Chemehuevi
Encyclopedia
The Chemehuevi are a federally recognized Native American
tribe enrolled in the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe of the Chemehuevi Reservation. They are the southernmost branch of Paiute
s.
bordering Lake Havasu
for 25 miles (40.2 km) and along the Colorado River
. The reservation is 30653 acres (124 km²) large and has a population of 345.
term meaning "those who play with fish;" or a Quechan
word meaning "nose-in-the-air-like-a-roadrunner." The Chemehuevi call themselves Nüwüwü ("The People", singular Nüwü) or Tantáwats, meaning "Southern Men."
in the early 20th Century, it was studied in the 1970s by linguist Margaret L. Press. whose field notes and extensive sound recordings remain available. The language is now near extinction; during the filming of Ironbound Films
' 2008 American documentary film The Linguists
, linguists Greg Anderson and K. David Harrison
interviewed and recorded one of the last remaining 3 speakers.
The Chemehuevi were originally a desert tribe among the Numu
or Paiute-Shoshone
nations. Post-contact, they lived primarily in the eastern Mojave Desert
and later the Chemehuevi Valley along the Colorado River
in California
. They were a nomadic people living in small groups given the sparse resources available in the desert environment. Carobeth Laird indicates their traditional territory spanned the High Desert
from the Colorado River
on the east to the Tehachapi Mountains
on the west and from the Las Vegas
area and Death Valley
on the north to the San Bernardino
and San Gabriel Mountains
in the south. Throughout the ages, their traditional ancestral territory has spanned three states: Arizona
, California
and Nevada
. They are most closely identified as among the Great Basin Indians. Among others they are cousins of the Kawaiisu
.
The most comprehensive collection of Chemehuevi history, culture and mythology was gathered by Carobeth Laird
(1895–1983) and her second husband, George Laird, one of the last Chemehuevi to have been raised in the traditional culture. Carobeth Laird, a linguist and ethnographer, wrote a comprehensive account of the culture and language as George Laird remembered it, and published their collaborative efforts in her 1976 The Chemehuevis, the first and, to date, only ethnography of the Chemehuevi traditional culture.
Describing the Chemehuevi as she knew them, and presenting the texture of traditional life amongst the people, Carobeth Laird writes:
Estimates for the pre-contact populations
of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber
estimated the combined 1770 population of the Chemehuevi, Koso
(Western Shoshone), and Kawaiisu
as 1,500, and the combined population of the Chemehuevi, Koso (Western Shoshone), and Kawaiisu in 1910 as 500. An Indian agent reported the Chemehuevi population in 1875 to be 350. Kroeber estimated U.S. Census data put the Chemehuevi population in 1910 as 355.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe enrolled in the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe of the Chemehuevi Reservation. They are the southernmost branch of Paiute
Paiute
Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...
s.
Reservation
The Chemehuevi Reservation is located in San Bernardino County, CaliforniaSan Bernardino County, California
San Bernardino County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 2,035,210, up from 1,709,434 as of the 2000 census...
bordering Lake Havasu
Lake Havasu
Lake Havasu is a large reservoir behind Parker Dam on the Colorado River, on the border between California and Arizona. Lake Havasu City sits on the lake's eastern shore. The lake has a capacity of . The concrete arch dam was built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation between 1934 and 1938...
for 25 miles (40.2 km) and along the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
. The reservation is 30653 acres (124 km²) large and has a population of 345.
Name
"Chemehuevi" has multiple interpretations. It is considered to either be a MojaveMojave language
Mojave is the native language of the Mohave people along the Colorado River in eastern California, northwestern Arizona, and southwestern Nevada...
term meaning "those who play with fish;" or a Quechan
Quechan language
Quechan, also known as Yuma, is the native language of the Quechan people of southeastern California and southwestern Arizona in the Lower Colorado River Valley and Sonoran Desert....
word meaning "nose-in-the-air-like-a-roadrunner." The Chemehuevi call themselves Nüwüwü ("The People", singular Nüwü) or Tantáwats, meaning "Southern Men."
Language
The language, Chemehuevi, is a Colorado River Numic language, in the Numic language branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. First transcribed by John P. Harrington and Carobeth LairdCarobeth Laird
Carobeth Laird is known for her ethnographic studies of the Chemehuevi people of southeastern California and western Arizona. Her book, The Chemehuevi, was characterized by ethnographer Lowell John Bean as "one of the finest, most detailed ethnographies ever written".Carobeth Tucker was born in...
in the early 20th Century, it was studied in the 1970s by linguist Margaret L. Press. whose field notes and extensive sound recordings remain available. The language is now near extinction; during the filming of Ironbound Films
Ironbound Films
Ironbound Films is an independent documentary film production company. Their films often focus on stories of how people succeed and fail to connect. Their 2008 film The Linguists and 2010 film The New Recruits, were about characters whose missteps often undermined their stated intentions but also...
' 2008 American documentary film The Linguists
The Linguists
The Linguists is an independent 2008 American documentary film produced by Ironbound Films about language extinction and language documentation...
