Many tribes of the Yokuts, Shoshonean and Chumash Indians flourished throughout the San Joaquin during the early days although few remain today. Most fell victim to war, disease, and the white man’s fire water. In the I be inning, they made their dwellings in the flatlands, the foothills and mountains, before most were herded into a reservation near Fort Tejon. The largest of the groups were the Yokuts.

The Yowlumne tribe of Yokuts were a peaceful people and made their home in present day Bakersfield, with the village centering between the Santa Fe Depot and Mercy Hospital. Village remnants and artifacts have been found in this area, even in recent years, indicating that earlier residents called this place home.

Always searching for new horizons, the Soshoneans ventured into the Kern River area with some branches of the tribe establishing villages near Weldon, Old Kernville, and along the main fork of the river. Others lived in the upper Tejon and Poso Creek areas.

Kern’s broad sandy valley and the mountain canyons of the northern end of the Mojave Desert temporarily homed the Panamint, or Coso, tribe of the Shoshoneans. Farther south was the domain of the Chembuevi and the Paiutes.

Very little is known about Kern’s third Indian group, the Chumash. This predominately coastal group occupied villages in the San Emidio Mountains and were known as the San Emigdiano tribe. It is also known that they claimed parts around Tejon Pass and old Fort Tejon as their hunting grounds.

The Sebastian Indian Reservation had a period of dominance for the Indians and must be included in any Kern Indian saga. General Edward F. Beale, famous for many happenings in Kern County, was also in command of this government venture. He was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada by President Millard Fillmore in 1852.

Beale’s first move was to move all the Indians of the southern San Joaquin to a government reservation, for close control by tise military. Based on recommendations of the 1853 Williamson railroad survey party, the General chose a location ear Tejon because of the natural facilities. The area had abundance of wood, water and land.

Originally surveyed to include 75,000 acres, the reservation area shrunk in 1956 to 25,000 acres for reasons unexplained. The new reserve was originally called Tejon for its geographic location, but was renamed Sebastian Indian Reservation after the chairman of Indian Affairs, William King Sebastian, of Arkansas.

The 25,000-acre confine soon became the home of 2,500 Indians and was cut into rancherias, with an Indian chief in charge of each rancheria. Each chief controlled his group’s affairs, including planting of crops. Reports available indicate the reservation, as a whole, had 2,650 acres in ciiltivation-2,000 acres in wheat, 500 in barley and 120 in corn.

Colonel T. J. Henley succeeded General Beale after the latter was ousted from his position because of government criticism for overexpenditure. It appears that Henley’s succession did not assure success, however, because conditions prevailed that indicated Henley either lacked the ability or desire to manage the reservation. It was abandoned in 1864. after the appointment of Alexis Godey Indian A gent. Godey was the noted explorer and mountain man who had accompanied Fremont on westward expeditions into Kern County.

The Tejon area, reservations included, became the property of Beale, soon after the Civil War. The 200,000 acres became the property of General Beale’s son, Truxtun, after the general’s death. In 1912, the land containing what had been the Tejon and Sebastian Indian Reservation was told to the Tejon Lanrl and Cattle Company.

The few Indians that remain in Kern are proud of being the descendents of the first occupants of what is now Kern County and have many tales of their own to telltales of heritage of the Yokuts, the Shoshonean and the Chumash.

Born in the province, of Aragon, Spain, on April 12, 1738, he joined the Franciscan Order at 15 years of age and was ordained a priest at 25. Shortly after his ordination, this courageous Franciscan was breaking the first overland trail between New Mexico and the California missions. Padre Garces’ home base was the frontier mission in Sonora, called San Xavier del bac; near the present site of the city of Tucson, Arizona.

From this home mission. Father Francisco Garces made several expeditions for ecclesiastical purposes and also to discover a means of communication between the widely separated settlements of New Mexico and California. It was on his fifth and final expedition that lie crossed the Mojave Desert, the San Bernardino Mountains and the Kern River. which he named Rio de San Felipe. After journeying north to Tulare County, he returned to Kern County and upon recrossing the Kern River he traveled towards the Mojave Desert.

Francisco Garces died a martyr in 1781 in an uprising of the Colorado River Indians. near the present town of Yurna. He never dreamed that the "beautiful hills for - -a mission ‘ which he described would become his is namesake 170 years later. The spot he was visiting is now Garces Memorial High School.