MADERA REGION – HEUCHI LOCAL TRIBE

The Heuchi local tribe of Northern Valley Yokuts-speakers (also spelled Euci, Euchi, Geuche, How-ech-ee, Huachi, and Hueche) lived along the Fresno River on the eastern San Joaquin Valley plain at the time of Spanish contact, according to a variety of Spanish and Mexican sources. Their territory approximated the CPNC Madera region, although their boundaries with surrounding groups cannot be precisely reconstructed. The Madera region is now predominately farmland surrounding the town of Madera in western Madera County. The Heuchi lived just to the east of significant Franciscan mission outreach, but 23 individuals from the group were baptized at Franciscan missions between 1817 and 1841. Mexican correspondences document the Heuchi as “horse thieves” in the late 1820s. Their population was probably reduced significantly by the 1833 malaria epidemic. The Heuchi signed federal Treaty N in late April of 1851, at which time the treaty commissioners designated their headman Nai-yak-qua as the representative of a cluster of five Fresno River-Chowchilla River-Mariposa Creek groups—the Heuchi, Chauchila, Chukchansi, Pohonichi, and Sutunuthru (Nook-choos). Today’s Indian groups of the Madera and Fresno county foothills probably include individuals with Heuchi Yokuts ancestry.

Environment

The Madera region is flat valley land at 200-400 feet in elevation along the east side of the San Joaquin Valley. The Fresno River runs westward through the southern portion of the region, while smaller Berenda Creek, also running generally westward, flows through the northern part of the region. Contact-era vegetation was predominately valley grassland, with scattered valley oaks in the eastern portion. Willows and cottonwoods lined the creeks.

Spanish Period Expedition References

Moraga-Muñoz 1806. The Moraga-Muñoz expedition passed through the Madera region on October 11, 1806, on its way south along the east side of the San Joaquin Valley. About half way from their morning camp on the Chowchilla River (which they had labeled the Tecolate) they arrived at the Fresno River, which they called the Santa Ana:

Having traveled about four leagues, we came upon an arroyo well populated with willow and some oak. It was found to be dry but had one huge pool. We called it the Santa Ana. It has low banks in that portion which trends toward the plain, or valley. … All the country we observed between the Tecolote (mentioned yesterday) and the Santa Ana is worse than bad. From the Santa Ana to the San Joaquin there is a little pasturage, although it is sparse and spread out widely. Some other stream beds are seen but none merit consideration; they might carry some water in the winter [Muñoz in Cook 1960:251].

The lack of mention of tribal people in this entry may indicate that the expedition did not make any contact with the local people in the Madera region, as Muñoz did write of encounters with local Indian people, and name them, along many other parts of his journey.

Mission Register References

The Heuchi did not move to the Franciscan missions in large numbers. Twenty-three Heuchis are identifiable in mission baptismal entries; they are scattered among the records of three missions over a long time period, from 1817 to 1841. Most, 20, were baptized at San Juan Bautista, while two were baptized at Santa Cruz and one at Soledad. As with so many groups, however, a few others may be hidden among those identified merely as “Tulares” people in 1830s records at San Juan Bautista and Soledad. No Heuchi headman was specified in the mission registers as having been baptized.

Santa Cruz. Presumably the first Heuchi ever baptized was a young man named Quiuech from “Huachi” rancheria. He was baptized in 1817 at Mission Santa Cruz as part of a small mixed group dominated by Nupchenche Yokuts (Santa Rita region), including Nupchenche headman Cholé (among SCR-B 1683-1698). Baptized as Cleto, Quiuech died years later as a fugitive in the San Joaquin Valley (SCR-B 1690, SCR-D 1805). The only other probable Heuchi baptized at Santa Cruz was a 12-year-old “Guachicoo” girl who was baptized alone in April of 1830 (SCR-B 2166); that spring a few Hoyima Yokuts (Herndon region) were appearing at San Juan Bautista, and some Pitcatchi Yokuts (Kerman region) were going to Mission Soledad.

