The Yokuts 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 erroneous. 'Yokut' should only be used when referring specifically to the Tachi Yokut Tribe of Lemoore. Some of their descendants prefer to refer to themselves by their respective tribal names; they reject the term Yokuts, saying that it is an exonym invented by English-speaking settlers and historians. Conventional sub-groupings include the Foothill Yokuts, Northern Valley Yokuts, and Southern Valley Yokuts.
Chukchansi Yokuts woman, photo by Edward Curtis, 1924
A Chukchansi (then spelled "Chuckachancy") family near Oakhurst, California. ca.1920
Mariposa Indian Encampment Yosemite Valley California, by Albert Bierstadt
Chukchansi (then spelled "Chuck Chance") in Coarsegold, California. ca.1900
The California genocide was a series of systematized killings of thousands of Indigenous peoples of California by United States government agents and private citizens in the 19th century. It began following the American Conquest of California from Mexico, and the influx of settlers due to the California Gold Rush, which accelerated the decline of the Indigenous population of California. Between 1846 and 1873, it is estimated that non-Natives killed between 9,492 and 16,094 California Natives. In addition, between several hundred and several thousand California Natives were starved or worked to death. Acts of enslavement, kidnapping, rape, child separation and forced displacement were widespread. These acts were encouraged, tolerated, and carried out by state authorities and private militias.
"Protecting The Settlers", illustration by J. R. Browne in The Indians Of California, 1864
Estimated native California population based on Handbook of the Indians of California (1925) (Cook 1978)
National Park Service information sign at the Presidio of San Francisco describing the California genocide.