The Indians of Los Angeles County

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Hugo Reid at Rancho Santa Anita.

SOUTHWEST MUSEUM PAPERS

NUMBER TWENTY-ONE

The Indians of

Los Angeles County

Hugo Reid's Letters

of 1852

Edited and Annotated by

ROBERT E. HEIZER

SOUTHWEST MUSEUM

HIGHLAND PARK, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90042

1968

SOUTHWEST MUSEUM

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-8964

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Printed by

SOUTHLAND PRESS, INC.

CONTENTS

FORWORD, by Carl Schaefer Dentzel vii INTRODUCTION, by Robert F. Heizer 1 THE HUGO

REID LETTERS (I - XXII) 7 NOTES 105 REFERENCES 137

ILLUSTRATIONS

Hugo Reid at Rancho Santa Anita Frontispiece The Hugo Reid Adobe in 1938 xii Rogerio Rocha,

Gabrielino Indian 6 Mrs. James Rosemyre, Gabrielino Indian 10 Jose Salvideo, Gabrielino Indian

18 Gabrielino Baskets 28 Gabrielino Throwing Sticks 62 Gabrielino Artifacts as Illustrated by

Hoffman 104

MAP Territories of the Gabrielino and Adjoining Tribes End papers

vii

Foreword

THE YEAR 1969 WILL MARK THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE settling of Alta California. Few

areas on the face of the earth have witnessed changes as great as those made in California in the

past 200 years. From an insignificant colony on the perimeter of the tremendous Spanish Empire

in the New World, California has emerged as one of the most famous and significant spots on the

entire globe -- a far cry from its humble beginnings in 1769.

Of all the areas settled by Spain in North, Central and South America, California has undergone the

greatest transformation. Not only has the state become first in population of the 50 United States

of America, but several of its counties and cities are among the first in population and affluence as

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

well. Today the city of Los Angeles can boast of having more inhabitants than any city founded by

the Spanish in the Western Hemisphere or in the old mother country, Spain.

History has been made swiftly on the West Coast. Events that have taken centuries to develop in

other parts of the world have been compressed into decades in the West, and more particularly in

the Southwest. One of the unusual characteristics of the area is the dramatic, fast-moving course of

people and their progress.

It seems inconceivable that in little more a hundred years the original inhabitants of the area now

comprising the city and the county of Los Angeles have had their age-old culture destroyed. The

native Indians who welcomed the Spanish in 1769 were many in number, possessing a way of life

suitable for themselves under the conditions they had been used to living. But they were forced to

move from a primeval, naturalistic society, in which Nature was their greatest overlord, into the viii

contrived, dominating rule of an alien conqueror.

Such an adaptation is difficult for any people to cope with. To an undeveloped, primitive group it

was next to impossible. Hardly had the first inhabitants of Los Angeles conformed to the new way

of life brought by the Spanish than they had to make changes insisted upon by their new rulers,

the Mexicans. Yet, before being able to accommodate themselves and their lives to life under

the Mexican Republic, an entirely new rule was superimposed upon them through the conquest

of California by the United States. With subsequent statehood in 1850, when California became

part of the Union as the 31st state, its dominant population was Indian. That hardly mattered to

the new citizens of the United States. After the Indian came the Spanish-Mexican Californians in

population. Last, and certainly not least, came the aggressive new settlers, the Anglo-Saxons, with a

few Orientals scattered amongst them.

The old order, established and maintained under the Spanish and Mexicans, soon broke down and

was cast aside. A whole new way of life, suitable to the new settlers, was superimposed upon the

country. In the horde of newcomers there was only a tiny number who had any appreciation for the

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Indian, the Spanish and Mexican ways of life and the culture they represented. History moved so

quickly and the changes were so great that it is remarkable that anything at all has been saved.

Today it is difficult to conceive of a time when only Indians lived in California. The nature of the

inhabitants has changed with such rapidity and in such a comparatively short time that it is almost

impossible to reconcile the state today, with its heterogeneous population, with that of less than 200

years ago.

In the course of these swift-moving events and tumultuous times it is indeed noteworthy that Hugo

Reid cared enough to record his interest in the Indians of Los Angeles County. It is even more

remarkable that he was able to find a publisher in the form of a popular newspaper to utilize his

significant observations on the aborigines. It is most remarkable that this long series of articles

found favor with the public and that they continued for such a length of time and were even

reprinted.

For residents of a town known as “Queen of the Cow Counties” the people of Los Angeles in the

roaring 1850s showed amazing acumen in being as interested as they were in the observations and

recollections of Hugo Reid.

