Description
The Washoe ("people from here") are a Great Basin tribe of Native Americans, living near Lake Tahoe at the border between California and Nevada. The name "Washoe" or "Washo" (as preferred by themselves) is derived from the autonym Waashiw in the Washo language. Washoe people have lived in the Great Basin and the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains for at least the last 6,000 years, some say up to 9,000 years or more. Washoe people may have made contact with Spanish explorers in the early 19th century, but the Washoe did not sustain contact with people of European culture until the 1848 California Gold Rush.
Language
The language has borrowed from the neighboring Uto-Aztecan, Maiduan and Miwokan languages
Culture
The Washoe were fishers, hunters of small mammals, and gatherers of pine nuts, acorns, and various roots and berries. They depended on deer and antelope for food, for clothing, and for hides to cover their cone-shaped dwellings. They were noted for their superb basketry. During winter this group would reside together; the able-bodied members migrated each summer into the eastern valleys in search of roots, berries, and small game. Shamanism was an important part of traditional Washoe life. A shaman, or medicine man or woman, was believed to be able to cause and cure disease.