The Yokut Tribe of the San Joaquin Valley

Map

The Yokuts lived in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Some of the Yokuts lived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.They used the resources around them for their food and homes.

Acorns

The Yokuts got their main food source from oak trees. They harvested the acorns from the oak trees and ground them into meal.

Acorn Meal

Acorns were pounded and ground into meal and made into a dried cake or cooked into a mush.

Plant Foods

Most of the food the Yokuts ate came from plants, particularly acorns, nuts, seeds, roots, and berries.

Yokut Hunters

Yokuts fished the rivers and lakes of the San Joaquin Valley all year long, and hunted deer, rabbit, raccoons and other game in the marshes and grass lands.

Yokut Homes

The Yokuts built their homes from tule reeds that they gathered along the San Joaquin River.

Yokut Homes

They made the frames from tree saplings and tied woven tule mats to the outside. The houses looked like upside-down baskets.

Tule Boats

They also used tule to make small boats to travel along the river.

Yokut Baskets

The Yokuts made baskets from many different plant materials.The baskets had many different uses.

Burden Baskets

These sturdy baskets were used by the Yokut women to gather acorns in the late summer and fall. These baskets could hold up to 150 pounds of acorns.

Cooking BasketsYokut women used these baskets for cooking acorn meal. The acorn meal and water would be mixed together and rocks from a fire would be dropped into the mixture thus cooking the acorn meal. The stitching in these baskets was tight enough to keep the water in the baskets.

Cradle Baskets

These were the baskets the Yokut Indians carried their babies in. The designs on the back of the cradleboard signified the baby's gender. Slanted lines denoted a boy while diamonds denoted a girl.

Yokut Life

The Yokuts lived off of the land by using the resources around them.