Chemehuevi
The Chemehuevi or Nüwüwü ("The People", singular: Nüwü ) are actually the southernmost tribal group of the Southern Paiute , who spoke a regional dialect variant of the Colorado River Numic of the Southern Numic languages and live in the southwestern United States . Due to their migration south to the Colorado River at the beginning of the 19th century and the adoption of the cultural customs of the River Yuma there , they are now mostly regarded as an independent ethnic group.
The name commonly used today is derived from Camowév, Acimuev or Achiimuuév ("Those who play with fish") from the language of the neighboring Mohave (in Chemehuevi: Ayatawü ), whose language is a variant of the Yuma river branch of the Cochimí - Belonged to Yuma languages . Since the Chemehuevi did not eat fish for cultural reasons , they were contemptuously referred to by the neighboring, fish- eating Mohave with this name. Another interpretation of the tribal name is derived from the language of the Yuma-speaking Quechan (Yuma) and is rendered as "those with their noses in the air like a cuckoo on the road ".
Culturally, they were closest to the so-called Las Vegas Paiute bands of the southern Paiute - the Kwiengomats, Nuaguntits, Pegesits, Tudinu - and later their close allies, the Mohave. They can be seen as mediators between the cultural area of the Great Basin and the Southwest.
The Chemehuevi were among the Quechan also as Mat-hatevach ("the northern ones "), among the Serrano as Yuakayam , with the Upper Pima (Tohono O'Odham and Akimel O'Odham) as Ahalakat ("small arches") and with the Southern Paiute known as Tantawás ("the Southerners"); the latter name was sometimes used by the Chemehuevi to distinguish it from the northern Paiute.
residential area
They used to live in the eastern half of the Mojave Desert , west of the Colorado River in California . Their areas bordered in the north on that of the Timbisha (also known as Death Valley Shoshone ) and other bands of the Western Shoshone , in the northeast on those of the related Southern Paiute, in the east - only separated from the Colorado River - on that of the Mohave, in the southeast that of the Halchidhoma (in Chemehuevi: Haatcaruumiwü ), in the extreme southwest to that of the Cahuilla , further north to that of the Vanyume / Wanyuma (also known as Desert Serrano ) and in the northwest to that of the Kawaiisu (also known as Tehachapi Shoshone ). After 1874 they came to the Colorado River reservation on the California side of the Colorado, but with the construction of the Parker Dam in 1938 much of their land was flooded, so that most of the Chemehuevi had to move to the Arizona side.
history
The legend
Sea woman (English Oceanwoman ) created the world by throwing a little earth into the sea. The earth floated in the water and dispersed. Next, she created coyote to explore how big the earth was. He went from one end to the other and reported Sea Woman that the earth was now big enough. Then she created Wolf and Mountain Lion , the brothers of Coyote.
Coyote and Seawoman married and they got a big basket full of children. The basket was locked tightly and Coyote was not allowed to open it until it was on target. He went across the sea with the basket, but it was so heavy that he opened it and some children escaped - they became the coastal Indians. He tied the basket again and brought it to its destination. Wolf opened it and the other children were freed - they became the Chemehuevi, Shoshone, Cahuilla , Mohave , Walapai , Supai , Quechan , Papago and the Apache . Since then there has been a special relationship between Wolf and the Chemehuevi.
Early history
The Chemehuevi are the southernmost branch of the Southern Paiute . Around 1500 they probably moved to the Mojave Desert together with other Paiute and drove the desert Mohave ( called Tiira? Ayatawi by the Chemehuevi ) to the east. The Mohave received the right to cross the desert. There were separate trails for both the Chemehuevi and Mohave that were just so far apart that users couldn't meet.
The Chemehuevi were known as the most belligerent group of the Southern Paiute. In addition to the Mohave and the southern Paiute, their neighbors also included the Koso (Panamint), Kawaiisu (Tehachapi) and the Serrano (Spanish mountain dwellers). Their traditional allies included the Mohave in particular, as well as the Quechan, Yavapai and the Western Apaches . On the other hand, their enemies included the Cocopa , Upper Pima ( Akimel O'Odham and Tohono O'Odham ), Maricopa (Pee-Posh) and sometimes their allies, the Mohave.
