Washoe people have lived in the Great Basin and the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains for at least the last 6,000 years, some say up to 9,000 years. Prior to contact with Europeans, the territory of the Washoe people centered around Lake Tahoe (; Washo: "dáʔaw / daʔaw / Da ow" – "the lake"; or "dewʔá:gaʔa /dawʔa:gaʔa / Da ow aga" – "edge of the lake") and was roughly bounded by the southern shore of Honey Lake in the north, the West Walker River, Topaz Lake, and Sonora Pass in the south, the Sierra Nevada crest in the west, and the Pine Nut Mountains and Virginia Range in the east. 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. Washoe Lake ("c'óʔyaʔ dáʔaw") was named after them.