Serrano (people)
The Serrano are a Native American tribe of Southern California. They refer to themselves as the Yuhaviatam, which means "people of the pines."
History
Members of the Serrano tribe are part of the Shoshonean subset of the Uto-Aztecan group of Native Americans. Serrano means highlander. They were an offshoot of the Takic people that arrived in Southern California around 2,500 years ago. When the Spanish missionaries came into the region, they helped form the tribal name Serrano, separating them from their neighbors that were designated as the Gabrielino and Kitanemuk.
The Serrano historically populated the San Bernadino Mountains and extended down to the Mojave River region down to the Tejon Creek.
The populations along the Tejon Creek identified their tribes as the Cuahajai or Cuabajay. Their dwellings were communal and made of willow framing. The dwellings were complete with fireplaces for each family and they crafted baskets and vessels with mother-of-pearl inlays which were often traded to the native people in the Santa Barbara region. The men did not wear clothing and the women wore deerskin, otter, and rabbit furs.
The Serrano that inhabited the San Bernadino mountains would go to the valleys of Apple Valley and Lucerne during the winter and the area in and around Big Bear Lake during the summer. They hunted small game like rabbits utilizing 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, experts in basketweaving. Their diet consisted of the game that they caught as well as pinon nuts ground into a dough and made into a flat tortilla like food. They also ate the acorns from the oak trees to make a flour and then porridge called wiich. Other staples were roasted agave, prickly pears, and Yucca blossoms.
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel was founded in 1771 and the Serrano revolted against the missions along with the Cahuilla and Yuma tribes in 1812. In 1834 many Serrano were forcibly relocated to the missions. They suffered devastating smallpox outbreaks in both 1840 and 1860 before a reservation was established in 1875.
Other villages of the Serranos included Akxawiet, Cucamonga, Homhoabit, Jurumpa, Juyubit, Muscupiabit, San Benito, San Gorgonio, San Pascual, Tolocabi, and Yucaipa.
Population
Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.) Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:617, 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).
Kroeber estimated the combined population of the Serrano, Kitanemuk, and Tataviam in 1910 as 150.
Reservations
The current reservations for the Serrano are the Morongo Band of Mission Indiansin Banning, California and the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Highland, California.
See also
- Serrano traditional narratives
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- 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.
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