Brother Francisco Garces reported the presence of the Chemevet at Whipple Mountain in 1776 . The next written mention of the Chemehuevi came in 1827 from Jedediah Smith , an American mountain man who met on Paiute on the Mojave River, about eight miles west of Soda Lake . In the half century between these two reports were missions of the Franciscan (OFM) built along the coast. Indians who fled from there must also have come to the Chemehuevi villages, no doubt persecuted by Spanish soldiers.
Before the early 19th century, they split off from the main southern Paiute tribe. At that time they lived in what is now Las Vegas and moved from there to the Chemehuevi Valley and the area south of it on the Colorado. In the late 1820s, they are said to have lived with the Halchidhoma in the same villages that were south of the Bill Williams River , about 25 km south of today's city of Parker in Arizona on the Colorado. The Halchidhoma had previously been driven from their own villages by the Mohave and Quechan. They heard of an impending attack by the Mohave, warned the Halchidhoma and fled to the west side of the Colorado. After the war, they moved to the area previously inhabited by the Halchidhoma and were tolerated by the Mohave until the 1860s. The Halchidhoma had found refuge with the Maricopa on the Gila River .
History after 1850
In 1858, white immigrants from the east destroyed the fields of the Mohave and felled their precious cottonwood trees ( Populus deltoides ) to make rafts. The trees provided important raw materials for the Mohave, who built their houses from the trunks and made clothes from the bast. In addition, they were a necessary source of shade for humans and animals in the hot summer months. Furious, the Mohave attacked the whites, killing one man, wounding eleven others, and killing the immigrants' cattle and horses. This incident resulted in the establishment of Fort Mojave near the Mohave villages and the submission of the Mohave to the US military.
During this period the Chemehuevi were allied with the Mohave, but the nature of their resistance to the invaders was more nuanced. Unlike the Mohave, they had firearms and practiced a type of guerrilla warfare instead of the hand-to-hand combat that the Mohave preferred. The Chemehuevi killed a lone immigrant and raided immigrant treks to steal cattle. After Fort Mojave was built in the spring of 1859, the US Army recruited Mohave warriors to fight the Chemehuevi and Paiute.
At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, the army withdrew its troops from the Mojave Desert. At that time, a group of white found deposits of valuable minerals in the deserts of southeastern California. Mines were also built in the Chemehuevi area and Chemehuevi and Paiute were employed as workers.
After Prescott became the capital of the new Arizona Territory , there was a need for a postal connection with California. After the post line was set up, there have been a number of casualties involving wandering Chemehuevi and Paiute. In 1866, the aggressiveness of the Indians grew and after further deaths there was a confrontation at Camp Cady , a military outpost. The Indians killed three soldiers and wounded two others without suffering any losses. The US Army then set up a military camp at Camp Rock Spring on the eastern border of California and all stagecoaches were accompanied by three horsemen. Other military posts were established in Soda Springs , Marl Springs and Pah-Ute Springs . From the letters that men stationed at this post wrote and received, we know today that Chemehuevi and Paiute occasionally ambushed the mail riders in the Mojave Desert. In 1867 a peace treaty was signed between Major William Redwood Price and the Chemehuevi at Fort Mojave . To ensure peace, a number of Indian hostages were held captive in the fort, who were later killed while trying to escape. At the other end of the Mojave Trail , Indians had looted and burned houses around Lake Arrowhead . Settlers therefore organized a surprise attack on the Indians who had gathered at Chimney Rock . Most of them escaped into the desert because they had been warned beforehand. But the settlers persecuted them for 32 days and many Indians lost their lives. Since that time there has been peace in the Mojave Desert.
