FRIANT REGION – DUMNA LOCAL TRIBE

The contact-period homeland of the Dumna, speakers of Northern Hill Yokuts, is confidently placed in the Friant region of Madera and Fresno counties on the basis of a large amount of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century historical and ethnographic information. Ethnographic Dumna villages were documented by a number of early twentieth-century ethnographers along the San Joaquin River in the vicinity of the present town of Friant, in the nearby valley now flooded by Millerton Lake, and west of the river at Bellevue (now Indian Springs) in the Sierra foothills. There is no evidence, on the other hand, for the Dumna or any other group holding the western portion of the Friant region along upper Cottonwood Creek. The northern part of the Friant region, in the foothills around Bates, was assigned by Kroeber (1925) to the Chukchansi. On the south, Kroeber and Latta (1977) placed the poorly-documented Wakichi local tribe along the San Joaquin at the mouth of Little Dry Creek and below. It is argued here that the entire Friant region probably belonged to the Dumna at historic contact, because the people of their villages along the San Joaquin River would have needed seasonal use of a variety of open-country habitats to maintain their relatively dense population. We infer that the Wakichi on the south and Chukchansi on the north probably moved into the Friant region during historic times, under pressure from the Mexicans and later the Americans.

The Dumna homeland was to the east of major Franciscan mission outreach in the early nineteenth century. Ten Dumnas appear in mission baptismal registers, all at Mission Soledad over the years 1822 (two men, one woman, one child with a Pitkachi group), 1830 (two children with some Gashowus), and 1832 (two children, one man with Gashowus and Dalinchis). Three Dumna men signed federal Treaty N in late April of 1851, at which time the treaty commissioners designated Tom-quit, who signed the treaty for the Pitkachi, as the leader of the Dumna as well as of the Pitkachi, Gashowu, and Dalinchi Yokuts and the Posgisa Monos, for purposes of interaction with U.S. representatives. After the treaty was signed many neighboring local tribes moved to the Fresno Farm on the Fresno River, just west of the Friant region. The Dumna, however, stayed on the San Joaquin River in the vicinity of Fort Miller, a U.S. Army post constructed in the valley of current Millerton Lake in May of 1852. There they were joined by the Kechayi Yokuts of the adjacent Auberry region, as well as Pitkachi Yokuts (Kerman region) and Goshowu Yokuts (Clovis region). Survivors of these four local tribes, together with some Chukchansi, Heuchi, and Hoyima who moved to the Friant area from the Fresno Farm during the late nineteenth century, came to be known to locals and U.S. authorities as the Millerton Band. They secured some land for farming in the Millerton Valley prior to 1910, but had to move when the valley was flooded for the reservoir. Today many of their descendants are associated with Table Mountain Rancheria in the Auberry region, just east of the Friant region.

Environment

The Friant region lies along the eastern edge of the San Joaquin Valley and reaches up into the first tier of the Sierra Nevada foothills; elevations varying from 340 feet in the west up to 1,840 feet in the northeast. It is well-watered by the San Joaquin River, which breaks out of the foothills in the eastern portion of the region (at current Friant Dam, which creates Millerton Lake). Small seasonal streams flow southwestward from the foothills in the central area of the region, and perennial Fresno River passes through the far northwest portion of the region. Native vegetation of the plain was valley grassland, with occasional valley oaks. The hill country to the east was largely blue oak savannah, with some oak-grey pine woodland, chaparral, and pure stands of blue oak. Valley oaks, as well as willows and cottonwoods, were common along the San Joaquin River.

Spanish Period Expedition References

Moraga-Muñoz 1806. On October 13, 1806 a scouting party of the Moraga-Muñoz expedition was sent upstream into the Friant region from the party’s San Joaquin River rest spot (in the Herndon region), as it passed south through the length of the San Joaquin Valley (Muñoz in Cook 1960:251). The expedition diarist mentioned only one village anywhere along the river, a “Pizcache” village that was probably in the valley of present-day Lake Millerton:

The party went to scout and explore the San Joaquin River. One section of the group went down the river and the other up the river toward the mountains. The latter discovered an abundance of pine and redwood but farther in the interior of the mountains, on the bank of the river they descried a village called Pizcache of about 200 souls, with a chief named Sujoucomu [Muñoz in Cook 1960:251].

