Tübatulabal

A people

The General Grant Tree, a giant sequoia, rising above the surrounding forest in Grant Grove, Kings Canyon National Park.
Marty Aligata, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Background

Cal Poly's land acknowledgment places the Tubatulabal in the eastern part of what is now Sequoia National Park, in the Kern drainage, and says the name refers to a people who go to the forest to gather tubat, the pinon nuts. The same acknowledgment records travelers from the Yokuts and the Owens Valley Paiute coming through that country and sometimes trading, and puts an 1863 massacre at Whiskey Flats that killed about 40 Tubatulabal men. The park counts the Tübatulabal among the five peoples whose homelands it covers and files the Tübatulabal Tribe under state recognized and other tribes. The Bureau of Indian Affairs list of January 30, 2026 carries no Tübatulabal entry.

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Parks on its homelands

The General Grant Tree, a giant sequoia, rising above the surrounding forest in Grant Grove, Kings Canyon National Park.Kings Canyon National Park

NPS puts the Tübatulabal homeland among the five peoples whose homelands are Sequoia and Kings Canyon, and lists the Tübatulabal Tribe with the eleven state recognized and other tribal organizations rather than among the fifteen federally recognized tribes. Source

The General Sherman Tree, a massive giant sequoia, rising among smaller conifers in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park.Sequoia National Park

The valley of the Kern River has been the home of three bands that together are named Tübatulabal: the Palegawan, the Pahkanapul and the Bankalachi, also called Toloim. The name Tübatulabal translates loosely as pine-nut eaters, and the people have always lived along the north and south forks of the Kern below Mount Whitney. Source

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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