Indian Summer - Traditional Life among the Choinumne Indians of California's San Joaquin Valley

In 1850, six-year-old Thomas Jefferson Mayfield was adopted by the Choinumne Yokuts of California's San Joaquin Valley.

For the next dozen years he slept in their houses, joined them on their daily rounds, and followed them on their annual expeditions by tule boat to Tulare Lake. He spoke their language, wore their style of dress, ate their foods, and in short, lived almost entirely like an Indian. the reminiscences he left behind are unique: the only known account by any outsider who lived among a California Indian people while they were still following their traditional ways.