HERNDON REGION – HOYIMA LOCAL TRIBE

The Hoyima local tribe of Northern Valley Yokuts-speakers are confidently placed as the contact-period inhabitants of the northern and central Herndon region, along Cottonwood Creek and a nearby stretch of the San Joaquin River, on the basis of Mexican expedition evidence and later ethnographic accounts. We are less confident about the extent of their land control in that portion of the Herndon region that lies south of the San Joaquin River. The Herndon region straddles the Fresno-Madera county boundary along the San Joaquin River; it is now the site of the small towns of Biota, Herndon, and Pinedale, as well as the northwest portion of the sprawling city of Fresno. While the Hoyima are well-documented to have lived on the north side of the San Joaquin River and along Cottonwood Creek, Kroeber indicated that the area south of the San Joaquin River belonged to the Pitkachi, another Northern Valley Yokuts-speaking local tribe. But if that was so, the Hoyima were pinned into a remarkably small area, while the Pitcatchi held an inordinately large area (see Kerman-region discussion of the Pitkachi). Kroeber placed the Wakichi, still another Northern Valley Yokuts local tribe, along the south side of the San Joaquin River in the Pinedale vicinity of the Herndon region, extending over into the Friant region to the east; the Wakichi, represented only once or twice in mission baptismal records, seem to have been a sub-section of the Hoyima, perhaps a single village group. Kroeber also placed one Hoyima village, Moyoliu, farther upriver in the Friant region. We tentatively suggest that Hoyima habitation on the San Joaquin River upstream from the Herndon region was probably part of the post-Gold Rush gathering of local tribes in the neighborhood of Fort Miller, now under Millerton Lake.

The Hoyima lived along the eastern edge of major Franciscan mission outreach impact; just to their west, the Copcha were completely absorbed into the mission system, while the Dumna to the east sent only a handful of people to the missions. Ninety-four Hoyimas were baptized, spread among four different missions (predominately San Juan Bautista) over the long time period of 1820-1842. Additionally, three Wakichi individuals were baptized at Mission Soledad. The baptized Hoyima had an inordinately high child to adult ratio (55 people under 15 to 42 over 15); most groups brought to the missions in the 1820s had twice as many adults as children, due to years of disease-induced infant mortality. The Hoyima at the missions also had a remarkably low representation of pre-mission married couples, only five, and a large number of widowed women. These demographic patterns, together with documentation of Mexican attacks on the Hoyima in 1826 and 1828 for horse raiding, suggest that the missionized Hoyima were the remnant portion of a partially-annihilated people.

Hoyima who did not join the Franciscan missions probably integrated with their Dumna, Heuchi, and Pitkachi Yokuts neighbors. The Hoyima did not sign the 1851 Treaty N with the other San Joaquin River Yokuts groups, although the interpreter for the treaty council, a man named Yoho, is tentatively identified as a Hoyima who had been baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista (see 1851 Treaty Negotiations sub-section below). It is probable that some Hoyima descendents continue to live in Fresno and Madera counties today, while others exist as descendants of mission families, especially of Mission San Juan Bautista and Soledad families who lived in the Coast Range towns of west-central California in the late nineteenth century.

Environment

The Herndon region is flat valley land with elevations varying from 220 feet on the west to 380 feet on the east. The region was well-watered from Sierran sources, with the San Joaquin River running westward through the south-central area, and smaller Cottonwood Creek through the north area. Native vegetation was predominately valley grassland, with scattered valley oaks in the eastern portion. Willows, cottonwoods, and occasional sycamores lined the rivers. A dense cottonwood grove bordered the San Joaquin River from Herndon almost to Pinedale, and a grove of valley oak occurred along the river north of Pinedale.

Spanish Period Expedition References

Moraga-Muñoz 1806. The Moraga-Muñoz expedition explored the San Joaquin River within the Herndon region and adjoining region over the three days of October 11-13, 1806, on its way south along the east side of the San Joaquin Valley from central California to the Los Angeles basin. Scouting parties were sent upstream and downstream from a camp that was probably near the present town of Herndon. The expedition diarist mentioned only one village anywhere along the river, a “Pizcache” village that was probably in the valley of later Lake Millerton in the Friant region (Muñoz in Cook 1960:251). It is strange that the diarist did not mention any other village anywhere along the San Joaquin River, in the Herndon region or the adjacent Kerman or Friant region. It is also quite unexpected to find a village that identified itself as Pitkachi in what was probably the Friant region, since other evidence places the Pitkachi homeland either on the south bank of the San Joaquin River in the Herndon region, or downriver in the Kerman region. It may be that the villagers were trying to tell the Spaniards the name of their river, named after the group that lived much farther downstream.

