For thousand of years, bands of Wintun people dwelled along the waters of Cache Creek in the Capay Valley and lived off the bounty of the land.  The Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians today is again self-sufficient, with a new spirit of pride in its achievements and hope for its future. But between those early days and our current prosperity were many dark years.

When asked by the first white men who came to the Capay Valley region who they were, our ancestors answered “Patwin,” which means “people” in our native tongue. From that point on, the Wintun and related tribes living along the valley’s waterways were grouped together and labeled by federal Indian agents as “Patwin.”

With no immunity to the diseases carried by white explorers and settlers, the Patwin were nearly wiped out by malaria and smallpox epidemics in the 1800s.  The prospectors who flocked to California in the mid-19th century to mine for gold also confiscated lands and enslaved or massacred the native Indians who had lived here for so many generations.  Over a 36-year period, nearly 100,000 Indians were killed.