TULARE RESERVATION, TULARE COUNTY

On

our

way

south

from

San Franciscoto

Los

Angeles

we made

ita point to stop at Porterville, inTulare County, long

enough

to

pay

a visit tothe Tulare Indians'^ locatedon South

Fork

of Tule River, 20 miles eastward

from

the village. Their reservation

was

originally situatedon the fertile lowlands

where

the river valleyopens out

upon

the plain, butthis land

was

acquired

by

thewhites and is

now

largely under cultivation.

The

Indians

were removed

to the

upper

valley,

where

they

now

dwell in comfortable, though simple, frame houses.

Here

the narrow, rocky banks of the river riseabruptly into massive and precipitous mountains. Itis indeeda secluded and lonely spot, an ideal retreat forthe

humble remnant

of a peopleonce laying claim tothe broad,richlowlands

now

traversed

by

railwaysand dottedwith incipientcities.

The

houses are scattered at shortintervals for2or3 miles along the valley.

A

^{little farming is} done and

some

stock is kept, and thereisa school near the agent's residence, attendedatthe presenttime

by

twentv or thirty children.

Near theupper endof thereservation a

most

interesting spot,

known

as Painted Rock, or

The

Painted Rocks,

was

visited.

Here

the little

stream is confinedto a narrow gorge bordered

by enormous

masses of granite,overwhich the torrents

pour

in thewet season.

At

the sides,

however, there is

enough

comparatively level

ground

to

accommodate

dwellings and small fields. This site, itappears,

was

a favorite resort of the native peoples, the Tulares or their predecessors, for a long period of years.

The

protected surfaces ^of the great granite blocks arestillcoveredwith s3anbolic paintings in bright colors, and

some

of the flatterexposed surfacesare pitted with mortar basinswherein the

women

of

many

generationshave

come

to grindacornsand seeds. In Plate 29 are

shown two

excellent illustrations of oneof these milling places,there being between forty and fifty

more

orless deeplysunken conical mortars visible.

Another

large, rounded

mass

near

by

con- tains

upward

of seventy-five of these pits, varying

from

shallow basins or incipient mortars to conical depressions a foot in depth.

1H. C. Meredith in Moorehead's Prehistoric Implements, p. 258; Land of Sun- shine,October, 1899; American Archaeologist, II, p. 310.

'•'TheYokutsof Powers. Tribesof California, Contributions to NorthAmerican Ethnology,III, p. 369.

I

ReportofU.S. NationalMuseum, 1900.

—

Holmes. Plate 29.

Mortar Rock. Tulare Reservation.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL

STUDIES IN CALIFORNIA.

l79

Portions of this rock are

now

coveredwith soil, so thata

number

of the mortars are probably hidden. Possibly

some

of the depressions

may

orio-inally have been potholes,

worn by

thedescending waters of the cascade, but all are

now

^{manifestly artificial in contour.}

The

present inhabitants do not appear to use these particular mills, but

employ

mortars, both fixedand portable, in the immediate vicinit}^of their dwellings. This ma}" be the

group

of mortars referred to

by

Powers,

who

says that ''in remote times they

were

accustomedto rub their acorns to flour, on a stone slightly hollowed, like the

Mexican

metate, which

was

a suggestion of the Mouse, l>ut nowada3's they

pound them

in holes ontop of

huge

bowlders,which

was

a suggestion of the wiser Co3"ote.

On

abowlder in Coarse

Gold Gulch

I counted 86 of these acorn holes, which showsthat they

nmst

have been used

many

centuries."^{^}

M}^

own

feelingabout this matter ^is that the metate isa late rather than an early

form

of the millstone, since these greatgroups ofmor- tar pits

must

be very old, and the mortars

dug up

at considerable depths in this valley aswell as elsewhere are generally globular. I

was

especially interested inobservingthat the processof shapingstone

by

pecking with

hammers

is

known

to the Tulares.

Some

specimens

show

recent work, and inquiry of

Mr.

flamesAlto elicited the state-

ment

that the

women

shapedmortars and pestles in this way, employ- ing

"

daj'specking and pecking.'^

At

oneof the dwellings, which had the appearance^of an ordinary, comfortable farmhouse, the entire family

was

engaged in thrashing and cleaning

up

the recently harvestedcrop ^{of beans.} Plate 30shows the

man

threshingwith a flail, while the

women

are seen separating thebeans

from

the hulls ])X fanning in shallow basket trap's.

From

the old

woman

ofthe household

—

^the

grandmother — ^who

^{seemed tobe}

owner

^ofall domesticarticles,

we

^securedbaskets,stoneboilingsticks, mortars, and pestles.

The

large, roundish mortar

shown

in Plate 31

was

in use

by

one of the

women,

but

we

weretold that thispiecehad been found at a depth of several feet indigging an irrigating trench;

thatit

was

very old, and belonged, thev believed, topeoples that had preceded the Tulares.

However,

such mortars, as well as others of varyingform, wereseen in useon the reservation.

The manner

ofusing snares in capturingpigeons is

shown

in Plate 32. Roundish earthen platforms

from

5 to 8 feet in diain(^terare con- structed

among

thegreat bowldersinfavorablelocations,onwhichare set willow-twig loopsfor securingdecoy l)irds.

At

oiuMuarginofthe platform abrush orreed shelter is built, in which the

man

with the snares hides himself.

The

loops of the snares lie extended

upon

the platform, and

when

the birds, alighting to feed with the decoys,

^TribesofCalifornia,Contributionsto2sorth AmericanEtlinology, III, p. 376.