The Spaniards learned a detailed story from these “Pizcache” about a battle twenty years earlier with Spanish soldiers from, the party speculated, New Mexico. These “Pizcache” may or may not have been actual Pitkachi Yokuts, a group that most evidence associates with the CPNC Kerman region, 25 miles to the west. Pizcache was also noted on a list kept by Muñoz of the names and populations of villages they encountered:

Pizcache … This village may contain about 200 people. Four were baptized, two old men and two old women [Muñoz in Cook 1960:253].

Could these Indians at a Friant-region village have been Dumnas who were trying to tell the Spaniards the name of their river? Alternatively, it may be that all the valley groups along the San Joaquin River had moved to the mountains to harvest acorns, leaving some downriver Pitkachis to harvest salmon along the river in the Friant region. Whatever may really have been going on, it takes some imagination to make sense of this report.

Mission Register References

Mission Soledad Baptisms. A small number of identifiable Dumnas, only nine in all, were baptized at the Franciscan missions. All nine appear in the Mission Soledad baptismal records over eleven years, from 1822 through 1833. The first four Dumnas—two men, a woman, and a boy—appeared at Mission Soledad among a large group of Pitkachis in 1822; all were members of a single extended family (SO-B 1873, 1893, 1901, 1913). After a mystifying seven-year absence, two Dumna girls were baptized in 1830 (SO-B 2055, 2059) with Pitcache and Dalinche Yokuts individuals. A boy and a girl were baptized in 1832 (SO-B 2124-25) with two Gashowu Yokuts. Finally, a Dumna man (SO-B 2159) was baptized in late 1833 with two Dalinchi Yokuts and two Gashowu Yokuts. Their complete absence from the Mission San Juan Bautista records suggests that the Dumna went to that mission under a different name. The only probable Yokuts (marked by female personal names) splinter group at Mission San Juan Bautista that is currently unreferenced to the landscape is the Quilisquilis group. But there seems to be no way of proving whether or not they are the same people as the "Dumna" of Mission Soledad.

Mission Marriages: Dumna people were involved in only two mission marriages, both at Mission Soledad and both renewed pre-mission marriages. The first, involving a Dumna man and woman, occurred in 1822 (SO0M 570). The second, involvind a Dumna man and a Gashowu woman, took place in 1833 (SO-M 663). At Mission San Juan Bautista, none of the five Quilisquilis people (who may or may not be the same as the Dumnas) ever married.

Mexican Period Expedition References

Pico 1826. Sergeant José Dolores Pico led a Mexican army expedition against horse thieves and fugitive Christians in the central San Joaquin Valley during the winter of 1825-1826. From Mission San Juan Bautista he came over Pacheco Pass and then went to the San Joaquin River in the Firebaugh region. From that point his diary is somewhat confusing. We interpret the rather opaque directional information in the diary to indicate that Pico moved east to the San Joaquin River in the eastern Herndon region on January 3, turned north to attack a village on the Chowchilla River in the Le Grand region over January 4 and 5, then came back south on a mission to find “the villages of the Pichicaches and the Guimilchis” and stopped at some river, probably the San Joaquin River near modern Friant, on January 6 (Pico in Cook 1962:182). At the river they took shelter against heavy rains on January 7. For January 8 the diary reads:

At dawn the river has risen so high that we were cut off and could not get over it and the branches of the river were so swollen that I did not dare to risk a crossing, particularly since I was told that the waters would soon recede [Pico in Cook 1962:182].

Pico’s men built rafts and ferried their gear and horses the next day, and on January 10 they headed south (their east) to the Kings River vicinity. Pico made no mention of interaction with any Indians while in the Friant region.

Rodriguez 1828. Sergeant Sebastian Rodriguez led a party to the east-central San Joaquin Valley against horse-stealing native people in April and early May of 1828. Although the expedition diary does not explicitly document the route of the party, it seems to have headed directly east from Pacheco Pass to the northern part of the Herndon region. It attacked a Hoyima village just southeast of Madera before sunrise on April 26, then went into the mountains to the northeast after Hoyima and/or Heuchi fugitives just after midnight on April 27. The Mexican probe was certainly into the Friant region and headwaters of Cottonwood Creek, but whether to the Bellevue/Indian Springs area or the Bates area cannot be determined. The vague diary clues are found in the quote below:

I started out at about 1:00 o'clock in the morning toward the mountains in pursuit of those who had fled. I went about 8 leagues into the mountains to the place where they are accustomed to camp when they run away. When we found nobody, the guide, who was actually one of the prisoners, told me that the Indians must be still behind us [Rodriguez in Cook 1962:185].

