Awaswas
 Awaswas territory boundaries with known Indigenous tribes labeled | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 600 - 1,400 (1769) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| US:CA(Santa CruzandSan Mateo Counties) | |
| Languages | |
| Ohlone language(Awaswas),Spanish,English | |
| Religion | |
| Traditional religion,Animism,Kuksu,Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mutsun,Ramaytush,Rumsen,Tamien,and other Ohlonean-speaking peoples |
TheAwaswas,also known as theSanta Cruz people,were a group of theIndigenous peoples of Californiain North America, with subgroups historically numbering about 600[1]to 1,400.[2]Academic research suggests that their ancestors had lived within theSanta Cruz Mountainsregion for approximately 12,000 years. The Awaswas maintained regular trade networks with regional cultures before the Spanish colonists began settling in the area from the 18th century.
The Awaswas people wereOhlone,with linguistic and cultural ties to other Ohlone peoples in the region. "Ohlone" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region; however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. They did not consider themselves to be a part of a larger tribe, such as theHopi,Navajo,orCheyenne,but instead functioned independently of one another.[1]
For centuries, the Santa Cruz Mountains indigenous inhabitants experienced economic competition and military conflict[3]with a series of colonizing newcomers. Centralized government and religious policies designed to fosterlanguage shiftandcultural assimilation,[3]as well as continued contact with the colonizers through trade, inter-marriage and other intercultural processes, have resulted in varying degrees oflanguage death[4]and loss of originalcultural identity.
Awaswas speakers were formerly distributed over much of the northernMonterey Bayarea, living along thePacific Coastand the coastal mountain range of the Santa Cruz Mountains with territories betweenPoint Año Nuevoand thePajaro Riverin present-daySanta CruzandSan Mateo Counties.
Etymology
[edit]The termAwaswasis anexonymderived from theMutsun languagethat may refer and translate to "north".[5]It may have been used by theMutsunto refer to the Awaswas, who lived to the north of them. Unfortunately, translations for villages in Awaswas territory are difficult to piece together, as very little of the Awaswas language is still in circulation or on record. Many of the names for Monterey Bay places come from Mutsun words.[2]
The Awaswas spoke an Ohlone dialect that has some structural affiliation to San Francisco Bay Ohlone and some affiliation to Mutsun Ohlone.[6]An analysis of Awaswas shows it to represent disparate dialects spoken by Natives who were apparently in the midst of language shift from a divergent form of San Francisco Bay to Mutsun.[7]There is evidence that this grouping was more geographic than linguistic, and that the records of the 'Santa Cruz Costanoan' language in fact represent several diverse dialects. Awaswas Ohlone continues to be considered a separate language, but the degree to which it originally extended to the east of present-day Santa Cruz County is completely unknown.[6]
Divisions
[edit]The Awaswas were six distinct tribes,[2]and further branched into bands. They lived in territories marked by watersheds with ridgelines as boundaries.[2]
Quiroste
[edit]The largest and most economically and politically powerful tribe of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Quiroste lived at the northern edge of the mountain range on the Pacific Coast fromBean Hollowsouth to Año Nuevo Creek, and inland toButano Ridge.The Quiroste derived their political influence from controlling the production ofMonterey chertarrowheads andOlivella snailshell beads, the latter being used as currency throughout Indigenous California.[2]
Two known villages wereChurmutcé(south ofOljons,present-dayPescadero) andMitenne(west ofChipletac) at Whitehouse Creek. It was atMitennethat the Portola Expedition first encountered the Awaswas on October 23, 1769. At the time of their first interactions with the Spanish, the chief of the Quiroste was Charquin. The Spanish renamed the people "San Rafael".[2]
Cotoni
[edit]Just south of the Quiroste and north of the Uypi, the Cotoni lived along the Pacific Ocean, near present-dayDavenport,likely including the inland ridge of Ben Lomond Mountain in theBonny Doonarea. They subsisted on shellfish from the coast and carried them to the hills, where their villages were located. Two known villages wereAsarandJlli.[2]
- Achistaca(Mutsun: "Place of the Enemy/Competitor" )
- An inland Cotoni group that lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains away from the coast. It is believed that they lived in the upper San Lorenzo River drainage near the present-day towns ofBoulder Creekand Riverside Grove. They held kinship ties with the Cotoni, Sayanta, and Chaloctaca. The Spanish renamed the people "San Dionisio".[2]
Uypi
[edit]The Uypi were concentrated along the mouth of theSan Lorenzo Riverin present-daySanta Cruzand Soquel Creek.[6]Uypi territory was rich in fields and coastal terraces. Three known villages wereAulintak( "Place of Red Abalone", near the river mouth),Chalumü(about one mile northwest ofAulintak,present-day Westlake neighborhood), andHottrochtac(one mile further northwest). They held kinship ties with the Aptos, Sayanta, Cajastaca, Chaloctaca, Cotoni, Pitac, and Chitactac. At the time of their first interactions with the Spanish, the chief of the Uypi was Soquel ( "Laurel Tree" ).[2]
The Spanish identifiedAulintakas an ideal settlement site forMission Santa Cruzand renamed the people "San Daniel". By 1810, the Spanish began to call the Uypi tribe the Soquel tribe.[2]
Aptos
