Join us for an informative and revelatory conversation with a member of the Miwok Tribal Council Jason Deschler, on the original peoples who inhabited Marin County, specifically the San Geronimo Valley and Nicasio.

Since time immemorial, as long as the sun has filled our days with the gift of light, and as long as the moon has guided our path at night, Coast Miwok people, who hold the uncontestable aboriginal title, have occupied, tended, stewarded, held sacred ceremonies, defended and governed according to the traditions of our ancestors the unceded lands of present-day Marin County, California.

The first humans to appreciate the beauty and bounty of Marin County were the Coast Miwok. How deep are our roots? One of the largest and deepest shellmounds excavated by archeologists in Marin is 5,000 years old; our own oral histories trace our lineage back at least 10,000 years, and our creation stories describe how our ancestors emerged from the land itself. For millennia we were careful stewards of the land; in return, the land took care of us. The bay, marshlands and streams provided an abundance of fish and shellfish. Herds of deer, elk and antelope roamed the hillsides, and rabbit and quail were readily available. We carefully tended, nurtured and gladed the many stands of oak throughout Marin that provided a key staple of our diet: acorns. We knew the yearly cycles of the plants, and exactly when, where and how to gather the wide variety of native berries, bulbs and tubers the land offered so there would be another good harvest when we returned to that location the following year. Loosely divided into five major bands inhabiting the general area that includes today’s Marin and southern Sonoma counties, Coast Miwok were the second largest group of Miwok Native Americans. Within each of the major bands were numerous, smaller tribal groups, each consisting of anywhere from 60 to a few hundred people. Each tribe had a headman (hoipu) or headwoman (maien), who advised the people and settled disputes. (Tellingly, the Coast Miwok language has no word for “war.”) While any attempt to quantify exactly how many people lived in Marin in pre-colonizer times is sheer conjecture, we can say with certainty that the lifeway our ancestors followed as agricultural stewards of the land both supported and required a significant population.

Statement from Jason Deschler. As descendants of the original peoples of Marin County, the Huukuiko, also known as the Coast Miwok of Marin, we understand our duty and obligation to continue the work of tending the land and being the true spiritual leaders to all peoples. Love and compassion will always be the guiding forces behind this work. For the endurance in suffering that our ancestors went through has given us the wisdom to be able to survive and share this love and compassion with all living things and spiritual beings. The knowledge from this shows we have the ability to change.

Ka molish (Thank you)

Muk’am ka inniko (We are all family)

Ka yomu mii (I love all of you)

Walli towish (Blessings!)

Our people have endured much at the hands of colonizers. As the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin, we believe it is our sacred responsibility to uphold and renew the traditional customs and practices of our ancestors, and to continue, with our prayers and ceremonies, to feed the land that Creator entrusted to our people’s care so many thousands of years ago. To the dismay of those who, like Burnett, gleefully predicted our demise, we are still here - and, once again, growing stronger.