SANTA RITA REGION
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SANTA RITA REGION – NOPCHINCHE LOCAL TRIBE
Environment
The Santa Rita region is a flat plain in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. Elevation varies minimally, within the 100-140 ft. range. In this region the north-flowing San Joaquin River is braided out into a number of distributaries; the main river during early fall low flows probably jumped back and forth among those distributaries from one year to the next. Additional Sierran waters join the San Joaquin River in the eastern portion of the region, in the form of the Chowchilla and Fresno rivers. Native vegetation was grassland and freshwater marsh, with willow thickets and occasional cottonwood trees along the river and slough channels within the region.
Spanish Period Expedition References
Moraga-Muñoz 1806. The Moraga-Muñoz expedition arrived in the general Santa Rita Park/Dos Palos area on September 23, 1806, having traveled east from Los Banos Creek:
- We stopped at a spot, previously discovered, called Santa Rita. Here camp was established, so that in going out from it new discoveries could be made… This area is somewhat saline and very heavily covered with green vegetation at this season. In all this region there are very numerous bands of deer and antelope… There are also great tule swamps in all this region and much black willow along this stream (Muñoz in Cook 1960:248).
The party explored southward the next day, visiting an empty village, probably an Eyulahua Yokuts village in the Firebaugh region. From Dos Palos they moved east to the San Joaquin River on September 25:
- In the afternoon of this day forty-two warriors came to our camp and showed themselves to be friendly… Taking advantage of our good faith and confidence, they remained in the camp all night, receiving also refreshment from us and admiring exceedingly our clothing and ornaments [Muñoz in Cook 1960:248].
The Spaniards traveled generally northward for three leagues the next day, September 26, 1806, and arrived at a Nopchinche village:
- It was situated on the other [east] side of the river, hidden among some willow trees. It is called Nupchenche and may have 250 souls, more or less, under their chief called Choley. The reception they gave us was as follows. There came out a very old woman, who sprinkled us with seeds. Emerging at the same time, the chiefs led us to the interior of the village where between intertwined willow trees they had stretched out some mats and deerskins for our reception. On these they placed an abundance of their food, with two very white loaves of a seed which resembles our rice [Muñoz in Cook 1960:248].
That Nopchinche village may have been at the confluence of the Chowchilla and San Joaquin rivers. (See “Mission Register References” below for a note on the baptism of Captain Choley at Santa Cruz in 1817). On the next day the Spanish party moved north out of the area, across the El Nido region, and on to the Atwater region.
Pico 1815. José Dolores Pico led a punitive raid into the San Joaquin Valley from the Monterey Presidio in November of 1815. Pico was told about conditions at the Nopchinche village by Chaneche Yokuts they captured in either the Los Banos or Mud Slough region on November 8, 1815:
- These heathen told me that at a distance of four leagues up the River San Joaquin from this village there was another village called Nopchenches, which had many horses, and at which were to be found the Christian fugitives Justo, Damian, Severo, and Pedro Pablo. I sent Corporal Juarez with fourteen men to arrest the said Christians and heathen, and bring back the horses which they said were to be found there.
- Reaching the village, he entered it, but no people remained except the chief and four of his companions. The corporal charged him with [concealing] the Christians and the horses which had been there. To this he replied that the Christians, together with all his people, as soon as they heard the noise of the troops going to the other village, had fled to the swamps and that he and the other with him alone remained [Pico in Cook 1960:268].
Estudillo 1819. The Estudillo punitive expedition passed north along the San Joaquin River from the Mendota region on November 6, 1819, and camped that night somewhere in the Santa Rita region. They continued north to the Mud Slough region the next day, in hopes of finding and attacking fugitive Chaneche Yokuts (Estudillo in Gayton 1936:81-82). Although the expedition text does not mention the Nopchinches, an accompanying sketch map shows the Chowchilla River as the Nopchenches River (Savage Documents, Volume 2, page 216, The Bancroft Library).
Mission Register References
A total of 151 Nopchinches are currently identifiable as having been baptized at Franciscan missions--134 at San Juan Bautista, 15 at Santa Cruz, and two at San Carlos Borromeo. Also, a few Soledad converts listed only as “Tulares” people may have come from the Nopchinche group.
San Juan Bautista. A total of 134 Nopchinches (alternatively spelled Nopthrinthre; also “Nopchinche en los Tulares” and “casta o rancheria de Nopchinche") were baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista. First, in July of 1817, came a single young man who was stated to be a relative of a Teilamene man who had been baptized years earlier (probably a Quihueths Yokuts of the Oro Loma region (SJB-B 2183, 1965). The great majority of the Nopchinches were baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista between June 1819 and July 1820. Captain Uttoi was baptized as Anatolio on June 12, 1820, and Second Captain Juyunuul was baptized as Nono the next day (SJB-B 2447, 2481). The last Nopchinche baptisms at San Juan Bautista, on March 1, 1823, were of older women said to be in their 70s (SJB-B 3300-3302).