San Juan Bautista. The 20 identified Heuchis at Mission San Juan Bautista were baptized between 1819 and 1841. The first two converts were a child and her mother, baptized in late 1819 among a group of Eyulahua and Copcha Yokuts, people just to the west of the Madera region whose societies were crumbling that year (SJB-B 2328, 2357). Six more Heuchis were baptized at San Juan Bautista in 1821 in large mixed groups of Quithrathre, Chauchila and Uthrocos Yokuts, from regions just to the north of Madera; in all six cases the Heuchi individuals were standing next to Chauchilas or Uthrocos at baptism (SJB-B 2675, 2713, 2756, 2886, 2925, 2930.) The next group of Heuchis of any size to be baptized were six women and adolescent girls baptized with neighboring Thrayapthres, Chauchilas, and some Merced River Yokuts on July 14, 1826 (among SJB-B 3595-3608). The last four Heuchis at San Juan Bautista were baptized in the post-mission era, two with Chauchilas in 1837 (SJB-B 4299, 4304), one with Yokuts from unlocated areas in 1839 (SJB-B 4392), and the last a lone eight-year-old in October of 1841 (SJB-B 4558).

Soledad. The single identified Heuchi at Mission Soledad was a 70-year-old woman named Ojuulut “de la Rancheria llamada Euce en el Tular, Norte de esta Mission … madre de Perpetua de la partida 2029 [of the community called Euce, in the tule lands to the north of this mission … mother of Perpetua, baptized number 2029],” who was baptized by herself on November 5, 1829 (SO-B 2045). It is likely that she had moved to Soledad with her daughter, who was a Chauchila baptized in the summer of 1828, soon after the Rodriguez raids of the spring of 1828.

Mission Marriage Patterns. Among the few Heuchis who went to the missions were five who were spouses in pre-mission inter-group marriages. All were at San Juan Bautista. Three involved Chauchila Yokuts, one was to a Copcha Yokuts, and one was to a Wuimilchi Yokuts from the rather distant Riverdale region to the south. Previously unmarried Heuchis and widows/widowers were involved in another 13 mission weddings at San Juan Bautista and one at Santa Cruz. Most partners in those post-mission marriages were Nupchenche Yokuts (Santa Rita region), Eyulahua Yokuts (Firebaugh region), or Copcha Yokuts (Firebaugh/Cottonwood Creek region).

Arroyo de la Cuesta’s 1822 Padron. The Heuchi was the sixth group listed in Father Arroyo de la Cuesta’s 1822 padron for Mission San Juan Bautista. In the preamble to that work he noted that the “Gueche” combined with the “Chausila” [Yokuts of the adjacent Dairyland region] together made up only a half-sized group at the mission. Then in the text introduction to the group, following his Chauchila list, he wrote: “I continue to the Geuche Nation, who are nearly one with the Chausilas.”

Table of Heuchi and Heuchi-Descendant Marriages at Franciscan Missions

Mar.	Date	M-bapt	Male name	Native name	M-Group	Status	F-Group	Female name	Native name	F-baptism
JB0604	02/05/20	JB2164	Lucas	Locopuhs	Eyuslahua	SS	Geuche	Liberia	Yamaslat	JB2357
JB0659	12/20/20	JB2621	Grato	Topoths	Chausila	RR	Geuche	Grata	Mohohuat	JB2622
JB0675	04/11/21	JB2713	Cristino	Cunna	Geuche	RR	Chausila	Cristina	Suyosat	JB2714
JB0681	05/07/21	JB2183	Faustino	Chequin	Nopchinche	SS	Geuche	Trifosa	Pitetiths	JB2675
JB0719	09/10/21	JB2376	Nicostrato	Chigihue	Nopchinche	SS	Geuche	Aurelia	Huechilit	JB2886
JB0733	09/29/21	JB2924	German	Cosiths	Copcha	RR	Geuche	Germana	Omeyaths	JB2925
JB0849	08/19/23	JB2930	Nunilon	Conpos	Geuche	SS	Uthrocus	Waldetrudis	Huehuisit	JB3245
JB0874	10/25/24	JB2400	Salvador	Lochoquín	Copcha	VV	Geuche	Liberata	Yamaslat	JB2357
JB0945	12/19/28	JB2928	Niceforo	Chunoquiom Uthrocus	VS	Geuche	Ysabel	Jathrahuiths	JB3603
JB0947	12/19/28	JB2380	Felipe	Ojosic	Eyuslahua	VS	Geuche	Maria Cruz	Chaaga[s]at	JB3605
JB0948	12/19/28	JB2340	Gaspar	Gicha	Eyuslahua	SS	Geuche	Amelberga	Sucsunul	JB2756
JB0967	07/05/30	JB0175	Aycardo	-	Ochentac	VS	Geuche	Bresia	Comlehuil	JB3556
CR0778	05/09/31	CR1243	Yrineo	Yuojunas	Locobo	VS	Guachicoo	Josefa	Molilo	CR2166
JB0979	05/20/31	JB2382	Uvaldo	Mialéjau	Eyuslahua	SS	Geuche	Camila Cira	Thrua[ccmai]	JB3608
JB1015	05/06/33	JB3787	Isac	Mathnuiis	Siucsianthre	SS	Geuche	Marcelina	Chojoloc	JB3607
JB1016	05/21/33	JB2591	Nicandro	Silsilit	Uthrocus	SS	Geuche	Vicenta	Hueljat	JB2328
JB1080	09/03/36	JB2304	Facundo	Thrithrii	Nopchinche	SV	Geuche	Maria Cruz	Chaayacat	JB2328
JB1100	12/20/37	JB4304	Jose Antonio	Pooze	Geuchi	RR	Huimillike	Josefa	Cuila	JB4304
JB1101	12/20/37	JB4298	Jose Reyes	Guachica	Chausila	RR	Geuchi	Maria Concepcion	Yaijat	JB4299

