Tubatulabal

By Charels R. Smith

Numerous ethnonyms have been applied to the Tubatulabal (sometimes written "Tübatulabal"), a non-political ethnic nationality composed of three politically separate, but culturally and linguistically similar, groups. Henley used the generic term "Kern River Indians" for all the Indians occupying the drainages of the Kern and South Fork Kern rivers, California. Later researchers, recognizing the existence of the three discrete bands, recorded specific names for each band: Toloim or Bankalachi (term used by their western neighbors the Yokuts); Palagewan, Polokawynahs, Pal-li-ga-wo-nap', or Pallegawonap; and Pahkanapïl, Ku-chi-bich-i-wa nap', Ti-pa-to-la-pa, Pa-kań-e-pul, or Bahkanapul. Merriam grouped the Palagewan and Pahkanapïl together under the term Te-bot-e-lob́-e-lay, a practice continued by Kroeber, who rendered the term as Tübatulabal, a Yokuts word translated as "pine-nut eaters," referring to one of the major food staples of the Tubatulabal.

The Tubatulabal claimed as their homeland a mountainous region (elevations ranging from 2,500 to 14,500 feet) centered on the drainage areas of the Kern and South Fork Kern rivers, from their sources near Mount Whitney in the north to approximately forty to forty-five miles west of the confluence of the two rivers. Most of the territory is interspersed with numerous meadows, streams and small lakes. In the southern area are three wide valleys: Hot Springs, Kern, and South Fork Kern. Summers are hot and dry, winters cold and rainy with heavy snow blanketing the mountains. The predominant vegetation of the valleys is Transition Desert grasslands and Interior Chaparral-Upper Sonoran.

Although their territory was large, most of the population lived and worked in the southern one-third, an area of approximately five hundred square miles, although during summer single individuals or small groups would occasionally visit the mountainous northern two-thirds. The Pahkanapïl occupied the South Fork Kern Valley; most Palagewan hamlets were located along the Kern River in the Hot Springs and Kern valleys. The Toloim occupied an area of less than a hundred square miles centered on the Greenhorn Mountains, approximately twenty-five miles northwest of the confluence of the two rivers.

Kroeber (1925) estimated the 1770 population at one thousand, a figure Erminie Voegelin (1938:39) considered too high. Extrapolating from known village sites at the time of initial Euroamerican settlement (ca. 1850) of the Tubatulabal homeland, Voegelin suggested that the combined Palagewan and Pahkanapïl combined population was no higher than five hundred persons, making for a population density of one person per one-and-a-half square miles for the southern third of their homeland. In 1857 Henley estimated a population of one hundred for the Palagewan and Pahkanapïl combined, plus another fifty individuals, perhaps Toloim.

The U.S. Census of 1910 listed 105 persons as Tubatulabal. Kroeber (1925), working from ethnographic field surveys undertaken at the beginning of the twentieth century, suggested an aggregate total of 150, perhaps closer to one hundred. A 1932 field census noted a total of 145 persons, including those of mixed blood and those who had moved elsewhere. In another field census of the Kern Valley area made forty years later, twenty-nine individuals were found who identified as Tubatulabal (fifteen females, fourteen males; ages from infant to over seventy-five), and another fourteen (five males, nine females, all under thirty-five years old) identified as having "some" Tubatulabal ancestry. Outside of the Kern River area, there were another one hundred to two hundred individuals living across California who, to a greater or lesser degree, identified as either Tubatulabal or a mix of Tubatulabal and non-Tubatulabal (other Indian groups or non-Indians). In 2012 the Tubatulabal Tribe of Kern Valley numbered some 287 members, with seventy-five on the Tribal Enrollment waiting list.

All three bands spoke similar, mutually intelligible dialects of the Tubatulabal language, one of four major subdivisions of Northern Uto-Aztecan. However, the Tubatulabal language is unlike any other in that subdivision. Of the three dialects, only Pahkanapïl survived the intensive Euroamerican settlement of Tubatulabal territory. Beginning early in the twenty-first century the Tubatulabal Tribe instituted a Pahkanapïl (or Pakanapul) Language Program that teaches the "paka'anil" dialect.

