The Kitanemuk were a Native American people who lived in the Tehachapi Mountains and the western Mojave Desert of southern California.
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Language
The Kitanemuk spoke a Uto-Aztecan language, probably akin to that of the Takic branch and to the Serrano language in particular.
Population
Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.) Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) proposed a 1770 population for the Kitanemuk, together with the Serrano and Tataviam, as 3,500. Thomas C. Blackburn and Lowell John Bean (1978:564) estimated the Kitanemuk alone as 500-1,000.
The combined population of the Kitanemuk, Serrano, and Tataviam in 1910 was 150, according to Kroeber.
History
The Kitanemuk were first contacted by the Franciscan missionary-explorer Francisco Garcés in 1776. Some Kitanemuk were recruited for the missions at San Fernando, San Gabriel, and perhaps San Buenaventura. Beginning in the 1850s, they were associated with the reservations at Fort Tejon and Tule River.
References
- Sturtevant, William C.; Robert F. Heizer (1978). "Kitanemuk". in William C. Sturtevant, general editor; Robert F. Heizer, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 8: California. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 564–569. LCCN 77-17162. ISBN 0-16-004574-6.
- Kroeber, Alfred Louis (1976). Handbook of the Indians of California. New York City: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23368-5. OCLC 2972541.
See also
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