Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: Yokuts Trade Networks and Native Culture Change Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 23 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-03 23:28:55 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 05:56:36 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:56:36

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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622 Brooke S. Arkush 1919; Silverstein 1972), and was thought to consist of at least twenty-two distinct dialects (Kroeber 1907: 309-15, 1963: 236-38), with the main division being between a Valley group of dialects and those of a Foothills group. The Yokuts culture traditionally has been divided into Northern Valley, Southern Valley, and Foothills divisions (Fig. 1), based upon cultural-geographical associations as opposed to linguistic associations. Yokuts political organization was unique among California natives in that they were divided into self-governing local groups or tribelets (Kroeber 1925: 474; Wallace 1978a, 1978b; Spier 1978) averaging some 300 members. Each tribelet had a special name for itself, spoke a unique dialect, and occupied a distinct territory of approximately 250 square miles (Kroeber 1925: 474). The land was owned collectively and every tribal member had access to the vast majority of its resources. Some tribelets constituted a single village but more commonly were spread among several settlements, of which one was the largest and considered dominant. These communities were fairly stable, as people lived for most of the year in their respective villages (Wallace 1978a: 454). Official political positions within many Yokuts tribelets included a central chief or two “co-chiefs” (one from each totemic moiety) who resided in the largest village, captains or sub-chiefs who controlled the smaller hamlets, dance managers, and tribal spokesmen. Additionally, each chief and sub-chief was assisted by one or more aides who functioned as messengers, private secretaries, and security guards. The offices of chief and aide usually were hereditary and therefore attainable only through patrilineal inheritance. Prior to Euro-American settlement, the San Joaquin Valley contained an abundance of natural food resources and, at times, various Yokuts tribelets probably acquired food surpluses, allowing them to develop rudimentary surplus economies without the benefit of domesticated plants or animals (cf. Bean 1978; Heizer and Elsasser 1980). This situation probably was a factor in the development of regional “interface centers” in the San Joaquin Valley (Bean 1978: 675, 681; Swagerty 1988: Fig. 1). Yokuts villages that functioned as regional centers typically hosted trade fairs/feasts and mourning ceremonies involving hundreds and sometimes thousands of people within a radius of 50 to 75 miles (Bean 1978: 675). In 1819, Lt. José Maria Estudillo reported over 2,500 people assembled at a single ritual mourning ceremony at the Choynok Yokuts village of Chiuta, located east of Tulare Lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley (Gayton 1936: 74). Along with local and exotic materials such as asphaltum, obsidian, and shell, excess foodstuffs were then traded to native groups both east and west of the San Joaquin Valley. This situation allowed Yokuts to become more politically and socially complex than most other California native groups and resulted in the development of a more or less self-sufficient,