The earliest known contact with non-Indians occurred in 1776, when two separate Spanish exploratory parties reconnoitered the lower parts of the Kern and South Fork River valleys. Over the next seventy-five years, contacts with non-Indians increased, primarily during Tubatulabal trading trips to the coast where they came into contact with Spanish colonists and missionaries at San Buenaventura Mission.

By the late 1840s, Euroamericans were establishing ranches in the more fertile areas of the Tubatulabal homeland and in 1857 the Kern River gold rush began, resulting in an influx of hundreds of non-Indians. As the non-Indian population grew the Tubatulabal were driven off their lands and deprived of access to their subsistence resource bases, with settlers forcibly ousting families or entire communities. Sometimes the Tubatulabal were roused to acts of retaliation or resistance, engendering a call by settlers for military action against the Indians. In 1863 American soldiers rounded up many of the Tubatulabal males, including boys as young as twelve, and massacred them. Dispossessed and depressed, some Tubatulabal moved out of their homeland while others found work on Euroamerican ranches.

In 1893 the U.S. government gave small parcels of land in the Kern and South Fork valleys to the surviving Tubatulabal. Over the next three-quarters of a century, many Tubatulabal moved out of their homeland, some to the Tule River Indian Reservation, others to cities and towns throughout California. Their population continued to decline in their homeland due to a measles epidemic in 1902 and an influenza epidemic in 1918. These factors, along with intermarriage with non-Indians, led to a gradual loss of much of pre-contact Tubatulabal material and ideological culture, but not cultural identity. In the 1980s the Tubatulabal (along with other non-Tubatulabal Indians) organized the Kern Valley Indian Community and petitioned the federal government for recognition as a tribal entity. As of 2010, the petition had not been acted on.

Very little is known about the Tubatulabal before 1850. Archaeological research suggests their ancestors were living in the Kern and South Fork Kern river valleys by at least 1450. There is evidence of occupation of these regions as far back as AD 1, though these earlier groups show no definitive Tubatulabal cultural traits.

Due to the ruggedness of the northern two-thirds of Tubatulabal territory, most habitation sites were located along the banks of the middle and lower reaches of the Kern and South Fork Kern rivers. During winter, people lived in semi-permanent hamlets along the rivers. Each hamlet consisted of two to six households, with each household living in their own circular, domed, brush-and-mud-covered house. With the coming of warmer weather, households moved outside and built unwalled shade shelters where they worked, ate and slept. Most hamlets also erected a larger shade shelter that was used by several families during ceremonies, as well as a large, brush- and mud-covered sweathouse that was used by everyone—children included—though men and women bathed separately. Following a sweat, bathers jumped into a nearby natural pool of water or a section of a dammed stream.

During the fall piñon pine harvest, several families joined together and built large, corral-like brush enclosures in which families stored supplies and ate their meals. A similar structure was erected in larger hamlets during ceremonies and served as a camping area for performers and guests.

Fishing (and to a lesser extent, hunting) was an important part of Tubatulabal subsistence practices, with fish being second in economic importance only to pine nuts and acorns. Among the fish taken were trout, whitefish, suckers, catfish, and minnow. Fishing was usually done by individuals (men), but in mid-summer communally built fish "corrals" (stones arranged in a keyhole shape in rivers) were erected by two or more hamlets. Some men drove the fish into the corral; other men stood outside the corral and caught the fish by hand, then threw them onto the banks where women clubbed them. Fish were eaten fresh or dried and stored for later consumption. Freshwater mussels also were part of the diet.

Among the many mammals hunted and eaten, from a food (and to a lesser extent, industrial) perspective the two most important were: deer, taken with bow and arrow; and rabbits, taken during communal hunts, either by setting fire to the brush cover and shooting the rabbits as they tried to escape or by driving them into nets strung across canyon mouths and then shooting them. Other animals hunted included mountain sheep, bear, raccoon, squirrel, birds and, occasionally, mountain lion and wildcat. Annually, the Tubatulabal joined with neighboring groups (Yokuts, Kawaiisu, Chumash) in communal antelope drives in the San Joaquin Valley. As many as five hundred men would form a large circle two to four miles in diameter, then slowly walk towards the circle's center, driving the antelope inward. When the circle had shrunk to less than three hundred feet in diameter, several men from each participating group would step inside the circle to shoot the antelope.

