Patwin

File:Patwin_reed_hut.jpg]]

The Patwin were bordered by the Yuki in the northwest; the Nomlaki (Wintun) in the north; the Konkow (Maidu) in the northeast; the Nisenan (Maidu) and Plains Miwok in the east; the Bay Miwok to the south; the Coast Miwok in the southwest; and the Wappo, Lake Miwok, and Pomo in the west.

The "Southern Patwins" have historically lived between what is now Suisun, Vacaville, and Putah Creek. By 1800, the Spanish and other European settlers forced them into small tribal units: Ululatos (Vacaville), Labaytos (Putah Creek), Malacas (Lagoon Valley), Tolenas (Upper Suisun Valley), and Suisunes (Suisun Marsh and Plain).

{{main|Patwin language}}

The Patwin language is a Southern Wintuan language. As of 2021, one Patwin person was a documented first-language speaker of Patwin.

{{Cite web | title = Patwin – Survey of California and Other Indian Languages | access-date = 2012-08-30 | url = http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/languages/patwin.php}} The Patwin language also has two main dialects.{{Cite web |title=California Language Archive |url=https://cla.berkeley.edu/languages/patwin.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com |website=California Berkeley, California Language Archive}} The two dialects differentiate based off location. The first Patwin dialect known as River Patwin, which is mainly used along the Sacramento River located in Colusa County. The second dialect is Hill Patwin, which is the language commonly used in the hills and plains to the west of the Sacramento River. The Patwin language is also in a family of other known Indigenous languages such as Nomlaki and also as mentioned before Wintu. All together these three languages belong to the Penutian language family. However these languages are also have close relations to other Indigenous languages such as; Maiduan, Miwokan, Ohlone, and the Yokuts.

As stated earlier, one Patwin person was documented as first-language speaker. However, many tribal members and activist are pursuing the reclamation of the Yocha Dehe Wintu Nation.{{Cite web |title=Language is the Heart of Our Culture |url=https://www.yochadehe.gov/culture/language/ |website=Yocha dehe Wintun Nation}} Bertha Wright Mitchell also known as Auntie Bertha, by many is responsible for keeping the language and culture of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation together. Teaching Patwin to the younger generation was the key component that Auntie Bertha gave to the community, keeping the language and culture thriving and from steering away of the notion that the Patwin language was becoming extinct after being listed as a at-risk language in 1997.

{{See also|Population of Native California}}

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber put the 1770 population of the Wintun, including the Patwin, Nomlaki, and Wintu proper, at 12,000.Kroeber 1925:883 Sherburne F. Cook (1976a:180-181) estimated the combined population of the Patwin and Nomlaki at 11,300, of which 3,300 represented the southern Patwin. He subsequently raised his figure for the southern Patwin to 5,000.Cook 1976b:8

The migration of American settlers during the Gold Rush, which began in 1848, profoundly affected the indigenous populations of California, particularly the Patwin people. Thousands of migrants, predominantly men, flocked to California in search of wealth. This influx led to the displacement of Native communities, exposing them to diseases, violent raids, and the degradation of their environment due to resource extraction.{{Cite book |last=Madley |first=Benjamin |title=An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2016 |isbn=9780300181364 |edition=1st |location=New Haven, Connecticut |publication-date=May 24, 2016}}{{Cite book |last=Lindsay |first=Brandan C. |title=Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846-1873 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2012 |isbn=9780803224803 |edition=1st |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |publication-date=August 1, 2012}}

Prior to the Gold Rush, the Patwin resided in settled villages throughout the western Sacramento Valley, engaging in traditional practices of hunting, gathering, and fishing. The arrival of Western migrants severely disrupted this way of life as settler expansion encroached on their lands. Areas crucial for acorn gathering and access to water were taken or destroyed to make way for mining, ranching, and agricultural development.{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Patti J. |title=“Patwin” in Handbook of North American Indians: California, Vol. 8 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |year=1978 |isbn=0160045789 |edition=1st |location=Washington, D.C. |publication-date=1978}}

