Tübatulabal
Upper fork of Kern River
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (900) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States ( California) |
|
| Languages | |
| English, Tübatulabal | |
| Religion | |
| traditional tribal religion,Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kawaiisu people |
The Tübatulabal are an indigenous people of Kern River Valley in the Sierra Nevada range of Southern California. They may have been the first people to make this area their permanent home. Today many of them are enrolled in the Tule River Indian Tribe. They are descendants of the people of the Uto-Aztecan language group, separating from Shoshone people about 3000 years ago.
The Tübatulabal's traditional homelands extended over 1300 square miles 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 41 miles below the junction of the two rivers in the south. The high mountains in the north (2,500 to 14,500 feet) are interspersed with lakes and meadows. The southern area (2,500 to 3,000 feet) 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.
The valley of the Kern River has been the home of three distinct bands which are collectively named Tübatulabal. The name Tübatulabal loosely translates as "Pine-nut Eaters." The name was given to the tribe by the neighboring Yokuts. At one point in history the Yokuts also called the Tübatulabals, "Pitanisha" (place where the rivers fork). The name for the north fork of the river has the Indian name of, Palegewanap or "place of the big river." The south fork of the river conversely was given the name of Kutchibichwanap Palap, or "place of the little river."
The three bands that comprise the Tübatulabal tribe are the Palagewan (Kern Canyon to Bakersfield), Pahkanapil (Mount Whitney to Lake Isabella to Ridgecrest), and Bankalachi, or Toloim (Greenhorn Mountains and Poso Flats). They are culturally and linguistically closely related. The Pakanapul is the only band which has, to some degree, survived European transgression and occupancy.
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. Located in the Kern Valley, the tribe had contact with the Yokuts to the north and west, as well as to Numic groups to the east. On their southern border, the Tübatulabal had ties with Kitanemuk, Serrano, and Tataviam People who spoke the Takic branch of Uto-Aztecan. The Tübatulabal were significant participants and go-betweens in the trade networks connecting the Great Basin, the southern deserts, the Central Valley, and the coastal groups.
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Wikipedia