Native American Indians of Yolo County

The Hill Patwin and the River Patwin

This is the beginning of a project in which I plan to collect information on the various ethnic groups that lived in Yolo County. I will begin with the Native American Indians who lived in Yolo County. Below are links that may be of interest to those seeking information on the Native American Indians in and near Yolo County. After the first section of links, you will find a brief history of the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians. If you are interested in the past history of the Patwin Indians, there are two links that would be especially informative. Go to Dancin' On Sacred Land: Past by Rob Thayer, Professor of Landscape Architecture, and Indians, Grizzlies Succumb to Newcomers (Patwin Indians). If you are interested in the circumstances of the present-day Indians in Yolo County, please go to Dancin' on Sacred Land: "We are Not Dead": Local Native Peoples Today.

Further down on this page you will find other American Indian links that may be of interest in the section entitled Other Native American Indian Links of Interest/Resources. I am listing these as many of the American Indians today living in our region (or their ancestors) came from other parts of the United States and beyond. These links may help in researching their ancestors with American Indian backgrounds prior to their coming to Yolo County.

Linked Headings Within This Document:

• Patwin/Wintun/Wintu Indians
• The Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians History
• Links Regarding the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians
• Other Native American Indian Links of Interest/Resources
• Maps Regarding American Indians

• The Explorit Science Museum, Davis California
  Explorit Science Center, 3141 5th Street, P.O. Box 1288, Davis, CA 95617
  (530) 756-0191 (phone); (530) 756-1227 (fax)

  The Explorit Science Museum prepares exhibitions on various topics, many of local interest. They have prepared exhibits about local California American Indians of the past. You can use the “Main Index and Search” feature to find more articles on the Indians of Yolo County. Following you will find the titles of some of these Yolo County Indian exhibits. If you are interested they have available documents called TERFs (Teacher's Enrichment Resource Packet) which summarize the exhibit and give reference materials. Following are some of the subjects to the public for a fee. Past Exhibits for which TERFs are available:

  “Koolas to Tipis to Tule Huts”
  “Land and Life of the Patwin”
  “Life in California: Circa 1,000 A.D.”
  “Native Ways: Plant and Tool Use of Western Native People”
  “Tools to Live By: Patwin Hunting and Gathering Exhibition”
  

• Esparto Branch Library of the Yolo County Library System
  The Esparto Branch Library is the holder of the California Indian Library Collection from the University of California at Berkeley. The collection consists of books, journal articles, unpublished manuscripts, field notes, sound recordings, and photographs.

• “Indians, grizzlies succumb to newcomers,” article by Kristin Delaplane, from Echoes From Solano's Past, in The Reporter.com, February 26, 1995. This article is about the Southern Patwin Indians who once lived in Solano County, which is adjacent to Yolo County.

• Maidu Museum & Historic Site – Located in Roseville, California. “Learn about the Maidu Indians and their culture on a guided tour of the historic site and enjoy the beauty of the outdoor trail while viewing petroglyphs and bedrock mortars.”

• Patwin Bibliography – Presented by the California Indian Library Collections Project (CILC). "The California Indian Library Collections Project is now located at the Ethnic Studies Library, Native American Studies Collection, 30 Stephens Hall, U.C. Berkeley, 94720. We are able to answer question regarding the collection or concerning California Indians."

• Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc. – “The Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc. is dedicated to the study and preservation of pre-history and historical aspects of the past.  The society is a non-profit group of both professional archeologists and individuals with an active avocational interest in archeology.”

• Tragic Demise of "People of the West Wind," article by Kristin Delaplane, from Echoes From Solano's Past, in The Reporter.com, February 26, 1995. This article is about the Southern Patwin Indians who once lived in Solano County, which is adjacent to Yolo County.

• Wintu – Wintun Bibliography – University of California: Berkeley
  Also includes sources on Patwin, Miwok, and other California Indian tribes. Presented by the California Indian Library Collections Project (CILC). "The California Indian Library Collections Project is now located at the Ethnic Studies Library, Native American Studies Collection, 30 Stephens Hall, U.C. Berkeley, 94720. We are able to answer question regarding the collection or concerning California Indians."

