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The original
inhabitants of the San Joaquin Valley were the Yokut-speaking tribes-
about 50 dialect groups occupying the territory along the rivers and
creeks flowing from the Sierras and around the Tulare Lake. Their
descendants today on the Tule River Indian reservation continue to have
the goal of self-government and self-sufficiency on the land.
When gold was discovered in 1848, California was under American military occupation in the war against Mexico. Thousands of American prospectors poured into the territory. California statehood followed in 1850 and everything changed for the native people of the Great Central Valley. Although Spain, and later Mexico, had sent forays into the interior of California for a century and a half, the Indians of the foothills of the Sierras were relatively well protected. There were the safest of any California Indians from military expeditions, capture, and forced conversion at the missions. With the Gold Rush and California statehood, disease decimated the population. The ravages of disease were compounded by injustice and starvation. In 1860 the Indian population in California was only 20% of what it had been ten years earlier. All information in these History pages was provided by Gelya Frank. |
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