Wappo

Wappo people
A Wappo Woman, from Edward S. Curtis Collection
A Wappo Woman
from Edward S. Curtis Collection.
Total population
1770: 1,000–1,650
1850: 188–200
1910: 73
1977: 50[1]
2000: 250
2010: 291[2]
Regions with significant populations
 California (Clear Lake, Napa Valley, Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley)
Languages
English, historically Wappo[1]
Religion
traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
Yuki people[3]

The Wappo (endonym: Micewal[4]) are an Indigenous people of northern California. Their traditional homelands are in Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River valley.[3] They are distantly related to the Yuki people, from which they seem to have diverged at least 500 years ago.[4] Their language, Wappo, has been influenced by the neighboring Pomo, who use the term A'shochamai or A'shotenchawi (transcribed as Ashochimi by some authors), meaning "northerners", to refer to the Wappo.[5]

Map of Wappo territory by A.L. Kroeber, 1925.
  1. ^ a b "Wappo." Ethnologue. Retrieved 16 Dec 2012.
  2. ^ "2010 Census CPH-T-6. American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2010" (PDF). www.census.gov.
  3. ^ a b "Wappo Indians." SDSU: California Indians and Their Reservations. Retrieved 16 Dec 2012.
  4. ^ a b Loeb, E. M. (1932). The Western Kuksu Cult (PDF). University of California Press. p. 106. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-06.
  5. ^ Kroeber, A. L. (1925). Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology. p. 219. hdl:2027/mdp.39015006584174.