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Washoe
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Ethnie: WASHOE
Language: Washoan
Family: Washoan
Stock: Western Hokan
Phylum: Hokan
Macro-Culture: Great Basin

 

 

 

 

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The Washoe were a semi-sedentary hunter/gatherer language group and culture. Their range extended throughout the eastern Sierra Nevada drainages of the Truckee and Carson Rivers including the entire Lake Tahoe to a little below present Reno and Carson City and north to Honey Lake. They were driven into their historical location from the east by their primary enemies, the Northern Paiute, by whom they were later dominated. They avoided White contact thereby minimizing conflicts. They nonetheless suffered from the loss of their territories.
Aboriginal Locations
Divisions:  CA Ha'nale'lti, Pa'walu, We'lmelti; NV Ha'nale'lti, Pa'walu, We'lmelti
Present California Locations
SUSANVILLE RANCHERIA, Susanville
Year History
1825 Jedediah Smith passed through territory
1844 John Fremont and Kit Carson passed through territory
1849 Gold Rush brought miners and settlers into their area
1857 Potato War; small group of Washoe routed, some killed, gathering potatoes owned by Whites near Honey Lake
1858 Comstock Lode discovery, 20,000 miners entered territory; Northern Paiutes sold nine miles of Washoe land to Col. Warren Wassen
1860 Conquered by the Northern Paiute who for 2 years thereafter forbade them from owning horses
1869 Transcontinental rail road completed
1871 Began practice of Ghost Dance
1887 Tribe allotted some barren, waterless land in Dawes Severalty Act
Year Total Population California Estimate Source
1,500 500 Kroeber aboriginal estimate
1700 1,500 500 NAHDB calculation
1800 1,200 400 NAHDB calculation
1845 1,000 Mooney estimate
1859 900 Kroeber estimate
1866 500 Kroeber estimate
1892 400 Kroeber estimate
1900 500 100 NAHDB calculation
1910 819 Census
1930 668 Census
1937 629 U. S. Indian Office
1970 725 BIA (on reservations)
1980 695 BIA (on reservations)
1984 1,530 Tribal figures
1989 784 BIA
2000 1,000 100 NAHDB calculation
Other speakers of the same language:
None
Washoe Sites
Dat-So-La-Lee    http://www.unr.edu/wrc/nwhp/biograph/datsola.htm
Dresslerville Colony    http://itcn.org/tribes/washoe/dville.html
The Gold Rush Legacy:  Greed, Pollution, and Genocide    http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/spring98/sp98g_wr.htm
Marion Steinbach Indian Basket Museum    http://www.unr.edu/wrc/nwhp/biograph/datsola.htm
Washoe Beadwork (contemporary)    http://users.intercomm.com/redtail/beadwork.html
Washoe Tribe    http://www.unr.edu/wrc/nwhp/biograph/datsola.htm

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