Our Story
For thousands of years, we have made our homes near the San Joaquin River at Shish Liu, the Chukchansi and Gashowu word for the Table Mountain area. In 1849, during the California Gold Rush, thousands of miners poured into the foothills, bringing firearms and illnesses that were new to us. Streams and rivers were polluted, and the game supply was reduced. Many of our Tribes banded together with the Chowchilla and Chukchansi Tribes to evict the miners and reclaim our lands and resources.
Following the “Mariposa Indian War” of 1850-51, new Indian reservations were established on the Fresno River where Hensley Lake is now and on the Kings River at Centerville. A “Military Indian Reserve” was created at Fort Miller on the San Joaquin at present day Winchell Cove, (1851-1865) now under Millerton Lake. The second of 18 Indian Treaties, the Treaty of Camp Barbour, was concluded on the San Joaquin River on April 29, 1851 between the U.S. Government and sixteen San Joaquin River, Fresno River and Kings River Tribes. Lands promised to the Tribes in that treaty were never given, and the Treaty was never ratified. Among the Tribes that signed that treaty were the Chukchansi, Gashowu, Choinumne, Pitcatchi, Dumna, and Ketchayi. These Tribes all spoke dialects of the same language, now called Yokuts. Posgisa Mono people of the Auberry area, speakers of an entirely different language, were included on this treaty also.
Click Here to Listen to Music
Preformed by: Shane Jones
To-nobi, cone shaped houses of cedar bark, along the San Joaquin at the village of Kuyu Illik, 1870. Now under Millerton Lake. Courtesy of FCCHS.
Native and non-native children on the front porch of the old Millerton School (adjacent to the Table Mountain Casino Resort). This one room school house sat at the NW corner of Millerton and Sky Harbour Road, 1919.
By the 1880’s, only a few scattered families lived at the old village of Kuyu Illik (now under the lake) or at Wah-Loo Low, the old community along Winchell Creek just north of the present day Rancheria. Other families moved to Wah-Loo-Low in the 1890’s from Letcher, Morgan Canyon, Sanger, Piedra, Coarsegold and Finegold.
Table Mountain Rancheria was established as a federal reservation in 1916, with a school and Baptist Church and by 1918, almost every-one from Wah-Loo-Low had been moved on to the current Rancheria. Working in farm labor, as cowboys on local ranches or in the logging industry replaced the traditional life ways, although traditional food, language, and cultural practices continued to play an important role.
In 1958 the Bureau of Indian Affairs terminated many small Rancherias in California, no longer recognizing them as Indian Nations. Years later The Chukchansi/Mono people of Table Mountain Rancheria, along with many other small Tribes in California, successfully sued the Federal Government to be re-recognized as sovereign Indian Nations. On New Years Eve, 1987, Table Mountain Rancheria opened the doors to their new Bingo Hall. Over the years that little Bingo Hall has grown into the successful Casino Resort today, a testament to Native American strength and spirit.
The Table Mountain Rancheria Baptist Church with Wum‑wum wus (the Pincushion) in the background, 1930. Courtesy of Jesse Peters Native American Art Museum.
Traditions
Table Mountain Rancheria has been working to preserve the traditions of the past. Our heritage is important to us, it sustained our ancestors and has survived the turbulent history of the last one hundred and fifty years.
Pow Wow Fandango
Every summer, Table Mountain Rancheria hosts our annual Pow Wow, celebrating this style of Native dance, drum and song. There were once many dances and gatherings held throughout the year; including the Bear Dance, Rattlesnake Dance, the Lonewis or annual mourning ceremony with it’s round dance as well as dancing for healing (doctoring) and rain.
Some of these dances are still held today in parts of Native Central California, quietly and in their own way.
Language
Hah lesh mah’ (Yokuts)
Munahoo (Mono)
This is how we greet someone in our languages at Table Mountain Rancheria. We have a Native language preservation program on-going, currently focusing on Western Mono, Gashowu (Yokuts), the old language of Table Mountain Rancheria, and Choinumni (Yokuts), with hopes to begin working with the Chukchansi (Yokuts) language soon. The Tribe keeps our traditions of the past and has brought home many baskets and other items from the Central California area to be showcased in our future Museum and Cultural Center.
Food & Housing
We lived off the land in To-nobi, cone shaped houses of cedar bark and Hoh’, dome shaped houses covered in native grasses or tule reeds. Our houses were placed where fresh water and good hard bedrock were found for pounding acorn.
Elk and deer were once plentiful food sources, as well as antelope, rabbit, acorn, wild onions, fresh water mussels, black-berries, gooseberries and the seeds of native plants and grasses.
