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Kern River Branch [underlined]
TÜBATULABAL. [underlined]

The name of a small tribe on Kern river, California, constituting one of the four most distinct branches into which the Shoshonean family is divided. The language of these people is quite different from the dialects of all the plateau Shoshoneans and from all those of southern California. The great specialization of the dialect seems to indicate its separation from the remainder of the stock for a considerable period of time and to make for the probability that the people speaking it have long been inhabitants of California. The divergence of the dialect is the more remarkable in that it is adjacent to dialects of two groups of the plateau branch of Shoshoneans and only a short distance from the nearest Indians of the Serrano group of the southern California branch.
The territory of the Tübatulabal centered about the junction of the main fork and south fork of Kern river. They extended up both these streams at least some distance and perhaps to the head waters; at least no other occupants of the upper parts of these streams are known. Below the junction the Tübatulabal held Kern river to a point within some miles above Kern falls. From this point down, Kern river did not form part of their territory and the statements made as to their descending into the