Abalone shells were made into beautiful ornaments. Cleaned of meat, the shells were also fully utilized. Crab, clams, mussels, abalone, limpets and oysters were some of the seafood gathered by the women in the tidal zones. Winter and early spring were times of shortage when stored acorns, seeds and kelp became important food sources. Gray willow for baskets and traps was abundant. Tule was cut and dried for kotcas (houses), boats and mats. The summer sun ripened grasses and flower seeds, gathered by hitting the ripened seed with a beater basket and letting them fall directly into a collecting basket.įall was the season for collecting a variety of nuts: acorns (stored in a granary for year-round consumption), buckeye, hazel and bay. Tule was gathered in the fall for skirts and tule baskets. The ocean provided kelp in large amounts, some to be eaten fresh, the rest dried and stored for the winter. Fire-hardened digging sticks were used by the women to reach deep-set roots and bulbs. In the late spring, fresh new greens of Indian lettuce, young nettle leaves and clover were gathered. It stands where no village ever was, but where one might have stood.Ĭoast Miwok life was intricately woven into the changing seasons. "Kule Loklo" (meaning "Bear Valley") is a recreated village. Village communities of 75 to several hundred people developed in sheltered places near fresh water and plentiful food. They knew and blended with this bountiful land for thousands of years, developing a rich economy based on gathering, fishing and hunting. Before the Europeans came to California, the Coast Miwok people were the inhabitants of what we now call Marin and southern Sonoma Counties.
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