Chapter 12: The Southern Yokuts of the Central Valley

California's Central Valley stretches 430 miles northwest by southeast, with a width as great as 50 miles in places. With the Sierra Nevada and Cascades forming its eastern side, it is abundantly provided with waterways. Most of these waterways, in fact, proceeded from time immemorial into the Pacific through the Delta, Carquinez Strait, and San Francisco Bay and, consequently, provided an avenue to the mountain rivers and creeks for spawning salmon each year. In the Sacramento Valley, to the north, this abundance of salmon produced cultural lifeways that mixed salmon fishing with acorn harvesting and deer hunting to provide a rich staple food supply. In the San Joaquin Valley, to the south, only the San Joaquin and more northern rivers, coming out of the Sierras north of presentday Fresno, turned northwest and flowed to the ocean. The Kings and more southern rivers flowed into shallow lake basins that broke out to the San Joaquin drainage only in the wettest years. Salmon were usually unable to come to these southern waters; instead, the lake-river systems developed their own abundance of fish species. It was within this environment that the Southern Yokuts created their unique culture.

The southern half of San Joaquin Valley is a broad flat semi-arid plain that receives only five to ten inches of direct rainfall annually. However, the Kings, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern Rivers, as well as some lesser rivers and creeks, spill onto this plain, from their origins in the Southern Sierras, and seep into hundreds of feet of alluvial debris. This abundance of runoff water produced a complex pattern of streams, slough, lakes, and marchlands throughout the basin. Of major importance were Tulare Lake and the smaller Buena Vista and Kern Lakes.

One would scarcely recognize the uniqueness of this environment, today, since virtually all of the runoff waters have been captured behind dams and are led away through irrigation canals throughout the San Joaquin Valley. As a consequence, the valley floor has become unnaturally arid wherever it is not cultivated and irrigated. Aboriginally, the wetlands dominated the scene and provided virtual forests of tules which grew to ten or twelve feet in height. It was a veritable haven for waterfowl and also provided a home for turtles and fresh-water mussels. Outside of the wetlands, the valley floor was carpeted with bunchgrass, sages, and greasewood; rivercourses were lined with willows, cottonwoods, and sycamores. Digging into the soil, one can still find petrified sharks' teeth, remains of ancient sea life from when the entire valley was covered by ocean waters.

The name "Yokuts" was applied to the people of the San Joaquin Valley by Stephen Powers, in 1873, and was taken from their language, being their word for "people." They were the southern most group of indigenous people studied by Powers. Like the Miwok, Ohlone, Maidu, and Wintu, with whom they shared the Valley and its neighboring territories surrounding the Bay, the Yokuts spoke a Penutian language. Of the three divisions of Yokuts, the Northern Yokuts pursued a lifeway similar to other people of the north and the Foothill Yokuts (along the river courses to the east) pursued a lifeway similar to the Foothill Miwok and Maidu. The Southern Yokuts, however, developed a distinctive lifeway that was dictated by the remarkable wetlands of the southern plain in upper San Joaquin Valley.

While archaeologists have discovered artifacts, including fluted projectile points, dating residence at Tulare Lake back 8000 years, the first residence of the Yokuts themselves and their ancestors is estimated as only 2000 years in age. Yokuts tribelets were well defined and relatively independent of each other, speaking different dialects and self-identifying with tribelet rather than with tribe. The Tachi, Chunut, and Wowol lived around Tulare Lake; the Tulamni, Chuxoxi, and Hometwoli lived around Buena Vista and Kern Lakes; and at least ten other tribelets occupied traditional homelands along streams and sloughs feeding these lakes from the east.

The valley floor did not support oak trees so Yokuts ate acorn mush only in small amounts that they were able to secure in trade from foothill residents to the east. As a consequence, they were far more dependent on local grasses that provided roots and seeds. The valley floor was plentiful with grasses and herbaceous plants, especially in spring. Tules, which were in great abundance, near the lakes, sloughs, and marshes, provided both seeds and roots which, when dried, were ground into meal.

The deer, familiar to all foothill people, did not stray onto the valley floor often and large game was limited to tule elk and antelope. Small game, such as rabbits and squirrels, were more plentiful. Turtles were also abundant. As a consequence, perhaps, hunting technology was not highly developed. Yokuts mostly used the common un-backed bow and arrows with simple, hardened wood points. Small game was often taken merely with throwing sticks.

The most important foods related directly to lakes, sloughs, and marshes; these were fresh-water mussels, waterfowl, and fish. Mussels were dug up, cleaned, and steamed. Waterfowl were netted, trapped, and hunted with bow and arrow. Fish were mostly netted or speared. Most food was cooked and eaten directly, but large catches of fish, in particular, were sun dried.