Few areas in the United States which have witnessed the same sad transformation of history where

an original race is destroyed or removed have had a chronicler as keen, intelligent and able as Hugo

Reid. Consequently much of value to an historian, anthropologist or sociologist has been lost.

People of today would have a greater appreciation of their land and its people if we had more links

with an interesting past. Society is best served when man appreciates his environment and has as

much unbiased knowledge about it as is possible.

The Reid “Letters” naturally reflect many prejudices of the white man and of the people of his

day; none the less they are extremely valuable because they are one of the few existing means of

knowing about the first people who lived in Los Angeles.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

The settlement of Nueva California in 1769, with the introduction by the Spanish of their colonial

system, marked the beginning of California's Modern Era. With the founding of missions, presidios

and pueblos new concepts and ways of life took place in Indian society. Many of the challenging

social changes which began under Spanish rule exist in the Indian society of today.

Because there has been somewhat of a stigma attached to the fact that a person was an Indian,

was part Indian or had Indian origin, many individuals who could pass themselves off as non-

Indian would do so. Therefore more people than might normally be supposed have Indian blood.

Fortunately in recent times the stigma has lessened as pride in Indian culture and the beginnings of

America have increased. Today anyone with Indian blood is not only proud of the fact but it has

almost become a matter of special prestige.

Many tales are told of the great decline in Indian population which accompanied the break-up of

the mission system and the secularization of that first California social institution. The case of an

elderly Fernandeño formerly attached to the Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana, located in what

is now Los Angeles, is indicative of what happened to many Indian families. This aged recluse once

confided to Dr. M. R. Harrington, Curator Emeritus of the Southwest Museum, that while he and

his wife lived in the shadow of the mission as long as possible, their family was scattered along

the West Coast with sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters and other relatives x living in

Washington, Oregon, Northern, Central, Southern and Baja California. “There was no reason for

my people to stay here,” he was quoted as saying. “For when the gringos came almost everyone had

to look out for themselves. It wasn't like the old days.”

Although Hugo Reid's letters have often been quoted and even reprinted several times, the

Southwest Museum offers herewith the first complete printing and thorough analysis of them by Dr.

R. F. Heizer, one of California's foremost anthropologists. This unabridged printing of the letters,

with Dr. Heizer's valuable notes, is published as Southwest Museum Paper No. 21.

The contrast between life in Los Angeles in 1969 and that of 1769 is so great as to be

incomprehensible. When one compares the naturalistic state of society of that time with the

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

complications of today one's imagination is staggered. Growth implies change, but who would

have ever have thought -- certainly not even Hugo Reid -- that men and events would create the

megalopolis which Los Angeles represents today. Destruction of our natural environment, pollution

of our air and waters, traffic, high taxes and the social irritation which stems from millions of

inhabitants fighting for a place in the sun at times make life in Los Angeles today seem almost

unbearable. Yet very few would like to change places with the first bucolic Angelenos.

The Southwest Museum greatly appreciates the scholarly work of Dr. R. F. Heizer as evidenced in

the present volume. His assistance, so generously given the Museum, has aided it in many ways.

The Automobile Club of Southern California and its outstanding publication, “Westways,” edited

by Larry Meyers, has enabled us to reproduce the fine drawing of Hugo Reid at Santa Anita by

Maynard Dixon, one of California's leading artists and illustrators.

Hopefully, this Southwest Museum publication will add luster to California's Bicentennial

Celebration. Bruce Bryan, Publications Editor of the Southwest Museum, prepared it for the press.

CARL SCHAEFER DENTZEL

Director

Southwest Museum

Los Angeles, California

The Indians of

Los Angeles County

HUGO REID'S LETTERS OF 1852

The Hugo Reid Adobe as it appeared in 1938.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Introduction

By ROBERT F. HEIZER

THE GABRIELINO INDIANS were a tribe which occupied Los Angeles County south of the

Sierra Madre, part of Orange County, and the two offshore islands of Santa Catalina and San

Clemente. They were named by the Spaniards through their being attached to Mission San Gabriel.

They had held the area for not less than a thousand years, until their days came to an end through

the new order imposed by the Caucasians. The northwestern neighbors of the Gabrielino were the

Fernandeño, who were drawn into Mission San Fernando. The Fernandeño and Gabrielino, who

together In 1770 numbered about 4000 souls, spoke slightly different dialects of the same language

family, Shoshonean. These two little nations are the principals in the document written by Hugo

Reid, 115 years ago, and which comprises the main body of this book.

