Our History and Lands

The following account of the history of Nium people and neighboring Tribes is written by Ron Goode for narration on KJWL Radio Station, Fresno, CA.

Pre-contact, prior to 1769

"During this period of time the local Native American was living off the land andtheir cultural practices were intact. Contrary to written history the Miwuk, Nium, and Yokotch did not survive off the land but instead they lived off the land. They planned 3 to 5 years ahead. While they had 95 to 100 food resources, depending which tribe and area and/or trade, not all foods were plentiful or available every year.

All three groups were horticulturist and to a small degree agri-culturalists. Anthropologist and archaeologist commonly write and state that all the local Indian had to do was step out of their bark or mat houses into a “garden of eden”. Much of this statement was true as the local Native American had 5,000 to 8,000 years of pruning, prodding, burning and transplanting to create this garden until the Americans came to settle in 1850. The Americans were scared of fire then and are still scared of fire today. Consequently, all the under-brush has grown back, and if it is not choking out the over- story, it creates a hazard to the over-story in the event of fire.

The Native American looks at fire in a positive way. From a fire is new growth. The grasses and greenery sprout up. Young shoots come out after a fire. This is all good for the animals, creating a better habitat and a more open environment. Sometimes when fire damages human habitats it is looked upon as a cleansing. Where evil or ill-manneredness exists Creator will use fire, floods or natural forces to cleanse or purify the area."

Proto-historic Period, 1769 - 1848

"Major impact to the Yokotch “way of life” began during the historical Mission period in 1769. While missions and presidio’s were built up and down the West Coast, no Mission was ever established in the interior of the San Joaquin Valley.

Interior excursions began in the early 1770’s led by Spanish soldiers, and padres such as Garces, Fages and Moraga. Yokotch villages were raided and prisoners were enslaved at the coastal missions. However, the Yokotch were fast learners and became leaders at the missions. These leaders later went back to the villages and organized fighting groups. These groups resisted the mission movement to the interior.

They also brought back hundreds of horses which grew to thousands running free in the valley. The new tribal leaders taught everyone in the families to ride, and so began possibly one of the largest trade commerce involving horses in America. Hundreds of horses were shipped to Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and British Columbia, as well as Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Those horses went to the Mexicans, New Mexicans, Arizona Indians, Americans, and Canadians.

The Yokotch contact with the outside world led to complete villages being destroyed by disease such as diphtheria, smallpox, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and last but not least pneumonia. Because the Indians used the sweat lodge to cleanse with and followed it up with a jump into the cold water there-after they then contacted pneumonia. The diseases hit the Yokotch in the early 1830’s and the Miwuk in the mid 1840’s.

From 1806 to the 1840’s the Yokotch had many incursions and all-out battles with the Spanish and later on with the Mexicans. Some accounts tell of battles where the Yokotch shot hundreds of arrows day and night for three to four days. However, some groups survived by evading the soldiers, such as the Tachi who made “tule rafts” that went deep into the tulles, which in some places was over twenty miles thick."

Historical Period, 1848 - 1900

"All three tribal groups, the Yokotch of the valley, the Mono in the mountains and the Miwuk of the Yosemite region had their cultures and “way of life” severally impacted during this period. As the first American Joseph Kinsman was settling down his roots in the Millerton Lake area, and many others simultaneously began settling and taking the local Indian women as wives, the Gold Rush was about to explode.

Over 100,000 people from throughout the world, and primarily America, invaded every nook and creek of the foothills and mountains in search of gold from 1848 to 1852. Even though the gold rush did not end after four years, the Central Valley Yokotch and Mountain Mono were not as affected as the Northern Valley Yokotch and Yosemite Miwuk by the initial onslaught of gold seekers. The establishment of California as a state did heavily impact the Mono and Miwuk. Eighteen treaties were signed with sixty to seventy tribal leaders at each signing. But the treaties would go unratified by the United States Senate and were secretly tabled for fifty-three years and then vetoed by the Senate in 1905.

