Wintu people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (2500 (Three major groups)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States Northern Sacramento Valley, California
|
|
| Languages | |
| English, formerly Wintu | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, Native religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Wintun (Nomlaki and Patwin), Yokut |
The Wintu (also Northern Wintun) are Native Americans who live in what is now Northern California. They are part of a loose association of peoples known collectively as the Wintun (or Wintuan). Others are the Nomlaki and the Patwin. The Wintu language is part of the Penutian language family.
Historically, the Wintu lived primarily on the western side of the northern part of the Sacramento Valley, from the Sacramento River to the Coast Range. The range of the Wintu also included the southern portions of the Upper Sacramento River (south of the Salt Creek drainage), the southern portion of the McCloud River, and the upper Trinity River. They also lived in the vicinity of present-day Chico, on the west side of the river extending to the Coast Ranges.
Many Wintun live on the Round Valley Reservation, and on the Colusa, Cortina, Grindstone Creek, Redding, and Rumsey rancherias.
The predominant theory regarding the settlement of the Americas date the original migrations from Asia to around 20,000 years ago across the Bering Strait land bridge, but one anthropologist claims that the Wintu and some other northern California tribes descend from Siberians who arrived in California by sea around 3,000 years ago.
The first recorded encounter between Wintu and Euro-Americans dates from the 1826 expedition of Jedediah Smith, followed by an 1827 expedition led by Peter Skene Ogden. Between 1830 and 1833, many Wintu died from malaria: an epidemic that killed an estimated 75% of the indigenous population in the upper and central Sacramento Valley.
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Wikipedia