KERMAN REGION
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KERMAN REGION – PITKACHI LOCAL TRIBE
Scouts from a Spanish expedition visited “Pizcache” village somewhere east of the modern town of Herndon, quite a way upstream from the Kerman region, in October of 1806, a location that supports the common twentieth-century contention that they held the south side of the San Joaquin River in the Herndon region. If that is true, their Hoyima neighbors on the north side of the San Joaquin river were pinned into a very small territory, being constrained on the north by the Heuchi of the Madera region. Since the contact-period native Californians tended to name a river after its farthest downstream inhabitants, it is possible that the 1806 visitors recorded “Pizcache” as the native name of the San Joaquin River, not the name of the local tribe they encountered in the Hoyima region. On the other hand, it may be that the Hoyima and Pitkachi had a close relationship and mutual access anywhere along the San Joaquin River in the Kerman and Herndon regions.
A total of 136 Pitkachis moved to Mission Soledad between 1811 and 1831, 112 in the year 1822 alone. In doing so they were the first group from east of Fresno Slough (the Kings River channel to the San Joaquin River) to move to Mission Soledad in numbers. Mexican expeditions in search of horse-stealing Indians went out looking for the remaining Pitkachis in the mid-1820s. By the mid-nineteenth century they had moved eastward to join the Dumna in the present Lake Millerton vicinity of the Friant region. There, under the leadership of Tom-quit, they attempted to adapt to the presence of U.S. soldiers at Fort Miller and the short-lived Fresno Agency reservation during the 1850s. Tomq-uit’s own descendants came to identify themselves as Dumnas, rather than Pitkachis. Pitkachi descendents continue to live in Fresno and Madera counties today, some as members of the Table Mountain Rancheria, while others, descendants of Mission Soledad Indians, probably live in Coast Range towns of west-central California.
Environment
The Kerman region lies on the open San Joaquin Valley floor at the foot of the gradual fans of the San Joaquin and Kings rivers. Elevations vary between 170 and 230 feet. The San Joaquin River runs westward through the northern part of the region. On the west, two distributary channels of the Kings River—Fish Slough and Fresno Slough—run northward through the low area that was marked as a “Tular” or tule marsh on the Estudillo map of 1819. Those low western sloughs also acted as overflow channels for Tulare Lake during exceptionally wet years. Natural vegetation over most of the region was valley grassland. Willow thickets bordered the rivers and sloughs.
Early Expedition References
Moraga-Muñoz 1806. The Moraga-Muñoz expedition explored the San Joaquin River 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. They visited a village they identified as “Pizcache” on October 13, but that village was in the valley currently filled by Millerton Lake, 25 miles upstream from the Kerman region (see Friant region CPNC monograph). Another scouting party was sent downstream, probably as far as Biota in the Kerman region; no downstream villages were mentioned in the diary (Muñoz in Cook 1960:251. 253).
Pico 1815. José Dolores Pico led a punitive raid into the San Joaquin Valley from the Monterey Presidio in November of 1815. They seem to have passed through the west portion of the Kerman region on their way south on November 11 and camped that night in the Helm region (Pico in Cook 1960:269). After joining the Ortega expedition near Tulare Lake, the Pico party returned north through the west portion of the Kerman region on November 19, on their way to the San Joaquin River. No Indian people were mentioned in the Kerman region portion of either the southern or northern passage (see Pico in Cook 1960:269-270).
Estudillo 1819. The Estudillo reconnaissance expedition passed through the western portion of the Kerman region on November 5, 1819, on its way north through the central San Joaquin Valley. The night before, they had camped at San Pablo, a cluster of pools of water somewhere on the plain, probably just north of Burrell and east of Helm in the Helm region.
- Left San Pablo, going north to the San Joaquin River over muddy, salty, and marshy ground. We crossed several deep cuts reaching the river at 4 P.M., having gone but 10 leagues because of so many turns … In nearly all today’s journey there were encountered the scattered bones of horses already dead many days [Estudillo in Gayton 1936:81].
The Estudillo party made camp in the Mendota region, at a village of Captain Tape which had been inhabited just 15 days earlier. It should be noted that Tape and most of his Cutucho Yokuts people had already moved to missions Soledad and San Juan Bautista by this time, but that the Pitkachis had not yet gone to Mission Soledad in numbers.