Santa Cruz. At Mission Santa Cruz 15 people were baptized under the group name Xagim (alternatively Sagim, Sagin, Saajama, and possibly Xaguanaco), one in 1804 and the other 14 between 1817 and 1821. The first of the 1817 Santa Cruz converts from Xagim was Captain Leon Cholé, age 45 (SCR-B 1683 by Fr. Escudé on April 5, 1817); undoubtedly he was the “Captain Choley” of the 1806 Moraga-Muñiz expedition. The Xagim equivalency to Nopchinche is seen in Arroyo’s 1822-1823 Padron for Mission San Juan Bautista, which includes four of the Santa Cruz Xagims, re-aggregated to San Juan Bautista, among the Nopchinches there. The probable last Nopchinche convert at Mission Santa Cruz--a woman identified as a “Xaguanaco”—was baptized on September 30, 1824 (SCR-B 2065 by Father Gil).
San Carlos Borromeo. Two Nopchinche individuals appear in the Mission San Carlos Borromeo baptismal register. The first, an individual called “Gaspar Baltasar Melchor”, aged 55, was baptized on the verge of death at the Monterey Presidio guardhouse on January 25, 1816; the baptismal entry says he was “taken in the last expedition under Sergeant Pico, he was of the Rancheria Nonchech” and his death register entry indicates he died on January 25, 1816 (SCA-B 2982 by Fr. Sarría; SCA-D 2156). The second Nopchinche baptized at San Carlos Borromeo was a one-year old, the son of a couple baptized in later years at Mission San Juan Bautista; the entry states “a son of a gentil Tulareña mother of the same Nopchinche rancheria called Caassamis, and the non-Christian Onouezuguis, son of a Christian at Mission Santa Cruz called _[blank]_ of the Notoals, according to what I have been able to determine” (SCA-B 3126 on June 7, 1819 by Fr. Sarría).
Soledad. Two of the Mission San Juan Bautista Nopchinches later re-aggregated to Mission Soledad, according to notes in Arroyo’s 1822 Padron. They were Gervasia (SJB-B 2300) and her mother Rufina (SJB-2354). At Soledad, Rufina married Mariano Oscosuc of the Cothsmejait, a poorly-documented group that may have come from the CPNC Hilmar region on the lower Merced River (SO-M 583). There were probably other Nopchinches among the numerous people baptized at Soledad merely as people of the “Tular.”
Mission Marriage patterns. Nopchinches who went to the missions had a number of pre-mission marriages that were renewed and documented in the mission registers. Links to neighbors shown by these marriages were as follows:
- Internal 23
- Eyulahua 3
- Chausila 2
- Copcha 1
- Notoaliths 1
- Chanech 1
Nopchinche post-baptism marriages were primarily with people from other Yokuts-speaking groups, including Uthrocos from the El Nido region (5), Chausila from the Dairyland region (5), Eyulahuas from the Firebaugh region (3), Heuchi from the Madera region (2), Chaneche from the Los Banos region (2), Quithrathre from the Atwater region (1), Notoaliths from the Mud Slough region (1), and Teilamne from the Oro Loma region (1). A few post-baptism marriages were with Coast Range-based Ohlone/Costanoan speakers, including members of the Ausaima (2), Orestac/Tamarox (2), and Guacharron (1) groups.
Arroyo’s 1822-1823 Padron. The Nopchinche was the first group listed in Father Arroyo de la Cuesta’s 1822 padron. In its preamble he wrote, “First will be the Nopthrinthre nation with whom I do so much work.” Then in the text introduction to the group, he wrote “As of today, 24 June of 1822, I list, 131 in all, the following Nopthrinthres [then follows the list] … which lists all the people of this nation, who were the first that were baptized, and whom I defended viribus et ar[unus?] at Carmel in 1819." Later in the 1822 padron they are again mentioned in relation to the Uthrocos, the sixth group listed: “Padron of the Uthrocos Nation … very great friends of the Nopthrinthre who remained away from the mission initially."
Arroyo’s Linguistics Notebook. Among the many items in Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta’s linguistics notebook was a “Nopchinche” grammar from which Kroeber (1959) extracted elements. Madison S. Beeler (1971) later published grammatical observations, with translations of most of Arroyo’s textual material.
