Native American Tribe series.
Yokut Family
Also called Mariposan, a name derived from present-day Mariposa County, California, the Yokut name means "person" or "people." Members of the Penutian Family, they lived on the floor of San Joaquin Valley from the mouth of San Joaquin River to the foot of Tehachapi Mountains and the adjacent lower slopes or foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, up to an altitude of a few thousand feet, from the Fresno River south. Having numerous dialects, the Yokut was comprised of as many as 50 separate hunter-gatherer tribes, they had numerous dialects. They occupied the entire San Joaquin Valley of central California from the mouth of the San Joaquin River to the foot of the Tehachapi Mountains, and the adjacent lower slopes or foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, from the Fresno River south.
They experienced huge population losses as a result of Mexican genocide, and were almost destroyed by the virtual holocaust of the indiscriminate genocide of the early American gold prospectors and settlers. A few Yokut remain, the most prominent tribe among them being the Tachi. Though their were dozens of Yokut bands, only a few Yokut tribes have been federally recognized.