WINTUN

any of a number of groups of Penutian-speaking California Indians originally inhabiting the west side of the Sacramento Valley, some 250 miles (400 km) from north to south, together with certain stretches of the flanking foothills. Four primary linguistic groupings, each, in fact, speaking a number of dialects, made up the Wintun population: the northern Wintun (Wintu), the central Wintun (Nomlaki), and the two subdivisions of the southern Wintun, the Hill and River Patwin. The Patwin are sometimes classified as a group separate from the Wintun. The elongated shape of Wintun territory made for considerable cultural diversity; contacts with close neighbours to the east and west were more frequent for most communities than were those with other Wintun at the extremities of the group's territory. In the north, for instance, basketry was twined in the fashion of that of the Oregon Indians; in the centre it was well-twined and intricately ornamented like that of the Pomo; and in the south it had mixed characteristics. Fishing was pursued everywhere; the gathering of acorns and other wild plant foods was universal, as was the hunting of waterfowl and other game. The house of the River Patwin was domed and earth-covered; that of the hill people was either a conical bark house or a simpler thatched structure; the nature of the northern dwellings is unknown. Not much is known of Wintun social or political organization; there were apparently autonomous villages or bands, however; and the Patwin are known to have had a community chief with near-absolute power. The southern Wintun greatly influenced the development of the Kuksu cult, a religion of secret societies and esoteric rites that spread to various Californian Indians. The cult's main purposes were to bring strength to young male initiates, to bring fertility to natural crops, and to ward off natural disasters. Wintun mythology was based on the existence of a single creator and powerful beings existing in direct natural personifications. Before the influx of white settlers there were at least 12,000 Wintun; in the late 20th century there were scarcely more than 1,000 identifiable Wintun left (though many northern Californian Indians have intermarried). Compare Pomo.