Next Rodriguez turned back toward the plain, encountering some fugitives at a village somewhere west of Bates and east of Madera:

So I went back, as the guide told me, and came upon two women whom we caught. They gave us the information where the rest of the people were. The soldiers whose horses were least tired went out and captured 5 men, 19 women, and 13 boys and girls. I lost the interpreter and 5 Christian auxiliaries. When I arrived at the village where the dead men were, I came upon 8 men including two chiefs who came out fighting and captured one chief, a Christian from San Juan and 3 women. Of those who got away seven encountered our troops while we were leaving the mountains. They were captured, among them a Christian from San Juan and two of the horse thieves, heathen, one named Selli, and the other Salmi. As soon as all had reunited I retired to the camp, which we reached about 7:00 o'clock in the evening [Rodriguez in Cook 1962:185].

The camp to which he returned may have been just southeast of Madera, perhaps in the Trigo area of the Herndon region. But the activity earlier that day had definitely taken place along the foothill/plain boundary in the Friant region. The Rodriguez party left the area the following day, moving north to Heuchi country in the Madera region, then to the Raymond and Le Grand regions, and eventually brought 142 mission fugitives and tribal resisters westward to Mission San Juan Bautista.

1846-1910 Historic References

Naglee 1847. A United States army expedition under Henry Naglee went into the hills along the San Joaquin River in search of horse-stealing Indians in early June of 1847. Phillips (1993:144) summarized the military dispatches: “Naglee and his men followed the San Joaquin River upstream to the mountains, where they contacted Tomquit, leader of the Pitkachi, and thirty of his followers.” In order to have entered the mountains, the party must have come at least as far up into the Friant region as the valley now under Millerton Lake. This indicates that Tom-quit and the remnant Pitkachis (from the Kerman region) were living among the Dumna at this early date. No clash occurred, suggesting that Naglee did not consider the Pitkachi and Dumna to be the horse thieves.

Mariposa Indian War of 1851. The Dumna were not mentioned in the primary reports regarding the Mariposa Indian war, which began on the Fresno River in December of 1850 and spread through tribally-inhabited areas from the Stanislaus River on the north to the Kings River on the south, continuing into April of 1851 (Phillips 1997). When killing of settlers began on December 17, 1850, it seems to have been led by Chauchila Yokuts, Chukchansi Yokuts, and Pohonichi Miwoks. However, Mariposa County Sheriff Burney visited Chief Tomq-uit of the Pitkachis on the San Joaquin River, and immediately thereafter Burney warned all settlers along the river to leave the area. Most did not. On December 25, over one hundred Indians attacked a miners' camp and ferry in what may be the later Cassidy’s Bar area along the San Joaquin River, an area now flooded by Millerton Lake. One miner was killed and ten were wounded (Phillips 1997:47). Although hostilities between Indians and the newly formed Mariposa Battalion continued until April, the Pitkachis were not mentioned as hostile participants in primary sources cited by Phillips. (See the CPNC Raymond region monograph for details regarding the Mariposa Indian War.)

Treaty N, 1851. Dumna was among 16 local tribes of the upper Chowchilla, San Joaquin, and Kings rivers to sign federal Treaty N with U.S. commissioners on April 29, 1851, essentially bringing the Mariposa Indian War to an end. Three “Toom-nas” marked the treaty, Hat-chu-loo, Tap-pa, and Po-sha (Heizer 1972:78-79). The Treaty N reservation territory, as described in the treaty text, was to be a very large stretch of plain along the base of the Sierra from the Chowchilla River to the Kings River (Heizer 1972:71-81; Phillips 2004:27, 30). The treaty commissioners divided the 16 signatory local tribes into three sections for purposes of future interactions. The Dumnas were placed in the central (San Joaquin River) group with the Pitkachi Yokuts, Gashowu (Cas-son) Yokuts, Dalinchi Yokuts, and Posgisa Monos, “which five tribes or bands acknowledge Tom-quit as their principal chief” (Heizer 1972:72). (See Latta notes in the Classic Ethnographic References section below for discussion of descendants of Tom-quit, some of whom were Dumnas).

