“It’s up to each and every one of us to listen to what's being said.” “This lake is talking to us right now,” Jeff tells a crowd of about two dozen gathered near the water. Some of those gathered for a ceremony came from about five miles away – from the Tachi’s home at the Santa Rosa Rancheria outside Lemoore. Other Yokuts came from farther away, like the Western Mono Indians from Fresno County. KVPR Tachi Yokut Vice Chairman Robert Jeff (left) listens to an opening prayer by Greg Ignacio (second left). Those attending the ceremony brought native plants and seeds to spur new growth in the water. “What you see behind us now is, Pa’ashi has reawakened.” “We all know that creator came and blessed us again with the water,” Jeff tells the crowd. Tribe members like Kenny Barrios believe the lake’s return has invited the spirits of ancestors back to the lake. They're coming back to it,” he said.īarrios is the tribe’s cultural liaison. He teaches the tribe’s youth about the native language and culture. He says with the lake gone for so long, Yokuts felt a deep need to honor its return.īarrios even wrote a new water song for the ceremony. The song gives thanks for “bringing our water back.” He sings acapella in his native language while playing clapstick – a traditional wooden split-stick rattle. The belief among Yokuts was that when the lake ever came back, it could cleanse the land. Now that it has, tribe members and other guests walked up to the water’s edge with offerings for the lake, meant as a gift to bless its water. Some scattered seeds of native river sage.ĭiamond Garcia waded knee-deep to plant tule. The reeds grew abundantly around the lake and gave Tulare Lake its name. “We can make a boat, we can make a tule skirt and headbands, bracelets.” “We can make a whole bunch of things with these,” Garcia says, showing off the bright green reeds. Just east of the Delta, several streams issue from the Sierra Nevada into the valley and flow to the Delta in an area referred to as the Eastside Streams.KVPR Members of different Yokut tribes share offerings at the ceremony. The San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys meet in the Delta area where the combined discharge of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers flows through the Central Valley's one natural outlet, the Carquinez Strait, on its way to San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The San Joaquin Valley can be split further into the San Joaquin Basin and the Tulare Basin. The Central Valley can be divided into two large parts: the northern one-third is known as the Sacramento Valley and the southern two-thirds is known as the San Joaquin Valley. Generally, most of the valley lies close to sea level and the land surface has very low relief, but is higher along the valley margins. ![]() The Valley averages about 50 miles in width and extends about 400 mi northwest from the Tehachapi Mountains to Redding. ![]() The Valley is a vast agricultural region drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. ![]() ![]() Occupying a central position in California, it is bounded by the Cascade Range to the north, the Sierra Nevada to the east, the Tehachapi Mountains to the south, and the Coast Ranges and San Francisco Bay to the west. The Central Valley, also known as the Great Valley of California, covers about 20,000 square miles and is one of the more notable structural depressions in the world. Map of the Central Valley's four major regions.
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