in
Yosemite Valley The Miwok lived in small
bands without centralized political authority before contact with European Americans in 1769. They had
domesticated dogs and cultivated
tobacco, but were otherwise complex
hunter-gatherers.
Cuisine The Sierra Miwok harvested acorns from the
California Black Oak. In fact, the modern-day extent of the California Black Oak forests in some areas of
Yosemite National Park is partially due to cultivation by Miwok tribes. They burned
understory vegetation to reduce the fraction of
Ponderosa Pine. Nearly every other kind of edible vegetable matter was used as a food source, including bulbs, seeds, and fungi. Animals were hunted with arrows, clubs or snares, depending on the species and the situation. Grasshoppers were a highly prized food source, as were
mussels for those groups adjacent to the
Stanislaus River. Coastal Miwok were known to have predominantly relied on food gathered from the inland side of the Marin peninsula (modern San Pablo bay, lakes, and land based foods), but to have also engaged in diving for
abalone in the
Pacific Ocean. The Miwok ate meals according to appetite rather than at regular times. They stored food for later consumption, primarily in flat-bottomed baskets.
Religion The
Miwok creation story and narratives tend to be similar to those of other natives of Northern California. Miwok had
totem animals, identified with one of two
moieties, which were in turn associated respectively with land and water. These totem animals were not thought of as literal ancestors of humans, but rather as predecessors.
Languages Sports Miwok people played mixed-gender games, with both men and women in each team, on a playing field called ''poscoi a we'a''. Similarly to
soccer, the object of the game was to kick or carry an elk hide ball to the opposing team's goalpost, but the rules varied by gender. Women could handle the ball in any way they chose, using any part of their bodies to control it, including kicking the ball or picking it up and running with it. In contrast, men were only allowed to kick the ball. However, a man could pick up a woman who was holding the ball and run to the goal with her. ==Population==