Waashiw

The Waashiw, better known as the Washoe, are the ancient people of Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border, their autonym meaning people from here. They have occupied the eastern Sierra and adjoining Great Basin for at least six thousand years. Their language is a surviving isolate sometimes assigned to the Hokan family, suggesting they held the country before the Numic tribes arrived.

Four regional bands followed a seasonal round: summer fishing for whitefish at Tahoe, autumn gathering pine nuts in the eastern hills, and winter in sheltered valley camps with stores of dried fish and game.

The Kings Beach culture that arose around the lake about 500 marks their early archaeological tradition. Spanish explorers may have met them in the early nineteenth century, but no European presence disturbed their round before 1837.