Fresno River Agency 1851-1859. The headquarters of the initial Fresno River Reservation, founded in 1851, was on the river at the east edge of the Madera region. Office of Indian Affairs reports from the Fresno River agency during the 1850s, now in the National Archives, have not been examined for this report. However, Cook (1955:71) paraphrased some of the relevant documents. D. A. Enyart’s 1854 report did not mention the Dumna or any of the five tribes who had signed Treaty N under Tom-quit as living at the “Fresno Farm,” the name for the agency headquarters, that year. It is probable that they all moved to the vicinity of Fort Miller, built at later Millerton on the San Joaquin River, in May of 1852 (see Phillips 1997:99). In 1855 Enyart reported “at least about 1,000 to 1,500 Indians on the River" (i.e., the San Joaquin). On August 30, 1859, M.B. Lewis listed the Pitkachis and Dalinchis among 22 local tribes which recognized the Fresno Agency as their headquaters, but did not list the Dumna at all (Cook 1955:71). Phillips (2004:222), in another summary of that 1859 report, placed the Pitkachi and Dalinchi at “Millerton.” This may be a hint that the Pitkachi and Dumna had by then merged under the leadership of Tom-quit, whose own descendants considered him to be a Dumna (see Latta 1949 in the Classic Ethnographic References section below).

Powers and Powell 1877. Powers noted only two local tribes along the entire east-west flowing portion of the San Joaquin River west of Mono territory. “On the San Joaquin, from Whisky Creek down to Millerton, are the Chūk’-chan-si; farther down, the Pit’-ka-chi, now extinct” (1877:370). The Dumna were not even mentioned, suggesting that many local tribes were being lumped together under the labels Chauchila and Chukchansi by the 1870s.

John Wesley Powell published a probable Dumna word list obtained by Powers in the appendix to Powers' 1877 Tribes of California. The list is labeled “Wi’-chi-kik” (presumably Wechihit): “Wi’chi-kik. Obtained by Mr. Stephen Powers at Coarse Gold Gulch, California, in 1872, from Tu’-eh, an Indian of the tribe” (Powell 1877:570). Yet Wechihit is a Southern Valley Yokuts language and the world list in question is clearly Northern Hill Yokuts in character, matching known Dumna material perfectly. The list is further associated with Dumna through the probable mission record genealogy of Tu’-eh. A native infant named Tueh was christened Eugenio at Mission Soledad in 1832; in the baptismal record his father was identified as a Dumna, his mother as a Gashowu (SOL-B 2124). Tu’-eh not only acted as Powers’ interpreter in 1872, but took him to a Yokuts ceremony (possibly a Ghost Dance) at Coarse Gold Gulch ((1872:385)). Despite that association, Powers never documented Tu’-eh’s Dumna and Gashowu heritage.

Leupp 1909. The Millerton band was one of a number of Indian groups visited and aided by the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs between 1905 and 1908. Commissioner F. E. Leupp wrote the following in 1909:

The Indians of the Pollasky or Millerton Band, living near Pollasky, Fresno County, numbering 33, have been accustomed to eke out their attempts to support themselves by agriculture, with tribute levied upon the salmon of the San Joaquin River. This largely influenced the purchase for them of 140 acres from Adam Bollinger across the river in Madera County, at a cost of $1500. This tract contains garden land, 80 acres of hay land and pasturage, and wood in abundance. In addition there has been withdrawn from all forms of settlement for the benefit of these Indians 80 acres of Government land adjoining that purchase, making a total area for their use of 220 acres [Leupp 1909:7].

The 1905-1906 census of California groups by Indian agent C. E. Kelsey, which may provide more information about the Millerton Band, has not been examined for this monograph (see Kelsey 1971).

