Tübatulabal

The Tübatulabal's traditional homelands extended over including the Kern and South Fork Kern Rivers drainages (located in the Kern Valley area of California) extending from very high mountainous terrain in the north to about below the junction of the two rivers in the south. The high mountains in the north () are interspersed with lakes and meadows. The southern area () has three connected valleys: Kern Valley, South Fork Kern Valley, and Hot Springs Valley, where summers are hot and winters cold and rainy. The valleys are grasslands and chaparral with cacti, scrub oaks, willows, elderberry, and cottonwoods as primary vegetation with some joshua trees, junipers, piñons, oaks, and sugar pines. == Name ==

The valley of the Kern River has been the home of three distinct bands which are collectively named Tübatulabal. The name Tübatulabal (“a people that go to the forest to gather tubat (piñon nuts)”) loosely translates as "pine-nut eaters." The name is paralleled by one name used by the neighboring Yokuts, , which is likewise based on the Yokuts word 'pine-nut'. The Yokuts also called the Tübatulabals , which comes from the place-name of a location where the Kern River forks. == Bands ==

The three bands that comprise the Tübatulabal tribe are (from west to east): • Bankalachi, Pong-ah-lache or Toloim / Tulamni (lived in the Greenhorn Mountains and from Poso Creek and Poso Flats around Glennville, California, north along Cedar Creek, White River to Deer Creek, sometimes they were farther up along the South Fork Tule River, territory of the Tule River Yokuts, with the Foothill Yokuts (Tule River and Poso Creek Yokuts) they practiced extensive exogamy marriages, so that they are described as an intermediate group) • Bankalachi or Bokninuwiad (northern group, oft considered Foothill Yokuts) • Kumachisi (southern group, oft considered Foothill Yokuts) • Toloim or Tulamni (southwestern group, oft identified with the Tulamni Band of Buena Vista Yokuts) • Pahkanapil, Bahkanapil, Tubatulabal proper (from Mount Whitney south along the South Fork Kern River to Lake Isabella - around Onyx, California and Weldon, California - to Ridgecrest, California near Walker Pass) • Palagewan (Little Kern River, North Fork Kern River, south through Kern River Canyon into Hot Springs Valley (Lake Isabella) and the Kern River down to Bakersfield, California) == Culture ==

Tübatulabal traditional culture was similar to that of the Yokuts, who occupied most of the southern half of the California's Central Valley. Acorns, piñon nuts, and game animals were key elements in Tubatulabal subsistence. The Tübatulabal are well known for their red pottery and coiled baskets. Today, many of their baskets are housed at the National Smithsonian Anthropological Archives, University of California Berkeley, California State Parks Archives, and many other museums and universities. Louisa Francisco, a Bankalachi was well known for her wonderful baskets. Some Tübatulabal families in Kern Valley are related to Francisco. Many of their ancestors married into the Tule River Tribe, Tachi Yokuts, and Tejon Indian Tribe. Tribal families shared in their basket making designs, materials, and weaving techniques. Louisa had a brother named Peter, both came from Poso Flat—a Bankalachi (Toloim) Village. Louisa was born 1865 at Poso Flat (Kern County) and died at age 95 in 1954. She was living on the Tule River Indian Reservation just prior to her death. Estefana Miranda, a Pakanapul, lived in Weldon, California (born in 1895 and died in 1957) on the Miranda Allotment. Estefana was the daughter of Steban Miranda, the last Tübatulabal chief. Estefana knew how to harvest native tobacco, acorns, salt grass, and other native foods of the South Fork of Kern Valley and Kelso Valley areas. She knew how to make "flat round" basket used for both sifting and ceremonies. Her baskets were also used to process piñon nuts picked from Walker Pass, Kennedy Meadows, and Greenhorn Mountain areas. "Estefana was also an excellent horseman—she could make her horses jump side to side and jump over large dirt ditches." == Language ==

Their ancestral language, Tübatulabal belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language family. == Historical trauma ==

The Tubatulabal people of the Kern river valley have survived historical trauma. Of the three bands of the Tubatulabal, the Pahkanapul were the only ones to survive the Keyesville massacre of 1863, where 35 Tübatulabal and Mono people were killed by United States Army troops and American settlers led by Captain Moses A. McLaughlin. The Tubatulabal tribe was almost wiped out because most were adult men who died in the massacre. "They never seemed to blame the local whites or act vengeful towards those who had made such a change in their lives." == Population ==

Estimates for the precontact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. By two estimates, the Tübatulabal were a small to very small nation. Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Tübatulabal as 1,000. Erminie W. Voegelin considered Kroeber's estimate too high (Voegelin 1938:39). For the time of initial European-American settlement, around 1850, she estimated 200–300. Kroeber in 1910 reported the population of the Tübatulabal as 150. Yamamoto in 2000 estimated the population at 900. == Contemporary tribe ==

Today, a Tübatulabal tribe is seeking federal recognition. They have an office located in Mountain Mesa, California, and include descendants of several tribal families who were awarded allotment lands under the US Dawes Allotment Act 1887. Tribal membership is at 287 members, however, a new open enrollment process has been established as of October 2012. The tribe estimates about 400–600 total members. == Notes ==