Alaawich (Our Language)

Tübatulabal is the language spoken by the Indian people whose ancestral home is in the Kern River Valley near the southern end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Some of the older village sites are under the waters of Lake Isabella which was formed behind the Isabella Dam. Today many Tübatulabal people live in or near the towns of Weldon and Onyx in the Kern River Valley. Come of them still speak their native language. The word Tübatulabal means people who eat pine nuts. The pine nut, or pinon, was important in the diet of the ancient people. Lucy Andreas Arvidson is a Tübatulabal who was born in Onyx in 1923. She has lived all her life in the Kern River Valley. She attended South Fork School for eight years and then for four years went to Sherman Institute (now known as the Sherman Indian High School) in Riverside, California. She teachers the Tübatulabal language to an adult class at South Fork School, where she also works as a teacher s aide in the regular school program. This booklet was written and illustrated for children.