102 Wintu

The Wintu were a hunter/gatherer language family and comprising several differing cultures. There were at least four distinct languages, and many more dialects. The northern group were known as Wintu proper in the north, the Nomlaki in their central territories, and the southern were known as Patwin. They occupied the west side of the Sacramento Valley. The west border extended roughly along the crest of the Coast Range to about Cottonwood Creek in the north and the Sacramento on the south. The exceptions to this were Wappo, Miwok and Pomo territories that extended into the Sacramento watershed; and in the northwest portion of Wintu territory where it extended west of crest of the Coast Range. On the west side of the valley, their territory extended to an average of five miles east of the Sacramento from the Pit River south to just above present Knights Landing. The river was the eastern border south of that point. The Wintu suffered huge population losses from the genocide of the Mexicans and the gold rush settlers and miners as well as from disease.

Aboriginal Locations

Chuidau, Dahchi'mchinisel, Damak, Kalaiel, Nomkewel, Mi'tenek, Olwenem-Wintun, Pelmemwe, Peltikewel, Pomtididisel, Sohu'slabe-Nome'lmimlabe, Soninmak, Tehemet, Toba, Tolokai, Waikewel, Waltikewel,

Year	*History*
1821	Large numbers indentured to Mexican feudal barons
1826	Territory visited by Jedediah Smith and Peter Skene Ogden
1830	Malaria epidemic
1833	Pandemic epidemic
1846	John C. Fremont slaughtered 175 of tribe; Mexico granted tribal lands to Pearson B. Reading
1850	Whites poisoned 100 Trinity Wintu in "friendship feast"
1851	Whites massacred 150 of tribe at council house meeting
1852	Treaty of peace and friendship
1856	Whites drove tribe off of lands in "Wintun War"
1866	Ethnie hunted down and forced to reservations
1871	Began practice of Ghost Dance
1938	Shasta Dam flooded tribal lands

Year	Population	Source
1700	12,000	NAHDB calculation
1770	12,000	Kroeber estimate
1800	12,000	NAHDB calculation
1848	8,000	Cook estimate
1852	5,700	Cook estimate
1880	1,500	Cook estimate
1900	1,000	NAHDB calculation
1910	710	Census
1915	701	Cook estimate
1930	380	Census
1971	900	Cook estimate
1989	2,885	BIA
2000	3,200	NAHDB calculation

*Ethnie:*	WINTU (WINTUN)
*Language:*	Wintuan
*Family:*	Wintuan
*Stock:*	Penutian
*Phylum:*	Macro-Penutian
*Macro-Culture:*	Kuksu