While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Mariposan Family (adapted from Span. mariposa,
'butterfly,' the name of a county in California). The name
applied by Powell to a linguistic stock of Indians, generally
known as Yokuts, in San Joaquin valley, Cal. Their territory
extended from the lower Sierra Nevada to the Coast range, and
from mounts Pinos and Tehachapi to Fresno and Chowchilla Rivers.
A separate body dwelt in the north, in
a narrow strip of territory along the San .Joaquin, between
Tuolumne and Calaveras Rivers, about the site of Stockton. These
were the Cholovone. The Coconoon, said to have been Mariposas,
occupied an area within the limits of Moquelumnan territory.
Physically the southern members of this family, from
Kaweah and Tule Rivers and from Tejon, are very similar to the
Yuman tribes of southern California. They are fairly tall (169
cm.) and rather short-headed (cephalic index 82 to 83). Their
superficial appearance is rather similar to that of the tribes
of central California. They are not infrequently fat
(Boas in Proc. A. A. A. S., xi.iv, 261—9,1896).
Their houses, especially those in the plains, were generally
made of tules, and were often erected in rows, a village of the
tribes about Tulare lake consisting of a row of such houses
united into one. These long communal houses had an entrance and
a fireplace for each family. Earth covered sweat-houses were
also built. Their implements and utensils were generally rude;
the working of wood seems to have been confined to a few
objects, such as bows and pipes, true wood carving not being
practiced. Their bows were of two types, one used for war and
one for the hunt. Some of the tribes made a very crude and
undecorated pottery similar to that of their Shoshonean
neighbors of the mountains, which is the only occurrence of
pottery in central California, and the art is probably a recent
acquisition. The women were proficient basket makers, their
product being predominantly of the coiled type. Shapes with a
flat top and restricted opening are characteristic of this
region and of the Shoshoneans immediately to the east.
The social organization of the tribes was very simple,
with no trace of totemism or of any gentile system. Prohibition
of marriage extended only to actually known blood relationships,
entirely irrespective of groups. Chieftainship tended to be
hereditary in the male line. The groups, or tribes, had more
solidarity than elsewhere in California, as is shown by the
occurrence of well recognized names for the tribes. Hostilities
were occasionally carried on between groups or with Shoshonean
tribes, but in general the tribes were peaceful and friendly,
even with their neighbors speaking alien languages. An
initiation ceremony for young men consisted of it period of
preparation followed by an intoxication produced by a decoction
of jimson weed. A puberty ceremony for girls was not practiced.
The tabus and restrictions applied chiefly to childbirth anal
death. Death was followed by singing, dancing, and wailing. The
body was buried or burned, the practice varying with the
different tribes; the property of the deceased was destroyed,
his house burned, and his name tabued. There was an elaborate
annual mourning ceremony for the dead of the year, which took
place about a large fire in which much property was consumed.
This ceremony, which has been described as the Dance of the
Dead, was followed by dancing of a festive character.
The Mariposan Indians were encountered by the Spaniards
soon after their settlement in California, and with the other
tribes of San Joaquin valley were generally known as Tulareños,
etc., from the name of the lakes and of San Joaquin River, which
during the Mission period bore the name Rio de los Tulares. No
very considerable portion of the group seems to have come under
the control of the Franciscan missionaries, but there was some
intercourse and trade between the converted Indians of the coast
regions and the Mariposan tribes of the interior. The Cholovone,
Chukchansi, Tachi, Telamni, and other tribes were, however, at
least in part, settled at San Antonio, San Juan Bautista, and
other missions.
On the sudden overrunning of their country by the
whites after the discovery of gold in California, the Indians of
this family were either friendly or unable to make an effectual
resistance. The Kaweah river tribes scent to have been the most
hostile to the Americans, but no general Indian war took place
in their territory, and treaties were made with all the tribes
in 1851, by which they ceded the greater part of their territory
(Royce in 18th Pep. B. A. E., 782, 1900).
Many of the northern tribes were soon gathered on the Fresno
River Reservation, near Madera, and the southern tribes at
Tejon; but the former was abandoned in 1859 and the latter in
1864. The Indians at Tejon were removed to Tule River, where,
after another removal, the present Tule River Reservation was
set apart for them in 1873 and occupied in 1876. The Indians of
this reservation, mostly from Tejon and from Tule and Kaweah
Rivers., numbered 154 in 1905. North of Tule River the remaining
Indians of this stock now live in and near their old homes;
their numbers have greatly decreased and are not accurately
known, while the Cholovone seem to be extinct.
About 40 tribes, each of about the numerical size of a
village community, but possessing a distinct dialect,
constituted the Yokuts or Mariposan family. About half of these
are now extinct. These tribes, according to information
furnished by Dr A. L. Kroeber, were the Cholovone, or, more
correctly, Chulamni, about Stockton; the Chaushila, Chukchausi,
Talinchi (properly Dalinchi), Heuchi, Toltichi, Pitkachi, Hoyima,
Tumna (Dumna), and Kechayi, on San Joaquin River and north to
Chowchilla River; the Kassovo (Gashowu), on Dry Creek; the
Choinituni, Michahai, Chukaimina, Iticha (Aiticha), Toikhichi,
Weacikhit, Nutunutu, Wimilchi, Apiachi, and perhaps the
Kochiyali, on Kings River; the Tachi, Chunut, and Wowol, on
Tulare lake, and the Tulamni and a tribe remembered only as
Khomtinin ('southerners') on the smaller lakes to the south; the
Kawia (Gawia), Yokol or Yokod, Wikchamni, Wowolasi, Telamni, and
Choinok, on Kaweah River; and the Yaudanchi, Bokninuwad,
Kumachisi, Koveti, Paleuyami, Truhohayi, and Yauelmani, on the
streams from Tule River to Kern River.
Names given as if of Yokuts tribes, but which may be
place names or may refer to Shoshonean or other groups, are
Carise, Caruana, Chebontes, Cheticnewash, Holeclame, Holmiuk,
Lenahuon, Montotos, Nonous, Sohonut, and Tatagua; also, entirely
unidentifiable, Amonce, Kowsis, Nelcelchumnee, Noketotra or
Nutrecho or Pohonatri, Nopthrinthres, Oponoche, and Ptolme.