Mission Register References

Ninety-four Hoyimas and three Wakichis were baptized over a long period of time (1820-1842) at four different missions. The largest groups of Hoyima were baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista between 1828 and 1832. Early groups went to Mission Soledad in 1822 and 1823. Four sick individuals were baptized at San Carlos Borromeo in the spring of 1828. The large groups at San Juan Bautista began to be baptized soon thereafter. Hoyimas continued to go to San Juan Bautista in small groups through the remainder of the 1830s. Also in the 1830s, seven Hoyima children were baptized at Mission Santa Clara, suggesting that they were being brought in to serve as house servants. Specifics are given below for each mission group, in order of first appearance at a mission.

San Juan Bautista Baptisms. Seventy-four identifiable Hoyimas were baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista, 49 of them over the years 1828-1830. The earliest Hoyima mission recruit was an 18-year-old man named Tosiena who was entered in the Mission San Juan Bautista baptismal register on November 18, 1820; said to be from the “nación o casta de Oyima,” he was baptized together with two Nopchinche Yokuts boys and two Chauchila Yokuts boys by Father Arroyo (SJB-B 2553-2557). The second Hoyima baptized was another 18-year-old man, Mesja, who was baptized by Father Arroyo at the end of a large group from mixed Merced River and Chowchilla River local Yokuts tribes on March 28, 1822 (SJB-B 3055-3089). In 1825 and 1827 individuals were baptized with groups dominated by Chauchilas (SJB-B 3531, 3684). Then in the summer of 1828 a group of 21 Hoyima children were baptized among a larger group of people otherwise from the Merced and Chowchilla rivers (among SJB-B 3715-3755). This was soon after the baptisms of Hoyima people at Mission San Carlos, Hoyima who were noted as having been brought in during the previous expedition (probably the Rodriguez expedition in January of 1828). Three adults were baptized in September and October of 1828? (among SJB-B 3761-71). On May 20, 1829 Arroyo baptized four Hoyima children and one Copcha Yokuts child, “whom their mothers brought to me voluntarily” (SJB-B 3807-3811); the entry for the last person in that group contains an atypically rich note listing the names of two specific Hoyima villages:

Ninfa, the daughter of the gentiles Chalpiniths and Thrijelman, who both died on the 30th of March of this year at the locations of Ajitnau and Chohuonioni in the land of the Joyimas [SJB-B 3811, Arroyo de la Cuesta].

The last large group, 17 older children and young adults, were baptized July 1, 1830 (among SJB-B 3863-3881) along with one Dalinchi Yokuts (Coarse Gold region) and one Hualquemne Yokuts (Snelling region on Merced river); the group included Yojo, who was mentioned above as the probable Yokuts translator for Treaty N in 1851. Eight Hoyimas were baptized in 1832 and two others in 1833. Then there was a break until 1838, when three young Hoyima women and an infant were baptized. Five more Hoyima young people were baptized at San Juan Bautista between 1839 and 1842.

Soledad Baptisms. Nine identifiable Hoyimas and two Wakichis were baptized at Mission Soledad over the years 1822 through 1833. The first three, all baptized amongst a large group of Pitkachis on August 13, 1822, were two “Uaguiichi” children (SO-B 1864, 1882) and one “X.ima” child (SO-B 1870). Next, five young Hoyimas were baptized in 1823, again in mixed groups with Pitkachis (among SO-B 1954-1961). Another was baptized singly in 1829 (SO-B 2038). In 1831 a young Hoyima man was baptized with individual Yokuts men from a fairly wide area: a Pitkachi Yokuts (Kerman region), a Chochichi (possibly Toltichi of the North Fork region), a Wechihit Yokuts (Sanger region), and a Dalinchi Yokuts of the Coarse Gold region (among SO-B 2079-2083). Through the rest of the 1830s scores of Wechihits and Gashowus were baptized at Soledad, along with some Tachis, Wimilchis, Dumnas, and Dalinchis, but no more Hoyimas.

