redwood bark in a cone-shaped form.
Miwok people are skilled at basketry. A recreated Coast Miwok village called Kule Loklo is located at the Point Reyes National Seashore.
Cultural subdivisions In C. Hart Merriam's discussions with Coast Miwok peoples, he identified three cultural tribes:
Olamentko, pronounced O-la-MENT-ko (around Bodega Bay) and now called Olamentke Lekahtewutko, pronounced Lek-KAH-te-WUT-ko (in south-central Sonoma County) and now called Lekatuit Hookooeko, pronounced HOO-koo-EE-ko (in Marin County and southern Sonoma County), and now called Huukuiko, whom the Olamentko called Olumko, or "South People."
These tribes did not have a political structure and so are not "tribes" in that sense. Rather, chiefs or headmen (oi-bu in Olamentko and hoipu in Hookooeko) were empowered at the tribelet level. The Coast Miwok did not have a single name for all three tribes, describing themselves instead by tribe, tribelet, or village, depending on the context. Using Merriam's divisions, the tribelets as shown on the map to the right—itself derived from Milliken—can be classified as:
Olamentko Bodega Bay Lekahtewutko Bloomfield Hookooeko Alaguali Chocuyen Gualen Huimen Olema Olompali Omomi Petaluma (though Merriam puts the southernmost boundary of the Lekahtewutko a mile north of Petaluma and its associated villages, which is in the middle of Milliken's boundaries for this tribelet.) Tamal Aguasto (though the Tamal people lived in the Miller Creek watershed to the north in what is now Terra Linda and the Aguasto to the south, there was enough intermarriage in the early 19th century that Milliken, the source of this article's map, lumps them into a single tribelet.) North Tomales Bay South Tomales Bay
Language The Coast Miwok language is still spoken, but the Bodega dialect, spoken by the Olamentko group, is documented in Callaghan (1970). From speaking with Coast Miwok people in the early 1900s, Merriam believed that the Lekahtewutko and Hookooeko dialects were substantially the same.
Ethnobotany The Coast Miwok had extensive knowledge and relationships with local flora. Notable engagement with plants may be viewed from four perspectives: medicinal uses, food sustenance, technology and spiritual significance.
Medicinal uses:
The California Floristic province provides an abundant natural pharmacy for healing and known developed treatments for maladies include but are not limited to: analgesic (pain relief), hematology (blood purifier), snakebite, respiratory, gastrointestinal and dermatological (skin) applications.
Yarrow Achillea sp.(respiratory), Dogwood Cornus sericea (pain relief) and Willow Salix spp. (pain relief), California Coffeeberry Frangula californica (gastrointestinal), Death Camas Toxciscordion fremontii (dermatological), Blue Elderberry Sambucus cerulea (respiratory, dermatology, gastrointestinal and hematology), California Bay Umbellularia californica, (gastrointestinal), Yerba Buena Clinopodium douglasii (hematology), Pacific Madrone Arbutus menziesii (dermatology, gastrointestinal), Yerba Santa Eridictyon californicum (respiratory, dermatological, hematology)
Food
Comparable to the modern concepts of farming and restoration, Coast Miwok practiced their own methods. Coast Miwok were active stewards to encourage and sustain ecological life-giving sources, otherwise known as resources. For example cultivation efforts involved seed collection, storing seeds, propagation, and transplantation. Other methods include prescribed burns and generational management of oak tree groves or stands.
Acorns and Nuts: Fagaceae or Beech family used acorns: Golden Chinquapin Chrysolepis chrysophylla, Black Oak Q. kelloggii, Coast Live Oak Q. agrifolia, Valley Oak Q. lobata. Tan Oak Lithocarpus densiflorus Hazel Nut Corylus cornuta. California Bay Umbellularia californica. Seeds: Primrose family Onagraceae: Clarkia spp. Sunflower family Asteraceae: Tidy Tips Layia spp., Mule’s ear Wyethia spp.,Tarweeds Madia spp. Hezmizonia spp.,Checkerbloom Sidalcea malviflora Berries: Thimbleberry Rubus parviflorus, Currants and Gooseberry Ribes spp., Blackberry Rubus ursinus, Wild Strawberry Fragaria vesca., Huckleberry Vaccinium ovatum, Bilberry Vaccinium cespitosum, Salmon Berry Rubus spectabilis Bulbs and shoots: Tule shoots Schoenoplectus sp., Allium spp. Wild onion, Lily Fritillaria spp. Mariposa lily Calochortus spp. Ithuriel's spear Triteleia laxa, Greens: Clover, Miner’s lettuce Claytonia spp.
Technology
Building shelter, assisting travel and tools were specialized by the flora available. Coast Miwok utilized various species for their intrinsic properties, fire and rot resistance, fiber strength, flexibility and color ect.