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 vicinity. On January 1, 1826 he continued generally to the east:
- I arranged to send two guides on ahead to scout whether there were any fishermen in the swamps and lakes and get accurate information. Having done this … I followed my route to the east and penetrated into the interior of the tule swamps … We traveled about 9 leagues [Pico in Cook 1962:181].
Camp was probably made in the Dos Palos vicinity. The next day, January 2, the party left the Santa Rita region without encountering any tribal people there. They continued for 6 leagues in an “easterly” direction and came upon a village “on the San Joaquin River … at which the previous day some heathen Indians had arrived,” a village almost certainly in the Firebaugh region. (See CPNC Firebaugh region monograph for details of interactions that day.)
Smith 1827. Jedediah Smith probably passed through the Santa Rita region in March of 1827, on his way north from San Bernardino to the Stanislaus River with scores of trappers and more than 100 horses. In his diary review, he noted the absence of Indian people in a stretch of land that included the region:
- Since I struck the Peticutry [San Joaquin River] 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 suggest that most of the lowland people along the San Joaquin River had moved to the missions, and the remainder had retired to the east to join groups such as the Hoyima, Heuchi, and Thrayapthre/Chausila.
1846-1910 Historic References
The Nopchinche disappeared as a cultural unit during the mission period. They did not participate in the 1851 treaties, nor were they encountered by any middle or late nineteenth-century travelers.
Classic Ethnographic References
Kroeber 1925. Kroeber (1925?) did not map any local tribes or villages within the land here assigned to the Santa Rita region. He had heard of the Nopchinche, probably from one or another of the mission register rancheria lists published at earlier times. He discussed them among the tribes of the northern group of his valley division, stating “There are known in this region the Nupchinche or Noptinte, not located” (Kroeber 1925:486, plates 1, 47).
Latta 1949. Latta did not mention the Nopchinche at all in his 1949 work. His map in that work gives the Santa Rita region to his Kahwatchwah group. He interpreted his consultant information to indicate that the Kahwatchwah roamed the valley west of the San Joaquin River from Los Banos south to Mendota.
Recent Ethnographic Studies
Cook 1955. In his study of the aboriginal population of the entire San Joaquin Valley, Cook (1955:76) mapped the Santa Rita region, together with the adjoining Mud Slough region to the north and Firebaugh region to the south, as lands of the “Nupchenches.” In text, he emphasized the Nopchinche as an important early group along the San Joaquin River:
- The Nupchenches, although they are merely mentioned as a possible tribe by Kroeber (Handbook, p. 485) and are doubtfully recorded by Schenck (1926), occupied an important position in the early nineteenth century. Indeed, the failure of Kroeber and Schenck to consider them seriously makes it necessary to set forth in some detail the information about them contained in the Spanish reports [Cook 1955:51].
Cook then cited Moraga and Pico regarding their visits among the Nopchinche. From the various diaries, Cook built a picture of six “rancherias” from north to south, Cheneches, Malim, Nopchinche, Cutucho, and Copicha, placed by CPNC in the Los Banos, Gustine, Santa Rita, Mendota, and Firebaugh regions respectively. He estimated the population from diary clues, but emphasized the early destruction of populations in the vicinity:
- On the basis of the records presented, a probable population value for the valley floor between the Merced and the Kings rivers in the decade 1810-1820 was 5,100. But this may well be an underestimate and be representative of the aboriginal population. Evidence pointing in this direction is the almost complete obliteration of these tribes before 1850 [Cook 1955:52].
He concluded with an estimate of 5.05 people per square mile on the San Joaquin valley plain between the Mariposa and San Joaquin rivers, using a variety of comparative sources and logical approaches (Cook 1955:52-54).
Latta 1977. In his 1977 edition, Latta added brief unhelpful mention of the “Nopthrinthres Yokuts of San Juan Bautista” as part of his commentary on “Padre Arroyo’s Records” (Latta 1977:265).
Wallace 1978. The California volume (Wallace 1978) divided Yokuts groups into Northern Valley, Southern Valley, and Foothill, in order to discuss the large Yokuts language territory in three conveniently-sized chapters. The Santa Rita region is mapped in the Northern Valley chapter, with the “Nopchinchi” shown along the San Joaquin River from the Chowchilla River south to Firebaugh (Wallace 1978:462). In text, Wallace (1978: 470) incorrectly considered Nopchinche (the Santa Rita region local tribe) to have been some sort of super-tribe, subsuming some of the other middle San Joaquin River local tribes. Overall, Wallace’s (1978) presentation of ethnogeographic information for his Northern Valley Yokuts area was uneven and unsystematic.