Historian Sherburne F. Cooke documents a significant population decline among the Patwin during this period, primarily attributed to disease outbreaks such as smallpox and measles. The indirect effects of colonization and displacement further exacerbated this decline.{{Cite book |last=Cook |first=Sherburne F. |title=The population of the California Indians, 1769-1970 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1976 |isbn=9780520029231 |edition=1st |location=Berkeley, California |publication-date=1976}} The Patwin were also compelled to perform unpaid labor in various settings, from domestic residences to mining operations, a practice that has been described as a form of “the other slavery.”{{Cite book |last=Reséndez |first=Andrés |title=The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2016 |isbn=9780547640983 |edition=1st |location=Boston, Massachusetts |publication-date=April 12, 2016}}

By the late 1850s, the Patwin population had dwindled to a mere fraction of its pre-contact numbers, mirroring the widespread decline experienced by Indigenous tribes in California throughout the Gold Rush era.{{Cite book |last=Hurtado |first=Albert L. |title=Indian Survival on the California Frontier |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1988 |isbn=9780300047981 |edition=1st |location=New Haven, Connecticut}}

Kroeber estimated the population of the combined Wintun groups in 1910 as 1,000. By the 1920s, no Patwin remained along Putah Creek and few were left in the area.{{Citation |year=2008 |title=Putah Creek: Flowing through Our Communities and Our Lives | publisher =Putah Creek Council |publication-place=Sacramento, California |page=21 |isbn=9780615216027 |quote=When Spanish explorers and Russian fur traders came to California, things quickly changed. New diseases such as smallpox and malaria were fatal to many Native Americans, and an epidemic in 1833 emptied the village of Putah-toi. The Spaniards forced many of the remaining Patwin onto the Solano mission. There, disease and deprivation took a heavy toll. When the missions were secularized in the 1830s, the number of remaining Indians was less than one-third that of the Indians who had been pushed there. By the 1920s, no Patwin remained along the creek and few were left in the area. Native American ecological knowledge was lost and continues to be lost, along with the tending that fostered the growth of many California plants. However, efforts are being made to bring Native Americans and their understanding back into the management of California land. Despite obstacles, Patwin descendants still know the plants of this area and still tend them.}} Today, Wintun descendants of the three groups (i.e. the Patwin, Nomlaki, and Wintu proper) total about 2,500 people.{{cite web |title=Wintun Indians |url=http://infodome.sdsu.edu/research/guides/calindians/calinddictty.shtml#w |access-date=30 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100726212453/http://infodome.sdsu.edu/research/guides/calindians/calinddictty.shtml#w |archive-date=26 July 2010 |website=California Indians and Their Reservations: An Online Dictionary |publisher=San Diego State University Library |quote=The Wintun Indian people have three divisions: the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern). Their traditional territories are in the greater Sacramento Valley, with the Sacramento River a major feature of all the regions. Their lands vary from the Wintu mountain rivers in the north, through the Nomlaki plains, to the marshes, valleys, and hills of the Patwin. Their languages are of the Penutian family. Their diet came from the semiannual runs of king salmon up major rivers, to acorns and other vegetable foods, to game. In the early 1800s, there were approximately 12,000-15,000 members of the Wintun Tribe. Spanish settlers arrived in Wintun territory by 1808, and the Hudson's Bay Company trappers arrived sometime before 1832. Tribal unity was destroyed by the taking of land and the destruction of traditional food and material-gathering areas. Along with the introduction of cattle, hogs, and sheep, the construction of dams, and the Copper processing plants in the 1880s and early 1900s, the Wintun suffered a heavy toll on their health and survival. Today there are over 2,500 people of Wintun descent. Many live on the Round Valley Reservation, and on the Colusa, Cortina, Grindstone Creek, Redding, and Rumsey rancherias.}}

