[citation needed] Anthropologists commonly divide the Miwok into four geographically and culturally diverse ethnic subgroups.

[2] The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs officially recognizes eleven tribes of Miwok descent in California.

They are as follows: The predominant theory regarding the settlement of the Americas dates the original migrations from Asia to around 20,000 years ago across the Bering Strait land bridge, but anthropologist Otto von Sadovszky claims that the Miwok and some other northern California tribes descend from Siberians who arrived in California by sea around 3,000 years ago.

In fact, the modern-day extent of the California Black Oak forests in some areas of Yosemite National Park is partially due to cultivation by Miwok tribes.

[1] The Star Wars films feature a fictional species of forest-dwelling creatures known as Ewoks, who are ostensibly named after the Miwok.

In an alternate history scenario depicted in the book, they are the first group of Native Americans encountered by the first Chinese to discover the continent.