Before the coming of Euroamerican settlers, Tubatulabal subsistence economy was based entirely on gathering wild plant foods, fishing, and hunting. Women did most of the gathering; men focused on hunting and fishing; at certain times men and women worked together to catch fish. Due to geographical placement, Tubatulabal plant food resources were more plentiful and diverse than in many other areas of California. In addition, they were able to exploit two staple tree crops: piñon pine nuts in early fall and six varieties of acorns in late fall. All family members engaged in gathering acorns and pine nuts, with acorns (after being sun-dried) being stored in elevated granaries at the hamlets and pine nuts (after being removed from their cones) cached in stone-lined pits near the piñon groves. When needed, acorns (after being leached of their tannic acid) and pine nuts were ground into meal, mixed with water, and cooked to form gruel or mush, and eaten with meat.

Large game was immediately broiled, roasted or stewed, or was salted (using rock salt that men had gathered from dry salt pans on the edge of the Mojave Desert) and sun-dried for storage.

Other plant foods eaten included a wide variety of seeds (especially chia and wild oats), berries (juniper, manzanita, gooseberries), bulbs, leaves, and roots (cattail and tule were especially prized). Plant foods were boiled, parched, roasted, or baked in pit ovens. Berries were eaten fresh or boiled, or were pounded, mixed with water, shaped into cakes, sun-dried, and stored. One particularly prized food item was a type of sweetener made from the honeydew excretion deposited by aphids on cane stalks. The sugar crystals were gathered, cooked into a stiff dough, sun-dried and eaten with acorn mush and piñon gruel.

The Tubatulabal did not engage in economic activities geared toward a specialized market with the intended result of making a profit. They did, however, engage in various forms of trading with members of neighboring groups, as well as with people living along the central California coast in order to obtain items not available in their own territory.

Industrial arts included basket making and pottery manufacture (done by women), bow-and-arrow construction (done by men), and the making of a wide variety of snares, traps, nets and throwing sticks (usually made by men) for taking small game animals. Both coiled and twined baskets were made (with only the former carrying designs) and were used for a variety of tasks including storage, carrying, cooking, fishing and trapping. After the introduction of horses basketry techniques were applied to the manufacture of saddles and saddle blankets. A red clay obtained in the South Fork Kern valley was used to make pots by the coiling method, followed by sun-drying and firing in the open.

The Tubatulabal participated in a trade network that involved the flow of raw materials and finished goods across a number of ecological zones, and that connected them to nearby hamlets (other Tubatulabal bands, Kawaiisu, various Foothill Yokuts groups), as well as to groups along the central California coast.

Trading outside the Tubatulabal homeland was done by couples or small groups and involved not only trading but hunting and fishing, as well as gathering food and other items not available in their homeland. During these trading expeditions the Tubatulabal engaged in recreational activities with other groups and, on occasion, obtaining the services of non-Tubatulabal medicine persons. Primary Tubatulabal trade goods were piñon pine nuts and tobacco-lime balls that they exchanged with Yokuts groups for acorn varieties not found in their homeland. From the coastal-dwelling Chumash they obtained steatite (a soft stone capable of being carved with stone tools), white clamshell disks (used as money), shell cylinders and, after 1850, horses. The clamshell disks were brought back to the trader's village, strung on twine and stored in special basket "money" jars. During times of need (usually in the winter), the clamshell money strings were used to buy various commodities and supplies.

Many tasks were gender-specific due to the interplay of various factors (physical capacities; environmental considerations; age). Procuring and preparing plant foods were the responsibility of women; men were responsible for obtaining most forms of bird and mammal flesh foods as well as fish, except for those times when men and women fished together. Men and women also worked together during acorn and piñon pine harvesting, and older married couples worked together to prune tobacco plants. Men were responsible for obtaining salt from deposits in the Mojave Desert, a journey of several days to the south.

