Washoe (tribe)

Washoe
Wašiw

Washoe tribal flag
Total population
(1,500 (2007))
Regions with significant populations
United States ( California and  Nevada)
Languages
English, Washo
Religion
traditional tribal religion

The Washoe are a Great Basin tribe of Native Americans, living near Lake Tahoe at the border between California and Nevada. The name "Washoe" is derived from the autonym waashiw (wa·šiw) meaning "people from here" in the Washo language (transliterated in older literature as Wa She Shu (Wašišiw) the plural form of wašiw).

Washoe people have lived in the Great Basin and the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains for at least the last 6,000 years. Prior to contact with Europeans, the territory of the Washoe people was roughly bounded by the southern shore of Honey Lake in the north, the west fork of the Walker River in the south, the Sierra Nevada crest in the west, and the first range east of the Sierra Nevada in the east. The Washoe would generally spend the summer in the Sierra Nevada, especially at Lake Tahoe; the fall in the ranges to the east; and the winter and spring in the valleys between them.

Washoe people are the only Great Basin tribe whose language is not Numic, so they are believed to have inhabited the region prior to neighboring tribes. The Kings Beach Complex that emerged about 500 CE around Lake Tahoe and the northern Sierra Nevadas are regarded as early Washoe culture. The Martis complex may have overlapped with the Kings Beach culture, and Martis pit houses gave way to conical bark slab houses of historic Washoe culture.

The Washoe people and the neighboring Northern Paiute people were culturally and linguistically very different, and they sometimes came into conflict and were often enslaved by them.