Hugo Reid was born in Cardross, Scotland, in 1811, and left there at the age of eighteen. After

several years of moving about through South America and Mexico, he came to California in 1832

on the brig Ayacucho from Mexico. The story of Reid's life in California from 1832 to 1852 has

been told in detail by S. Dakin in her book A Scotch Paisano (1939). Reid settled in 1837 on a

rancho near Mission San Gabriel after marrying Victoria, a Gabrielino 2 Indian of the Comicrabit

(or Comicranga) ranchería. The Reid family is described by William Heath Davis in his Seventy-

five Years in California , and was used as a prototype for main characters in Helen Hunt Jackson's

Ramona .

Reid became a rancher in Los Angeles and his fortunes prospered. His headquarters were at

Santa Anita Rancho, full legal title to which he secured in 1845. Details of his home there, and its

history, have been presented by Wallace (1958, 1959). In 1849, Reid was a representative to the

“constitutional convention” at Monterey, and he is listed as a delegate in J. Ross Browne's Report

of the Debate in the Convention of California in 1849 as thirty-nine years of age, a resident of

California for sixteen years, and by profession an “agriculturist.”

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

The changes which soon followed the American seizure of California worked against Reid's

interests, and he became bankrupt and was forced to sell Rancho Santa Anita in 1846. In his last

years, living on the few acres of land remaining in his possession, Reid wrote the series of twenty-

two letters on the Indians of Los Angeles County. The letters are more than the ethnography the

title suggests since they include a history of the missions of San Fernando and San Gabriel.

We do not know why Reid took the time and trouble to write his letters on the Indians, but we may

hazard a guess at his motivation. It is possible that he wished to get something on the subject of

Indians into print so that he would have the reputation as an authority on the subject. Reid's fortunes

in 1852 were at a low-water mark, and the very considerable concern which the Federal government

was exhibiting in 1851 and 1852 about the “Indian problem” in California (Dale 1949) may have

encouraged him to think that he might be appointed as Indian Agent for the southern district of the

state. One of Reid's closest friends, B. D. Wilson, had accepted temporary appointment as 3 Indian

Agent for the southern district of California in 1852, but he did not want this post on a permanent

basis.

Wilson wrote a very long report entitled “The Indians of Southern California” which he submitted

to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs on December 20, 1852. In his prefatory remarks, Wilson

wrote, “The late Hugo Reid, Esq., a resident here of twenty years, an accomplished scholar, and

whose opportunities of knowing the Indians perhaps exceeded those of any other person in the

State, wrote some valuable notes and essays upon the languages of the Indians, their ancient

customs, and connection with the missions, in his death they have lost a zealous friend, who might

have been eminently useful to them at this time. He was of the opinion (and so it is generally

thought in the country) that the Indians of the South are much more civilized than those in the north,

and require an entirely different management” ( Los Angeles Star , July 18, 1868, p. 1).

If Reid had lived he might have succeeded Wilson, and in so doing would have been profitably

employed in a work in which he had great interest and competence. It was perhaps toward this end

that Reid's letters were written and published in 1852.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

The letters were first published in the Los Angeles Star in twenty-four weekly instalments,

beginning with the issue of February 21, 1852. Letter No. XV appeared in three weekly instalments,

and this sub-series is indicated below by * * *. The issues containing the Reid letters concluded

with the edition of August 1, 1852. According to J. P. Harrington (1933) the Reid letters were

reprinted in the Los Angeles Star in 1869. I have not seen this edition, and assume that it is a reprint

of the same material which appeared in the same newspaper in 1852. Publication of B. D. Wilson's

report in that newspaper in 1868 may have caused enough interest to republish Reid's letters.

The letters were reprinted, though not very accurately, by Alexander S. Taylor in his well-known

series, “The Indianology of California,” which appeared in the California Farmer and Journal of

Useful Arts, Vol . XIV, No. 19-23, issues of January 11 to February 8, 1861. After Reid's death (on

December 12, 1852) the manuscript copies of the letters came into the hands of A. F. Coronel of

Los Angeles. It was with the permission of Coronel in 1884 that W. J. Hoffman made copies of

those letters dealing with the Indians, ignoring those having to do with missions, and published

them in the Bulletin of the Essex Institute in 1885.

