This article was published in the Pine Mountain Lake News November 4, 1974 by Jean McClish
Land of the Mi woks
The Mi wok Indians called these hills and valleys "home' long before the discovery of gold brought the white man in the frantic and often ruthless search for instant wealth.
There was a Mi wok Village, or Rancheria, on Big Creek. Artifacts from this village were found when the dam was being constructed for Pine Mountain Lake.
The Mi wok lived in harmony with the land, practicing ecology long before the white man invented it. Utilizing what he found in the world around him, subject to the whims of nature and the cycle of the seasons, he led a simple, hard life. Not being farmers, the Mi woks hunted game, fished for trout, gathered roots and bulbs, nuts, berries and acorns.
His shelter reflected his environment. Conical dwellings eight to fifteen feet in diameter were made by leaning overlapping slabs of bark together so they supported one another or by arranging them around a framework of poles 10 or 12 fees long with tops inclined together. Bark of the Digger Pine, Yellow Pine or Incense Cedar (depending on what was available) was stripped only from the dead trees to form these single-family dwellings. In summer when the family lived outside under brush arbors; these shelters were used as storage places.
The heart of the Mi wok's village was the semi-subterranean earth lodge. It was the gathering place for social and ceremonial life. Here meals were shared, games played, and rituals performed.
The Indian Village and Museum Garden in Yosemite National Park represents a grouping of dwellings, granaries and a round-house lodge. | 
