Yokut or Not

I was doing some reading on Bakersfield history recently and decided to google the Yokut Indians to see what popped up. I learned a long time ago that Yokut was not what the name the Native Americans used for themselves, and in fact it was their word for people. They called themselves Mariposans. So I thought this excerpt from Wikipedia was sort of rude.

Most Yokuts Indians reject the name Yokuts as invented by Whites and prefer to refer to themselves by their tribal name. The Yokuts consisted of up to 60 ethnically and linguistically separate tribes pre-contact. The Yokuts lived in the San Joaquin Valley from the Delta south to Bakersfield.

They admit they reject the name Yokuts been then go on to refer to them as Yokuts throughout the article. There are only a handful of these people left. I think a little respect is in order.

The Indians of California really had it good before the white men showed up. My professor at CSUB described their lives as being primarily made of up eating, drinking and making love in the mild California weather. I'm sure it was a little tougher than that, but they were very relaxed. The Indians in the Central Valley were not war like. They didn't stand a chance. Estimates say that their population went from 18,000 to 600 in a little over 100 years. In 1851 they signed a peace treaty. The next year the United States Senate rejected the treaty.

I guess they were a threat to peace - for the settlers anyway.