Mission Register References
One hundred and forty Pitkachis were baptized at Franciscan missions. Most, 136 people, were baptized at Soledad between 1811 and 1831. Three were baptized at San Juan Bautista and one at San Antonio. Also, one woman baptized at Mission Santa Clara from the “ranchería de Pacachi” may have been a Pitkachi. Spelling of the tribal name varied greatly from one missionary to the next. Specifics are given below for each mission group.
Soledad. The first Pitkachi ever baptized was an 11-year-old boy who was part of a group of 17 men, women, and children baptized at Soledad from the Tular on May 3, 1811 (SO-B 1429, among 1414-1431). Through family cross-reference we find that most of the people in that group were Tucsutsi, believed to be the Soledad name for the Cutucho Yokuts of the Mendota region, and a significant proportion were Yyins, possibly the Apiachi Yokuts of the Helm region. The boy’s sister was among the next three Pitkachis baptized, also at Soledad as Tulares people, but not until April 28, 1818 (SO-B 1661-1667). Their father, 60-year-old Chacuita (SO-B 1905), was baptized among the large wave of 112 directly-identified Pitkachis at Soledad in 1822. Father Payeras baptized 29 of them on one day, writing “Todos de R. Pitcatse” (SO-B 1804-1832). Father Juan Cabot baptized the other 83, labeling one a “Pitcatse en el Tular” (SO-B 1833), but spelling most of the others “Pitcatche” (among SO-B 1837-1928). Three more were baptized in 1823 (SO-B 1952, 1953, 1957). Then there was a seven-year gap in baptisms (for all Yokuts groups east of Soledad) until 11 Pitkachis were baptized in 1830 (during which time one Pitkachi had been baptized in 1828). The first Pitkachi baptized in 1830, Maria Nazaria (SO-B 2036), was the one-year-old daughter of Valeriano who, the entry states “was already a Christian and has been a fugitive in the tulares”; Valariano had been baptized back in 1822 (SO-B 1845). The final four Mission Soledad Pitkachis were baptized in 1831 (SO-B 2079, 2094, 2098, 2099). Through the rest of the 1830s scores of Wechihits and Gashowus were baptized at Soledad, along with some Taches, Wimilchis, Dumnas, and Dalinchis. No more Pitkachis appeared at Mission Soledad after 1831.
San Juan Bautista. Three Pitkachis were baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista, two in 1819 and one in 1840. The two in 1819 were a mother and daughter who came in with some Eyulahuas Yokuts of the Firebaugh region and Chauchila Yokuts of the Dairyland region (SJB-B 2333, 2361); the husband of the woman and father of the child was Tomas Tohochie, who had been baptized as an Eyulahuas back in 1817 (SJB-B 2165). Years later, on June 25, 1840, a Pitkachi couple named Moctoa and Amoyloque brought their infant daughter to San Juan Bautista to be baptized as Manuela Juana (SJB-B 4475); in that time period occasional young adults from the Wimilchi, Dalinchi, and groups with unrecognizable geographic affiliation were being baptized at the secularized mission by Father Anzar.
San Antonio. A seven-year-old girl was brought by her parents, Tchic and Sauquelic, from the “Pitcaches” and baptized at Mission San Antonio on June 14, 1841 by Father Real of Mission San Carlos, according to the baptismal entry by Father Gutierrez (SAN-B 4601). No other Indian converts were baptized at San Antonio that year. There may also have been Pitkachis among the 48 individuals baptized at San Antonio from the “Tular” between 1836 and 1838, but the main target area for Mission San Antonio were the Tachi and Telamne Yokuts of the Lemoore and Goshen regions.
Mission Marriage Patterns. Pitkachis were partners in 24 renewed pre-mission marriages, all at Mission Soledad. Both spouses were identified as Pitkachi in the first case, in 1818, and the next 20 cases in 1822. (Local tribe origins of individuals may not always have been accurately reported, especially when the missionaries were processing large groups identified to them as having come from a particular rancheria, as in the case of the Pitkachis at Mission Soledad in 1822). In 1831 a Pitkachi-Hoyima woman and her “Chochichi [Toltichi Yokuts or Mono?]” husband were baptized and re-married in the church (SO-M 633). In 1832 a Pitkachi man and his Hoyima Yokuts wife were baptized and remarried in the church (SO-M 643).