Hoffman's version is of interest to us since he affirms that he reproduces the letters ” verbatim et

literatim .” Hoffman's renderings of many native words are clearly more faithful to the original than

those which appeared in the earlier Star edition. Hoffman was apparently unaware of the 1852 Star

and 1861 California Farmer printings of the letters, and makes the curious error of referring to Reid

as “Hugo Ried” or “P. Hugo Ried.” The Coronel manuscript collection is now in the Los Angeles

County Library, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, and it includes Reid's Letters I - XII. Letters XII -

XXII have disappeared; perhaps, as Dakin (1939: 219) believes, because they spoke so unfavorably

of the missionaries and Indian treatment in the missions they were suppressed or destroyed.

Reid's letters were next reprinted by Arthur M. Ellis in 1926, who acknowledges in his preface that

he was “inspired by the suggestion of Dr. Kroeber in his Handbook of the Indians of the California

that the reprinting of some of the early newspaper accounts of the California Indians would serve a

useful purpose.” The Ellis reprinting ran to only two hundred copies and soon became unobtainable.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

In 1939 Susanna Bryant Dakin reprinted the Reid letters (Dakin: 1939: 220-286), stating that they

were copied from 5 clippings in the Bancroft Library. The Bancroft Library clippings are in the

Hayes Collection, Mission Book, Vol. I, No. 206, and I have also used these as the basis for the

copy of the letters which are reprinted once more below. However, both the Ellis and Dakin reprints

contain many errors, and I have attempted here to provide an exact transcription of the letters as

they were printed in 1852. The Star was not always clearly printed, and careless copying has caused

errors which are here corrected.

In order to make the content of Reid's letters a little more meaningful I have added some end notes

(indicated in the text by super numbers) which the reader may find of interest. Reid uses a large

number of words in the Gabrielino language, and these are frequently compared in the notes to the

version of Gabrielino which was recorded by C. Hart Merriam from a Gabrielino woman, Mrs. J.

V. Rosemyre, at Bakersfield, California, in October, 1903. Mrs. Rosemyre was born at San Gabriel,

probably just about the time of Hugo Reid's death. Her mother was a Gabrielino and her father

a Serrano. Merriam's method of phonetic recording is now considered quite inadequate, but its

use of diacritical marks follows that in Webster's dictionary and one can at least reconstruct the

approximate original of what the words sounded like to him.

A few photographs of Gabrielino and Fernandeño survivors are included here since these provide a

palpable connection, however tenuous, between the extinct native peoples of Los Angeles County

and ourselves of today. Mr. Eugene Prince, photographer for the Lowie Museum of Anthropology,

kindly provided the photographs reproduced on pages 28 and 62.

For further information on the Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles County the reader is referred to

the excellent book by Johnston (1962) and to the extensive bibliography on the subject on file in the

Southwest Museum Library.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Rogerio Rocha, Gabrielino Indian born in 1801 at Mission San Fernando. Baptized in 1810, he

died in May, 1904. His life is detailed by H. N. Rust (1904). Photograph from the George Wharton

James Collection, Southwest Museum.

[LETTER NO. I]

Lodges

Before the Indians belonging to the greater part of this county were known to the Whites, they

comprised as it were one great Family under distinct Chiefs. They spoke nearly the same language,

with the exception of a few words; and were more to be distinguished [by] a local intonation of the

voice than any thing else.

Reid is, of course, referring to the tribe called Gabrielino, so named after their attachment to Mission San Gabriel. Merriam

(n.d.) heard from Mrs. J. V. Rosemyre, a Gabrielino woman living at Bakersfield in October, 1903, that the Gabrielino called

themselves Tong-v# . Hoffman (1885: 26-27) refers to the Gabrielino of the Mission San Gabriel vicinity as Tobikhar ,

“settlers”, a term first used by A. S. Gatschet in 1876. The Gabrielino were earlier called Kizh or Kij “houses”, by H. Hale

in 1846 and Buschmann in 1856. Kroeber recorded the Luiseño name for the Gabrielino as Tumangamalum , “northerners”,

and Merriam was told in 1903 that the Hametwole Yokuts of Buena Vista Lake called the Gabrielino Miyah'-hik-tchal-lop ,

“long arms”, and the Kitanemuk of the San Bernardino Mountains called the Gabrielino Pahpi'-na-mo'-nam . The Ventura

Chumash called the Gabrielino Ataplili'sh , and the Cahuilla designation for the Gabrielinos was Kisianos . The Gabrielino

name for the Cahuilla was Kumitaraxam , “easterners”; and for the Chumash, Pavait , “in the water” (Johnston 1962:15).