, linguists Greg Anderson and K. David Harrison
K. David Harrison
K. David Harrison is a linguist, author and activist for the documentation and preservation of endangered languages teaching at Swarthmore College and affiliated with the National Geographic Society. His research focuses on the Turkic languages of central Siberia and western Mongolia. He co-starred...
interviewed and recorded one of the last remaining 3 speakers.
History and traditional culture
Paiute
Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...
or Paiute-Shoshone
Paiute
Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...
nations. Post-contact, they lived primarily in the eastern Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
and later the Chemehuevi Valley along the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. They were a nomadic people living in small groups given the sparse resources available in the desert environment. Carobeth Laird indicates their traditional territory spanned the High Desert
High Desert (California)
The High Desert is an unofficial and vaguely-defined geographic area of southern California located to the northeast of the San Gabriel Mountains. The term "High Desert" is used most commonly by the news media, especially in weather forecasts, and in the names of businesses and organizations...
from the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
on the east to the Tehachapi Mountains
Tehachapi Mountains
The Tehachapi Mountains , regionally also called The Tehachapis, are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States...
on the west and from the Las Vegas
Metropolitan area
The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
area and Death Valley
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...
on the north to the San Bernardino
San Bernardino Mountains
The San Bernardino Mountains are a short transverse mountain range north and east of San Bernardino in Southern California in the United States. The mountains run for approximately 60 miles east-west on the southern edge of the Mojave Desert in southwestern San Bernardino County, north of the...
and San Gabriel Mountains
San Gabriel Mountains
The San Gabriel Mountains Range is located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert, with Interstate 5 to the west and Interstate 15 to the east...
in the south. Throughout the ages, their traditional ancestral territory has spanned three states: Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
. They are most closely identified as among the Great Basin Indians. Among others they are cousins of the Kawaiisu
Kawaiisu
thumb|Kawaiisu FamilyThe Kawaiisu are a Native American group who lived in the southern California Tehachapi Valley and across the Tehachapi Pass in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains to the north, toward Lake Isabella and Walker Pass...
.
The most comprehensive collection of Chemehuevi history, culture and mythology was gathered by Carobeth Laird
Carobeth Laird
Carobeth Laird is known for her ethnographic studies of the Chemehuevi people of southeastern California and western Arizona. Her book, The Chemehuevi, was characterized by ethnographer Lowell John Bean as "one of the finest, most detailed ethnographies ever written".Carobeth Tucker was born in...
(1895–1983) and her second husband, George Laird, one of the last Chemehuevi to have been raised in the traditional culture. Carobeth Laird, a linguist and ethnographer, wrote a comprehensive account of the culture and language as George Laird remembered it, and published their collaborative efforts in her 1976 The Chemehuevis, the first and, to date, only ethnography of the Chemehuevi traditional culture.
Describing the Chemehuevi as she knew them, and presenting the texture of traditional life amongst the people, Carobeth Laird writes:
The Chemehuevi character is made up of polarities which are complementary rather than contradictory. They are loquacious yet capable of silence; gregarious yet so close to the earth that single families or even men alone might live and travel for long periods away from other human beings; proud, yet capable of a gentle self-ridicule. They are conservative to a degree, yet insatiably curious and ready to inquire into and even to adopt new ways: to visit all tribes, whether friends or enemies; to speak strange tongues, sing strange songs, and marry strange wives.
Population
Population of Native California
Estimates of the Native Californian population have varied substantially, both with respect to California's pre-contact count and for changes during subsequent periods. Pre-contact estimates range from 133,000 to 705,000 with some recent scholars concluding that these estimates are low...
of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber was an American anthropologist. He was the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as director from 1909 through...
estimated the combined 1770 population of the Chemehuevi, Koso
Western Shoshone
Western Shoshone comprises several Shoshone tribes that are indigenous to the Great Basin and have lands identified in the Treaty of Ruby Valley 1863. They resided in Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah. The tribes are very closely related culturally to the Paiute, Goshute, Bannock, Ute, and...
(Western Shoshone), and Kawaiisu
Kawaiisu
thumb|Kawaiisu FamilyThe Kawaiisu are a Native American group who lived in the southern California Tehachapi Valley and across the Tehachapi Pass in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains to the north, toward Lake Isabella and Walker Pass...
as 1,500, and the combined population of the Chemehuevi, Koso (Western Shoshone), and Kawaiisu in 1910 as 500. An Indian agent reported the Chemehuevi population in 1875 to be 350. Kroeber estimated U.S. Census data put the Chemehuevi population in 1910 as 355.
See also
- Chemehuevi traditional narrativesChemehuevi traditional narrativesChemehuevi traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Chemehuevi people of the Mojave Desert and Colorado River of southeastern California and western Arizona....
- Classification of indigenous peoples of the AmericasClassification of indigenous peoples of the AmericasClassification of indigenous peoples of the Americas is based upon cultural regions, geography, and linguistics. Anthropologists have named various cultural regions, with fluid boundaries, that are generally agreed upon with some variation...