Note: data base as of 4-4-2009; “Status” column indicates prior marital status for groom and bride (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 and then went to the San Joaquin River in the Firebaugh region. From that point his diary is somewhat confusing. The interpretation put forth in the CPNC monographs is that he next moved east to the San Joaquin River in the eastern Herndon region, then turned north, arriving at Berenda Creek in the Madera region on the evening of January 4. The only specific local tribe mentioned in the area was the “Jollima” near the “Santa Ana” river; the latter name was variously applied to the Fresno River and Cottonwood Creek by earlier expeditions. It is suggested here that their camp was on Berenda Creek that evening. The next day they attacked a village on a high-flowing river, which by distance from the camp was probably the Chowchilla River (see Le Grand region CPNC monograph). In summary, this attack suggests that the Heuchi, Hoyima (Herndon region), Trayaptre (Le Grand region), and Chauchila (by then in the Le Grand region) were seen by the Mexicans as a single group, and may have been acting that way in response to the Mexicans.

After attacking the village, Pico returned to the presumed Madera region Berenda Creek camp for the night, then moved south to the San Joaquin River and on to other adventures on January 6. While moving south from the San Joaquin to the Kings River on January 10, Pico was told “that on the Kings River horses had been seen near the village of Gueches” (Pico in Cook 1962:182). It is more likely that Pico was referring to the Wechikit than to the Heuchi, and the original manuscript report should be consulted to recheck the spelling of the reference.

Rodriguez 1828. Sebastion Rodriguez raided the Heuchi on April 29, 1828, during another punitive expedition against horse-raiding groups on the Chowchilla, Fresno, and San Joaquin rivers:

At about 2:00 o'clock in the morning I set out for the village called Teuche [sic] and did not find the inhabitants for they had already fled the previous day. I followed their tracks about 7 leagues into the mountains and in a very rocky place I came upon 2 Christian men, one Christian woman, all three from San Juan Mission, one heathen man, five women and two children. In all there were eleven. I then returned to the camp, reaching it about 7:00 o' clock in the evening.

All these villages are stirred up by a Christian Indian from Mission San Juan, who came to tell them that the soldiers were on their way. This man arrived the day before I did, and after just being able to notify the Joyimas, immediately made a circuit through the north warning everywhere that horses are eaten. The heathen Indians stated that this Christian is called Delfino [Rodriguez in Cook 1962:185].

The only baptized individual likely to have been the “Delfino” mentioned in the quote was a Copcha (probably from the Cottonwood Creek region) who had been baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista at age 22 in 1818 (SJB-B 2396). Since the Madera region does not include Sierran lands, we conclude that the Heuchi had withdrawn into a neighboring region during the raid, and we speculate that the withdrawl was up the Fresno River into the Raymond region, or perhaps farther, into the Coarse Gold region. Note that four Hoyimas were baptized at San Juan Bautista in May, and more in the summer of 1828.

