The purpose of this Ethnography is to discuss my research and study of a specific Indian culture, of which I have grown an interest. I will explore their history and current traditions as they still have an active community/reservation in Lemoore, California. I will focus on their beliefs and how those affect their abilities to interact with other cultures in the Central Valley and how their religious and family traditions change their involvement with other cultures, including the government. All of the readings available covering this unique California Indian tribe, the Yokuts, in all accounts, were and are kind to each other and the families, honest to a fault, gentle temperate, and good citizens within tribe and non-tribe social groups. As a result of my research I will be covering the cultural norms, values, traditions, behaviors, changes and the causes of these changes over the years for this tribe.
II. Body.
The Tachi Yokut Indian Tribe settled around the 1800's in the Central Valley of California. The population count in 1852 was 8,400 adults and 4,613 children. In these early years only 174 whites resided in these same Californian counties. Sadly, only 1,000 Yokuts were identified in 1910. Now in 2003 the Yokut tribe has less than half the amount of members and covers a lot less acres in reservation land. The white man took the water from these Indians, herding them to reservation land. There are several hundred Indians left along the Sierra foothills, but most of them are not full-bloods and many not even Yokuts. It is believed by Indian scholars that many generations will pass before all the full-blood Yokuts are gone because they have adjusted to the white-man's ways and are anxious to keep their bloodline pure. .
The tribe's name, Yokuts means "people." The Yokut tribe is unique in some ways from other Indian tribes in that they speak their own language and modernly have developed cultures different from those typically held by the American Indians in California.