Who Are the Washoe Indians?
The Washoe Indians are a Native American tribe located in the United States. They were officially recognized as a tribe by the US federal government in 1934. Originally their territory stretched from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California to the Lake Tahoe basin region of Nevada. The Washoe consider themselves the original inhabitants of the Lake Tahoe area. Before the arrival of U.S. settlers, this Native American tribe’s lifestyle was seasonally nomadic. The Washoe Indians lived in the Lake Tahoe region during the summer, where they spent their time fishing, hunting, and gathering medicinal plants and other foodstuffs in preparation for the winter months. During the fall, the Washoe people traveled to the Pine Nut Mountain region, where they harvested pine nuts. Winter and spring were usually spent in the valleys of the Eastern Sierras.