{{div col|colwidth=18em}}

• Aguasto
• Bo´-do
• Chemocu
• Churup
• Dok´–dok
• Gapa
• Ho´lokomi
• Imil
• Katsil
• Kisi
• Koh´pah de´-he
• Koru
• Kusêmpu
• Liwai
• Lopa
• Moso
• Napato
• Nawidihu
• No´pah
• P’ālo
• Putato
• Si'-ko-pe
• Soneto
• Sukui
• Suskol
• Tebti
• Til-til
• Tokti
• Tolenas
• Tulukai
• Ululato
• Yo´doi
• Yulyul

{{div col end}}

Patwin Indian remains were discovered at the Mondavi Center construction site beginning in 1999, and consequently, the University of California, Davis, built a Native American Contemplative Garden within the Arboretum, a project honoring the Patwin.[https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/native-american-contemplative-garden Native American Contemplative Garden]{{cite news |last=Rockwell |first=Susanne |date=16 June 2000 |title=Second Patwin burial site found |url=https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/second-patwin-burial-site-found/ |work=Dateline UC Davis |access-date=21 May 2017}}{{cite news |last=Jones |first=Dave |date=20 October 2006 |title=Community weaves tribute to Patwin tribe |url=https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/community-weaves-tribute-patwin-tribe/ |work=Dateline UC Davis |access-date=21 May 2017 |quote=The plan to honor Indians' connection with the UC Davis land grew out of the discovery of Indian remains at the Mondavi Center construction site in 1999. All of the remains have since been reburied under the direction of a Patwin representative, [campus environmental planner Sid England] said.}}

• Mabel McKay (1907–1994), basket weaver and healer
• Sem-Yeto ({{circa|1798|1851}}), 19th-century leader and diplomat, also known as "Chief Solano"

• Fully feathered basket

{{Reflist|2}}

• Cook, Sherburne F. 1976a. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization. University of California Press, Berkeley.
• Golla, Victor. 2011. California Indian Languages. University of California Press, Berkeley.
• Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.

• Cook, Sherburne F. 1976b. The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970. University of California Press, Berkeley.
• Johnson, Patti J. 1978. "Patwin". In California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 350–360. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-23228-7}} (hbk); {{ISBN|0-521-29875-X}}.

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.californiaprehistory.com/tribmap.html "Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770"] (map after Kroeber), California Prehistory
• [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~survey/languages/patwin.php "Patwin Language"], Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, University of Berkeley
• For a map of regional Native American territories, see map of [https://web.archive.org/web/20081117195739/http://nrs.ucdavis.edu/quail/Maps/putahcache_native_territories_map_1998_2000.pdf Sacramento Valley Bioregion] by [https://web.archive.org/web/20150604172029/http://lda.ucdavis.edu/people/websites/thayer.html Thayer] and [http://humanecology.ucdavis.edu/lda/alumni/alumni_database.html Mann].
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081116102918/http://nrs.ucdavis.edu/quail/Natural/Human_Patwin.htm History of Quail Ridge Reserve - The Patwin]
• [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moajrnl;cc=moajrnl;rgn=full%20text;idno=ahj1472.1-13.006;didno=ahj1472.1-13.006;view=image;seq=0538;node=ahj1472.1-13.006%3A10 "The Patweèns"] (1874), Stephen Powers' Overland Monthly article on the Patwin
• [http://www.solanohistorycenter.org/multimedia/videos/clyde-low-patwin-indian-interview/ Interview with historian Clyde Low] on Sem-Yeto and the Patwin Indian presence in Suisun Valley, part of a 2003 documentary produced by the City of Fairfield
• [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865 NPR story featuring an interview with Patwin elder Bill Wright (2008)]

{{Indigenous peoples of California}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Wintun

Category:Indigenous peoples of California

Category:Mission Indians

Category:History of Napa County, California

Category:History of Solano County, California

Category:History of Yolo County, California

Category:Sacramento Valley

Category:Vaca Mountains