Native American Religon,


Yokuts Ethnology and

Rock Art
Prehistoric Native American Religion
• Throughout the West for
most of prehistory all
Native peoples were
hunter-gatherers
• This means they were
foraging peoples
• They lived off the land
• They most often timed
their movements to the
differential availability of
key economic plants and
animals
Prehistoric Native American Religion
• A key correlate was that there
was an intimate and direct
connection between these
people and their environment
• This included a close
relationship with the land,
animals, plants, and the
cosmos
• This is very different from our
own culture and difficult (nearly
impossible) for us to appreciate
or understand today
Prehistoric Native American Religion
• Many of us in contemporary
industrialized and literate
nations are rather divorced from
contact with the environment
• We get our food from the
market
• We buy our meat at the butcher
or from the meat section in the
grocery store
• We get our water from a faucet
• We tell time by a clock and a
calendar
Prehistoric Native American Religion

• Our homes and offices are

insulated from the
elements with heating and
air conditioning creating
comfortable environs
• When we look to the
heavens we often cannot
see a star-filled sky due to
light pollution and other
considerations
• We rarely identify with or
recognize the regular
patterned movements of
the stars, moon, and sun
throughout the seasons
Prehistoric Native American Religion
• We tend to be a mobile
people so we are only
loosely attached to the
local geography
• Last we are apt to read
labels to identify things
and to look for the printed
word for information – oral
communication is
becoming less and less
central
Prehistoric Native American Religion
• We often are apt to see Native
American religions and religious
ideas as somehow primitive,
simplistic, or even silly.
• Remember that even our so
called major “World” religions
(Christianity, Judaism, and
Muslim) often incorporate
spiritual ideas and religious
metaphors having their origins
in hunting religions.
World Religions and Hunting Religions:

Similar Elements
• Centrality of Sacrifice
as Propitiation to the
Divine
• Cycle of birth, death,
and rebirth
• Covenant – formalized
relationship an
agreement or contract
World Religions and Hunting Religions:

Similar Elements

• Metaphors of light and

darkness
• Priests and ritual
specialists
• Ceremonials (first fruits)
• Rites of passage – birth,
death, coming of age
(confirmation, baptism,
quincinierras, marriage)
World Religions and Hunting Religions:

Similar Elements
• The concepts of ritual,
sacrifice, singing, dancing,
oral tradition, covenant,
light and dark, flesh and
blood, ritual priests as
intermediaries, ritual
costumes and ceremonial
instruments, prayer, caves
as portals to the
supernatural and
entrances to ethereal
worlds of the divine.
Prehistoric Native American Cultures
and Ideology