Previously un-married and widowed Pitkachi men were spouses in 22 marriages at Mission Soledad; partners are identified as Wechihit Yokuts from the Sanger region (five cases), other Pitkachis (four cases), Gashowu Yokuts from the Clovis region (three cases), Hoyima Yokuts from the Herndon region (two cases), Dalinchi Yokuts from the Coarse Gold region (two cases), two women from Coast Range Costanoan groups, two from unknown locations, and one each of Chauchila Yokuts (Dairyland region), and Cutocho Yokuts (Mendota region).
Previously un-married and widowed Pitkachi women were spouses in 32 marriages at Mission Soledad; partners are identified as Cutocho Yokuts from the Mendota region (seven cases), other Pitkachis (four cases), Yyin Yokuts from the Helm region (four cases), Chaneche Yokuts from the Los Banos region (one case), Quitratre Yokuts from the Atwater region (one case), Yokuts from unidentified “Tular” areas (four cases), and Costanoan speakers from Coast Range locations (eight cases), Salinan speakers from the Coast Range (two cases), and a Coast Range Esselen speaker (one case).
Arroyo’s 1822 Padron. Father Arroyo de la Cuesta listed the three Pitkachis baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista as part of the thirteenth group in his 1822 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.”
Late Mission Period Expedition References
Pico 1826. Sergeant José Dolores Pico led a Mexican military expedition against horse thieves and fugitive Christians in the central San Joaquin Valley during the winter of 1825-1826. He crossed eastward to Hoyima territory, just north of the Kerman region on January 3, 1826, after raiding a village of fugitive Christians in the modern Firebaugh vicinity to the west. Then he went north in pursuit of the Hoyimas, attacking them in an unknown location, probably on the Chowchilla River in the Le Grand region. On January 6 he headed back south along the edge of the Sierra foothills, stating:
- Immediately I resumed my march to the east, along the margin of the Sierra Nevada, looking for the villages of the Pichicaches and the Guimilchis (Pico in Cook 1962:182).
Although Pico spent two more weeks in the valley, primarily raiding on the Kings River, he neither found nor mentioned the “Pichicaches,” presumably the Pitkachi, for the rest of the trip. During the expedition he did move north on January 16-17 over the plain through the west side of the Kerman region, from the Kings River in the Hanford region to Las Juntas in the Mendota region. His diary for those days did not mention any Indian people (Pico in Cook 1962:183).
Smith 1827. Jedediah Smith and his large group of contract trappers first entered central California from the south in early 1827. They moved north from the Kings River to the San Joaquin River in early March.
- I was then near the foot of the Mt and finding no further inducement for trapping and the indians telling me of a river they called the Peticutry [San Joaquin River] in which there was beaver I traveled north along near the foot of the Mt about 15 miles and encamped on the bank of the Peticutry* (*at the place where I first struck the Peticutry were a great number of small artificial mounds.) … [Smith in Brooks 1977:143-144].
It is not clear where Smith (in Brooks 1977:144) struck the San Joaquin River, but his men probably trapped its entire east-west portion. Nor did Smith mention any Indian people living in the Kerman region. Later, after having traveled north to the confluence of the San Joaquin and Stanislaus rivers, Smith noted the absence of Indian people along the north-south stretch of the San Joaquin:
- Since I struck the Peticutry I had seen but few indians. The greater part of those that once resided here having (as I have since been told ) gone in to the Missions of St. Joseph and Santa Clara [Smith in Brooks 1977:146].
This brief comment supports the mission register evidence, which suggests that most of the lowland people along the San Joaquin River had moved to the missions by 1827.
Estrada 1839. The Gashowu and Pitkachi were raided by Santiago Estrada in the summer of 1839, according to the extant paraphrase copy of his report to the Prefect of the First Military District on July 7 of that year:
- He says that on the 3rd he went out to La Junta. There he met Captain Antonio Buelna, Ensign Clemente Espinosa, Administrator of San Miguel Inocente Garcia, the united forces amounting to more than 80 men. They reached Kings River in order to call for help from the inhabitants of the region. They succeeded in surprising two Indian villages, Cayhohuis and Picachis. They were not considered criminals, but no one came out with good will; they did not take up arms, but ran away. Of the prisoners taken only one was known to be a thief. He and the rest, to the number of 77, mostly women and children are placed in charge of the prefect [Estrada in Cook 1962:191].