Harrington (1962: viii) states that the Gabrielino language contained four dialects: Gabrielino proper, Fernandeño, Santa

Catalina Island, and San Nicolas Island. Kroeber (1925: 620) points out that the Fernandeño, of Mission San Fernando, and

the Gabrielino dialects were “distinguishable, but not notably so.” In 1811 a missionary at Mission San Fernando wrote

that “the Indians of this mission speak three distinct tongues” (Kroeber 1908: 12). It is suggested by Kroeber ( op. cit .)

that these three languages were Gabrielino ( i.e. , Fernandeño and Gabrielino proper), Serrano and Chumash, the latter two

being, respectively, tribes bordering on the east and northwest and therefore likely to have been drawn into the San Fernando

mission as neophytes. At Mission San Gabriel the 1811 report states that four “distinct idioms” were spoken by the Indians.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

These are named Kokomcar, Guiguitamear, Corbonamga and Sibanza. Kokomcar is not identifiable and, probably, is not

a distinct dialect term but more likely a reference to a village or local group. Guiguitamear is identified by Kroeber (1908:

11) as Gitanemuk, a Shoshonean tribe of Upper Tejon Creek who spoke a Serrano dialect. On the other hand the baptismal

record of Mission San Gabriel records 125 persons (27 men, 36 women, 62 children) from “Guinguina, ranchería of the

island” (variants: Guiguipat; Guinquipat, on the island: island of Guiguina) which can be identified with San Clemente

Island, called Kinki or Kinkipar. We conclude, therefore, that the Guiguitamear speech at San Gabriel was probably the one

used by neophytes brought there from San Clemente. There is an additional name duplication which causes confusion here,

however. Johnston (1962: map; 89, 112) locates a mainland Gabrielino village Kinki near San Pedro. Since the baptismal

records clearly indicate the village was on an island, the mainland village by the same name could be one applied by a group

of San Clemente people resettled on the mainland shore. Corbonamga is not certainly identified, and granting that the -

mga ending is an imperfect rendering of the Gabrielino locative suffix -nga , the word might be Cucamonga, the name of a

Gabrielino village. Sibanga is the name of the village at San Gabriel.

Being related by blood and marriage, war was never carried on between them. When war was

consequently waged against neighboring tribes of no affinity, it was a common cause. The

following are the principal Lodges or Rancherías, with their corresponding present local names:

2. Location of many of these villages is shown in the accompanying map, taken largely from Johnston (1962).

Yang-na

Los Angeles

3. In Mission San Gabriel baptism records this appears as Yanga, Yabit, or Yavit with a total of 166 entries from

1777 to 1805.

Sibag-na

San Gabriel

4. In Mission San Gabriel baptism records this appears as Sibapet, Sibanga, Sibap, etc. A total of 218 baptisms

from 1774 to 1811 are recorded: The San Fernando register has 32 entries (1802-1811) for the ranchería of

Chibugna (Chibubit, Chibuna). Alexander S. Taylor (California Farmer , Feb. 22, 1860; May 11, 1860) states that

the site of San Gabriel Mission was called Tobiscanga or Toviscanga .

Isanthcag-na

Mision Vieja

5. No definite or probable cognate occurs in the San Gabriel Mission baptismal register.

Sisitcanog-na

Pear Orchard

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

6. Doubtfully identified with Siutasegena, Siutcabit and Siutcanga, from which 35 baptisms are recorded in the

San Fernando Mission register from 1798-1811. A printer's error based on reading si for u in Siut could account

for this. In the Mission San Gabriel baptism record is Siuccabit, Siupcabit, which, ignoring the locative suffix,

might be the village named here by Reid. There are 11 entries dating from 1785-1804.

So nag-no Mr. White's Farm

Acurag-na

The presa

7. Mission San Gabriel baptismal register has Acuranga and Acurabit entered 6 times between 1775-1800. The

locative suffix -nga, -ngna , is Gabrielino and is affixed to the village name. The suffix -bit, -vit, -pet, -bet , etc.,

is the Serrano locative. Where both groups came together each applied its locative suffix to the village name.

Johnston (1962: 10), however, quotes information from J. P. Harrington that the ending -vit, -bit or -pet “indicated

the habitat of an individual, much as a New Yorker adds the 'er' to his city's name.”

Asucsag-nas

Azuza

8. Mission San Gabriel baptismal register shows this as Asucsabit, Acuzabit, there being 228 entries for the

period 1774-1811.

Cucomog-na

Cucamonga Farm

9. Hoffman (1885: 2) renders this Cucumog-na. In the San Gabriel Mission baptismal register the ranchería name

appears as Cucamonga, Cucamobit, Cucamobuit, etc., 102 times for the period 1785-1813.

