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 a malariaepidemic that killed an estimated 75% of the indigenous population in the upper and central Sacramento Valley. In the following years, the weakened Wintu fell victim to competition for resources by incoming European-American settlers. The settlers' sheep and cattle herds destroyed the Wintu food supply while gold miners' processing activities caused pollution of rivers. The Wintu were also forced to work as laborers in gold mining operations. In 1846, John C. Frémont and Kit Carson killed 175 Wintu and Yana. Settlers tried to take over Wintu land and relocate them west of Clear Creek. At a "friendship feast" in 1850, whites served poisoned food to local Indians, from which 100 Nomsuu and 45 Wenemem Wintu died. More deaths of Wintu and destruction of their land followed in 1851 and 1852, in incidents such as the Bridge Gulch Massacre.
Culture
The Wintu language is one of the Wintuan languages; it is also called Wintu. The religious stories and legends of the Trinity River Wintu were told by Grant Towendolly to Marcelle Masson, who published them in A Bag of Bones. In the spring of 2015, Angel Gomez III, the son of Valerie Masson Gomez and grandson of Marcelle Masson, made a trip to Shasta County in search of the rock formation pictured on the cover of "A Bag of Bones." He successfully located this formation and was witnessed by fellow traveler Trina Duke. Photographs of the couple standing on the rock with the book in hand were taken and posted online, but the connection to these is broken. The rock formation stands to the east of Interstate 5 along a tributary of a river and a small falls and pool provide locals with a private swimming location. Mr. Gomez and Ms. Duke shared a dip with bats feeding at dusk. The date of discovery was Friday, June 15, 2015. Information is needed on the location of the river located along a local two-lane road. For book image go to https://www.amazon.com/Bag-Bones-Legends-Northern-California/dp/0911010262.
Population
Scholars have disagreed about the historic population of the tribes before European-American contact. Alfred L. Kroeber estimated the combined 1770 population of the Wintu, Nomlaki, and Patwin as 12,000. Sherburne F. Cook initially put the population of the Wintu proper as 2,950, but later nearly doubled his estimate to 5,300. Frank R. LaPena estimated a total of 14,250 in his work of the 1970s. Kroeber estimated the population of the Wintu, Nomlaki, and Patwin in 1910 as about 1,000. Today the population has recovered somewhat and there are about 2,500 Wintun, many of whom live on the Round Valley Reservation, and on the Colusa, Cortina, Grindstone Creek, Redding, and Rumsey rancherias.