San Carlos Borromeo Baptisms. No large groups of Yokuts speakers were ever brought for baptism to Mission San Carlos Borromeo, which became an administrative center after 1810. Nevertheless, over the years a number of Yokuts individuals were baptized at San Carlos who had been brought to the Monterey Presidio for incarceration or into the households of Mexican citizens as “employees.” Four tribal Hoyimas appeared, the first on May 26, 1828 (soon after the return of the Rodriguez punitive expedition—see below). Father Sarría wrote:

I baptized privately under conditions of extreme necessity a little creature of about two years of age, child of non-Christian parents, the father [illegible] and the mother Seacon, brought from the Tulares during the last military expedition … they are from the rancheria or nation called Oímas … he died after his baptism” [SCA-B 3551].

Two days later, on May 28, Sarría baptized another Hoyima infant at Mission San Carlos, child of a Copcha father (SJB-B 2689) and Hoyima mother:

I baptized privately a little girl who was found to be gravely ill, a child of a neophyte from Mission San Juan Bautista called Teodosio and a gentile woman called Pilemjat, brought from the Tulares under the same conditions … the above mentioned Christian, had fled to those lands, where he still remains [SCA-B 3552].

On the following day, Sarría baptized yet another Hoyima infant on the verge of death at San Carlos:

I baptized … a little boy, gravely sick, the child of … Jalica and Ichia, both from the nation of the Oima of the Tulares, brought here as I have indicated … [SJB-B 3553].

Also on May 29,1828, Sarría baptized the critically ill child of a Chauchila father and Hoyima mother (SJB-B 3554). These four infants are the only identifiable tribal Hoyimas in the San Carlos Borromeo records.

Santa Clara Baptisms. Seven Hoyima children were baptized at Mission Santa Clara, all between 1834 and 1839. In all cases the parents were gentiles who cannot be shown to have been subsequently baptized, although in two of the cases a reference was made to the effect that the children’s mothers lived at Mission San Juan Bautista. The first of the seven, two-year-old Maria Soledad, was baptized on October 5, 1835 and was said to have been “born in the Sierra Nevada, the child of gentile parents called Joyimas” (SJO-B 8674). The final four of the seven were all baptized in October of 1839 (SJO-B 9979-81, 9986); they included the two whose mothers were said to be at San Juan Bautista. These Mission Santa Clara Hoyima baptisms almost certainly reflect the practice by Mexican Period families of bringing children who were captured during punitive raids into the household as family servants.

Mission Marriage Patterns. Hoyimas were partners in five renewed pre-mission marriages at the missions, all during the years 1830-1832. The small number of these renewed marriages reflects the small number of adult Hoyimas ever baptized at the missions. In three of the renewals, both spouses were identified as Hoyimas (SJB-M 963, 965, 995). In one renewal case the husband was a Hoyima and the wife a Dalinchi Yokuts from the Coarse Gold region (SJB-M 964). In the only renewed marriage at Mission Soledad, the husband was a Pitkachi Yokuts from the Kerman region and the wife a Hoyima (SO-M 643).

Previously unmarried and widowed Hoyima men were spouses in three mission marriages: at Soledad a bachelor (a Wakichi) married a Dalinchi Yokuts woman (SO-M 642); at San Juan Bautista one Hoyima bachelor married an Utrocos Yokuts woman from the El Nido region (SJB-M 3867), while another married an Eyulahuas Yokuts woman from the Firebaugh region (SJB-M 3761). Previously unmarried and widowed Hoyima women were spouses in 13 mission marriages between 1823 and 1845. The first three took place in late 1823, when Felicitas Ouctela married Estevan Joiyio (who was either a Kiwech Yokuts of the Oro Loma region or Cutocho Yokuts of the Mendota region), Basilisa Guanets married a Pitkachi Yokuts named Martin Sojets, and Germana Miamii married a Pitkachi named Jose Manuel Choliic (SO-M 585, 586, 588). Another nine Hoyima women married at Mission Juan Bautista between 1826 and 1845; their husbands were Chauchila Yokuts (two cases), Copcha Yokuts (two cases), Cuccunun Yokuts (two cases), Nopchinche Yokuts (one case), Eyulahuas Yokuts (one case) and Unijaima Costanoan/Ohlone (one case). Finally, in an atypical case, a Hoyima woman baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista as Raynalda Chojialit moved north to Mission San Jose to marry long-time Christian Francisco Xavier of the Ompin Bay Miwok (SJO-M 2308).

Arroyo’s 1822 Padron. Father Arroyo de la Cuesta wrote his 1822 Mission San Juan Bautista Padron and completed its important additions prior to the arrival of large numbers of Hoyimas in 1828. He did list two “Oyima” people as part of the thirteenth group in the Padron. At the beginning of that entry, he wrote: “Here are the first people from other nations, e.g. Oyima, Siucsanthre, Pitcathre, Putoyanthre, as was made evident in the Book of Baptism and the Census, and with this it [the overall list] is finished for now.” Father Arroyo did not extend the list when large numbers of Hoyimas came to his mission for baptism in 1828 and 1829.

