Ethnohistory of the Chowchilla Yokuts

One of the most historically significant, yet almost entirely undocumented, Native American tribes of California is brought to light by scholar Robert Fletcher Manlove. Until the Spanish colonization of California in 1769, the Chowchilla Yokuts were peaceful hunter-gatherers. Outraged by Spanish oppression, the Chowchilla quickly learned the arts of war. The Chowchilla united the tribes of the California interior and led successive resistance movements against Spanish, Mexican, and American occupation. However, the Chowchilla were driven from their land following the consolidation of American control of California, were forced to abandon their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and sank into obscurity. The Chowchilla maintained their tribal identity by staying as out-of-sight as possible, sometimes not identifying themselves as Native American at all. In this first anthropological work, the history of the Chowchilla Yokuts from the earliest known origins to today is documented, with detailed information on Chowchilla kinship structure, social customs, and political development. AUTHOR: Robert Fletcher Manlove, PhD, is a visiting scholar in anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley and dean emeritus of science and mathematics at City College of San Francisco.