The Maidu are a group of Native Americans who lived in Northern California. They lived in the central Sierra Nevada, in the drainage area of the Feather and American Rivers. An Atsina named Assiniboin Boy Photo by Edward S. Curtis. ... Official language(s) English Capital Largest city Sacramento Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq. ... The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range that is almost entirely in eastern California. ... This article treats the river in California. ...

The name Maidu means "person".

Kroeber estimated that there were 9,000 Maidu about the year 1770. The Census of 1910 counted 1,100, and the 1930 Census only 93. Alfred Louis Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876–October 5, 1960) was one of the most influential figures in American anthropology in the first half of the twentieth century. ...

Local divisions

The Maidu were divided into three groups, the Nisenan or Southern Maidu, the Northeastern or Mountain Maidu, and the Northwestern Maidu, or Konkow.

The Southern Maidu occupied the whole of the American, Bear and Yuba river drainages.

The Northeastern Maidu lived on the upper North and Middle forks of the Feather River.

The Northwestern Maidu were below the high Sierra, in the South, Middle, North and West branches of the Feather River, on the Upper Butte and Chico Creeks, and in the Sacramento Valley along the lower course of those streams. The California Central Valley Part of the Valley as seen from overhead A typical Central Valley scene at ground level The California Central Valley is a large, flat valley that dominates the central portion of the state of California. ...

Culture

The Maidu were hunters and gatherers. They lived in small villages with no centralized political organization. A hunter-gatherer society is in anthropological terms one whose predominant method of subsistence involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, using foraging and hunting, without significant recourse to the domestication of either. ...

Religion

Their mythology revolved around stories of the trickster Coyote. Maidu Coyote tales are exceptionally funny and very bawdy. Binomial name Canis latrans Say, 1823 The coyote (Canis latrans, meaning barking dog, also prairie wolf [1]) is a member of the Canidae (dog) family and a relative of the domestic dog. ...

See also

• Maiduan languages
• Maidu language

Pre-contact distribution of Maiduan languages Maiduan (also Maidun, Pujunan) is a small endangered language family of northeastern California. ... Maidu (also Northeastern Maidu, Mountain Maidu) is a severely endangered Maiduan language spoken by Maidu peoples traditionally in the mountains east and south of Lassen Peak in the American and Feather river drainages. ...

External links

• Konkow Valley Band of Maidu
• Mechoopda Maidu Indians
• Native Tribes, Groups, Language Families and Dialects of California in 1770 (map after Kroeber)

Bibliography

• Kroeber, Alfred L. (1925). Handbook of the Indians of California. (Reprinted 1953, 1970, 1976).
• Heizer, Robert F. (1966). Languages, territories, and names of California Indian tribes.

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