Shelter: Sequoia sempervirens, Redwood tree bark used as building materials for constructing shelter. Ferns for cross-thatching. Travel: Sedges Schoenoplectus acutus and S. californicus were used to make Tule Reed canoes Tools: Bow making for hunting or strong wood needs: Incense cedar Calocedrus decurrens, Pacific Yew Taxus brevifolia Plant fibers: Milkweed Asclepias spp., California Hemp Hoita macrostachya, Ground Iris Iris macrosiphon, Dogbane Apocynum spp., Ninebark Physocarpus capitatus Basket weaving: Sedges Carex spp. Cyperus spp. Eleocharis spp., Willows Salix spp., Ferns Adiantum spp. Maidenhair and Five Finger, used for contrasting black stems. Fishing technique stunning with poison, California Buckeye Aesculus californica
Spiritual significance
Plants were deeply valued and an integral part of spiritual or ceremonial practices. Specific plants were used for certain purposes: success for hunting, rites of passage, aiding fertility, protection and health, as well as mourning.
California Lilac Ceanothus spp. (stimulant) Sacred Datura Datura wrightii sp. (hallucinogen) ritual uses age rite of passage Cudweed or Ladies’ Tobacco Pseudognaphalium californicum, Rabbit tobacco spp. (stimulant) Holy Herb California Yerba Santa Eriodictyon californicum (smudging) California Mugwort Artemisia douglasiana (headache relief and mourning) Coastal Sagebrush Artemisia californica (rite of passage and protection)
Religion
Coast Miwok people's world view included animism, and one form this took was the Kuksu religion that was evident in Central and Northern California. This included elaborate acting and dancing ceremonies in traditional costume, an annual mourning ceremony, puberty rites of passage, shamanic intervention with the spirit world and an all-male society that met in subterranean dance rooms. Kuksu was shared with other indigenous ethnic groups of Central California, such as their neighbors the Pomo, also Maidu, Ohlone, Esselen, and northernmost Yokuts. However Kroeber observed less "specialized cosmogony" in the Miwok, which he termed one of the "southern Kuksu-dancing groups", in comparison to the Maidu and other northern California tribes.: "A less specialized type of cosmogony is therefore indicated for the southern Kuksu-dancing groups. [1. If, as seems probable, the southerly Kuksu tribes (the Miwok, Costanoans, Esselen, and northernmost Yokuts) had no real society in connection with their Kuksu ceremonies, the distinctness of their mythology appears less surprising.]".
Coast Miwok mythology and narratives were similar to those of other natives of Central and Northern California. The Coast Miwok believed in animal and human spirits, and saw the animal spirits as their ancestors. Coyote was seen as their ancestor and creator god. In their stories, the Earth began with land formed out of the Pacific Ocean.Clark 1910, Gifford 1917.
Traditional narratives
In their myths, legends, tales, and histories, the Coast Miwok participated in the general cultural pattern of Central California.
Villages The authenticated Coast Miwok villages are:
On Bodega Bay: Helapattai, Hime-takala, Ho-takala, Suwutenne, Tiwut-huya, Tokau. Also in this vicinity: Awachi (at the mouth of Estero Americano Creek), Amayelle (on San Antonio Creek), Kennekono (at Bodega Corners). On Tomales Bay: Echa-kolum, Shotommo-wi (near the mouth of San Antonio Creek), Sakloki (opposite Tomales Point, Dillon Beach area), Utumia (Near present-day town of Tomales.) At the present-day City of Petaluma: Etem, Petaluma (east of River). Also in this vicinity: Tuchayelin (northwest), Likatiut (on Petaluma River north of town), Meleya (on San Antonio Creek southwest of Petaluma), Susuli (northwest), Tulme (northwest), Wotoki (on the south side of the Petaluma River). At the present-day City of San Rafael: Awani-wi. At the present-day City of Sonoma: Huchi. Also in this vicinity: Temblek (west), Tuli (northwest), Wugilwa (on Sonoma Creek). At the present-day City of Cotati: Kotati, Lumen-takala (northeast). Also in this vicinity: Payinecha (west). At the present-day town of Nicasio: Echa-tamal. At the present-day town of Olema: Olema-loke. At the present-day City of Sausalito: Liwanelowa. Near the present-day town of Bolinas: Bauli-n Near the present-day town of Freestone: Oye-yomi, Pakahuwe, Patawa-yomi. Near the present-day town of Ignacio: Ewu, Puyuku (south), Shotokmo-cha (southeast). Near the present-day City of Novato: Chokeche, Olompolli (northwest). Near the present-day town of Valley Ford: Ewapalt, Uli-yomi (at the headwaters of Estero Americano Creek). Near the present-day town of Salmon Creek: Pulya-lakum (on the ocean, near the mouth of Salmon Creek).
History
Coastal populations like the Coast Miwok were likely some of the First People to establish on the North American continent. Evidence to suggest this migration path and timeline is supported by the theory of the Kelp Highway and discovery of footprints in White Sands New Mexico date of arrival as far back as 23–21,000 years ago. Before and after the glacial maximum the sea level and coast line drastically changed and archeological sites are likely underwater as the sea level has risen over since 18,000 years ago and the coast line reduced by over in some areas.