Land ownership, by individuals, households, hamlets, or bands was unknown. Instead, each band identified with a geographical area, claimed property rights in land as communities, and recognized natural geographical boundaries as marking off local group territories. However, bands did not claim exclusive communal rights over the land and band members were free to exploit resources in other bands' territories, usually (though not always) after obtaining permission from the appropriate band leader. The only exception related to patches of wild tobacco that were being actively pruned and watered. The plants were the property of the old woman or man who tended them.

Relationships with lineal and collateral kin were recognized only for three ascending and three descending generations from the speaker. Marriages between lineal and/or collateral kin within two ascending or descending generations were considered grave moral offenses, and because a hamlet's households were nearly always made up of people interrelated by blood (matrilineally or patrilineally), hamlets were exogamous. Above the hamlet level, no formal rules of exogamy prevailed.

The Tubatulabal relationship system is of the Yuman type, with both parallel and cross cousins considered as brothers and sisters. An interesting feature of Tubatulabal kinship terminology—one shared with other groups in northern and southern California—was that "linguistic cognizance" was taken of the death of a relative. Among the Tubatulabal this cognizance took several forms: a suffix was appended to the kinship term used for a relative who had died; another suffix was appended to the term used for a connecting relative; and a suppletive kinship term (i.e., the use of two phonetically distinct roots for different forms of the same word, such as the adjective bad and its suppletive comparative form worse) for a parent after the death of the speaker's sibling.

A less formal mode of marriage occurred at dances. A woman and man would have sexual intercourse and if they decided to live together, the man took the woman to his father's house, whereupon his parents would take clamshell money to the woman's parents.

Since households in each hamlet were interrelated by descent (matrilineally or patrilineally) and marriage, and because marriages were prohibited between kin (lineal and collateral) within two generations (ascending and descending), hamlets were exogamous. Above the hamlet level, no formal rules of exogamy prevailed.

Marriages between lineal and/or collateral kin within two ascending or descending generations, as well as marriages between parallel cousins, cross cousins, and between first generation offspring of such marriages were considered incestuous. Unlike some of their neighbors, the Tubatulabal did not engage in polyandry or polygyny. While they allowed for the levirate and sororate, neither was common nor compulsory.

Marriage was essentially an economic transaction between two families and took two forms: gift exchange ("bride price"), and groom service. In gift exchange, after a woman and man agreed to marry, the man's family gifted money to the woman's family, who in turn presented the man's parents with various goods. Groom service entailed the man obtaining from his prospective bride's family their permission to marry, followed by living with her parents until the birth of the couple's first child, at which time they were free to live elsewhere. Child betrothal was sometimes practiced and involved gift exchanges, either at the time of betrothal or when the betrothed married.

Post-marital residence depended on the marriage form: if by bride price, then residence of the couple was in the groom's father's house; if by groom service, residence was in the bride's father's house. In either form, after the birth of the couple's first child they built their own house, not necessarily in the hamlet of either of the grandparents.

The primary domestic unit was the household consisting of a single, biological, bilateral family, as well as dependents of various types such as a widowed parent, or, depending on the marriage form, sons- or daughters-in-law.

When a person died, most of her or his personal possessions were destroyed, as was the deceased's house. Occasionally, however, a man's hunting tools would pass to a male relative (sons, brothers) and a woman's baskets and tools to her surviving genetic kin (sisters, daughters).

The principal unit of socialization was an individual's immediate family: mother, father, older siblings, and grandparents. It was within the family that one first acquired the knowledge, skills and values needed to conform to the norms and roles required for integration into the larger community. Young children were rarely physically punished; instead they were scolded or told myths that showed the outcomes of antisocial behavior. Young children were almost always in the company of their mothers, from whom they learned the basics of appropriate behavior. As they grew, children learned through observation, imitation, and active instruction how to carry out those tasks deemed appropriate to their gender, girls learning from their mothers and boys from their fathers. As they approached puberty, elderly females and males lectured girls and boys on how to behave toward others.