[edit]At the southern edge of Uypi territory, bound byAptos CreekandMonterey Bayat the western edge of their land, and eastward about halfway to thePajaro River,lived the Aptos ( "The People"[8]). The Aptos tribe was one of the larger Awaswas groups in the region. They held kinship ties with the Uypi,Calendaruc(aMutsun speakingpeople), and Cajastaca. At the time of their first interactions with the Spanish, the chief of the Aptos was Molegnis. The Spanish renamed the people "San Lucas".[2]
- Cajastaca
- Living to the south of the Aptos, the Cajastaca ( "Jackrabbit"[8]) were a sub-group of the larger Aptos tribe. The Spanish renamed the people "San Antonio".[2]
Sayanta
[edit]The Sayanta tribe was a smaller Awaswas group that lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains around theZayante Creekdrainage, near present-dayScotts Valley,Glenwood,andLaurelto the north and east. They held kinship ties with the Chaloctaca and Achistaca. The Spanish renamed the people "San Juan Capistrano".[2]
Chaloctaca
[edit]The Chaloctaca lived along the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains around Loma Prieta Creek. They may have been a separate village community of one larger group with the Sayanta. They held kinship ties with the Sayanta, Achistaca, Cotoni, Partacsi of Santa Clara Valley, and Somontoc. The Spanish renamed the people "Jesus" (Mission Santa Cruz) and "San Carlos" (Mission Santa Clara de Asís).[2]
History
[edit]
Indigenous Awaswas wereOhlone peoples,with linguistic and genetic ties to other Ohlone groups, such as peoples of theMutsun,Ramaytush,Rumsen,andTamien.The Santa Cruz Mountain tribes were united linguistically, as they spoke a language calledAwaswas,a branch of the larger Ohlonean language family. They inhabited multilingual regions interconnected through shared symbols and rituals as well as monetary, trade, and complex kinship relationships. This shared culture connected with a larger Indigenous California, where long-distance trade relations and communication characterized linguistically diverse societies that shared a variety of resources and practicies, spiritual and physical, tracing back over thousands of years.[2]
Santa Cruz had been the home to the Awaswas people whose self-sustaining culture supported them in the coastal bioregion of the Monterey Bay for more than 12,000 years.[9][10]Archaeological excavations suggest these early dates but it is possible that human habitation goes back further, as it is generally believed that sites of earlier habitation may have been washed away by stream action or submerged on the continental shelf.[11]Archaeological evidence points to a major change beginning around 1,000 years old, with the arrival of new technologies such as notched line sinkers and circular shell fishhooks, bows and arrows, flanged steatite pipes, stone "flower-pot" mortars, new Olivella shell bead types, and "banjo" effigy ornaments signifying the development of theKuksuisecret society.[6]
Spanish period (1769-1821)
[edit]Under Spanish rule
[edit]When thePortolá expeditionarrived on October 23, 1769 near Año Nuevo, Awaswas-speaking Quiroste representatives fromMitennevillage welcomed the expedition,[12]exchanging food for Spanish glass beads and cloth; an overture which was readily accepted by the Spanish. The expedition was traveling through the area during the fall, a time when Awaswas tribes left their coastal village sites for their winter forest homes to hunt and gather, not encountering people and, being unfamiliar with the land, were badly in need of food.[12]Shortly after the Portolá expedition returned to Monterey, permanent Spanish settlement began in the region, with the founding ofMission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmeloin June 1770.[2]
The slow conversion of the Awaswas began after the founding ofMission San Francisco de Asísin October 1776 andMission Santa Clara de Asísin June 1777. Quiroste people appear among the early San Francisco Peninsula coastal groups baptized at Mission San Francisco, starting in 1787 and 1788.[2]
The Spanish called the Awaswas "the Santa Cruz people" and theirs became the main language spoken at theMission Santa Cruz.The Franciscans named local tribes after saints.[2]During the era ofSpanish missions in California,the Awaswas people's lives changed with theMission Santa Cruz(founded in 1791) built in their territory. Most were forced into slavery at this mission and were baptized, lived and educated to be Catholicneophytes,also known asMission Indians,until the missions were discontinued by the Mexican Government in 1834.[13]
Loss of recognition
[edit]In 1925,Alfred Kroeber,then director of theHearst Museum of Anthropology,declared the Ohlone extinct, which directly led to the tribe's losing federal recognition and land rights.[13]
Awaswas peoples today
[edit]There are no living survivors of the Awaswas, who are spoken for by theAmah Mutsun Tribal Band.[14]
In 2011, a march was held in Santa Cruz to preserve "the Knoll", the 6,000-year-old burial site of a child, located near Branciforte Creek.[15]
Awaswas people, the "documented descendants ofMissions San Juan Bautistaand Santa Cruz ", have become members of theAmah Mutsuntribal band.[16][17]In 2012, Amah Mutsun Tribal Chairman Valentin Lopez stated that "tribe members are scattered. Few can afford to live in their historic lands today," and many now make their homes in theCentral Valley.[18]
See also
[edit]- California genocide
- Ohlone tribes and villages in Santa Cruz Mountains
- Mission Indians
- Reductions
- Slavery among Native Americans in the United States
- Population of Native California
Notes
[edit]- ^abRobert Cartier."An Overview of Ohlone Culture: excerpt, originally called" Ethnographic Background ", from a 1991 report titled, The Santa's Village Site CA-SCr=239".Santa Cruz Public Library.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-04.Retrieved2023-03-23.
