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Kawaiisu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kawaiiasu
Nuwa
A Kawaiisu family
Total population
2010: 60 alone and in combination[1]
Regions with significant populations
 United States ( California)
Languages
English, Kawaiisu[2]
Religion
Indigenous religion, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Ute, Chemehuevi, and Southern Paiute

The Kawaiisu Nation (pronounced: "ka-wai-ah-soo"[needs IPA]) are a tribe of indigenous people of California in the United States. They have never signed a treaty or given up their territorial rights to any of their ancestral land in the United States. The Kawaiisu Nation had preexisting treaties with Spain and then was recognized by Mexico until 1849 when California was becoming a State. Tribal members lived in a series of villages in the Tehachapi Valley and to the north across the Tehachapi Pass in the southern Sierra Nevada, toward Lake Isabella and Walker Pass. Historically, the Kawaiisu also traveled eastward on food-gathering trips to areas in the northern Mojave Desert, to the north and northeast of the Antelope Valley, Searles Valley, as far east as the Panamint Valley, the Panamint Mountains, and the western edge of Death Valley. -

They are well know for their rock art/Po-o-ka-di that exists throughout it's territory including on the Chana Lake Naval Weapons Center. Kawaiisu complex basket weaving was recognized as the finest in the Americas. Much of inventory of the Kawaiisu baskets are held and hidden by UC Berkley in a private collection.

Language

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The Kawaiisu languageis a member of the Southern Numic division of the Uto-Aztecan language family.[2] The Kawaiisu homeland was bordered by speakers of non-Numic Uto-Aztecan languages. The Kitanemuk to the south spoke Takic, the Tübatulabal to the north spoke the Tübatulabal language. The Yokuts (Monilabal) to the west were non-Uto-Aztecan. Because they also spoke a Southern Numic language, the Chemehuevi to the east are the closest linguistic relatives to Kawaiisu.

The Kawaiisu have been mislabeled and mistakenly known by several other names, including the Caliente, Paiute, Tehachapi Valley Indians, and Tehachapi Indians, but they called themselves depending on dialect Nuwu, New-wa, Nu-oo-ah or Niwiwi, meaning "The People." The tribal designations as "Kawaiisu" are English adoptions of the Yokutsan words used by the neighboring Yokuts. They self-identification term Nüwa ("People") is commonly used by themselves and in the newspapers and media.[3]

History

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Before European contact, the Kawaiisu lived in permanent winter villages of 60 to 100 people. They often divided into smaller groups during the warmer months of the year and harvested plants(included pinon nuts) in the mountains and deserts. They hunted animals and fished for food and raw materials. They were know for their mining and trading of obsidian throughout the western Americas and deep into Mexico. They were also know for their building of sturdy Tulle Boats used for fishing and transportation. Some believe they were divided in two regional groups: the "Desert Kawaiisu" and the "Mountain Kawaiisu".

The Kawaiisu are related by language and culture to the Southern Paiute of southwestern Nevada and the Chemehuevi of the eastern Mojave Desert of California. They may have originally lived in the desert before coming to the Tehachapi Mountains region, perhaps as early as 2,000 years ago or before.

The Kawaiisu maintained friendly relations with the neighboring Kitanemuk and also participated in cooperative antelope drives (driving herds of antelope into traps so they could be more easily slaughtered) with the Yokuts, another group living in the San Joaquin Valley.Since 1863 after the Kawaiisu Massacre at Tillie Creek, they have often been in conflict with the tribe in the mountains north of them.

The Kawaiisu are famous for their petroglyphs and rock art.[4] Starting in the early 1850s, a 175 year genocide of the Kawaiisu people and their culture begin by European settlers, militias and the US Army. The ongoing cultural genocide continues to this day centered in Kern County,Ca.

In 2011, The Kawaiisu Project received the Governor's Historic Preservation Award for its efforts to document the Kaiwaiisu language and culture, including "the Handbook of the Kawaiisu, language teaching ... the Kawaiisu Language and Cultural Center, [and] the Kawaiisu exhibit at the Tehachapi Museum."[5][6] A local newspaper noted in 2010, "There are also several hundred living Kawaiisu descendants, even though a pervasive misconception believes them to be all gone."[6][7]

Population

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Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially.[8] Alfred L. Kroeber proposed the combined 1770 population of the Kawaiisu as 1,500. He estimated the surviving population of the Kawaiisu in 1910 as 500.[9]

The Kawaiisu culture is matriarchal. The estimates of the Kawaiisu tribal membership is grossly under counted. Tribal members were hunted down and enslaved or killed from about 1850 until the late 1880's. A major massacre and a death march occurred in 1863 and 1864. Tribal members learned to escape to the remote mountains and hid their true heritage. Kawaiisu members sometimes called themselves the "Coso People" or even joined other tribes to protect themselves and their families. Today , the Kawaiisu's own tribal records indicate that total eligible members may be as high as 100,000 and with one family having up to 10,000 eligible members.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ "2010 Census" (PDF). census.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-12-09.
  2. ^ a b California Indians and Their Reservations: Kawaiisu Archived 2015-07-06 at the Wayback Machine San Diego State University Library and Information Access. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  3. ^ Sprague, Jack; Garfinkel, Alan. Handbook of the Kawaiisu – via www.academia.edu.
  4. ^ "Petroglyphs.US – Rock Art Gallery – pictographs & petroglyphs". Archived from the original on 2013-05-06. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
  5. ^ Hammond, Jon (2011-11-29). "Kawaiisu Project receives Governor's Historic Preservation Award". TehachapiNews.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  6. ^ a b Hammond, Jon (2010-04-06). "The original Tehachapi language: new grant funds new grant funds two-year Nüwa (Kawaiisu) project". TehachapiNews.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  7. ^ Hammond, Jon. "Handbook of the Kawaiisu". TehachapiNews.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  8. ^ (see Population of Native California)
  9. ^ Kroeber, Alfred L. (1925). Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin. Vol. 78. Washington, D.C. p. 883.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

References

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  • Garfinkel, Alan P. (2007). "Archaeology and Rock Art of the Eastern Sierra and Great Basin Frontier". Maturango Museum Publication Number 22. Maturango Museum, Ridgecrest, California.
  • Garfinkel, Alan P., Donald R. Austin, David Earle, and Harold Williams (2009). Myth, Ritual and Rock Art: Coso Decorated Animal-Humans and the Animal Master. Rock Art Research 26(2):179–197. [The Journal of the Australian Rock Art Research Association (AURA) and of the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations (IFRAO)].
  • Garfinkel, Alan P. and John F. Romani (2008). Dating Aboriginal Occupation at Tihesti-va’a-di: Changing Land Use Patterns at a Kawaiisu Village, Tehachapi, California. "Kern County Archaeological Society Journal" 10:45–63.
  • Garfinkel, Alan P. and Harold Williams (2011). The Handbook of the Kawaiisu: A Sourcebook and Guide to Primary Resources on the Native Peoples of the far southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, and southwestern Great Basin. Wa-hi San'avi Publications.
  • Gifford, Edward Winslow (1917). Tübatulabal and Kawaiisu kinship terms. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
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