The location of the majority of the early Miwok tribes was in California, an area that was soon colonized by three different societies. The first people to imperialize the Miwoks were the Spanish, led by Sir Francis Drake. This wave of colonization lasted from around 1579 to the 1820s. During the 1820s, after the Spanish were overthrown by the Mexican people they had colonized, the Miwok came under Mexican rule. Finally, when California became annexed as a state in 1850, the Miwok were colonized for a third time.
With the arrival of Sir Francis Drake in 1579, Spanish missionaries began to establish themselves in the western coastal region, an area which is present day Marin County and San Francisco. The original intent of the Franciscan missionaries was to establish educational institutions, and through these institutions, educate the native population on European beliefs. These missionaries originally intended to humanely pass their knowledge onto the native people, and avoid violent and cruel treatment of native peoples, as was present at the time in South America and Central America.1
Native Coastal Miwoks were placed in missions, where they were schooled by Franciscan missionaries. The original plan of the missionaries was to condition the Miwoks into the European lifestyle for a few years, and then move to establish themselves in other regions, leaving the Miwoks to live their new European-like lifestyles. However, the Spanish soon began using the Miwok as a source of human labor, contrary to their initial intentions.4
This practice ended after the Mexican overthrow of the Spanish in the early 1820s. Although the Miwok were free from Spanish oppression, they were still facing issues regaining recognition and independence.1
The last wave of colonization was due to American inhabitation of California, starting with the annexing of California in 1850. By then, most remaining tribes survived through farming and fishing.4 In 1920, the United States government purchased approximately 15 acres near Sebastopol, California, with the intention of dividing up the purchased land and distributing it for local tribes to inhabit.4 Local tribes were constricted to these portions of land, and had very little say in the matter. In 1958, the United States government passed the California Rancheria Act, which gave the state government control over management of California tribes. As a result of the change in management, there was an attempt to assimilate the Miwok into American society and were declared as an extinct tribe in 1966.4 In 1979, the Miwok, along with other California tribes began a class-action lawsuit against the United States government to regain status as Native Americans, and prevailed in 1983, when the United States government granted them their status and rights as Native Americans. From the year 2000 to now, California has 107 federally recognized tribes, including the Miwok.
The effects of colonization on the Miwok have been heavily apparent. The once peaceful hunter-gatherer society had lost its rights to its own land, lost its rights to self-management, and lost much of its fundamental and rich culture through the three waves of colonization by the Spanish, the Mexicans, and the Americans over the span of 400 years. Though they currently have regained land and recognition under the United States government, much of their original culture has been lost through the ages.