kwolokam

The Place Of The Duck

“Home Again: The Land Remembers Its People”

For generations beyond count, we the Tübatulabal People, have called the north and south forks of the Kern River our home. This land, our sacred homeland, has always been a part of us. And after years that felt like lifetimes, we are finally reuniting with a piece of what was taken from us when settlers came in the 1800s.

On August 31, we held in our hands the deed to 1,240 acres of our ancestral land, land that remembers us, just northeast of Isabella Lake. This land was once part of the Quarter-Circle-5 Ranch, 2,274 acres strong, lying north of Weldon at the end of Fay Ranch Road.

Our land, a sacred piece of our past, now includes the old ranch house, a meadow warmed by a hot spring. A conservation easement protects it, shielding it from the commercial development. But that doesn’t mean it’ll stay silent. We’re dreaming up ways to welcome the people—fishing, hiking, and letting them walk where our ancestors once walked.

Buried beneath the soil, stories still live. Archaeological sites whisper of an ancient village called Kwolokam Ap, the place of the duck. It’s a place that remembers us, The Tübatulabal people, filling the Kern River Valley with our songs and stories.

We’ve always been a small tribe, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t stood the test of time. Five thousand years, our language has been here, untouched by outsiders. And yet, despite all that time, the federal government has never recognized us as a federal tribe. We’re working on changing that.

We’ll gather on this land, to hold ceremonies, reconnecting with each other and with the earth beneath our feet.