The Washoe or Wašišiw ("people from here", transliterated in older literature as Wa She Shu) are a Great Basin tribe of Native Americans, living near Lake Tahoe at the border between California and Nevada.

Beside Lake Tahoe the Washoe utilized the upper ranges of the Carson (dá:bal k'iláʔam), Truckee (dabayóduweʔ), and West Walker rivers to the east as well the Sierra Valley (a site of extensive freshwater marshes filled with cattails, bulrushes and alkaline flats that drain into the Middle Fork Feather River) to the north.

The Washoe would generally spend the summer in the Sierra Nevada, especially at Lake Tahoe; the fall in the ranges to the east; and the winter and spring in the valleys between them.

The Kings Beach Complex that emerged about 500 CE around Lake Tahoe and the northern Sierra Nevada are regarded as early Washoe culture.

Children could get to know about gathering techniques, medicine preparation, and the legends were meant to teach them how to appreciate the land they were living in and give them a better understanding of Washoe's lifestyle.

[9] The area of residence of Washoe people let them obtain food from three different ways: fishing, gathering, and hunting.

Since each way required having special skills and knowledge people were usually trained in one field to reduce the possibility of failing the tasks they were responsible for.

The tribe currently relies on the tribal Cultural Resource Department to provide language classes to the community.

However, there has recently been a pedagogical shift within the tribe, and the youth have become the focal point of language and culture programs.

[14] As the native inhabitants, they believe that they have the best knowledge of how the land should be maintained, and consider themselves to be the proper caretakers of the Lake Tahoe area, which has been a center Washoe tribes yearly cultural gatherings, where most traditional events took place.

[15] In 2002, The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources officially granted custody to the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California over the land around the Lake Tahoe area for cultural purposes.