Micewal

The Wappo, who call themselves Micewal, are a Yukian-speaking people of northern California, whose villages stood in Napa Valley, Alexander Valley, the Russian River valley and on Clear Lake.

They split from their distant kin the Yuki at least five centuries ago, and their language took in strong influence from the unrelated Pomo speech. Living in small bands without centralized chiefs, they built houses of branches, leaves and mud and wove baskets tight enough to hold water.

With Spanish and Mexican settlement in Alta California, the Clear Lake Wappo were drawn into the mission system, which recorded at least 550 baptisms, while the Napa bands resisted General Vallejo's soldiers. Their resistance earned them the Spanish word for brave, from which the name Wappo derives; fighting ended with a peace treaty in 1836.