• Subsistence was a direct

result of the energies of
the women and men of
their households.
• They could only eat what
they harvested or killed.
• If there was a drought or a
bad season for the
harvest of key economic
plants, such as pinyon
nuts or acorns, this could
bode poorly for the people
and families might face
death and starvation.
 Prehistoric Native American Cultures
and Ideology
• Large game animals could be
hunted but were often difficult to
acquire.
• It took great skill, patience,
thoughtful strategy, and
courage to successfully kill a
large game animal such as a
mountain sheep, deer, or
pronghorn antelope.
• Water was the lifeblood of
Native peoples.
• However if they moved far
afield and could not find potable
water they might die. Drought
or the drying up of springs
could mean death to many
people.
Prehistoric Native American Cultures
and Ideology
• The timing of seasons was
measured by movement of
stars, moon, and sun tracked
by ritualists.
• Time was cyclic.
• Homes were interim dwellings
that were often temporary and
simple.
• Sun, heat, wind, and cold were
all forces that had to be
incorporated into daily routines.
• Inanimate entities and forces
were perceived as beings with
temperments
Prehistoric Native American Cultures
and Ideology
• The religion of Native peoples
were directly linked to the land
• Places on the landscapes were
often named and considered
alive - inhabited by supernatural
beings and forces.
• People spent most of their lives
within a defined territory.
• The rocks, trees, mountains,
rivers, springs, canyons, and
passes were animated with
supernatural forces and filled
with otherworldly power. This is
sometimes known as animism.
Power In Nature
• Native peoples in the
West often saw the natural
world as one that was
transfixed with power
• Religion was not
something that was a
distinct or separate
domain from everyday life.
It was one and the same.
• Religious ideas were
interwoven into the
tapestry of daily existence.
Power In Nature
• Ritual, oral tradition, mythology,
ceremonials, coming of age
rites, childbirth, marriage, and
seasonal celebrations – all
were part of an interconnected
ideology, world view, and
cosmology.
• Every object, be it (as we see it)
animate or inanimate was alive
with power – animals,
mountains, rocks, caves,
springs, lakes, trees, lightning,
and wind.
Power In Nature
• Humans were recognized
as an indispensible part of
nature
• Humans could receive
divine power from a
guardian spirit or spirit
helper
• Humans could
alternatively seek visions
through travel to a sacred
place, a spot associated
with power.
 Power In Nature
!
!
• Sometimes these “vision
quest” experiences were
facilitated through various
means and the use of
certain instruments,
extended talking to the
mountains, or the use of
means for obtaining an
alternative state of
consciousness
 Power In Nature
• Power from the natural world is
manifested through dreams
(waking or sleeping) and
visions
• These dreams and visions were
real and inseparable from
human thought and speech
• What one speaks or thinks
manifests itself in common and
practical realities
Dream Cave, Mojave Desert
• Speaking and thinking affect
reality – wishes come true
Power In Nature
• Prayer was akin to thought
• Often power from the natural
world is communicated to
people with or as a song
• Sometimes power may be
communicated with words and
instructions as a dance
• Power is the life force and the
constantly moving and flowing
dynamic energy of the universe
(Star Wars took this element
and made it into popular
culture… “Luke use the
force…”)
 Power In Nature
• Song, dance and words
are empowering elements
that can influence the
natural world
• Power moves in a circular
path from nature to people
and from people to nature
• Power must be respected
and has the potential to be
dangerous as well as
beneficial
Power In Nature
• Without a reverence for
power and the forces of
nature is to invite disaster
• The dark underside of
power is sorcery; using
power for evil intentions
• Water babies and
whirlwind spirits had the
power to kill and could
embody dangerous and
potentially fearful power
Power In Nature: Shamanism
• Native American religions
especially in the West and
among hunter gatherers was
animistic and shamanistic
• What we mean by this is that
their religious leaders, ritualists
(often called by anthropologists
as shamans) often experienced
a call to a special role with
respect to their ability to obtain
supernatural power and
harness the agents of other
worlds.
Power In Nature: Shamanism
• Elite ritualists, shamans, use
power from nature and act
first as healers, medicine men
and women, Indian doctors
• Illness was most often caused
by sorcery or irreverent /
disrespectful actions against
the supernatural
• Shamans routinely had many
spirit helpers often animals
that were acquired in
alternative states of
consciousness
Power In Nature: Shamanism
• Shaman’s were pivotal in
leading the rituals surrounding
pre-hunting ceremonials to
charm game and bring luck to
the hunters
• They would sing hunting songs
• Play musical instruments that
would attract game
• They would lead ceremonials
and wear animal costumes and
imitating animal movements
• Costumes included skulls,
feathers, skin, claws, and
bones.
• They might fall into an ecstatic
trance and capture the animals’
souls
Power In Nature: Shamanism
• Certain shamans could
control the weather – bring
rain, snow, stop the wind
• Such actions were proof of
a rapport with spirits
• Received their powers
through dreams
• Such power was used to
benefit the community
through connections with
the life cycles of plants
and animals