Pasinog-na

Rancho del Chino

10. San Fernando Mission baptismal register gives this as Passenga, Passanga, Pachanga, Patzanga, etc.

There are 14 entries dating from 1797-1804. It is probably the same name as Reid's Pasecg-na further on in this

list and identified with him as “San Fernando.” It is not the native village at the mission, however, since in the

introduction to the San Fernando baptismal record it is stated that the “mission was founded in the place called by

the natives Achoiscomihabit .”

Awig-na

La Puente

11. Given by Hoffman (1885) as Awizna. Otherwise perhaps identifiable with the village of Ajuibit, Ajuinga, which

is listed 188 times between 1774-1802 in the San Gabriel Mission baptismal record.

Chokishg-na The Saboneria

Nacaug-na Carpenter's Farm

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Pineug-na'

Santa Catalina Island

12. Almost certainly a printer's error for Pimug-na. Hoffman (1885) gives it as Pimugna. The San Gabriel Mission

record lists the village “of the island” (Santa Catalina) 31 times between 1789-1818 under variant spelling, such

as Pimubit, Pimunga, Pumunga, Pimuunam. The San Fernando Mission baptism record has 3 entries for 1821

“Pimu, island of Piimua” and 1 in 1812 for Pimunga. One would conclude from this that Pimu is both the name of

a village on Santa Catalina Island as well as the native name of the island itself.

Pimocag-na Rancho de los Ybarras

Toybipet

San Jose

13. San Gabriel Mission baptismal register has 68 entries from 1784-1813 for Toibipet, Toibit, etc.

Hutucg-na

Santa Ana [Yorbes]

14. Mission San Gabriel baptismal register has 241 entries for a ranchería “on the Santa Ana River” covering the

years 1773-1790. The name is variably rendered as Jutucubit, Jutucuvit, Jutubit, Jutucunga, Utucubit, Otocubit.

Possibly the same village, represented by 141 entries (1774-1801), is given as Uchubit, Ychubit, Uchunga.

Aleupkig-na

Santa Anita

15. Written by Hoffman (1885) as Almpquia-na.

Maug-na

Rancho de los Felis

16. Perhaps a printer's error. Compare with San Fernando Mission baptismal records, ranchería of Moonga,

Moomga, Momonga, entered 18 times between 1797-1805.

Hahamog-na

Rancho de los Verdugos

17. Compare with San Gabriel baptismal record ranchería, listed 35 times between 1785-1813, Jujuabit,

Guguavit, Jujuvit. Another possible equivalence, listed 347 times between 1774-1804, is Juyubit, Juubit, Juyunga,

Juuinga.

Cahueg-na

Caliuenga

18. Possibly identifiable with Cabuepet, Cabuenga, listed 20 times between 1778-1815, in the San Gabriel

Mission baptismal register and 62 times (1800-1806) in the San Fernando Mission register.

Pasecg-na

San Fernando

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Houtg-na

Ranchito de Lugo

19. May be the same as Jutucubit, Jutucunga, already (see note 14) tentatively equated with Hutucg-na of Reid's

list.

Suang-na

Suanga

20. Probably the village entered in the San Gabriel baptismal records as Soabit, Suanga. There are 15 entries for

the years 1788-1813.

Pubug-na

Alamitos

21. Identifiable with the ranchería called Pububit, or Puvuvit, listed 35 times between 1785-1805 in the San

Gabriel Mission baptismal register.

Tibahag-na

Serritos

22. Entered as Tibajabet, Tivajavet or Tiba on 23 occasions between 1784-1813 in the San Gabriel Mission

baptismal register.

Chowig-na

Palos Verdes

23. Perhaps Chaubit (or Chaubipet) entered 39 times between 1785-1813 in the San Gabriel Mission baptismal

Sajaibit, Jajabit, Jaabit. Alexander S. Taylor ( California Farmer , May 11, 1860) reported that “the beach or plaza

of San Pedro was called Sowvingt-ha .

