Yokuts
The Yokuts are a Native American group indigenous to the south-central region of California, known for their rich cultural heritage and subsistence lifestyle. Historically, they engaged in hunting, fishing, and gathering, utilizing various tools such as nets, spears, and traps to secure food sources like trout, deer, and shellfish. The Yokuts lived in distinct oval-shaped dwellings made of tule mats and were skilled in water transportation with balsa or tule rafts. Their society featured spiritual practices led by shamans, who were believed to possess healing powers and utilized traditional methods, including the use of the hallucinogenic datura plant.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the Yokuts faced significant challenges including disease epidemics and encroachment by settlers, leading to a drastic decline in their population. By the late 1800s, they were relocated to reservations, where they encountered ongoing issues related to poverty and education. Despite these difficulties, the Yokuts have maintained their cultural identity, with thousands of individuals still identifying as members of various Yokuts tribes today. Their history reflects both resilience and adaptation in the face of external pressures and changing circumstances.
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Subject Terms
Yokuts
Category: Tribe
Culture area: California
Language group: Yokutsan
Primary location: Central California
Population size: 6,273 (2010 U.S. Census)
The Yokuts inhabited a south-central portion of California. This Native American culture of California hunted, fished, and gathered for subsistence. Yokuts Indians fished throughout the year using nets, spears, and basket traps to catch trout, perch, and chub. Fish not eaten immediately were sun-dried. Men used nets, snares, and wood-tipped arrows to capture deer, rabbit, squirrel, and pigeons. Nets and snares were utilized to capture geese, ducks, and other waterfowl. Seeds, turtles, roots, and shellfish were gathered.
The Yokuts lived in permanent single-family, oval-shaped dwellings covered with tule mats or in long mat-covered structures that housed ten or more families. Water transportation was accomplished with the use of canoe-shaped balsa or tule rafts. The Native American men wore deerskin breechcloths, and the Native American women wore aprons of the same material. Mudhen or rabbit cloaks were worn in cooler weather.
Tribe members observed a number of superstitions and taboos to preserve health and good luck. Shamans were generally men. They were thought to receive their powers through dreams. Shamans cured the ill and led rituals. Healing methods included sucking out diseases or draining portions of blood. Several shamans used the datura plant, processed into a hallucinogenic drug, to arrive at a diagnosis.
In 1772, Pedro Fages explored Yokuts territory. Other explorers followed but had little direct effect on tribal life. Indians from other tribes fleeing the missions and missionaries reached Yokuts tribes. Some stayed and introduced their own tribal ways to their Yokuts hosts. Through these visitors the Yokuts learned of the horse, and they wished to join the equestrian ranks. They raided local ranches and missions for horses and soon became known as the “horsethief Indians.” Ranchers organized campaigns to recover their livestock and punish the Yokuts.
In 1833, a malaria epidemic devastated the tribe, killing 75 percent of its members. Though the Yokuts avoided the infiltration of gold miners suffered by other tribes with the California gold rush, numerous White settlers came into their territory. These settlers were met with little resistance from a shrinking Indian population. In the late 1800s, the Yokuts were forced onto reservation lands. They found work on local ranches and in the logging industry, but social problems—including poor education, alcoholism, and poverty—persisted throughout the twentieth century.
According to the 2017-2021 American Community Survey, 6,273 people reported that they were members of the Yokuts tribal grouping, which includes the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians (59), Tachi, Tule River Indian Tribe (903), Yokuts, and Table Mountain Rancheria (12). These population totals include individuals who reported multiple tribe or tribal grouping affiliations, and those who reported being American Indian and Alaska Native alone or with any combination of other races.
Bibliography
Arkush, Brooke S. “Yokuts Trade Networks and Native Culture Change in Central and Eastern California.” Ethnohistory, vol. 40, no. 4, 1993, p. 619-640.
“Home.” Tule River Tribe, tulerivertribe-nsn.gov/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2023.
Jeff, Raymond. “Short History of California Indians.” Tachi Yokut Tribe, www.tachi-yokut-nsn.gov/history. Accessed 27 Mar. 2023.
Lowery, Linda. Native Peoples of California. N.p.: Lerner, 2017. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 7 Sept. 2016.
"2010 Census CPH-T-6. American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2010." United States Census Bureau, www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/cph-series/cph-t/cph-t-6.html. Accessed 28 Mar. 2023.