Since water transport was essential to fishing and waterfowl hunting, the Yokuts developed a canoe which they made from tules. The tules were harvested when dry. They were tied into three long bundles and these were then lashed together, fashioning a base and two sides, coming to pointed bow and stern. It is said that six people and gear could be floated by a tule canoe. The canoe was stored on dry land, where it could dry out, and was propelled across the water by poling. Tule canoes were replaced annually since they eventually rotted. The Yokuts also made fishing platforms and rafts with tules and these were often positioned around the lakeshore.

Lake trout were the most valued fish, though stealhead, salmon, and sturgeon were not unknown. Lesser fish were perch, chubs, and suckers of different kinds. With a relatively mild winter, in the valley, fishing continued throughout the year, making preservation unnecessary. The Central Valley is the primary conduit of the Pacific Flyway so waterfowl were always present in large numbers, populations swelling during migration periods. Yokuts culture, in other words, was stable without development of complex preservation technologies or periodic harvest of large amounts of any single staple food. Yokuts simply developed expertise in appropriating the natural variety and abundance of its lake-river environment.

Wood was scarce in this environment and housing, as a consequence, was very simple. Yokuts living in small families made a circular, or oval, thatched frame house common to much of California. A shallow pit was dug, perhaps ten to twelve feet in diameter and one to two feet in depth. Long slender poles were secured in holes all the way around the inside of this excavation; these were usually made from green willows. The poles were bent downward to meet each other and poles opposite each other were lashed together, forming a hemispheric dome. The top was secured by lashing a willow ring to all of the poles. Willows were then lashed in larger rings all the way around the structure, making a solid framework. The house was made weather tight by thatching it with tules. Mud could then be applied to the outside of the tule thatch. The doorway was usually oriented to the south and had a weather closure of animal skin. Within a village, these single-family dwellings tended to be lined up in a row.

Lake-dwelling Yokuts tended to build a very unusual and much larger structure that housed ten or more families under a single roof. These were created by assembling larger wooden poles into a tall and long rectangular framework. Large rectangular mats were woven out of tules, and these were lashed to the sides of the framework to create walls. Within the structure, individual family spaces were created with other tule mats; and these included separate doors and fireplaces. The front side of this longhouse was provided with a sun shade and most domestic activities, such as cooking, took place there.

In some locations, tule mats were simply lashed onto frames to make the walls of single-family residences. In this case, the framework was usually pyramid-like. Usually, these uniquely shaped pyramid houses were spaced in a row and a long, tall ramada was constructed over them, providing shade. In summer, shade was extremely important since temperatures in the region were often around 100^o F.

Tules were woven into mats of all sizes. Some of these were thick enough to serve as sleeping mattresses. Most of the cordage was manufactured from milkweed fibers. Rabbit-skin blankets of standard construction were used as blankets. Bed frames were made from willow poles. Otherwise, household furnishings were slight. Possessions could be hung from the framework inside. Food storage was primarily outside in granaries that were elevated to keep them dry and free of pests. Basketry (mostly twined) was important, especially for cooking, storage, and burden carrying. There is no evidence of pottery making.

Yokuts tribelets followed a common system of patrilineal family organization and adopted moiety, or totem, animals. The moiety was usually passed from father to children, though the family retained some sense of respect for the mother's moiety animal. Marriage was normally exogamous with respect to moiety, but this was not requisite. The moiety animal, or totem, was an object of relationship throughout one's life. One owed this animal protection and one would not, oneself, harm it. It appeared to the individual in dreams and the individual addressed this animal in prayer. Unlike some tribes, the Yokuts had many moieties. The Tachi of Tulare Lake, for example, had six moieties associated with the lake's west side and seven or eight associated with the lake's east side. Perhaps as a consequence, moiety entered into social division in a primarily ceremonial way, in choosing sides or selecting roles.

Political organization among the Yokuts also proceeded along a fairly standard California line. Tribelets were the principal political units and were usually overseen by a male chief, or headman, who inherited this position from his father. Usually, the chief was a member of the Eagle moiety, which symbolized and protected the hereditary succession. Chiefs exercised considerable authority in coordinating and setting off various cultural activities but, typical of California, their authority did not include the right of commanding.

>Narratives, Spiritualism, and Individuality

Bibliography

Wallace, William J. "Southern Valley Yokuts" in HNAI, 8

Latta, Frank F. Handbook of Yokuts Indians (Santa Cruz, CA: Bear State Books, 1977)

Mayfield, Thomas Jefferson. Indian Summer: Traditional Life Among the Choinumne Indians of California's San Joaquin Valley (Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 1993)