Wintuan

The Wintuan, or Northern Wintun, were the northern branch of the Wintun peoples of the Sacramento Valley. Their country covered the western side of the upper valley from the river to the Coast Range, with the Winnemem band holding the McCloud River and calling themselves the Middle Water people; the volcanic Lassen Peak bore their name Amblu Kai, the Mountain Ripped Apart.

In eight or more small bands they lived in semi-permanent riverside villages, netting salmon and steelhead, gathering acorns and manzanita berries, weaving baskets and using earth lodges as sweat houses for ritual purification.

The first recorded outsiders were the trappers of Jedediah Smith in 1826 and Peter Skene Ogden in 1827. The malaria epidemic of 1830 to 1833 carried off an estimated three quarters of the native population of the upper and central Sacramento Valley.