Table: Hoyima and Hoyima-Descendant Mission Marriages Through 1845.

Marr.	Date	M bapt	Sp. name	Ind. name	Group	Status	Group	Sp. name	Ind. Name	F bapt.
SO0585	11/26/23	JB2012	Estevan	Joiyio	Cutocho	VS	Joyima	Felicitas	Ouctela	SO1958
SO0586	11/26/23	SO1849	Martin	Sojets	Pitcache	SS	Joyima	Basilisa	Guanets	SO1961
SO0588	02/18/24	SO1847	Marcial	Choliic	Pitcache	SS	Joyima	Germana	Miamii	SO1960
JB0907	05/11/26	JB2187	Yndalecio	Guatahi	Copcha	VS	Joyima	Teona	Quimoilit	JB3531
JB0963	07/02/30	JB3878	Bernabe	Cholojo	Joyima	RR	Joyima	Bernabela	Muscas	JB3879
JB0964	07/02/30	JB3880	Donato	Güasia..	Joyima	RR	Dalinchi	Donata	Chagüaca	JB3881
JB0965	07/05/30	JB2553	Ciro	Tosiena	Joyima	RR	Joyima	Cira	Güonomjót	JB3877
JB0995	01/03/32	JB3957	Gregorio	Taláquis	Oyima	RR	Joyima	Teresa Jesus	Chohuinis	JB3963
SO0642	09/01/32	SO1864	Heliodoro	Pochots	Uaguichi	SS	Talinchi	Petra	Chauanit	SO2110
SO0643	10/03/32	SO1848	Jacome	Haex	Pitcache	RR	Joyima	Brigida	Kokiluat	JB3961
JB1014	05/06/33	JB3761	Emilas	Pitpis(?)	Oyima	SS	Eyulahuas	Estefana	Selmat	JB2320
JB1048	07/22/34	JB2341	Trifon	Tahuajan	Eyulahuas	SS	Joyima	Praxedis	Chiuquilit	JB3736
JB1049	08/23/34	JB2308	Epimaco	Huogthrii	Nopchenche	SS	Joyima	Marta	Jayama	JB3865
JB1052	09/23/34	JB0036	Remigio	Totoho	Unijaima	VS	Joyima	Maria	Huechilit	JB3754
JB1074	12/15/35	JB2557	Deciderio	Huoquinic	Chausila	SS	Joyima	Pascuala	Dehensiat	JB3866
JO2308	07/06/73	JO2389	Fran.co Xvr	Pustá	Ompin	VS	Joyima	Reynalda	Chojalit	JB3872
JB1098	11/25/37	JB3867	Maurino	Cónsono	Joyima	SV	Uthrocos	Elena	Chojolol	JB2681
JB1112	06/09/38	JB2800	Ciriaco	Sainom	Cuccunu	SS	Joyima	Trinidad	-	JB4338
JB1113	06/09/38	JB2187	Indalecio	Guatahi	Copcha	VS	Joyima	Maria Josea	Ciutat	JB4339
JB1114	06/09/38	JB4300	Jose Maria	Pilijoi	Chausila	SS	Joyima	Maria Dolores	Chochuet	JB4340
JB1189	07/01/45	JB3159	Principio	Juichustul	Cuccunu	SS	Oyima	Encarnacion	-	JB4253

Note: database as of 1-6-2009; Status column indicates prior marital status (R=renewing native marriage; S=presently unmarried and not previously married in church; V=widow or widower)

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 to the Los Banos area. On January 2 he encountered and raided a newly erected village containing mixed tribal and fugitive mission Indians on San Joaquin River in the Firebaugh region. The next day he moved eastward in search of fugitives who had gone to a village of the “Jollimas.” The diary is not clear about precise directions, but according to the interpretation of this CPNC study, he crossed the San Joaquin River at Firebaugh and moved east on the plain through the east portion of the Firebaugh region, and then all the way through the Herndon region, ending up that evening at a place called Monte Redondo without having encountered any village at all (Pico in Cook 1962:181). The Monte Redondo camp on January 3 was among a grove of trees which travel distances and directions on previous and subsequent days suggest to us was along the San Joaquin River west of Pinedale (in the eastern part of the Herndon region). (Note that Cook [1955] proposed, on the basis of the same opaque expedition diary clues, that Monte Redondo was south of the San Joaquin River in the vicinity of the modern city of Fresno.)