1846-1910 Historical References

Mariposa Indian War of 1851. The Heuchis were listed among participant groups from the eastern San Joaquin Valley and Sierra foothills who initiated a resistance against American traders and settlers between May of 1850 and late April of 1851, an uprising that came to be known as the Mariposa Indian War (see Phillips 1997). All of the actual clashes took place in foothill regions, mainly the Coarse Gold and Raymond regions, and Heuchi leadership does not seem to have been prominent among the participants. Details regarding the Mariposa Indian War are presented in the CPNC monograph for the Raymond region.

Treaty N, 1851. The “How-ech-ees” were among 16 local tribes of the upper Chowchilla, San Joaquin, and Kings rivers to sign federal Treaty N with U.S. commissioners at a spot near the foothills on the San Joaquin River on April 29, 1851 (Heizer 1972:71-81; Phillips 2004:27, 30). Their five signatories were Nai-yak-qua, No-cheel, Chal-wak-chee, Par-sa, and Po-yai. The commissioners divided the 16 signatory local tribes into three sections for purposes of future interactions. The Heuchi were placed with the Chauchila Yokuts, Chukchansi Yokuts, Pohonichi Miwok, and Nuchu Miwok in the northern group, “which five tribes or bands acknowledge Nai-yak-qua as their principal chief” (Heizer 1972:72).

Fresno River Reservation 1854. The Fresno Reservation was established in 1854 at the eastern edge of the Madera region. Hoover et al. (1966:172) identify the ranch headquarters on the Fresno River Road, ten miles northeast of Madera, and cite an article in the Mariposa Chronicle of October 6, 1854, as follows:

We learn that Mr. Henley, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, has leased the Adobe House and Ranch of Capt. Vinsonhaler on the Frezno [sic], and intends locating there for the present all the Indians originally belonging in that section, many of whom have heretofore refused to remove to the Tejón [Hoover et. al. 1966:172].

Cook (1955:71), who paraphrases the “Office of Indian Affairs” reports from the Fresno River agency during the 1850s (now in the National Archives), reproduces D. A. Enyart’s list of groups on the “Fresno Farm” reservation 1854; it included the “Chowchilla” and “Choot-chances,” but did not mention the Heuchi.

Fresno Agency, 1859. Cook (1955:71) paraphrased the “Office of Indian Affairs” report for the Fresno Agency by M. B. Lewis on August 30, 1859, which listed 18 members of the “How-ches, once large; always have been on the Fresno” (Cook 1955:71).

Powers 1877. The Heuchi are not among the various Yokuts tribes that Powers listed. However, he did gather information about a chief named Nai-ak-a-we, almost certainly the same person as Naiyakqua, who signed the 1851 Treaty N as the Heuchi chief:

Nai-ak’-a-we was a famous prophet of the Chukchansi, who died in 1854. It is said that his name was known and his power was acknowledged from King’s River as far north as Columbia; but this seems hardly probable. … He sought … to reconcile the warring captains of villages and chiefs of tribes, and thereby harmonize them into one powerful nation. … But the question of a food-supply was one which this savage statesman, however able and far-sighted, could not master. … They had to scatter into families to collect food, and Naiakawe beheld one hope after another and one noble design after another pass away [Powers 1877:372].

Note that Naiyakqua was remembered during the 1870s as a Chukchansi, although he had signed Treaty N in 1851 as a Heuchi. Clearly, the great extent of land area attributed to the Chukchansi by the 1870s is a reflection of the extension of that term to include all Madera County Yokuts from anywhere along the Fresno River.

Classic Ethnographic References

Kroeber 1925. Kroeber (Plate 47) mapped the Heuchi generally on the Fresno River at Madera and to its west. This placed them within the eastern Cottonwood region, the Madera region, and the western Friant region. He wrote:

The Heuchi, Heuche, Heutsi (plural Hewachinawi) had a large settlement at Ch’ekauy, on Fresno River 4 miles below Madera. They were certainly on the north side of this stream and may have had both its lower banks [1925:484].

Kroeber mapped Ch’ekayu within the Madera region. He also mapped a village called Halau within the Madera region, but was not sure if it belonged to the Heuchi or Chauchila Yokuts. “Halau, 'cane,' near Berenda … may have been in [Chauchila] range or that of the Heuchi” (Kroeber 1925:485). CPNC land areas suggest that it was probably a Heuchi village prior to the turmoil of 1820s and later.