Each band was essentially an aggregate of a number of small hamlets, with each hamlet composed of from two to six households. Some households were small, such as those of a newly wedded couple with their first child. Others were larger and might contain a married couple, their unmarried daughters, a son and his wife (or a daughter and her husband), orphaned nephews and/or nieces, widowed parents and/or widowed children.

While there was no formal hamlet leader, the oldest male often acted as hamlet head whose decisions were not binding on hamlet members. During the winter, hamlet members tended to work and play together; in late spring and throughout the summer and early fall, households tended to separate, with each household roaming widely but periodically coming together with other households for cooperative tasks, including acorn and pine nut harvesting, communal fishing, and antelope drives.

Once a man became a headman he could expect to remain one until his death. However, should he act in an unseemly manner, or the people feel that he was not acting in a satisfactory way, the dance manager would instigate public criticism and call for the leader's ouster. While such actions were usually done during ceremonial occasions, a dance manager also would speak privately with people in their homes.

The position of dance manager was hereditary, passing from father to son, and involved (in addition to acting as a critic) acting in a contrary manner during ceremonies where he would dance backward and speak unintelligibly as a way to lessen a ceremony's solemnity. During ceremonies he also poked fun at people as well ridicule or shame others who had acted in ways "not Tubatulabal."

In each band, there were two formal political positions: band headman (timiwal) and band dance manager (hiliʔdac). No other formal political positions existed.

The office of headman was not especially onerous or sharply defined, but it did require that headman "observe certain rules of etiquette," engage in a number of administrative and judicial duties, act as a counselor and/or arbitrator in intra-band matters, and be band representative to other bands as well as non-Tubatulabal visitors and traders. He arranged for war parties, appointed their leaders, met with leaders from other bands to negotiate peace settlements, and acted as a brake on the activities of medicine persons who were believed to be acting antisocially.

While any man over forty years of age might aspire to the office of headman, only a man who was honest, even tempered, skilled in arbitration, of sound judgment, and possessed a measure of wealth beyond that of other band members (usually measured in clamshell money) could potentially become a headman. In most cases, however, the candidate was a blood relative (matrilineally or patrilineally) of a former or current headman, and it was not uncommon for a dying headman to name a son or brother to succeed him. A candidate was vetted by a group of old men from all of the band's hamlets. Although this group was not a formal council, no man could hope to become a headman without their approval.622

Three forms of social control existed: the authority of the headman, the actions of the dance manager, and the mystical power of the shamans. While a headman could not force anyone to behave in a proper way, he could bring pressure on anyone who misbehaved. Somewhat similarly, the dance manager could mobilize people against someone believed to be acting in a socially inappropriate manner. While these two politicians could use the social power associated with their roles to address socially inappropriate behavior, a medicine person could use both his social position and his ability to control and direct supernatural power to the same end. If an individual was acting in a manner deemed inappropriate by the community, a medicine person could use his supernatural power to bring about illness in that individual.

Although not markedly aggressive, the Tubatulabal engaged in limited hostilities with neighboring groups (Yokuts, Koso, and Kawaiisu), usually in retaliation for their neighbors' previous attacks. Hostilities lasted only a few days, casualties were light, and when all arrows were spent or night fell hostilities ended and the Tubatulabal returned home. "War parties" ranged in size from a dozen to as many as thirty males and were led by a man selected by one of the hamlet's or band leaders. The preferred fighting method was to attack the whole village by surprise at dawn, killing men, women and children. Peace was arranged through negotiation by the attackers’ headman and was generally accompanied by mutual nonaggression promises.

The Tubatulabal believed their world was populated by an array of mystical beings, all of which had to be treated with respect, in part because they could act malevolently. In addition, they believed that all flora and fauna could "hear everything that was said" and that certain rocks and stream localities throughout their homeland served as dwelling places for mystical beings, some in human form, others in animal form. Some of these mystical beings were responsible, in pre-Tubatulabal time, for certain topographic features. Others, such as the culture hero Coyote, remade the earth following the world flood, obtained fire for the Tubatulabal, established the division of labor, and brought death into the world. He also acted as a trickster, lying, cheating, and duping people.