The next day, January 4, 1826, Pico left the Monte Redondo camp and traveled eight leagues (about 20 miles) north. Cook’s translation reads: “We reached a stream called San Joaquin and Santa Ana from which the village of the Jollimas was reconnoitered, the village being about two leagues [five miles] distant from the stream” (Pico in Cook 1962:181-182). Cook’s translation may be in error, as Estudillo’s 1819 map marks two separate streams, the well-known San Joaquin and to its north the “Santa Anna Joyima” presently known as Cottonwood Creek. Presuming that Cook’s translation is incorrect, we suggest Pico left the San Joaquin River camp in the Herndon region, crossed the “Santa Anna” or Cottonwood Creek, and arrived at Berenda Creek, having passed from the Herndon region into the Madera region. Pico raided the village the next morning, that of January 4. No tribal name other than Hoyima was mentioned, but it is assumed that the particular Joyimas that Pico was seeking had retreated north to a Trayaptre or Chauchila village on the Chowchilla River, and it was that village in the Le Grand region, five miles north of Berenda Creek, that was raided on January 4.

Following the January 4 attack, Pico moved back southeast to the San Joaquin River, this time closer to the Sierra in the Friant region. Over a number of days he then moved south into the Kings River vicinity. On the Kings River, Pico wrote an entry that shows that Hoyima individuals accompanied him south. At his camp near Kingsburg on January 13, after two days of uncomfortable interactions with the Wimilche Yokuts, Nutunutu Yokuts, and probable Chukamina Yokuts, Pico received intelligence about impending trouble:

A chief of the Hoyima, whom we had with us as guide, had told one of the interpreters, that in the sweathouse that same night he had heard these heathen talking to each other. Some were saying that now it would be seen who were the brave among the soldiers, and others answered, yes, now we would see. On being told these things I realized that all these wild Indians were against us [Pico in Cook 1962:183].

(See the CPNC Hanford region monograph for discussion of the events of January 12-13, 1826 on the Kings River.)

Rodriguez 1828. Sergeant Sebastian Rodriguez led a party into the east-central San Joaquin Valley against horse-stealing Indians in April and early May of 1828. The precise route of the party is impossible to reconstruct from its diary, but the groups they attacked—Chauchila, Heuchi, and Hoyima—and the areas they raided seem to have been on Cottonwood Creek (Herndon and Friant regions), the Fresno River (Madera and Raymond regions), and the Chowchilla River (Le Grand region). To reach those areas, we suggest that the Rodriguez party first crossed San Joaquin River on April 23, then traveled by night eastward over the plain between Cottonwood Creek and the San Joaquin River to Monte Redondo, probably just west of Pinedale and the San Joaquin River in the east portion of the Herndon region:

I set out at about 5:00 o'clock in the afternoon, heading for the place called Monte Redondo, but I did not arrive until dawn of the 25th because the guides got lost [Rodriquez in Cook 1962:184].

The troops seem to have slept during the day at Monte Redondo. In the late afternoon or evening they left in an unspecified direction for a location that they called El Potrero ("the horse pasture").

This day [the 26th] I set out for the place called El Potrero, which I reached at about 11:00 o'clock at night. I established myself there until the soldier Norberto Garcia should return, whom I had sent out with four men to scout the village of the Joyimas, where the horses were eaten [Rodriguez in Cook 1962:184].

Trying for secrecy, Rodriguez moved at night. The Potrero staging camp was near a Hoyima village, probably on Cottonwood Creek somewhere southeast of Madera. Leaving their camp gear and most of their horses, Rodriguez, his soldiers, and his Indian auxiliaries attacked the village in the early morning hours of April 26:

This Garcia got back about 2:00 o' clock in the morning [of the 26th]. I immediately started out, leaving Corporal José Avila with four soldiers and four Indian auxiliaries to guard the horses and baggage. At about one eighth of a league before reaching the village I ordered Corporal Simeon Castro with 10 soldiers and 15 Indian auxiliaries to cross to the north side of the river,while I remained on the south side. However only five men on horseback, with Corporal Castro were able to get across because it was extremely muddy. We continued to approach the village which was between the two channels of the river in a willow thicket very difficult to penetrate. The party which was on the south side, before reaching the village, bogged down in some very miry tule swamps. Corporal Simeon got as close as 80 yards, more or less, from the village when the neighing of a horse gave the alarm to the heathen. They instantly seized their weapons and fired several arrows. Seeing this Corporal Simeon opened fire and killed two Indians. The party on the south entered the village, part on foot, part on horseback, killed 3 Indians, and captured 8 men and 7 women together with some boys and girls, the total being 26 souls. We found 27 horses, of the herd belonging to the Soberanes, the flesh of which the Indians had been eating for three days, after the animals had been killed with arrows. In the brush there may have been 60 to 80 more horses.

