The Patwin (also Patween, Southern Wintu) are a Wintun people native to the area of Northern California. The Patwin were a southern branch of the Wintun group and native inhabitants of California from 1,000 up to 4,000 years.
The Patwin were bordered by the Yuki in the northwest; the Nomlaki (Wintun) in the north; the Konkow (Maiduan) in northeast; the Nisenan (Maiduan) and Valley Miwok in the east; the Coast Miwok in the southwest; and the Wappo, Lake Miwok, and Pomo in the west.
The "Southern Patwins" lived between what is now Suisun, Vacaville and Putah Creek. By 1800 they had been forced by Spanish and European invaders into small tribal units - Ululatos (Vacaville), Labaytos (Putah Creek), Malacas (Lagoon Valley), Tolenas (Upper Suisun Valley) and Suisunes (Suisun Marsh and Plain).
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The Patwin spoke a Wintuan language.
Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.) Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Wintun, including the Patwin, Nomlaki, and Wintu proper, at 12,000. Sherburne F. Cook (1976a:180-181) estimated the combined population of the Patwin and Nomlaki at 11,300, of which 3,300 represented the southern Patwin. He subsequently raised his figure for the southern Patwin to 5,000 (Cook 1976b:8).
Kroeber estimated the population of the combined Wintun groups in 1910 as 1,000. Today Wintun descendants of the three groups total about 2500 people.
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