The “Cayhohuis” were probably the Gashowu, but Estrada did not provide precise geographic references to their location. Nor is it clear if the Pitkachi and Gashowu were living separately or together when they were raided. We surmise that the Pitkachi were harboring with the Gashowu at the time somewhere near the edge of the Sierran foothills along Big Dry Creek in the Clovis region.
1840-1900 Historical References
Naglee 1847. A United States army expedition under Henry Naglee went to a Pitkachi village in early June of 1847, while in the San Joaquin Valley in search of horse-stealing Indians. Phillips (1993:144) writes, “Naglee and his men followed the San Joaquin River upstream to the mountains, where they contacted Tom-quit, leader of the Pitkachi, and thirty of his followers.” We speculate that the meeting took place in the valley now under Millerton Lake, indicating that Tom-quit and the remnant Pitkachis were living among the Dumna at this early date.
Mariposa Indian War of 1851. The remnant Pitkachis were involved, to some extent, in the Mariposa Indian War of 1850-1851. They seem to have been living in the hills or mountains at the time, since the events described below were tied to gold mining activities. Phillips (1997:42) cites primary sources to the effect that Pitkachis were among the many groups at Savage’s Fresno River trading post (in the Raymond region) in November of 1850, when Savage heard that all of the tribes between the Merced and San Joaquin planned an uprising against the white miners and ranchers. When killing of settlers did start on December 17, it seems to have been led by Chauchila Yokuts, Chukchansi Yokuts, and Pohonichi Miwoks. However, the Mariposa County sheriff visited Chief Tom-quit of the Pitkachis on the San Joaquin River, and immediately thereafter 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 Cassidys 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 (1997). (See the CPNC Raymond region monograph for greater detail regarding the Mariposa Indian War.)
Treaty N, 1851. The Pitkachi were 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. Five “Pit-ca-chees” marked the treaty, led by “Tom-quit, chief” and followed by Ya-ko-wal, Too-tro-mi, Cho-lul, and Ne-sa-plo (Heizer 1972:78-79). The Treaty N reservation territory, 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 Pitkachis were placed in the central group (the San Joaquin River people) with the Gashowu (Cas-son) Yokuts, Dumna Yokuts, Dalinchi Yokuts, and Posgisa Monos, “which five tribes or bands acknowledge Tom-quit as their principal chief” (Heizer 1972:72).
Fresno River Agency 1854-1859. 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. D. A. Enyart’s 1854 report did not mention the Pitkachi among the tribes at the Fresno River reservation. Phillips notes that Enyart, in charge of Fresno Farm in 1854, wrote that the Pitkachi, numbering 250 persons under Tomquit, had not yet moved to that reservation. He asked the lieutenant in charge of Fort Miller to encourage the Pitkachi to move to the Fresno Farm.
- The Indians he spoke with, then engaged in salmon fishing and mining, exhibited no interest in relocating. The water at the farm, they told the lieutenant, was stagnant and contaned no fish [Phillips 2004:143].
In 1855 Enyart reported “at least about 1,000 to 1,500 Indians on the River (i.e., San Joaquin), suggesting that the Pitkachi and other groups had still declined to move to the smaller Fresno River (in Cook 1962:71). On August 30, 1859, M. B. Lewis listed 22 local tribes which recognized the Fresno Agency as their headquarters, among them the “Pit-cat-ches and Tal-linches (two distinct tribes); native habitat was the San Joaquin River; still near Fort Miller …. 150 [people]” (in Cook 1955:71; see also Phillips 2004:222).
Powers 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” (Powers 1877:370). The Pitkachis may have been extinct as a political group by 1877, but many individuals alive today include identified Pitkachis among their ancestors.
Classic Ethnographic References
Merriam 1903. Merriam did not visit Indians in the Kerman region. He did learn about Pitkachis from Mrs. Mathews, “an old Kosh’-o woman” at her home at Table Mountain (in the Auberry region) on October 30, 1903. She told him that Pitkachis lived at Table Mountain and nearby areas, along with Chukchansis (see Raymond and Coarse Gold regions), Dumnas (see Friant region), and Gashowas (see Clovis region). Regarding the Pitkachis themselves, Merriam wrote:
- At the time of my visit a few Pit-kah’-te and Kosho’-o Indians were fishing on a stretch of the river from Pullasky [later renamed Friant] upstream for a mile or so. They were spearing salmon and drying them for winter use [1967:416].
