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Administrative Draft Environmental Impact Report Gill Medical Center Project 4.20 TRIBAL CULTURAL RESOURCES This section describes the affected environment and regulatory setting and considers and evaluates the potential impacts of the Project on Tribal Cultural Resources (TCRs) in the Project Area.The following analysis of the potential environmental impacts related to TCRs is derived primarily from the following sources and agencies: California Native American Heritage Commission Sacred Lands File Search, March 25, 2020; ECORP's 2020 Cultural Resources Inventory and Evaluation for the Gill Women's Medical Center Project, San Joaquin County, California; Ethnographic overviews of the Miwok (Barret and Gifford 1933; Kroeber 1936; Levy 1978); and, AB52 consultation between San Joaquin County and the Buena Vista Rancheria of Mi-Wuk Indians. Regional pre-contact information of the California Native Americans has been previously discussed in Section 4.7 Cultural Resources.The reader is referred to that section for further information on California Native Americans during the pre-contact time period. 4.20.1 Environmental Setting 4.20.1.1 Ethnographic, Religious, and Cultural Context Ethnographically, the Project Area is in the northern portion of the territory occupied by the Penutian speaking Miwok.At the time of contact, the Miwok were one of the largest groups in California, occupying vast stretches of land extending from the Sierra Nevada Range, across the Great Valley, and into portions of the North Coast above San Francisco. The Project is in Northern Sierra Miwok territory, which includes land in the foothills and higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada Range, between the Cosumnes River to the north, and the divide between Calaveras and the Stanislaus rivers to the south (Levy 1978). Sierra Miwok groups moved with the seasons to gather resources within their territory.The most important food sources were acorns (acorns from tan oak and black oak were preferred), seeds, nuts and other plant resources, deer, antelope, rabbits, and fish (Levy 1978). The Miwok lived in small groups called "tribelets" (Kroeber 1936)with a range of 100 to 300 people (Levy 1978). Each tribelet was an independent socio-political organization. Each tribelet had a few permanent settlements (villages) and several seasonal campsites.The typical Sierra Miwok mountain dwelling was a cone shaped dwelling constructed of bark. Earth roundhouses that were partially underground were constructed for ceremonial purposes.After the death of a chief, the roundhouse would be burned as part of the Miwok mourning ceremony (Levy 1978). Sierra Miwok used bows and arrows as their primary weapon for hunting and warfare.They made their bows from ash, oak, willow, pepperwood, maple, or hazel. Flaked and ground stone tools included knives, arrow and spear points, arrow straighteners, scrapers, rough cobble pestles and shaped pestles, and Tribal Cultural Resources 4.20-1 October 2021