After pandemic hiatus, Go Native returns to Kaweah Oaks Preserve

For thousands of years, Central California’s Native American Yokuts tribes have crafted items for daily utility, ceremony, and play including pine needle baskets, gathering trays, cradleboards, walnut dice games, Tule ducks, drums, fish traps, and more. While their way of life may have vanished from easy view unlike locations where Native life is still prominent, such as in the American Southwest, the Yokuts’ culture hasn’t vanished entirely.

Come Saturday, May 15, Go Native: A Native American Celebration — with support from sponsors Visit Visalia and Sequoia Riverlands Trust — will bring a rare opportunity to meet our region’s Native Americans who continue to celebrate their living culture annually at Kaweah Oaks Preserve.

According to event organizer Jennifer Malone of the local Wukchumni tribe, “Go Native is important because the area tribes want to let the public know that we are still here.