KATHLEEN SCAVONE
Long before the first winemakers dotted the Napa Valley with buildings and caves constructed by Chinese laborers, the Wappo people thrived in this region.
According to ethnographic studies by A. L. Kroeber, there were up to 3,000 Wappo and Wintun Native Americans living in the Napa Valley around 1843, including those residing in the Russian River area near Healdsburg. Another indigenous group that once lived in the valley was the Patwin tribe.
The census of 1910 found only 73 Wappo people.
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The Wappoâs settlements lay, for the most part, in the valley, but their territory extended to the mountain regions.