Shortly a heathen chief told us about the village of Guche, whose people came to the Joyimas to eat horses, and also about another village higher up the river where they ate horses. Thereupon I ordered Corporal Simeon Castro to go and look at these villages while I stayed to look after the prisoners and soldier José Bermudes [and another soldier] both of who were soaked to the waist. Corporal Simeon found no people at the first village; only one horse which ran into the hills. Then the Corporal went to the other village and found no people, only the remains of horses. The tracks of the people went into the mountains [Rodriguez in Cook 1862:184-185].

The location of the two empty villages reconnoitered from the attacked Cottonwood Creek village is not at all clear. One of them was “Guche, whose people came to the Joyimas” suggesting that it was a Heuchi village. Yet in the following paragraph, which documents his retreat, certainly back to the location where his camp supplies were waiting, Rodriguez wrote that all three villages belonged to the Hoyimas, perhaps using the local tribe name as a collective term for a consortium of resisting groups:

As soon as everyone had rejoined me I had all the horse meat burned, not leaving the Indians as much as a quarter to eat. Then, after those who were wet had dried out, I retired and made camp at about 1:00 o' clock in the afternoon. The meat at the other two villages was not burned. The dead horses may have amounted to 100. These three villages are all part of the tribe of Joyimas, and when horses are brought in they are divided up among the Indians who caught them, to be eaten at leisure. We captured a Christian woman from Soledad and another one from San Juan who had a small boy likewise Christian [Rodriquez in Cook 1962:185].

After resting the evening of April 26, Rodriguez followed guides into the mountains at 1:00 AM on April 27, certainly into the neighboring Friant region, but whether toward Bates or toward Indian Springs/Bellevue is not clear:

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.

With the news that they had actually passed the fugitives, the Rodriguez party turned back toward the plain, encountering some fugitives at an unlocatable village, probably on Cottonwood Creek near the Friant/Herndon regional boundary:

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].

On April 30 the Rodriguez party definitely moved north to Heuchi country in the Madera region, then continued northward to the Raymond and Le Grand regions before turning west with 142 arrested Yokuts people toward Mission San Juan Bautista.

1846-1910 Historic References

Mariposa Indian War of 1851. The Hoyima 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 to the Kings River, continuing into April of 1851 (Phillips 1997). During that time, the Hoyima may have been considered a sub-group of the Pitkachi or Heuchi (both of which were mentioned in the relevant primary literature). See the CPNC Raymond region monograph for greater detail regarding the Mariposa Indian War.

1851 Treaty Negotiations. The Hoyima were not among the groups that signed the unratified treaties of 1851. Yet U.S. government commissioners Barbour, McKee, and Wozencroft signed Treaty N with 16 local tribes on the San Joaquin River, probably in Hoyima territory in the Hernden vicinity, on April 29, 1851 (Heizer 1972:71-81; Phillips 1997:92-94). Among the Yokuts groups of the general San Joaquin vicinity who did sign were the Heuchis (Madera region), Dumnas (Friant region), Cas-sons (Gashowu, of the Clovis region at that time), and Pitkachis (originally Kerman region, probably Friant region by 1851).

An interesting perspective on the Hoyima and the 1851 gathering for Treaty N comes from Latta’s (1949:217-223) interviews during the 1920s with Pahmit, a Dumna man who had been born at a village now drowned beneath Millerton Lake (Friant region). Pahmit believed himself to have been about 21 years old back in 1851. He remembered James Savage and remembered attending the signing of Treaty N. He told Latta that he was related to four of the men who signed Treaty N. They included his grandfather, Tom-quit (who signed for the Pitkachi), his father Tap-pa (who signed for the Dumna), his Uncle Tomas (who signed for the Cas-son [Gashowu]), as well as Co-toom-se (who signed for the Chukchansi). Although the Hoyima are not listed among the signatories of Treaty N, the man that Pahmit remembered as the translator for the U.S. commissioners was probably a Hoyima:

That Indian belong our people long time ‘go. When he little boy, Spanish preacher take him Mission San Juan. At San Juan he learn read, write, talk like white man. Big white chief call him Charlie. Our people call him Yo’-ho. Then Yoho talk us long time. He talk, ‘n talk, ‘n talk. … He say we got give big Father at Washington all our land [Latta 1949:220].

