The Yokuts (previously known as Mariposas [4]) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. Yokuts is both plural and singular; Yokut, while common, is …

The Yokut people divided themselves into either Tohelyuwish (West) or Nutuwish (East), and certain animals were connected with each group. A person inherited his animal connection, or totem, at birth. The family would never kill or eat their animal totem, but always treated it …

As in many California Indian legends, Yokuts Coyote stories range from light-hearted tales of mischief and buffoonery to more serious legends about the nature of the world. Water Baby : A mysterious and dangerous water spirit from the folklore of the …

The Yokuts, also called Mariposan, a name derived from present-day Mariposa County, are native to central California. Yokuts means “person” or “people.” Members of the Penutian language family.

Yokuts traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Yokuts people of the San Joaquin Valley and southern Sierra Nevada foothills of central California. Yokuts narratives constitute one of the most abundantly documented oral …

Families are made up of a husband, wife, and their children. This is the most basic family unit of the Southern Valley Yokuts. They use totem symbols to indicate “patrilineal totemic lineage”. Totemic symbols are normally an animal which is not to be eaten and is praised and looked up to.

Totems were associated with one of two moieties. This moiety division played a role during ceremonies and other social events (Wallace 1978). Yokuts were split into self-governing local groups that included several villages.

Myth 25 - THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD - A Wukchamni Yokuts myth told by a Yaudanchi Yokuts. Everything was water except a very small piece of ground. On this were the eagle and Coyote. Then the turtle swam to them. They sent it to dive for the earth at the bottom of the water.

Most Yokuts believe that this stump was in the middle of where Tulare Lake (Pah-ah-see) once stood in the central part of the San Joaquin Valley. But a few think that it may have been located further south, closer to the middle of ancient Buena Vista Lake.

Each had a totem symbol, such as a bird or an animal, which had certain ceremonial functions. Also, many tribelets had a dual division (Eagle and Coyote). Burial: Corpses, often along with their material possessions, were traditionally cremated.