ARCTI C SS U B AA R C T I C N O R T H W E S T C O A S T C A L I F O R N I A P L A TTTT EE AA U G RRRRRRR EE AA T PP LL A I NN S TT SS A E TTTTT HH S N O RRRRRRRRRRRR T A EE H SS OOOOOOO U TT B AA SIN ST E W HH TT U O S CALIFORNIA CULTURAL REGION OF NORTH AMERICA CULTURAL REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Plateau Northwest Coast California Plains Southeast Southwest Great Basin Northeast Subarctic Arctic Other Cultural area border International border State province border
I NTRODUCTI ON In the beginning water covered the world Old Man Coyote asked Frog to dive down and bring him some mud from the ocean floor With the mud Coyote made land and animals came But there were no people Old Man Coyote walked across the land he had made Everywhere he wanted people to live he stuck two sticks in the ground The sticks became human beings That is how the world was created The Miwok MEE-wahk people of California tell this story of the beginning of their people California is home to many American Indian cultural groups Each group has its own creation story its own history and its own way of life Early California peoples communicated with one another about their cultural traditions events and everyday life through talking and storytelling They also shared information by making carvings singing and drawing Origins Scholars believe that California Indian cultures may be the oldest living cultures in North America Archaeologists have found a thirteen-thousand-year-old skeleton on an island where the Chumash CHEW-mosh 5
PEOPLES OF CALIFORNIA The California cultural region was the traditional home of many American Indian nations This map shows the areas where some of them lived before Europeans arrived in the region Tolowa Tolowa Hupa Yurok Yurok Wiyot Wiyot Karuk Karuk Modok Modok Modoc Wintu Wintu PaiuPaiute Paiu Maidu Maidu CULTURAL AREAS Northwest Coast California Southwest Great Basin Cultural area border International border State border Yuki Yuki Pomo Pomo Wappo Wappo Miwok Miwok WaWasho Wa Miwok Miwok Ohlone Ohlone Miwok Miwok Paiu PaiuPaiute Miwok Miwok Yokut Yokut Yokut Yokut Chumash Chumash Serrano Serrano Serrano Serrano Chumash ChChemehuevi Ch Tongva Tongva Mojave Tongva Luiseño Luiseño Cahuilla Cahuilla Kumeyaay Kumeyaay Yuma 66
settled Some believe the earliest settlers came from Asia Nomadic hunters may have crossed a land bridge to North America and gradually moved south One theory is that early American Indians traveled down the Pacific coast by boat California peoples have their own beliefs about their origins Many California Indians believe their ancestors have always lived in the region However they arrived American Indians spread out across what would later become California Their homes stretched from the Sierra Nevada in the east to the Pacific coast in the west Redwood and fir forests covered the northwestern part of the region The Mojave Desert spanned the southeast In the middle was a vast area of woods and grasslands later called the Central Valley Each group of people adapted to the area where they lived Many California Indians settled along the Pacific coast Many Miwok groups settled in the Central Valley Other Miwok groups lived near the Washo WAH-show people in the mountains Some groups including the Modoc MOH-doc lived at the most northern point of what became California The Hupa HOO-puh the Pomo POH-moh the Tolowa TAHL-ah wah the Yuki YOO-kee and the Wiyot WEE-yot lived on the northern coast by the Pacific Ocean The Chumash and the 7