- 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) … Mrs. Matthews’ grandmother was a Toom’-nah but she speaks of the tribe and language as Pit-kah’-te [1967:417].
Clearly, by 1903 the greatly reduced Pitkachi tribe was living in the Table Mountain vicinity of the Friant and Auberry regions, northeast of their original homeland. (See the CPNC Friant monograph regarding the Millerton Band in 1910).
Kroeber 1925. Kroeber (1925:Plate 47) mapped the Pitkachi along the south side of the San Joaquin River, from their village of Gewachiu on the west (near where the river bends to the north) upstream beyond Fresno on the east, inclusive of the Kerman region and the southern portion of the Herndon region. He wrote:
- The Pitkachi, perhaps more accurately Pitkati (plural Pitakati or Pidekati) are said to have received their appellation from an evil-smelling salt or alkali of the same name, which they used to gather or prepare. This in turn is named after feces, pidik. They held the south side of the San Joaquin, living at Kohuou, near Herndon or Sycamore; at Weshiu, on a slough; and at Gewachiu, still farther downstream [1925:484].
Kroeber (1925:Plate 47) mapped the Pitcachi village of Gewachiu on the San Joaquin River within the CPNC Kerman region. He mapped Kohuou at Herndon in the CPNC Herndon region, the most easterly of the two alternative locations he referenced in the text quoted above. (The westerly alternative location for Kohuou was on the boundary of the Kerman and Herndon regions, where State Highway 145 now crosses the San Joaquin River). Kroeber did not attempt to map Weshiu. His association of the name Pitkachi with salt, alkali, and evil-smelling waste supports inclusion in their territory of the low, poorly-drained bottomlands along Fish Slough and Fresno Slough, location of the present town of San Joaquin in the western part of the Kerman region. Weshiu, “on a slough,” may have been along Fish Slough in that vicinity.
Latta 1949. In the inside cover of his 1949 volume, Latta mapped the Pitkachi along the south side of the San Joaquin River in the Kerman region, downstream from the general area where Kroeber had mapped them. He had little to say about them in his text, writing only:
- On the south side of the San Joaquin River, at the site above Herminghaus Ranch and known as Rancho de los Californios, was the Pitkachi village of Gewachiu. Another of their villages was Kohuou, located near where the town of Herndon is now [1949:4].
The two village locations are essentially where Kroeber (1925) had mapped them, but the reference to the Herminghuas Ranch is new. The limited information, and the lack of reference to a specific consultant, suggests that Latta’s consultants were minimally familiar with Pitkachi lands.
Recent Ethnographic References
Cook 1955. In his study of the aboriginal population of the entire San Joaquin Valley, Cook (1955:76-77) placed the Pitkachi in the portions of the Kerman and Herndon regions that are south of the San Joaquin River. In text, he noted that the Valley between the Merced and Kings rivers was “very poorly represented in the early documentary sources.” However, he reviewed the nineteenth-century sources regarding the Pitkachi and concluded that they alone had a population of 1,000-1,200 individuals (Cook 1955:51). As a result of a wider review, Cook (1955:50-54) suggested an aboriginal population of 5.05 persons per square mile in the San Joaquin Valley south of the Merced River and north of the Kings River.
Latta 1977. Latta made only minor changes in his Pitkachi presentation in his 1977 edition. He shifted the spelling of the group from “Pitkachi” to “Pitkache” and he shifted the center of their area a bit upstream along the south side of the San Joaquin River on the inside cover map. He also changed one of the village spellings, from “Gewachiu” to “Gewacheu.” Otherwise, he repeated the limited information found in his 1949 work.
Wallace 1978. The California volume (Heizer 1978) divided the Yokuts language sub-groups into three arbitrary sections—Northern Valley, Southern Valley, and Foothill—to discuss them in three conveniently-sized chapters. The Kerman region was included within the arbitrary Northern Valley Yokuts chapter, written by William Wallace. Wallace (1978:462) mapped the Pitkachi on the south side of the San Joaquin River, in both the Kerman and Herndon regions. In text, he 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). This placement follows Kroeber (1925). Overall, the chapter should be considered a secondary source on Yokuts ethno-geography.
