The Serrano are a Native American tribe of Southern California. They use the autonyms of Taaqtam, meaning "people"; Maarenga'yam, "people from Morongo"; and Yuhaviatam, "people of the pines".
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History
Members of the Serrano tribe are part of the Shoshonean-language subset of the large Uto-Aztecan group of Native Americans. The language family historically extended along the West Coast, into the Great Basin and into Mexico, with representation among tribes in Mesoamerica. (The following material appears to come mostly from the 1901 Smithsonian Institution report on American Indians.)[1] Serrano means "highlander" or "mountaineer" in Spanish. They were an offshoot of the Takic people who arrived in Southern California around 2,500 years ago. When the Spanish missionaries came into the region, they helped create the tribal name Serrano, distinguishing the people from neighbors who were designated as the Gabrielino and Kitanemuk.
The Serrano historically populated the San Bernardino Mountains and extended to the Mojave River region down to the Tejon Creek. The Serrano populations along the Tejon Creek were identified as the Cuahajai or Cuabajay, their exonyms by the Mojave.
Their dwellings were large and communal. Framed with willow and covered over with woven mats, the lodges were made with fireplaces inside for each family. The Serrano crafted baskets and vessels with mother-of-pearl inlays, which were often traded to the native people in the coastal Santa Barbara region. The men did not wear clothing and the women wore deerskin, otter, and rabbit furs.
The Serrano who inhabited the San Bernardino mountains would go to the milder areas of Apple Valley and Lucerne Valley during the winter, and the area in and around Big Bear Lake during the summer. They hunted small game such as rabbits, using traps along with bows and arrows. They did not hunt the grizzly bears, which they believed were reincarnations of their ancestors' spirits. They were skilled craftsmen and experts in basketweaving, which they created in a variety of sizes and shapes for different purposes, such as storage, carrying, and sorting.
Their diet consisted of the game which they caught, and nuts and vegetables which they gathered and cooked. The women ground pinon nuts into a dough and made a flat tortilla-like bread. They also gathered acorns from oak trees and ground them for a coarse flour, from which they made a porridge called wiich. Other staples were roasted agave, prickly pears, and Yucca blossoms.
The Spanish founded Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in 1771. With the Cahuilla and Yuma tribes, in 1812 the Serrano revolted against the missions.
In 1834 the Spanish forcibly relocated many Serrano to the missions. They suffered devastating smallpox outbreaks in 1840 and 1860, as they had no immunity to the Eurasian disease. In 1875 the United States established a reservation for them.
Other villages of the Serranos included Akxawiet, Cucamonga, Homhoabit, Jurumpa, Juyubit, Muscupiabit, Topapaibit (Victorville), Guapaibit (Hesperia), Paso del Cajon, San Benito, San Gorgonio, San Pascual, (Rancho) San Timoteo, Temeku (Rancheria), Tolocabi, and Yucaipa.
Population
Estimates have varied as scholars struggle to determine the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California. (See Population of Native California.) Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:617, 883) put the combined 1770 population of the Serrano, Kitanemuk, and Tataviam at 3,500 and the Serrano proper (excluding the Vanyume) at 1,500. Lowell John Bean suggested an aboriginal Serrano population of about 2,500 (Bean and Smith 1978:573).
As noted, smallpox epidemics and social disruption reduced the population. Kroeber estimated the combined population of the Serrano, Kitanemuk, and Tataviam in 1910 as 150.
Reservations
The Serrano Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Banning, California and the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Highland, California have reservations.
See also
References
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- Bean, Lowell John, and Charles R. Smith. (1978), "Serrano", in California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 570-574. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- Kroeber, A. L. (1925), Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.
External links
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