change in their lives." In an interview with one of the tribe members about the massacre conducted for a study stated " That morning the soldiers killed our people it caused a lot of heartache to our people physically, emotionally, and mentally. They took away all our people who tell stories, who could read the stars at night, who could farm. They took away all our old traditions, our songs, our language, and our pride. It affected us a lot. Even to this day it affects us." Population Estimates for the precontact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. By two estimates, the Tübatulabal were a small to very small nation. Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) put the 1770 population of the Tübatulabal as 1,000. Erminie W. Voegelin considered Kroeber's estimate too high (Voegelin 1938:39). For the time of initial European-American settlement, around 1850, she estimated 200–300. Kroeber in 1910 reported the population of the Tübatulabal as 150. Yamamoto in 2000 estimated the population at 900. Today about 400 Tübatulabal people reside in the Kern River Valley of California. 500 more live in surrounding areas. Contemporary tribe Today, a Tübatulabal tribe is seeking federal recognition. They have an office located in Mountain Mesa, California, and include descendants of several tribal families who were awarded allotment lands under the US Dawes Allotment Act 1887. Tribal membership is at 287 members, however, a new open enrollment process has been established as of October 2012. The tribe estimates about 400–600 total members. Notes References Gomez, Robert. Tübatulabal History Outline – report for California Tribal Environmental Justice Collaborative Grant Project. September 2010. Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C. Miranda-Begay, Donna, PhD. 2011. "Tribal Perspectives" of the Tübatulabal Baskets in the California State Parks Archives. 1st Edition. November 2011. Tübatulabal Tribe. Otay, William (2009). Oral Kern Valley history as told to Donna Miranda-Begay in 2009. Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. . Theodoratus, Dorothea, PhD. and McBride, Kathleen. 2009. "California Tribal Environmental Justice Collaborative Grant Project." Tribal Environmental Justice Collaborative Grant Project. November 2010. Voegelin, Erminie W. 1938. "Tübatulabal Ethnography". Archaeological Records 2:1-90. University of California Press, Berkeley. See also Tubatulabal traditional narratives Further reading Macri, Marta, PhD. 2009. "Native California Languages of the San Joaquin Valley." UC Davis. December