Prior to the signing of the treaties the Miwuk of Yosemite was hunted down by the American Militia. The Mariposa War of 1851 only caused the Miwuk to go into hiding and never made it to the treaty signing. No contact was made with the North Fork Mono either and consequently they also were left off of the signing of the treaties. Both groups was mentioned in the Treaty to receive what the other signers were to get, although no-one received anything. Today, both groups remain unacknowledged as federally recognized tribes.

The Tulare War of 1856, displayed the Americans new fire power with their howitzer gun borrowed from Fort Miller on the San Joaquin River. The Indians of Tule River including the Wukchumni and possibly the Choinumni Yokotch prevailed in the skirmishes but lost the war. They also lost another battle, that for federal acknowledgment and today like the Miwuk and Mono they too remain unrecognized.

The Owens Valley Indian War of 1862-63 also affected the Miwuk, Mono, and Yokotch as the intent of the American Government was to find a reservation ground to put all the Indians on. At one point they thought they might move all the Indians on the western slope of the Sierra’s over to the east side but that failed when the Paiute defeated the American Army in Owens Valley.

In 1869, Tejon Mountain was proposed as good ground for a reservation but Commission Beale laid claim to the 3/4 of million acres. A new proposal near Success Lake was unsuccessful after Beale’s secretary claimed the land and started charging rent. Eighteen years after the Treaties were secretly tabled, again, there was another up-rising in Tulare. The United States Government officials told the Chief’s, ‘to get their renegades under control because the Chief’s had given their “word of peace” on the signed treaties.’ By 1873 a reservation was finally set up out of Porterville for the Indians of this area but ended up primarily for the tribes of Tulare.

After the dust was cleared the Mono “way of life” was heavily impacted by the grazing, timber and settlement activities. While the agricultural impacts affected the Mono, they quickly adapted and generation after generation made careers out of cattle and timber."

Assimilation/Forced Removal Period, 1900 - 1950

"This was a grim period of time for our local tribes and their culture. However, societal adaptations came quickly. While the State was busy swindling away the land from the California Indians, churches and boarding schools were establishing themselves within the local tribes domain. In most instances the speaking of their language, wearing of their traditional clothing, basketry and other arts were being barred from the local tribal members. A few were allowed to practice their cultural ways and were the token few to showcase their traditional ways whenever visitors came to the church schools. This was done for full assimilation effect.

Boarding schools, Indian Allotment and Rancheria lands was a form of forced removal. The American Government said it was trying to better the Indians way of life but instead was segregating the tribal unity.

Local Native Americans went in the military service during World War I, prior to being American Citizens via the American Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. The Native American’s attitude was the same for World War II and the Korean Conflict as it was for World War I, ‘this land is our land and we need to protect it.’ Even though they were veterans and United States citizens 99.5% were not allowed to buy liquor or vote until the Eisenhower election.

Private land ownership played havoc with the local tribes’ culture as gathering areas for basket materials, native foods, hunting areas, and burial grounds were being closed behind locked gates, yelling voices and rifle shots.

Boarding schools continued the cultural genocide as Indian children were sent away hundreds of miles to attend high school for over four years. Upon gaining their American education, many Native Americans did not return to their tribal communities. Some of them returned when they were much older and retired.

Until just prior to the World War II period, the local high schools did not allow Native Americans to attend. Toward the end of the 1940’s the first high school graduates were finally beginning to make impacts in their respective Indian communities."

Termination Period, 1950 - 1970

"The United States government’s plan has foremost been to minimize tribal unity. The best way to override the tribal unit is to offer each member individual status and make them private land owners. That’s what the Termination Act did, it changed rancheria trust land status to tax paying fee-based land. Forty-one rancherias terminated in the 1950’s, only seventeen of those forty-one rancherias retained some acreage. Indian land allotments were also reversed from trust to fee land during this period.

A very interesting note is, with the lost of trust land, the United States government was saying - that each respective trust owner was becoming a full-fledged American citizen and tax payer thereby negating their Indian status, and therefore lost their “Indianness”. In the United States governments’ mind these folks were - no longer Indians!