Native American Culture and Religion:
Class Exercise
• Count off by groups of 3. 1, 2, and 3. Break into 3
groups and choose a spokesperson for the group.
• Group 1: Contrast contemporary lifeways with those
characteristics of the aboriginal inhabitants of the
prehistoric western United States.
• Group 2: As we discuss Native American ideology,
cosmology and religion think of the parallels in your own
faith and religious beliefs.
• Group 3: Compare and contrast contemporary religious
views (world religions) on topics and themes relating to:
the cycle of life and death for all living things and/or the
levels of worlds – sky, earth, and the underworld.
 Animal Beliefs and 

Forager Cosmology
• The present order of the
universe is a reversal of primal
times. Earlier animals were
humans and humans were
animals.
• Oral memories attest to how
animals gave their bodies to the
people agreeing to become
food because of their
established kinship relations.
• Oral traditions are also
embodied in song and dance
and recall the earlier era when
animals danced, sang, and
rejoiced.
 Animal Beliefs and 

Forager Cosmology
• Close affinity between
animals and people
• Close kinship and
tendency for Native
Americans to imitate
animals in dress,
action and projective
thought
 The Journey
• It is a general tenet that
only through animal
sacrifice can the turning of
the seasons, the cycle of
the day and night, and the
revitalization of human
and animal life be
accomplished.
• Animal ceremonialism and
hunting religions –
animals are immortal –
do not die but are reborn.
Descent
• First half of the ceremonial
cycle is associated with
descent, death and post-
mortem rites
• Animal funeral –
provides proper
reverence to deceased
animal, skull showcased
on a tree or pole
• Autumnal festival and
communal feast
• Group pantomime
dances and sings
• Ancestor worship
Ascent
• Second half: Spring world
renewal theme:
• Affirms common origin of the
tribe
– Brings humans back in
harmony
– Emphasis on rebirth,
multiplication of game/
resources,
– Continued success of tribe’s
way of life (aka increase
rites)
– Re-emergence of animals
from underworld portals
Animal Masters and 

Hunting Ceremonies
• Scholars have described a
widespread forager belief in a
supernatural guardian or 

Animal Master.
• This is especially prevalent
among Uto-Aztecan cultures
(i.e. the Numic Great Basin
Shoshonean – Kawaiisu,
Tubatulabal, Southern Paiute,
cultures of American Southwest
- Hopi and Mesoamerica –
Maya, Huichol, Mixe, Nahua)
• Such supernaturals and rituals
may have been featured in the
rock art record as a result of
hunting ceremonies.
Rocks, Rituals, and Animal Masters
• Rocks are portals to the world
of animals and the
supernatural. A curtain, dividing
worlds.
• Before the hunt, hunter offered
sacrifices to the Animal Master
asking permission to take one
of his creatures
• Post-hunting ritual use, thanks
to the Animal Master for
sending the catch.
• Again tied to the presentation of
offerings
 Cyclic Concept of Time and
Regeneration
• Core paradigm of foragers
• There is innate power in bones
and in the planting of skeletal
remains of hunted animals
• The planting of bones assures
regeneration – a source of new
life
• The sacred skulls were believed
to be alive in that they embodied
energies associated with their
animal ancestors
• An animal skull was full of power.
• The Animal Master lives in the
animal underworld where the
animals go after they are killed
by hunters. The Master of the
Animals is responsible for their
regeneration.
 Animals, Bones, and 

Hunting Magic
• First: Belief in the Animal
Master
• Second: Symbolic connection
and unification of bones with
regeneration
• Functions of such ceremonies
designed to placate (asking for
forgiveness) the animal master
and ensure regeneration of the
animals via ritual ceremonies
that incorporated the secondary
discard of animal remains.
• The former and the latter are
sometimes identified with
“hunting magic”.
 Forager-Hunting Religions
• Animal Ceremonialism
• Emphasis on spiritual
power
• Annual ceremonies of
cosmic rejuvenation
• Shamanism
• Emergence tradition -
peopling of the world from
the interior of the earth
• Multiple levels of the
cosmos
 Case Study: 

