🛶 Who are the Coast Miwok?

You live in Sausalito, right on the edge of Richardson Bay. But who lived here before there were any houses at all? The Coast Miwok people! They lived all over Marin for thousands of years, long before there were cars or roads. Imagine a Coast Miwok family waking up by the bay long ago. In the springtime, they headed to the shore. They caught big shiny salmon and gathered seaweed from the rocks.

Now, how do you think they went out on the water? Make a guess! Maybe a wooden canoe? Nope! Their boats were made of tall reeds called tule, a kind of grass that grows in wet places. They tied big bundles of tule together, tight as a broom. Tule is full of tiny air pockets, like a sponge.

All that air helps it float, so the boat bobbed right on top of the bay. Imagine paddling across the bay on a giant floating broom! Later, newcomers came, and life changed in hard and sad ways for the Coast Miwok. But Coast Miwok people still live in Marin and Sonoma today. Long before anyone gave Sausalito its name, this bay was their home.