Native American organizations were formed and foundations laid during this crucial twenty-year period that brought about many positive community impacts. The Sierra Indian Center was formed in the late 1950’s. The Indian Center existed for forty- five years, creating leaders and leadership for the broader Native American community as well as scholarships for Indian children from tribal communities throughout the Central Valley.

The Center began sponsoring the Indian Days in North Fork in 1959. The event evolved into the Indian Fair Days in 1964 to become a fundraiser to build a cultural preservation museum. In 1971 the Sierra Mono Museum was built.

This powerful local leadership consisting of the Yokotch, Mono and Miwuk brought about a state-wide educational reform. California Indian Education Association was born in 1968 at a state-wide conference held in North Fork. The CIEA still exists today. From that first major conference came an Enactment for Indian Education in the educational school system nationwide. The local Native American leaders combined with tribal and other Indian community leaders state-wide to effect new health service for the California Indians. The California Indian Rural Health Board was created and the Central Valley Indian Health Clinic got its beginnings."

Self Determination Period, 1970 - 2000

"In 1970 President Nixon signed a Bill declaring Self Determination as a new means of direction for the American Indian. Many politicians and bureaucrats thought that giving the American Indians so much freedom was not a good thing. However, there were still those who were under the theory that the best way to control the Indian was to diminish or destroy the tribal unity. Thereby the feeling still prevailed that the Indian on- a-whole could not fully handle their own affairs. So, it was believed that the Indian would once again fail and lose what remaining land they had.

1970 had the Wounded Knee and Alcatraz incidents led by the American Indian Movement or AIM as more prominently remembered by. AIM leaders and spiritual leaders at that time were anti “whitemans’ education” and were denouncing the educational system.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, locally, only a couple of handfuls of American Indians went on to higher education. Out of a population of around 8,000 this low percentage (approx. 1%) did not produce many education role models.

By the early 1990’s the anti-education philosophy had peaked. Each of the local rancherias had 91% to 100% dropout rate. One of the mountain high school’s had a 37.5 attrition rate, and in an eastern Madera County township 72% of the 8th graders were not making it to the 9th grade. During the mid to late 1990’s scholarships from over a dozen Native American organizations and tribal governments giving out thousands of dollars multiplied the college bound figures by 10. However, the Casino period indicators show a decrease in college but an increase in graduate school and technical career training.

During the Self Determination Period seventeen of the forty-one rancherias previously terminated were reinstated to trust status. This was the creating of a renewed economic development, both on the reserves and in the township communities. Housing and economic development became a revitalization to a people whose respect, spirit and culture had been trampled on over the past two centuries."

Casino Period, 2000 - Present

"Locally and state-wide the Indian Casino’s are a major issue and are having a major impact both on the reserves and in their broader communities. But the leadership to the Casino’s, health clinics and educational establishments are still being run by non- Indians and/or out-of-state Indians.

The casino tribes have had major impacts and continue to affect issues, concerns and services, politically and financially. Locally, millions of dollars have been put into hospitals, health programs, education, advertisement, museums and cultural preservation, Zoo and animal care, home improvement, auto industry, fashion, entertainment, eateries, sports, agriculture, real estate, grocery and political affairs.

The Indian gaming has not peaked yet, but major change fastly approaches caused by the tidal waves and under-tow of Indian gaming. Every election now has something to do with gaming or Indian casinos - that is major impact!

But let us not forget that these same casino tribal members were picking up cans on the side of the road 15 years ago. Unemployment was 100% 20 years ago and 41% ten years ago. Today, the incarceration of the Native American, primarily from the reserves, has now tripled!

Major issues over membership and recognition loom ever so big and are controversial topics almost daily. Buried in this massive influx of richness are the aboriginal traditional tribes whose treaties were not ratified but were recognized and lost that recognition through osmosis bureaucratic paper work.

Remember Indian tribes were not conquered, they were negotiated with. That negotiation continues today. When the aboriginal tribes regain their federal acknowledgment that will begin a new era as the aboriginal traditional tribes will create different kinds of impacts and contributions."

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