- ^abcdefghijklmnopqrRizzo-Martinez, Martin (2022).We Are Not Animals(PDF).University of Nebraska Press.ISBN9781496219626.Retrieved13 March2023.
- ^abRizzo-Martinez, Martin (2022).We Are Not Animals: Indigenous Politics of Survival, Rebellion, and Reconstitution in Nineteenth-Century California.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 66.ISBN9781496219626.
- ^"Awaswas".California Language Archive.University of California, Berkeley.Retrieved23 March2023.
- ^Natasha, Warner; Butler, Lynnika; Geary, Luna (2016).Mutsun-English, English-Mutsun Dictionary.University of Hawaii Press. p. 9.ISBN9780985621186.
- ^abcdMilliken, Randall; Shoup, Laurence H.; Ortiz, Beverly R. (2009)."Ohlone/Costanoan Indians of the San Francisco Peninsula and their Neighbors, Yesterday and Today".Government Documents and Publications.Retrieved17 March2023.
- ^Callaghan, Catherine (2013).Proto Utian Grammar and Dictionary With Notes on Yokuts.De Gruyter. p. 22.ISBN9783110276770.
- ^abGumz, Jondi (April 15, 2021)."Native Americans on Cabrillo College and Colonialism".Aptos Times.Vol. 30, no. 8. Times Publishing Group, Inc.Retrieved13 March2023.
- ^Jones, Terry L.; Klar, Kathryn (2007).California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity.AltaMira Press. p. 125.ISBN9780759108721.
- ^Fukurai, Hiroshi; Krooth, Richard (2021).Original Nation Approaches to Inter-National Law: The Quest for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Nature in the Age of Anthropocene.Springer International Publishing. p. viii.ISBN9783030592738.
- ^Rosenthal, Jeffrey; Meyer, Jack; Hildebrandt, William R.; King, Jerome (2004).Landscape Evolution and the Arhcaeological Record: A Geoarchaeological Study of the Southern Santa Clara Valley and Surrounding Regions.Center of Archaeological Research at Davis, Department of Anthropology, University of California. p. 1.ISBN9781883019150.
- ^abStranger, Frank M.; Brown, Alan (1969).Who Discovered the Golden Gate? The Explorers' Own Accounts How They Discovered a Hidden Harbor and at Last Found Its Entrance.San Mateo County Historical Association.
- ^abBrown, Patricia Leigh (2022-12-11)."Indigenous Founders of a Museum Cafe Put Repatriation on the Menu".The New York Times.Retrieved2023-08-13.
- ^Severn, Cathy (July 20, 2022)."As Big Basin Finally Reopens, Indigenous Stewardship Key Among Plans for Park's Rebirth".Retrieved2022-08-02.
- ^"Save the Knoll - Ohlone speaking event in Santa Cruz".Indybay, Santa Cruz IMC.Retrieved2012-12-23.
- ^"Archaeological Society/Dig-It Club Meeting".Santa Cruz Good Times.2012-11-15. Archived fromthe originalon 2014-04-09.Retrieved2012-12-23.
- ^"History".Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-08-11.Retrieved2021-12-05.
- ^Donna Jones (2012-12-21)."Healing ceremonies recall California Mission heritage".Santa Cruz Sentinel.Retrieved2012-12-23.
References
[edit]- Kroeber, Alfred L. 1925.Handbook of the Indians of California.Washington, D.C:Bureau of American Ethnology BulletinNo. 78. (map of villages, page 465)
- Milliken, Randall.A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769-1910Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication 1995.ISBN0-87919-132-5(alk. paper)
- Teixeira, Lauren.The Costanoan/Ohlone Indians of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area, A Research Guide.Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication, 1997.ISBN0-87919-141-4.
- Yamane, Linda, ed. 2002.A Gathering of Voices: The Native Peoples of the Central California Coast.Santa Cruz County History Journal, Number 5. Santa Cruz, CA: Museum of Art & History.ISBN0-940283-11-5