Classic Ethnographic References

Merriam 1903. Merriam (1967:416) learned about the Dumna and neighboring local tribes from Mrs. Mathews, “an old Kosh’-o woman,” during a visit to the Table Mountain area on October 30, 1903:

The Indians now living on Table Mountain are Kosho’-o, Pit-kah’-te, Toom’-nah, and Chuk-chan’-sy. The Chukchansy country is north of the San Joaquin River, extending north to Fresno Creek.

The Pit-kah’-te or Pitkatche inhabited the plain and lower San Joaquin up to Pullasky (the name of which has since been change to Friant).

Another tribe or subtribe, called Tomnah but speaking the same language as the Pit-kah’-te, lives on the south side of San Joaquin River a little above Pullasky. Mrs. Matthews’ grandmother was a Toom’-nah but she speaks of the tribe and language as Pit-kah’-te. Her father was a Kosho’-o. She speaks both languages….

Table Mountain is a high lava plateau … This tableland was the ancient home of the Tomm-nah tribe. They call it Sis’-loo” [Merriam 1967:417].

The nearest villages to Table Mountain were actually those of the Kechayi Yokuts, not the Dumna. For that reason it is mapped in the Auberry CPNC region, just to the east of the Friant region. Nevertheless, here is evidence that the Dumna regarded Table Mountain as their homeland. Perhaps it was the creation spot for a number of local tribes along the San Joaquin River.

Kroeber 1925. Kroeber worked with a number of people at Millerton and Table Mountain. Kroeber (1963:180) cites his work on a Dumna linguistics and geography with Mrs. Mathews, the information to be found in his Field Notebooks 6333-52 and 6368-75 at the Bancroft Library. He worked with Mrs. Mathews at Table Mountain on January 12, 1906. Despite the fact that he regarded her as a Dumna, he documented her Yokuts tribal background as quite mixed:

Mrs. Matthews’ father was raised among Gashowu from a Gashowu father and a Dumna mother. Her mother was raised among Chukchansi, of a Chukchansi father and a Dumna mother [Kroeber 1963:180-181].

Kroeber also worked with Bill Wilson (Latta’s Pahmit and Mrs. Matthew’s half-brother) of Millerton, Molly (part Chukchansi, Chauchila, and Hoyima) near Raymond, Jim Johnson at Raymond, and Dick Neale at Picayune (see Kroeber 1963:180-181 for field notebook references). From some or all of them he built his 1925 map and text. Kroeber (1925: Plate 47) mapped the Dumna lands on the north side of the San Joaquin River in the Friant-Millerton Lake vicinity. He wrote:

The Dumna (plural Dumanisha) were on the north side of the San Joaquin about opposite the Kechayi. Their range took in the country opposite Millerton: Table Mountain; the mouth of Fine Gold Creek; and Bellevue, which they called Dinishneu” [1925:481].

Dinishneu, in Madera County north of the San Joaquin River and five miles north of Friant, seems to be the location shown on USGS topological maps as Indian Springs.

Gayton 1948. Anna Gayton (1948:part 2, iv) gathered Dumna ethnogeographic information from Bill Wilson (Latta’s Pahmit), who was said to be 90 years old when she worked with him in 1925. She wrote that his knowledge of tribal locations was “definite as to direction but hazy and conflicting with other information on specific locus” [1948:153].

The center of Tu’mna (Dumna) territory was at Millerton where their largest village (A’tbu) was located. B. W. gives the word ho’ as its name, and Tci’ as the Gashowu name: I interpret this not as a specific name but as the word for village, or possibly even tribe. The chiefs at the Millerton rancheria were To’mkit (Tom Wilson, B. W.’s father), next We’sča, then Čokε’t [1948:153].

Gayton then listed nine Dumna village sites, with the caveat that their locations were enough in doubt that she could not map them (1948:153).

1. ho’: a Dumna village [a generic term, not a name ?]

2. tci’: a Gashowu village [a generic term, not a name ?]

3. Tewa'nčo: old village site 1/2 mile west from B. W.'s house at Friant

4. čai’ čiyu: old village site about 1 mile east from B. W.’s house

5. huku’ktuktu: ½ mile south of no. 4

9. a'tbu: the main Dumna village at Millerton

Some of this information contradicts that received by Latta (1949), who identified Atbo as a Hoyima village in the Herndon region and Kuyu Illik as the main Dumna village at Millerton.

