1990s Fourth Grade Bicycle Trips to View Wuchumna Yokuts Indian Settlement Area

Twenty-three years ago I began teaching fourth grade in Woodlake, CA with Suzanne Bidwell, Donna Frasier, Karen Redfield, and Edna Ikerd.  This trip was one of the traditions they established, and I lucked into.  I've seen Wuchumna spelled both Wu and Wa, so if someone knows the real correct way to spell it, they can write in and inform me!

The pictures won’t win any awards, but when I post them on FB, people recognize their tia or tio (aunt or uncle), and other family members, and it’s a lot of fun.   Aren’t they adorable?

The pictures show the last bike trip we took before the helmet law for bicyclists went into effect around 1993 or 1994.

The goal was to get to location that hadn’t been disturbed by settlement, where a tribe of the Wuchumna Indians, a sub-tribe of  Yokuts Indians, lived in this area.  The Yokuts, yes the ‘s’ is part of the name, was one of the largest tribes in North America.  Food was plentiful, nutritious and easy to gather or hunt.  However, not even missionaries or Spanish soldiers ventured this far east more than once or twice.  Thomas Davis from South Carolina and his friends, Thomas Fowler and Jim Fisher discovered this area in 1853.

Kids enjoyed walking through a sort-of-cave and looking at the paintings left by the Wuchumna.

The owner of this property, who is in his 80s, remembers seeing them down by Cottonwood Creek.  It’s dry most of the year.  It probably was then, too.

Gary Davis can probably tell you about another time when his five-year-old daughter and I got stranded up on this rock, and he had to climb up and rescue us.  These kids didn't have as much problem getting down, but they didn't have to be lifted from ledge to ledge to get there.

Wuchumna women harvested the many oak trees in the area. Women of all ages sat around the large grinding rock and ground acorns.  You can tell who sat where by the size of the holes in the rocks.  Grandmas had very deep holes.  You can clearly see the deep hole on the back right.

Too soon it was time to bike back to school.

Drivers followed in trucks or vans to pick up stray bikes and bikers that broke down along the way.

I biked behind them taking pictures and hoping that no one would have problems.  And no one did.  :)

California Yokuts Housing Displayed at Three Rivers Historical Museum

You are driving to the Sequoia National Park, and look on your right.  Screech, the car comes to a halt at, the Three Rivers Historical Museum, guarded by 72 year-old, weighing several tons, the American giant himself, Paul Bunyan.  Carved from a giant sequoia, he welcomes people to the museum.

Outside you will find examples of native houses.  You could find some of the original ones still standing and in use as late as 1930.  The California Indians of the Central Valley arenamed Yokuts (with the s) means people, and they occupied one of the largest areas in California stretching from north of Stockton, near Galt to south of Bakersfield, spread between the mountain ranges from east to west.

According to Latta's work pgs. 345-391, the Yokuts built five types of houses:  communal houses, tule house, a tule-mat shade, and sweat houses. Most of the permanent homes like the one shown below made of tule reeds were built along a stream or lake in straight rows like you might find in any large city.

The doorways were always on the south side.  

In order to build their home, they excavated  several inches of sol before the put up pole frameworks.  They place the pole framework around the circular base, bent the poles together and wove them together with fiber cords of milkweed, hemp or mettle. the poles were left standing for as much as 10 days to get them seasoned and ready for the poles to stay in position and until the thatched sides were finished.  Builders lashed the pole tips together, the a green oak hoop fitted over the tops of the poles and secured.  Sometimes the builders threw mixed the soil with water and plastered it to the outside of the thatch up to four inches thick.  Houses as described stood near Tulare City until 1935, and one even remained near the town of Waukena south of Tulare unti 1948.

This is the back side of the Yokuts home.  It was not set into an excavated circle.

These homes when covered with mud plaster lasted ten to fifteen years.  Less permanent homes were built with brush thatch, tules, and bark.  Settlers arriving in the 1870s saw these types of houses because the Yokuts permanent villages were displaced when Tulare Lake was drained.

Even though these tule huts were considered the more permanent of the homes, they could be moved easily if they were not covered with mud.

Temporary bark residence of Yokuts Indians called samish.

Inside the homes were drafty.

I lightened the insides of these shots so you could see them better.

In front of most of the homes, the forerunner of the front porch,  you would find the tule-mat shade also called chineu (chin - e - oo)

Tule-Mat Shade

Most of what I have learned of the Yokuts comes from the work of Frank Latta who published the First Edition of Handbook of Yokuts Indians in 1949.  The pictures in his book are now in the Bear State Library.  Chris Brewer reprinted his collection of books, my copies is one of the 1,000 reprinted in 1999, and signed by Mouve Latta Olson.  Brewer has a bookstore in Exeter, CA called the Book Garden at 179 East Pine St. in downtown Exeter, CA  93221.

Another excellent resource for learning about California Indians is A.L. Kroeber's Handbook of the Indians of California.  Jared Aldern and Ron Goode are also excellent resources for information and curriculum about the Yokuts.  Jared also has a website and a blog through Stanford called the Comparative Wests Project.

To connect with social studies educators join California Council for the Social Studies.  Also visit our local affiliate, San Joaquin Valley Council for the Social Studies.  Or like them on Facebook.