In the meantime, relations between the Mohave and Chemehuevi in the Colorado were deteriorating. For years they had lived side by side by the river and made friends. But by the 1860s, group after group of immigrants came from the east to cross the desert to California, and ships even went up the Colorado. An increasingly hostile climate developed between the two tribes and after a few murders, the war broke out, which lasted from 1865 to 1871. Many Chemehuevi fled to the Mojave Desert and later rallied in the Coachella Valley . Some also found refuge with the Cahuilla near Banning and with the Serrano in Twentynine Palms .
The American government then made several unsuccessful attempts to relocate the Chemehuevi to the Colorado River reservation, which had been enlarged for this purpose in 1874. The main reason for the resistance was the conflict with the Mohave, who also lived there. There have been both forced and voluntary relocations of the widely dispersed Chemehuevi groups to the reserve over the years, which continued into the early 20th century. Many preferred to stay in their traditional residential areas, such as near Blyth , Needles , Beaver Lake and the Chemehuevi Valley. After 1911, the Chemehuevi from Twentynine Palms and Banning were moved to the Morongo Reservation .
Way of life and culture
The material culture of the Chemehuevi corresponded in many parts to that of the neighboring tribes, the Mohave, Serrano and Cahuilla. The women were skilled basket makers. Their baskets, made using the coiled basket technique , were more similar to those from the San Joaquin Valley than those from southern California. The patterns of the baskets were mostly painted on and less woven in.
The bow used in the war was made of tendon-reinforced hickory wood (carya) and was extremely difficult to draw. The arrows were often made from reed or sometimes from willow, with a point made of flint. With the bow made of sinew-reinforced willow wood used for hunting, larger animals could also be shot.
There were four different types of houses and the preferred material was twigs. One was called the flat or shadow house and was built for ceremonial purposes. The flat roof made of branches was laid across four notched posts. Another roof, sloping down to the ground on the west side, was also built over the flat roof as special protection against sun and rain. Another very large flat house served as a storage room for goods that were later burned or given away.
Henry Benjamin Whipple , who crossed the Mojave Desert on an expedition, described a village on Paiute Creek in 1856 : A small bed of fertile soil still contains stubble of wheat and maize that the Paiute had grown from the mountains. Carelessly built huts made of walls of melon and pumpkin skins were scattered around, marking a place that had only recently been abandoned. On the rocks, blackened by volcanic heat, there were a great number of Native American hieroglyphs .
Members of the expedition also found the shells of desert tortoises wherever there was water. Proof that the meat of the turtles was an important part of the Indian diet in the desert.
Food that had previously been dried or cooked was often stored in clay pots in their homes. When hiking, pots or baskets of food were buried in the ground or put in caves. Grain was often stored in baskets that were covered with potsherds. The interior of the Meskal -Kaktus ( peyote ), and other edible plants have been cooked, mashed, and stored in vessels. Meat and the pulp of melons and pumpkins were dried. Owning food stores was vital and stealing food was a cause of war. In fact, it was a custom among the Indians of southern California for stored food to be protected by magical items, such as the addition of a notched staff. It was also called a holy staff , which was supposed to bring misfortune to anyone who entered the camp.
The Chemehuevi acquired eagles from other tribes, especially the Walapai, which were used for the funeral ceremony. All of the deceased's possessions were burned, with the exception of the horses.
Political-social structure
The Chemehuevi were divided into three main geographic groups, each of which lived along the western bank of the Colorado River:
- Tantiitsiwi ("the Northern") or Northern Chemehueiv lived along the northern bank south to the height of today's Fort Mohave (once built as "Camp Colorado" during the so-called Mohave War from 1858 to 1859), but on the east side of the Colorado Rivers is located in Arizona and is now part of the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation .
- Tantivaitsiwi ("the southern ones ") or southern Chemehuevi , also: Ankanampawü (singular: Ankanampa = "red foot", nickname by the Tantiitsiwi) Lived along the Colorado River south of Fort Mohave to the Big Maria Mountains and Little Maria Mountains.
- Tiiraniwiwi, Teeranewewe ("desert people") or desert Chemehuevi Inhabited the desert areas west of the Colorado River from the Mojave Desert in the north to the Colorado Desert in the south.