Yahwera, the Kawaiisu 

Animal Master

• Oral traditions
• Yahwera Kahnina – The
Home of the Animal
Mastera
• Meaning of the term -
Yahwera
• Description of deity
• The Back Canyon Site
• Parallels with Pattern
Bodied Anthropomorphs
of the Coso
Representational Rock Art
Tradition
Yahwe’era Kahniina 

(Yahwera’s House)
• Located in Back
Canyon, Walker Basin
• Portal to power
• Limestone pillar and
spring
• Traditional story told of
Yahwera, Master of
the Animals
 Yahwera’s House
• One entrance is there in Back Canyon –
home is a hole in that rock.
!
• Another entrance is a cave on Indian
Creek. (Marie Girado, Lida, and
Dorothy at the cave.)
!
• When you visit you see many different
animals – deer, bear, etc.
• These were animal people who spoke
just like the Kawaiisu.
• Near the mouth of the tunnel the man
saw bows and arrows. These were the
weapons by which deer were killed. The
deer leave them when they go inside
Yahwera’s house.
• The man also saw the horns of all the
deer that have been killed. Yahwera
said that the deer were not really dead.
 Yahwera’s House
• There were many
different kinds of luck
on the cave walls.
• The man saw a bow
and arrow of a good
hunter in a prominent
place and the bows
and arrows of inferior
hunters in subordinate
positions.
 Yahwera’s House
• The man took
something for his luck.
The man began to
walk through the
tunnel.
• He stumbled and
climbed over a large
gopher snake (kogo).
Yahwera’s House
• Farther along he came
to a rattlesnake, as big
as a log (tugu-baziitї-
bї) and he climbed
over it.
Yahwera’s House
• Then there was a
brown bear (mo’orii-
zhi) that he passed by
and then he came to a
grizzly bear (pogwitї)
and went past it.
• Then he didn’t see any
other animals.
 Yahwera’s House

• He kept walking and he saw Yahwera.

• Yahwera wore a mountain quail feather blanket. He looked like a hawk.
• The man said he was sick and wanted to get well. Yahwera knew all about
his illness without being told.
• Yahwera gave him some acorn mush, pinyon, or deer meat, and every time
he ate some the same amount reappeared. He couldn’t eat it all! He gave it
back to Yahwera.
 Yahwera’s House
• Yahwera took him into a room
where he kept the medicine.
• Yahwera asked him which of
the songs he wanted and
named all the songs. The man
took a song.
• The man was ready to return
home, so he kept going to the
other end of the tunnel.
 Exiting Yahwera’s House