* * * * * * *

• Introduction to Local Native Americans in the Putah-Cache Bioregion
  Introducing Rob Thayer, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of California: Davis.


• Dancin' on Sacred Land – Ten thousand years: encounters with the past
  By Rob Thayer, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of California: Davis.


• Dancin' on Sacred Land – "We Are Not Dead": Local native peoples today.
  By Rob Thayer, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of California: Davis.


• Indians, grizzlies succumb to newcomers (Patwin Indians)
Article by Kristin Delaplane, Echos of Solano's Past, at The Reporter.com.

The American Indians in the Yolo Area are known as the Hill Patwin or "Win" and the River Patwin.(1) The group of American Indians living in the Capay Valley today refer to themselves as the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians. The history of the local California Indians has been one of suffering and struggle. They are well known for their Cache Creek Casino, which has enabled them to become self-sufficient and to have a degree of autonomy today.(1)

Bands of Wintun people lived in the Capay Valley along Cache Creek for thousands of years. When the first white men arrived in the area and asked who they were, the Indians responded with "Patwin," meaning "people" in their native language. Since that time the Wintun and related tribes along the valley and Cache Creek were known as "Patwin."

Today on the Rumsey Rancheria the families help run the rancheria and their sovereignty is officially recognized by the federal government. In addition to the well-known Cache Creek Casino, the tribe is involved in other business and agricultural enterprises with the goal of remaining self-sufficient.

• The Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians – Tribal Information
  Rumsey Rancheria P.O. Box 18, Brooks, CA 95606 (530) 924-1278


• Rumsey Rancheria, Brooks, California


• Capay Valley Wintun Casino (Tribal historical information - Cache Creek Indian Casino Resort)
  
• Map of Rumsey Rancheria

The following Native American sites have information (including genealogy information) on many of the tribes of American Indians on our continent, in addition to California, that will help you search for Native American ancestors.

• The Aboriginal Connection - USA Links
• American Indian Tribes Federally Recognized (links to)
• Bibliographies of Northern and Central California Indians, University of California: Berkeley.
• California Native American Heritage Commission
• California Native American Tribes – Contact Information
• Cherokee Messenger
• Cherokee – Trail of Tears
• Department of Native American Studies – University of California: Davis
• Federally Recognized Native American Tribes (links to)
• First Nations/First Peoples Website: First Nations Histories – Geographic Overview of First Nations. Histories - Compact Histories Bibliography – Native Tribes of the US and Canada.
• Forbes – Preliminary Guide to the Jack D. Forbes Collection, presented by the University of California - Davis - Native American Indian Studies. Jack D. Forbes (Powhatan-Renape-Lenape), professor emeritus and former chair of Native American Studies at the University of California at Davis.)
• Indiginous People of North and Central America, Media Resources Center, Moffitt Library, University of California Berkeley
• Kiowa, Comanche, Apache Lands Indian Territory
• Native American Genealogy & History Links on Cyndi’s List.
• Native American Heritage
• Native American Sites and home of the American Indian Library Association Web Page.
• National Museum of the American Indian
• Native American Indian Resources
• Northern California Indian Development Council
• Oklahoma Territory – Indian Territory – Twin Territories – OK/IT GenWeb
• Pomo – California Pomo Tribal Information (map included)
• Pomo – Pinoleville Band of Pomo Indians, Official Web Site.
• Pomo Indians in California (Many links including information on acorns and Pomo basketry.)
• The View from Native California: Lifeways of California's Indigenous Peoples. An online book by Tad Beckman, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA, Spring & Summer 1997.
• WWW Virtual Library – American Indians – Index of Native American Genealogy Resources on the Internet.

• Historical Maps of the United States of The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection – The University of Texas at Austin, Texas.
  
  • Early Inhabitants (From U.S. National Atlas, 1970)
  • Early Indian Tribes, Culture Areas, and Linguistic Stocks – Eastern U.S
  .
  • Early Indian Tribes, Culture Areas, and Linguistic Stocks – Western U.S.
  • Early Indian Tribes, Culture Areas, and Linguistic Stocks – Alaska
  • Indian Territory (Oklahoma) 1884 – From Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia 1884.
• Map showing American Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut Persons (Distribution by county in the United States as a percentage of total population.)