Each of the three main groups of the Chemehuevi had a Ha'ütogintümü (chief) who spoke the "chief 's language" and had the duty to be a good example and to lead his people in peacetime.
Each of these groups was divided into several extended families who jointly cultivated, hunted and collected fields and gathered in large winter camps - the name of the group therefore mostly referred to the area that was used and cultivated. Several such groups are known:
- Howaits (also Hokwaits, lived in the Ivanpah Mountains , hence the Ivanpah Mountain Group )
- Kauyaichits (lived in the Ash Meadows area , hence the Ash Meadows Group )
- Mokwats (lived in the Kingston Mountains , hence the Kingston Mountain Group )
- Moviats (also Movweats, lived on Cottonwood Island, hence Cottonwood Island Group )
- Palonies (Spanish for "the bald", migrated to the area north of Los Angeles )
- Shivawach (one group lived in Twentynine Palms , a second lived in Chemehuevi Valley )
- Tümplsagavatsits (also Timpashauwagotsits, lived in the Providence Mountains, hence Providence Mountain Group )
- Yagats (lived in the Amargosa Valley and along the Amargosa River , hence Amargosa River Group )
Sometimes the groups mentioned above are simply counted among the Southern Paiute just like the Chemehuevi.
Two traditional chants attest that the Chemehuevi had a type of moiety system associated with land ownership. There is the Mountain Sheep Song and the Deer Song , both of which describe hikes through mountains and valleys on the Colorado. Anyone who had the right to perform this song also had the right to hunt in the area and it was their property. The chants were inherited in the patriotic line (patrilinear). The Mountain Sheep Song covered an area west of the Colorado while the Deer Song referred to land east of the river. There was also the Salt Song , which described both sides of the Colorado. Each chant had different versions, and only part of a chant belonged to a subgroup. One was not allowed to marry anyone from a group that shared the same chant, a fact that gave the Chemehuevi's social structure something of an exogamous moiety system similar to that of the neighboring Serrano and Cahuilla. A group of two or three families hiked together and had a speaker. It got its name after the place where she farmed and to which she returned each year.
Demographics
| year | source | number | Remarks |
| 1700 | NAHDB * | 1000 | calculated |
| 1770 | Alfred Kroeber | 1550 | estimated |
| 1800 | NAHDB * | 900 | calculated |
| 1873 | US Indian Office | 800 | - |
| 1900 | NAHDB * | 400 | calculated after the smallpox epidemic of 1898 |
| 1910 | Alfred Kroeber | 300 | estimated |
| 1989 | Bureau of Indian Affairs | 123 | - |
| 2000 | US census | 696 | probably through mixed marriages with neighboring tribes |
| * Native American Historical Data Base |
Modern Chemehuevi tribes
- Chemehuevi Indian Tribe
- Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians of California (identify themselves as Chemehuevi, but are considered by some historians to be descendants of Luiseño and other groups of neighboring Mission Indians)
- Colorado River Indian Tribes (Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo)
- Morongo Band of Mission Indians (Cahuilla, Serrano, Cupeño, Luiseño and Chemehuevi)
- Cabazon Band of Mission Indians (Cahuilla and Chemehuevi)
- Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (Cahuilla and Chemehuevi)
- Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians (Cahuilla and Chemehuevi)
- Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians (Sovovatum or Soboba Band of the Cahuilla, Luiseño and Chemehuevi)
literature
- Warren L. d'Azevedo (Ed.): Handbook of North American Indians . Volume 11: Great Basin . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1986, ISBN 0-16-004581-9 .
Web links
- Chemehuevi
- Chemehuevi Indian Tribe (English)
- The Mojave Desert strains (English)
- Chemehuevi
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Also known under the following variants: "Chemehuevi-Ute-Südliches Paiute", "Ute", "Südliches Paiute", "Ute-Südliches Paiute" or "Südliches Paiute-Ute", with regional dialects: Chemehuevi, Südliches Paiute and Ute.
- ^ Indians of the Mojave Desert - Historic Indian Territories Map
