KRV19 Tübatulabal Traditional Cache

This cache is place in accordance with the Kern River Valley Camp Out 2019. 

The Tübatulabal are an indigenous people of Kern River Valley in the Sierra range of Southern California. They may have been the first people to make this area their permanent home. Today many of them are enrolled in the Tule River Indian Tribe. They are descendants of the people of the Uto-Aztectic language group, separating from Shoshone people about 3000 years ago.

Tübatulabal traditional culture was similar to that of the Yokuts, who occupied most of the southern half of the California's Central Valley. Acorns, pinion nuts, and game animals were key elements in Tubatulabal subsistence. Located in the Kern Valley, the tribe had contact with the Yokuts to the north and west, as well as to Numic groups to the east. On their southern border, the Tübatulabal had ties with Kitanemuk, Serrano, and Tataviam People who spoke the Takic branch of Uto-Aztecan. The Tübatulabal were significant participants and go-betweens in the trade networks connecting the Great Basin, the southern deserts, the Central Valley, and the coastal groups.

Compared to other tribes in the Sierra Nevada, Tübatulabal had higher status and privilege. Though the tribe followed traditional patriarchy, women had an equal voice in decisions. Marriage had to be mutually consensual, and women could practice birth control.

According to the tribe's oral history, the deep crags, crevices, and crooks of the canyon moving upward (east from the mouth of the Kern Canyon) to the upper reaches of the Kern River were "created by hawk and duck as they bounced back and forth, to and from along the canyon walls as they raced up the river."

The Tübatulabal are well known for their red pottery and coiled baskets.Today, many of their baskets are housed at the National Smithsonian Anthropological Archives, University of California Berkeley, California State Parks Archives, and many other museums and universities. Louisa Francisco, a Bankalachi was well known for her wonderful baskets. Some Tübatulabal families in Kern Valley are related to Francisco. Many of their ancestors married into the Tule River Tribe, Tachi Yokuts, and Tejon Indian Tribe. Tribal families shared in their basket making designs, materials, and weaving techniques.

Estefana Miranda, a Pakanapul, lived in Weldon, California (born in 1895 and died in 1957) on the Miranda Allotment.Estefana was the daughter of Steban Miranda, the last Tübatulabal chief. Estefana knew how to harvest native tobacco, acorns, salt grass, and other native foods of the South Fork of Kern Valley and Kelso Valley areas. She knew how to make "flat round" basket used for both sifting and ceremonies. Her baskets were also used to process piñon nuts picked from Walker Pass, Kennedy Meadows, and Greenhorn Mountain areas. "Estefana was also an excellent horseman—she could make her horses jump side to side and jump over large dirt ditches.