The Wappo: First People of the Valley
Near St. Helena, California
Long before the vineyards and the stone bridges, this valley belonged to the Wappo people. Archaeologists believe the Napa Valley has been inhabited for as long as ten thousand years, one of the longest continuously occupied places in California. The Wappo lived in pole framed houses, gathered acorns and wild seeds, fished the streams for salmon, and traded obsidian and clamshell beads across a wide region.
They spoke a language of the small Yukian family, distinct from most of their neighbors, and they called themselves by names meaning the outspoken people. The name Wappo itself came later, from the Spanish word guapo, meaning brave or handsome, a nod to their fierce resistance. That resistance could not hold back what arrived in the eighteen twenties.
Spanish and Mexican settlers brought forced labor at the missions and, far more deadly, epidemics of smallpox that devastated the villages. Many Wappo were swept into the mission system or driven from their homeland. Today their descendants survive, and the Mishewal Wappo Tribe of Alexander Valley continues a long effort to regain full federal recognition.
As you enjoy the beauty of this place, it is worth remembering that people knew and tended this valley for thousands of years before the first grapevine was ever planted here.