That interpreter, Yoho, was probably the Hoyima named “Yojo” who was baptized at age 11 at Mission San Juan Bautista in 1830 (SJB-B 3869). We surmise that the Hoyima had ceased to exist as a coherent tribal group and that Yojo and other of the living Hoyimas in 1851 were integrated with their Pitkachi, Heuchi, and Dumna neighbors.

Fresno River Agency 1851-1859. The headquarters of the Fresno River reservation, founded in 1851, was on the Fresno 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 and Phillips (2004) used them to reconstruct the 1850s history of the agency. Remarkably, the Hoyima local tribe is not mentioned in any of the relevant documents, strongly suggesting that it no longer existed as an independent group by that time period.

Powers 1877. Powers noted only two local tribes along the entire 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” (Powers 1877:370). To those who spoke with Powers, the Hoyima seem to have lost their place in history.

Classic Ethnographic References

Merriam 1903. Merriam (1967:416) learned about the San Joaquin River tribes from Mrs. Matthews, “an old Kosh’-o woman”, during a visit to the Millerton-Table Mountain area on October 30, 1903. She told him about the Dumna, Gashowu, Pitkachi, and Chukchansi Yokuts, but did not mention the Hoyima:

The Pit-kah’-te or Pitkatche inhabited the plain and lower San Joaquin up to Pullasky (the name of which has since been changed to Friant). … Another tribe, named Woh-kee'-che and closely related to the Pit-kah'-te, lived on the south side of San Joaquin River lower down. They are now extinct (Merriam 1967:417).

The last reference here must be to the Wakichi Yokuts, mapped by Kroeber (1925:Plate 47) on the south side of the San Joaquin River from the east portion of the Herndon region up to Little Dry Creek in the Friant region.

The Merriam archives at The Bancroft Library in Berkeley includes the Yokut Stock Code “22k. Ho-ye’-mah,” suggesting that more Hoyima material exists there in his manuscript entitled Yokuts Tribes and Villages (Merriam 1969:9, 18; see also Heizer 1966:44, Map 5).

Kroeber 1925. Kroeber’s 1925 Handbook information on the Yokuts groups of Madera County is based on field work he did before 1910 at Millerton, Table Mountain, and Raymond. Molly, a 1904 informant for the Chauchila and Chukchansi dialects, had a Hoyima mother (see Kroeber 1963:180 for information on Molly and for pertinent field notebook citations).

Kroeber (1925:Plate 47) mapped three Yokuts local tribes in the CPNC Herndon region: the Hoyima along the north side of the San Joaquin River, eastward from Herndon to the mouth of Little Dry Creek; the Pitkachi along most of the south bank of the San Joaquin River; and a small group, the Wakichi, on the south bank of the San Joaquin in the eastern portion of the region. Kroeber wrote:

The Hoyima, Hoyim’a, or Hoyimha (plural Hoyeyami) were also on the San Joaquin where it still flows west, but opposite the Pitkachi; in other words, on the north side. They may have ranged as far as Fresno River. They had settlements at K’eliutanau, on a creek entering the San Joaquin from the north, and at Moyoliu above the mouth of Little Dry Creek. They were not without fighting proclivities, and at times engaged the Chauchila of the plains and the Chukchansi of the hills [Kroeber 1925:484].

Kroeber (1925:Plate 47) mapped Moyoliu upstream from the Herndon region, within the Friant region that other evidence gives to the Dumna Yokuts. Kroeber did not map K’eliutanau at all, probably because no creek flows into the San Joaquin from the north anywhere from Herndon to the mouth of Little Dry Creek. The nearest creek from the north is in the Friant region, in the general area where Kroeber placed the Moyoliu.

Kroeber (1925:484, Plate 47) gave that portion of the Herndon region along the south side of the San Joaquin River, as well as the adjacent Kerman region to the west, to the Pitkachi Yokuts. He placed two alternate locations of the Pitkachi village of Kohuou, one directly on our mapping border between the CPNC Herndon region mapping unit and the Kerman region, and the other at Herndon itself, in the center of this region. We suggest that any Pitkachi habitation in the Herndon region and farther east probably reflects post-mission period upstream crowding along the San Joaquin River from the west (see Pitkachi discussion in the CPNC Kerman region monograph).

