Wikimedia CommonsCaliforniaLiving culture
California Indigenous
The diverse tribal nations of California — Chumash, Wintu, Miwok, Ohlone, Yurok, Modoc, Achumawi, and many more.
California is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse regions on Earth. Before European contact, over 100 distinct tribal nations called this land home, each with their own languages, cosmologies, and relationships to the landscape. Their sacred sites — mountains, rivers, groves, and coastlines — remain central to living cultural practice today.
8 entries mapped
Wikimedia CommonsCalifornia IndigenousLivingSacred Mountain
Mount Shasta
The volcanic peak where the sky spirit Skell made his home among the Klamath, Modoc, Wintu, and Achumawi peoples
Mount Shasta, CA, United StatesRead more
Wikimedia CommonsCalifornia IndigenousMythOrigin / Emergence
Point Reyes
Where Coyote created the world from a flood, in the tradition of the Coast Miwok people
San Francisco, CA, United StatesRead more
Wikimedia CommonsCalifornia IndigenousMythCave / Underworld
Chumash Painted Cave
A small sandstone cave in the Santa Ynez Mountains bearing Chumash rock art that may record a supernova observed in 1006 CE
Santa Barbara, CA (12 miles south), United StatesRead more
Wikimedia CommonsCalifornia IndigenousLivingSacred Grove
Yurok Redwood Groves
The coast redwood forests of northern California where the Yurok people maintain a relationship with the tallest living things on Earth
Crescent City, CA / Eureka, CA, United StatesRead more
Wikimedia CommonsCalifornia IndigenousLivingEffigy / Earthwork
Emeryville Shellmound
A 5,700-year-old Ohlone burial mound — 60 feet tall, containing over 700 burials — demolished in 1924 and paved over with a shopping mall
Oakland, CA (adjacent), United StatesRead more
Wikimedia CommonsCalifornia IndigenousLegendSacred Mountain
Mount Tamalpais
The mountain the Coast Miwok considered the center of the world — whose profile is a sleeping woman visible from across the Bay
Mill Valley, CA (at the mountain's base), United StatesRead more
Wikimedia CommonsCalifornia IndigenousMythSacred Mountain
Mount Konocti
The dormant volcano over Clear Lake where two Pomo chiefs fought to the death and became the mountain's twin peaks
Kelseyville, CA / Lakeport, CA, United StatesRead more
Wikimedia CommonsCalifornia IndigenousLegendBattle Site
Captain Jack's Stronghold
A lava fortress in the Modoc Lava Beds where 53 warriors held off 600 U.S. soldiers for five months — the last Indian war in California
Klamath Falls, OR (50 miles north), United StatesRead more