Kinkipar San Clemente Island

Harasg-na

24. No location is suggested for this place by Reid, and Hoffman (1885) ignores it. It could be the ranchería

mentioned as Guasna, Guaschna and Guaaschna in the San Gabriel Mission baptismal record. It is listed 46

times between 1807-1815. Johnston (1962: 112) cannot decide whether it was the name of a village near San

Pedro or of San Clemente Island. It is possible that the native inhabitants of San Clemente Island were in part

removed to the missions, and in part to the mainland where they were allowed to live in a village whose name

was that formerly used by them for their old village on the island, or for the island itself. We do not know the

historical facts to account for the obvious name duplications (cf. Johnston 1862: 89-112). The Chumash name

for San Nicolas Island was Ghalas-at and Kroeber (1925: 635) thinks this may be the Chumash pronunciation

of Haras-nga . A. Pinart (1952: 38) recorded in 1878 that “the Indians of San Nicolas Island called themselves

xax'ašat in the language of Santa Cruz Island.” It is tempting to identify Haras-nga with San Nicolas Island, but

we cannot be certain.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

There were a great many more villages than the above, probably some forty;

but these are a

fair sample of their names in which it will be observed that, with the exception of two, they all

terminate in gna or na .

25. There are over 40 Gabrielino villages listed in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Mission baptismal records

which do not occur in Reid's list. Since many of the rancherías listed are mentioned only once or twice, these

names may be unrecognizable renderings of village names from which larger numbers of converts were drawn.

Taking villages from whom 50 or more people were drawn into Mission San Gabriel, and which are not listed

by Reid, we have the following taken from the baptismal records: Amuscopopiabit (Moscopiabit) 70 converts,

1795-1819; Cayubit (Guayabit, Guayaba, Jayabit), 87 converts, 1777-1815; Guapiabit (Guapian, Apiambit,

Apiagma), 89 converts, 1795-1815; Guaspet. 91 baptisms, 1790-1815; Japchibit (Japchina, Jajachibit), 53

converts, 1781-1813; Jautibit, 102 baptisms, 1776-1816; Jaibepet, 74 baptisms, 1775-1811; Jaisobit (Guisaobit),

98 baptisms, 1780-1807; Jurupet, 72 baptisms, 1798-1819; Juyubit, 347 baptisms, 1774-1804; Paimabit

(Pamaibit), 171 baptisms, 1797-1819; Tochajana, 114 baptisms, 1811-1815; Uchubit (Uchunga), 141 baptisms,

1774-1801. The locations of these villages are not given in the mission records. Some must have been quite

large settlements. San Fernando Mission baptismal records list the rancherías of Piru (Pirubit, Piiruvit), 95

baptisms, 1802-1820; Tochonabit (Tochonanga), 50 baptisms, 1797-1811.

Jurupa,

San Bernardino &c belonged to another distinct tribe possessing a language not at all

understood by the above Lodges; and, although reduced by the Spanish missionaries to the same

religion and labor, they never mixed their blood, they being considered much 9 inferior, and called

Serranos or Mountaineers . They look upon them to this day, with great disdain.

26. Hoffman (1885: 3) gives this as Irup.

That these names formerly had a signification there can be do doubt of. But even the oldest now

alive confess themselves ignorant of their meaning.

The Chief of each Lodge took its name followed by ie ,

with sometimes the alteration of one or

more final letters. For instance, the chief of Asucsagna was called Asucsagnie . That of Sibanga,

Sibavie .

27. Hoffman (1885: 3) speaks of captains or chiefs of each “lodge”, where the 1852 publication implies there

was only one chief in a village. Reid, in print, gives ie , but Hoffman (1885: 3) gives this as ic. Asucsagna and

Asucsagnie here are given by Hoffman as Azucsagna and Azucsavic and Reid's Sibavie is given as Sibapic by

Hoffman.

The title of a Chief's eldest son was Tomear . Of his eldest daughter, Manlsar .

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Their huts were made of sticks, covered in around with flag mats worked or platted, and each

village generally contained from 500 to 1500 huts. Suanga was the largest and most populous

village,

being of great extent.

28. This is not indicated by the numbers of baptized Indians given in the mission records. Compare with numbers

of baptisms listed in notes 3-25 supra .

It probably may not be out of place here to remark, that this tribe had no distinguishing appelation.

And it is almost certain that many other tribes are similarly situated; for the so called Cahuillas

have been named by Spanish Missionaries through the mistake of taking the word to designate the

people. Whereas Cahuilla signifies nothing more than master .

Mrs. James Rosemyre, a Gabrielino woman. Photographed by C. Hart Merriam at Bakersfield,

1903.

[LETTER NO. II]

Language

It is not the intention here either to compose a vocabulary of their words, nor yet a grammar to their

language. Yet probably an insight to a few terms and their formation, may not be uninteresting to

some.

They have a great many liquid sounds, and their gutturals are so softened down as to become quite

agreeable to the ear. In the following examples, i has the sound of ee, u of oo, e of a as in fare, a of

a as in father, ay of i as in ire , and gn is sounded as in French.

