Tulumni

The Tulumni were the southernmost Yokuts tribes, living around Buena Vista and Kern Lakes in the Tulare Basin, where the Kern River ended in marshes and shallow lakes. Their villages included Tulamni, Hometwoli and Tuhohi, and they spoke the Buena Vista dialects of the Yokuts language; Hometwoli means Southerners.

Lake fishing, waterfowl, roots and acorns sustained their permanent villages. They traded and intermarried with Chumash groups to the south, and the Emigdiano speech of San Emigdio mixed Barbareno Chumash with Buena Vista Yokuts words.

Spanish soldiers first passed through their country in 1772, and inland missions after 1800 drew off villagers as laborers. In 1833 a malaria epidemic spread through the Tulare basin sweat houses and emptied whole villages, leaving the lake peoples much reduced.