Unlike some other California Indian societies, the Tubatulabal had no concept of a supreme mystical being, but they did subscribe to the concept of a benefactor, Jimsonweed. At one time Jimsonweed was a man, but he transformed himself into the plant so that the people could use his roots for curing, moving out of poverty, and/or obtaining help from the mystical realm.

The principal religious practitioners were the medicine persons or shamans, individuals born with the ability to tap into and use mystical or supernatural power, including the ability to cure a wide variety of ailments, especially those caused by the malevolent use of supernatural power. Any male or female could become a shaman, although male shamans wielded their supernatural power for both benevolent (curing) and malevolent (inducing sickness, misfortune, death) purposes, female shamans manipulated supernatural power only for malevolent ends. Shamans, male or female, who used their supernatural power for malevolent ends were the most feared members of a community and it was not uncommon for such individuals to be accused of witchcraft and put to death.

All post-pubescent boys and girls were urged (but not forced) to drink a preparation of crushed jimsonweed roots as a way to obtain a long and healthy life. The jimsonweed was administered in the hamlet's sweathouse during the winter. For three days and nights the young adults fasted, and each morning they drank an herbal emetic to cleanse their stomach. At sunset on the third day each participant swallowed the jimsonweed decoction, and within an hour they would fall into an unconsciousness state lasting six to ten hours. At sunset on the following day, the drinkers broke their fast with water. In five more days they resumed eating, albeit lightly, and refrained from consuming meat or grease for two months.

Following the death of certain relatives (spouse, child, sibling's spouse, or sibling's adult children) the survivor observed a meat, fish, and grease taboo. Failure to observe this taboo was considered disrespectful to the deceased and, in the case of eating meat, it meant one was eating the corpse. Also, a relative of the deceased might use mystical power to sicken the mourner. To end this taboo, a face-washing ceremony was held at the mourner's home at any time from two or three weeks to one year following the death. The mourner asked one or more persons to enter into a reciprocal face-washing relationship (ta·gin). At this one-day ceremony, people from many hamlets gathered at the mourner's house where baskets full of shell money were on display. In the afternoon the mourner's face was washed in plain water by his ta·gin, who then was given the shell money. Afterward, everyone feasted, played games, and medicine persons might display their mystical power. Since the face-washing relationship was a reciprocal one, the mourner expected that at some point in the future the money would be returned when their ta·gin held a face-washing ceremony.

Occasionally an individual would drink a jimsonweed decoction alone, either in their home or out in the open away from their hamlet, in order to obtain rapport with one or more spiritual helpers. While under the influence of the drug, various animals might appear and speak to the person. The animal(s) that spoke became the person's spirit helper (punggul) and taught them how to make or obtain an amulet endowed with magical properties (warding off misfortune and hunger, invulnerability against evil medicine persons, and/or the power to cure one's self without seeing a medicine person). The person also shared the attributes of their spirit helper: if it was Rabbit or Deer, then the person could run fast and never tire; if Fish, one could swim all day without becoming exhausted.

At the face-washing ritual the mourner announced when they would host the mourning ceremony ([n]mu·yil]/n]), a ritual at which an image of the deceased were burned, along with their possessions. The Tubatulabal believed that unless enough of the deceased's property was burned the deceased's ghost would visit the living nightly, looking for its property and potentially bringing about illness.

Ingesting yellow ants during winter was another way that young adults (usually boys, but occasionally girls) might obtain mystical power through visions. Vision seekers would fast for three days, then be taken to the hamlet's sweathouse where they would swallow six to eight balls of eagle down, each containing five ants, followed by a drink of water. Within an hour, a seeker would lose consciousness and remain that way for twelve to sixteen hours. Upon regaining consciousness, each seeker was given an emetic and then questioned about their vision and what spirit helper had appeared. Sometimes young adults would ingest tobacco-lime balls to induce a vision in hope of gaining a mystical helper.