Gayton 1948. Gayton had very little to say about the Yokuts people of the plains north of the San Joaquin River. What she does say derives from Bill Wilson, aged 90 at the time of her interview:

On the Fresno River at Madera were the Čauši’la (Chauchila) whose head man was Opa’mči (Gayton 1948:153).

The attribution of Chauchilas to the town (and region) of Madera is probably a reference to the early twentieth century. Alternatively, Wilson may have fallen into the habit of subsuming the Heuchis into the more global term “Chauchila” by the early twentieth century. Note that Gayton wrote that Bill Wilson told Stanley Newman that he was a “Chowchilla” but told Gayton that he was a Dumna.

Latta 1949. In the inside cover of his 1949 volume, Latta mapped the Heuchi along the north side of the Fresno River below Madera. He had little to say about them in his text, writing only:

The Heuchi claimed Fresno River from the San Joaquin River to the foothills. Their village of Chekayu was located on the north bank of Fresno River, about four miles below the present Madera [1949:3].

This information, about both the group location and the village of Chekayu, seems to be directly from Kroeber (1925), not from any Latta informant. All in all, Latta’s 1949 information for the Madera region does not reflect the kind of rich knowledge his informants had for areas south of the San Joaquin River.

Recent Ethnographic References

Cook 1955. In his study of the aboriginal population of the entire San Joaquin Valley, Cook (1955:76) split the Madera region into two mapping areas, placing the southern portion of the Madera region in his Fresno River mapping area for the “Heuchi-Chukchansi-Dalinchi” (that also included parts of the Cottonwood Creek, Friant, Raymond, Coarse Gold, and Nipinnawassee regions), while placing the northern Madera region in his Chowchilla River mapping area for the “Chauchila” (that also included the Dairyland, southern Le Grand, southern El Nido, northern Raymond, and northern Nipinnawassee regions). In text, he noted that the vicinity was “very poorly represented in the early documentary sources” but brought together scraps of data regarding Mexican incursions against the Heuchi (Cook 1955:51). While Cook’s (1955:50-54) analysis of population density in the area, based upon a wide range of untestable assumptions gleaned from early records, did not comport with his mapping units, it did result in his suggestion of 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. In his 1977 edition, Latta changed the group name spelling to “Chauchela” and re-wrote his material on the group. He reprinted the Fremont Memoir excerpt in one section (1977:237-241), then added another section on their geography, in which he attributed the villages of Halau and Shehámniu to the Chauchela group on the basis of information from Pahmit (Dumna) and George Rivercomb (half-blood Chukchanci) that was not published in 1949 (1977:156-159):

Hala, the dwarf bamboo, or sugar cane, was common along most of the streams in Yokuts terrritory. At least three Yokuts villages were named for it. Best known were the villages on Kern Slough, on Berenda Slough and one directly west of where stands the present white village of Berenda. Both Rivercomb and Pahmit were informants about the Berenda locality. Pahmit knew the site when there were no whites in the San Joaquin Valley but was almost totally blind, so did not accompany me to the village of Hala on Berenda Slough.

Rivercomb was born about 1858, and remembered helping his relatives cut cane there as early as 1875. He accompanied me to the old site in 1925 [Latta 1977:443-445].

Latta concluded the section with a detailed description of the two-day process of harvesting sugar from the cut cane. The subject is beyond the scope of this study.

Wallace 1978. The California volume (Heizer 1978) divides Yokuts groups into arbitrary Northern Valley, Southern Valley, and Foothill segments, to discuss the large Yokuts language territory in three conveniently sized chapters. The Madera region is included within the arbitrary Northern Valley Yokuts chapter, written by William Wallace. Wallace (1978:462) mapped the “Hewchi” on the east San Joaquin plain along the north side of the Fresno River. He wrote, “Below the Merced came the Chawchila, on the plains along the several channels of the Chowchilla, and the Heuchi, who held the north side, or perhaps both banks, of the lower Fresno” (1978:466). Also in text, he followed Kroeber in giving the village of Halau in the Madera region to the Chauchila (Wallace 1978:470). Overall, Wallace’s presentation of ethno-geographic information for his Northern Valley Yokuts area is not systematic.