The small Wakichi group appears on Kroeber’s (1925: Plate 47) map along the south bank of the San Joaquin River, from its northeastward bend at Pinedale east to lower Little Dry Creek in the Friant region. He wrote:

The Wakichi or Wa’kichi, plural wakeyachi, were on the same side of the river [south-ed.] but farther up, not quite opposite the Dumna, and just below the Kechayi. Holowichniu, near Millerton, was in their territory. This location would suggest that the Wakichi were part of the northern foothill group, but a few preserved phrases of their dialect indicate that it belonged to the valley division (Kroeber 1925:484).

One wonders if Wakichi may have been a synonymous term for Hoyima. A research effort is needed to pour over Kroeber’s original field notes, and those of other relevant ethnographers, to find out if any single native consultant knew about both groups and clearly distinguished them.

Gayton 1948. In the San Joaquin River portion of her 1948 monograph, Anna Gayton focused on the foothill people and collected only sparse notes about the plains. Bill Wilson (Latta’s Pahmit), a Dumna of the Friant region, did tell her: “Below the Dumna on the San Joaquin, and occupying both sides of the river were the Hoi'yima (Hoyima), and beyond them the Tuko'yo” (1948:153). (The term Tuko’yo may refer to the Tucusuyu/Zucuy Yokuts, discussed in the CPNC Mendota region monograph.) Gayton also wrote that “a'tbu”, which Latta placed as a Hoyima village on the San Joaquin River in the Herndon region, was “the main Dumna village at Millerton” (Gayton 1948:153).

Latta 1949. Latta’s (1949) text indicates that his primary consultant for the Hoyima was Pahmit, a man with a Pitkachi grandfather, Dumna father, and Gashowu and Pitkachi uncles (see the previous section). Latta (1949:4) gave the south side of the San Joaquin River in the Herndon region to the Pitkachi; he placed the Hoyima within the central and northern portion of the Herndon region, and also gave them most of the Cottonwood Creek region further west.

On the north side of the San Joaquin River, between the foothills and the Big Bend at Mendota, were the Hoyima. About a half mile below the Herndon bridge was the Hoyima village of Chayo. Another Hoyima village was located about three miles upstream from the Herndon bridge. It was named Atabo (Ah-tah’-bo). On both sides of the San Joaquin, about two miles above Lane’s Bridge, was the Hoyima village of Yimshu. On the north side of the San Joaquin River and about three miles above the mouth of Big Dry Creek, was the Hoyima village of Moloyu (Latta 1949:4).

The first two villages on the list, Atabo and Chayo, can be generally placed in the Herndon vicinity. However, neither Yimshu nor Moloyu can be mapped. Yimshu was said to have been about two miles upstream from “Lane’s Bridge.” We have not found any other historic reference to the site of Lanes Bridge, as a result of a cursory web-based search.

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 reprised all possible population information about the early San Joaquin River tribes, including a review of the Pico 1826 and Rodriguez 1828 visits (Cook 1955:51). With a mixture of factual information and guesswork, he arrived at an average population density of 5.05 persons per square mile for the San Joaquin Valley and adjacent foothills between the Merced and Kings Rivers (1955:53).

Latta 1977. In his 1977 edition, Latta (1977:161) repeated information from his 1949 edition, except that he altered the spelling of the group name to “Hoyumne” and of three of the village names—Chayo to “Chayou,” Atabo to “Atabau,” and Yimshu to “Yimshau.” He gave no explanation, but one can speculate that he added the “-mne” termination to the local tribe name to support a general argument that he made in 1977 that such an ending was a Yokuts tribal marker.

Wallace 1978. The California volume (Heizer 1978) divided Yokuts groups into Northern Valley, Southern Valley, and Foothill, to discuss the large Yokuts language family territory in three conveniently-sized chapters. The Herndon region was included within the arbitrary Northern Valley Yokuts chapter, written by William Wallace. Wallace (1978:462) mapped the Hoyima on the north side of the San Joaquin River, the Pitkachi along the southern side of the San Joaquin, and the Wakichi on the south side just upstream from the Pitkachi. In text, Wallace (1978:466) wrote, “On the north side of the San Joaquin where it flows across the lowlands before turning north lived the Hoyima; on the opposite bank were the Pitkachi, and farther upstream, the Wakichi” (Wallace 1978:466). The placements follow Kroeber (1925). Overall, the chapter should be considered a secondary source on Yokuts ethnogeography.