• He saw water that was like a window but it wasn’t water, he passed
through and didn’t get wet.
• He came out and found he had exited far away from the entrance in the
desert somewhere (Redrock Canyon or Little Lake) and wasn’t sick
anymore.
• He had been gone for a long time and his relatives didn’t know where he
had been.
 Coso Decorated Animal–Humans
• Decorated animal humans
– 700+
• Many are bird-humans
with avian feet
• Many hold hunting gear –
spears, atlatls, staff, or
bolo stones
• Right arm is bent upwards
• Left arm holds foreshafts
• Headdresses with
feathers or quail plumes
Native Californian Territories
Yokuts Territories
Yokuts Ethnographic Background
•Anthropologists generally agree that
the aboriginal population who occupied
the region of the study area was the
Southern Valley Yokuts.
!
•According to Latta the Tulamni Yokuts
were those inhabiting the general area
of Buena Vista Lake. Their main village,
Tulamniu, existed within the general
vicinity of the project area.
!
•The Tulamni lied in an area north, west,
and south of Buena Vista Lake, in the
Elk Hills, on Buena Vista Creek and the
Buena Vista Hilla, and in the McKittrick
and Maricopa areas.
 Yokuts Ethnographic Background
The following brief background is abstracted from several
ethnographic overviews characterizing these tribal populations.
!
• A more detailed and comprehensive study of the ethnogeography
and ethnohistory specific to the Buena Vista Yokuts has been
completed by David Earle.
!
•For a fine grained look at the nuances of Tulamni Yokuts that
reference should be consulted.
!
•The Yokuts spoke a language classified as a member of the
hypothesized Penutian linguistic stock found throughout the Central
Valley.
!
•They were organized into true named tribes (or tribelets) and
separated into land-holding territorial units, based on dialectical
differences.
Yokuts Ethnographic Background
•The Spanish called the Yokuts,
“Tulareños”, or people of the Tules,
because of the preponderance of
bulrushes or tule reeds in their
environs.
!
•The number of Southern Valley
Yokuts living in villages in the area at
the time of European contact has
been variously estimated from 3,150
to 9,500 persons.
!
•An interesting ethnohistoric account
relevant to the village at Buena Vista
Lake describes Tulamniu as being
inhabited by 36 men, 144 women,
and 38 children in 1806.
Yokuts Ethnographic Background
•The abundant resources in the southern Valley allowed the Yokuts
to maintain villages year round.
!
•These occupation sites were commonly situated on small creeks
flowing into a river or at the confluence of two creeks where there
was a patch of level land immune from flooding.
!
•A central chief ruled each tribe and was assisted by one or more
aids.
!
•Tribes were divided into two divisions or moieties. The latter
identified with totemic animals.
!
•Each moiety contained a number of clans.
!
•Marriage was always outside of the moiety.
Yokuts Ethnographic Background
•Yokuts were normally a peaceful
people, although intertribal
skirmishes were known.
!
•Shamans served as priests and the
most important religious ceremonies
were the annual mourning
ceremony for the dead, a Jimson
weed (Datura metaloides) puberty
ceremony for both boys and girls,
and the rattlesnake ceremony
aimed at protecting tribal members
from being bitten during the ensuing
year.
 Yokuts Ethnographic Background
•Animal foods included fish,
shellfish, waterfowl, and large
and small mammals. Large
game included: deer
(Odocoileus hemionus), tule
elk (Cervus elaphus), and
pronghorn (Antilocapra
americana).
!

•Smaller game animals included the hare and

cottontail (Lepus californicus and Sylvilagus
audobonii). Waterfowl was a major dietary
focus, as the lakes and sloughs provided
abundant migratory birds including: mallard
(Anas platyrnchos), wood duck (Alix sponsa)
and the Canadian goose (Branta candensis).
Yokuts Ethnographic Background
•The staple aboriginal plant resource, used
throughout California, was the acorn.
!
•However this was less the case for the
Yokuts.
!
•The Yokuts did trade for this important
resource but their emphasis was on the tules
(Scirpus acutus.) - as an acorn substitute.
!
•The huge roots of the tule other related
marshland plants (spike rush [Heleocharis
acicularis], bulrush [S. californicus], cattail
[Typha latifolia] and sedges [Carex spp.]) were
harvested in great numbers, eaten raw, or
dried and pounded into flour and made into a
mush.
Yokuts Ethnographic Background
•Watercraft were also
made from tules and
when constructed from
the served to navigate the
local waterways.
!
•The tule “balsa” boat also
provided useful
transportation and an
added means for hunting
prey animals and
gathering economic
plants.
 Yokuts Rock Art

Yokuts rock art is usually in the form of pictographs. 




The panels may be in exposed places like the sides of boulders or in
protected places like caves or under overhangs.
 Yokuts Rock Art

Pictographs in a protected environment usually fare much

better than pictographs that are exposed to the elements.
 Yokuts Rock Art

The most common colors include red, white and black.

 Yokuts Rock Art

Characteristic of Yokuts pictographs are split head figures,

polychrome outlining, simple anthropomorphs & zoomorphs and
figures depicted in large scale- some may be 5 to 7 feet in length.
 Yokuts Rock Art

Geopolitical/ social significance?

END