Patwin

The Patwin (also Patween, Southern Wintu) are a Wintun people native to the area of Northern California. The Patwin were a southern branch of the Wintun group and native inhabitants of California from 1,000 up to 4,000 years.

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

The "Southern Patwins" lived between what is now Suisun, Vacaville and Putah Creek who by 1800 had been forced by Spanish and European invaders into small tribal units - Ululatos (Vacaville), Labaytos (Putah Creek), Malacas (Lagoon Valley), Tolenas (Upper Suisun Valley) and Suisunes (Suisun Marsh and Plain).

Language

The Patwin spoke a Wintuan language.

Population

Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.) Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Wintun, including the Patwin, Nomlaki, and Wintu proper, at 12,000. 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).

Kroeber estimated the population of the combined Wintun groups in 1910 as 1,000.

Villages

See also

• Patwin traditional narratives
• Wintu
• Kuksu religion

External links

• Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770 (map after Kroeber)
• Southern Patwin Tribes: "Tragic Demise of People of the West Wind"

References

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