Informants from other areas gave Gayton information about the Friant region, as well. Ellen Murphy, Gayton’s Kechayi Yokuts informant, stated that “Šanwo'ganiu” was a “Dumna village on the San Joaquin River (the Millerton Court House stood on the spot" (Gayton 1948:160). Gayton (1948:160 [footnote 50]) pointed out that this village’s name is “actually Penutianized ‘San Joaquin.’” A Miss Thrall gave Gayton village information from three Chukchansi informants, including a reference to “kasowu: Friant” which Gayton (1948:175) noted with doubt as “the locality or the people, Gashowu?”

Latta 1949. Latta identified the southeastern part of the Friant region as Dumna land, and the northern portion as Chukchansi Yokuts territory. He discussed ethno-geographic information relative to the Dumna, and to the Dumna boundary with the Kechayi Yokuts (of the CPNC Auberry region), at the beginning of his study:

At the junction of Little Dry Creek and the San Joaquin River were the Wakichi, and above them the Kechayi. Table Mountain on the south side of the San Joaquin River and upstream from present Millerton Lake in Kechayi land, was called Tapu Chilow. South of Table Mountain was the village of Muhnowlo. North of Table Mountain, on a large flat by the river where the Indians speared salmon, was the Kechayi village of Kiahno. During the time when salmon were running, every bush and most of the ground in the vicinity was red with drying salmon.

East of the Kechayi, on both sides of the San Joaquin were the Toltichi.

Opposite the Kechayi were the Dumna. Little Table Mountain, on the north side of the San Joaquin River in Dumna land, was called Shishilu. South of Little Table Mountain, on a small flat, was the Dumna village of Chahtaou. Near the river was the village of Wayahchu. Wumwumwus, meaning rock pile, was the Dumna name for the round lava cap a half mile northwest of the Indian settlement above Friant. White people in that locality call this hill The Pincushion. At the bottom of Lake Millerton and south of the old San Joaquin River channel was the Dumna head village of Kuyu Illik. North of the river and below Friant Dam about five miles was the Dumna village of Iuhpin (Latta 1949:4-6).

Regarding the western portion of the Friant region (away from the San Joaquin River), Latta (1949:3) wrote, “Above the Heuchi, on the south side of Fresno River, were the Chukchansi, a foothill tribe.” Latta assigned both Cheyau and Dinisheu, west of the San Joaquin River, to the Chukchansi:

On the location of the later white village of Bates, on upper Cottonwood Creek, was the Chukchansi village of Cheyau. Farther east, and about six miles south of O’Neals, was the village of Dinishneu [1949:4].

Latta’s informant for the Friant area, Pahmit (aka Bill Wilson), was living in the Millerton Lake vicinity when Latta interviewed and photographed him. In a later section of his first edition, Latta published Pahmit’s oral history of activities during the time of Treaty N and early Fort Miller (Latta 1949:4, 220-222).

Recent Ethnographic References

Cook 1955. Cook (1955:76) mapped the Friant region as the Dumna Yokuts area of his “Upper San Joaquin River” zone in his study of the aboriginal population of the entire San Joaquin Valley and adjacent Sierra, probably following Kroeber (1925). For that San Joaquin zone, he arrived at an average population density of 5.05 persons through application of a difficult-to-follow logic based on spotty information from early diaries (1955:53).

Latta 1977. In his 1977 edition, Latta (1977:162) repeated information from his 1949 edition, including details about four Dumna village locations in the Friant region, with slight variations in spelling and the notation that “the Dumna head village of Kuyu Illik” was called Sulphur Water in English (1977:162).

Spier 1978. The California volume (Heizer 1978) divided Yokuts groups into Northern Valley, Southern Valley, and Foothill, to discuss the large Yokuts language territory in three conveniently sized chapters. The Friant region was included within the Foothill Yokuts chapter, written by Robert Spier. Spier (1978:471) mapped the Dumna on the north side of the San Joaquin River at Millerton Lake and then north nearly to O’Neals, an area equivalent to the eastern third of the Friant region. (The Yokuts chapters in the California volume do not assign the western portion of the Friant region to any group at all.) All in all, Spier’s Foothill Yokuts chapter is an uneven, secondary source.