The ritual was usually held in mid-summer, one to two years after the face-washing ceremony, and was hosted by a close relative(s) of the deceased. If the host was a wealthy man or woman the ceremony lasted a week and people from many hamlets came and participated. The mourner's relatives and friends provided food for the guests, as well as hiring cooks, dancers and singers, and building a brush enclosure in which the guests camped. Guests brought nothing, expecting to be well fed. During the evenings, costumed male dancers, accompanied by singers, performed in the brush enclosure, dancing around a central fire while holding some of the deceased's clothing. On the last night of the ceremony, an effigy of the deceased was constructed using the dead person's clothes, tule reeds, and feathers and then tied to a pole. The effigy was hoisted into the air and carried by the dancers around the central fire three times while the guests wailed. Then the effigy, along with the deceased's belongings, was thrown into the fire. When the fire burned down, it was covered with dirt, and everyone went home.

Four religious ceremonies were important among the Tubatulabal: ingesting a decoction of jimsonweed (Datura meteloides) root to obtain long life, prosperity, and rapport with a mystical helper; swallowing ants to gain mystical power; the face-washing ritual (hu·yu·di·l) to remove certain taboos associated with death; and the mourning ceremony (mu·yil).

Not all who died had an official mourning ceremony held for them. Instead, the deceased's relative(s) gathered together the deceased's things and buried them almost immediately following the burial of the corpse. No image was made and no ceremony was held.

The most visible expression of Tubatulabal creative skill and imagination was to be found in their basketry which was, like that of other California native peoples, of the highest quality. Both coiled and twined baskets were made, the former carrying various human and/or geometric figures. Professional male dancers performed at various ceremonies and occasions.

The Tubatulabal used variety of therapeutic practices: herbal medicines; bathing in hot springs; observing a variety of taboos (including hunting, menstrual, pregnancy); sweat bathing; and consulting with knowledgeable medicine persons or doctors.

Minor and/or transient illnesses, traumas (fractures, sprains, wounds), along with rheumatism and arthritis, were regarded as a normal condition of life and treated with a wide variety of home remedies, including the use of herbal medicines. Some medicine plants were ailment specific; others were used to treat a number of disorders. Plant medicines were prepared and administered in many ways: as salves, dry powders, pastes, poultices (hot or cold), soaks, infusions, teas, chewing, inhaling the smoke or vapor when heated, and as purgatives taken either orally or by enema. The method used depended on a host of factors including the type of illness and its severity.

Persistent maladies, unusual illnesses, personal misfortune, insanity, and even death were attributed to the machinations of evilly disposed humans manipulating supernatural power. The Tubatulabal say that were it not for such individuals, people might live forever. Sometime a malevolent medicine person would send a ghost to a person in order to bring about sickness, or send a disease-causing object into a person's body. In these cases of illness people sought out the services of a medicine person (shaman) who cured using a variety of techniques: sucking at the area of sickness to remove the intrusive disease-causing object, singing, dancing, blowing tobacco smoke over the patient, massage and, sometimes, prescribing herbal medicines. Shamanic cures were public affairs performed inside a patient's home. During a cure the shaman consulted with his supernatural helpers to determine the illnesses' etiology and the appropriate cure or cures.

When a person died, their soul (which resides in the head) and breath (which lives in the heart) left the body. Immediately following death, a relative would speak to the corpse and tell its soul to leave and not return. If the death occurred at home, the corpse was kept in the house overnight while relatives and friends assembled there to mourn the deceased. The next day, two old women corpse-handlers wrapped the body in tule mats and buried the corpse in a shallow grave a short distance away from the hamlet. If the death happened away from the hamlet, every attempt was made to bring the body back for burial; if that was impossible, the corpse was buried on the spot.

At some point following death, the deceased's breath assumed human form. During the day a ghost would travel about in dust spouts and, unless one touched a person, they were relatively harmless. But sometimes a ghost was acting as a malevolent medicine person's helper and was sent to cause harm or death. In such cases the ghost was the ghost of a relative of the malevolent shaman.

The cultural summary was written by Charles R. Smith in 2013.

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