1 Pucú

29. Hoffman (1885: 27-28) adds the lengthy and interesting note referring to counting and record keeping in the historic

period: The herds of cattle and horses owned by the Missions were grazed in favorable localities, each herd being under

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

the control of a chief herder and the necessary number of assistants. The chief herder's duty was, also, to have every animal

branded, a record of which was kept in the shape of a notched stick, or Bali , which was regularly submitted to the major

domo of the Mission. Fig. 1 represents a stick of this kind, now in the collection of Mr. Coronel of Los Angeles. The stick

is about twenty-four inches in length, and three-fourths of an inch in diameter, each way. The handle has the edges bevelled

and upon each of the four faces thus produced are the characters I, II, X, <, signifying respectively bull, cow, heifer or

ox. For cattle, the end opposite the handle is notched, thus giving the rude idea of horns. For horses, the end is pointed, in

imitation of the sharp ear of a horse. When the stick is used by a herder of horses, the same marks are used, upon the handle,

as for cattle, but with the signification, in order, as follows: stallion, mare, colt, gelding. Whenever an animal is branded, a

notch is cut into the sharp edge of the proper stick, and upon the line of the character on the handle to designate the sex or

age of the subject. Thus an accurate record was kept of all stock handled, a custom and method which was copied by the

Mexican herders and retained until a few years ago. Notched sticks were also used by the herders and laborers to record their

accounts with the major domo . These sticks were nicely worked out of dogwood, polished, though not quite as long as the

above. Only two sides were used, one bearing the character X, for money, and a simple line cut crosswise, for work. On the

money side there were notches for reals and long cuts, extending across the stick, for dollars. Upon the opposite side notches

for days worked, and lines across the surface for weeks. In this manner credit could be given on the “money side,” and there

was always exactness between these stick records and those kept in proper form by the superiors. Other records were also

examined by the writer, in which the authors had recourse to paper: at the top of the sheet was a representation of the brand

used, and beneath the regular number of short and long lines, denoting the decimal system of recording. Sometimes small

rings were inserted at every tenth point, instead of the longer vertical stroke. When a ranchería possessed cattle only, there

was no necessity for notching the end of the stick to denote “cattle,” and there was no cause for error. Consequently the

sticks were cut off transversely, without any specific pointing or notching. The same was adopted, also, where horses were

owned, exclusively. Tattooing was practised and nearly all of the older members of the tribe still bear faint lines upon the

chin: this is noticeable to a greater extent among the women than the men. At present, personal ornamentation is done in

colors only, applied in the form of vertical lines upon the chin, transverse bars upon the cheeks, or both. The tattoo design

worn by a land-owner, formerly served as a property mark by being cut or painted, upon trees or posts selected to indicate

the boundaries. These marks were almost equivalent to the owner's name, and were known to the remainder of the tribe.

In this respect of engraving tattoo marks upon the bark of trees, there is great resemblance to a custom practised by the

natives of New Zealand, where the facial decorations of a dead man are reproduced upon trees near his grave: this is equal

to an autograph and can be readily interpreted by a native. Knotted cords were used by some of these Indians, in business

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

transactions, a custom adopted after their northern neighbors, the Palonies, -- a sub-tribe of the Chemehuevi, -- so called by

the Spanish settlers, on account of wearing the hair cut so short as to suggest the idea of “baldheadedness.” The method of

using knotted cords was in the following manner: Each year the Paloni selected a certain number of their tribe to visit the

settlement to sell native blankets, and every one who sent goods provided the salesman with two cords, twisted out of the

hair of some an3mal, on one of which a knot was tied for every real received, and on the other, the number of blankets sold.

When the amount reached one dollar, a double knot was made. Upon the return of the agent, each person would select his

own cords, count up the number of blankets sold and the amount received for the goods, for which the seller was responsible.

2 Wehé 3 Páhe 4 Watzá

30. Hoffman (1885) gives this as Watzu .

5 Mahár

6 Pabáhe

31. Given by Hoffman as Babahe .

7 Watza caviá

8 Wehés Watzá

9 Mahár caviá

10 Wehés Mahar

11 Wehés mahár coy pucu

12 Wehés mahár coy Wehé

Once Pucushe

Twice Wehés

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

3 times Páhes

4 times Watzáhes

5 times Maháres

10 times Wehés mahares

20 Wehes wehes mahar

32. Hoffman (1885: 4) gives a slightly variant rendering of this and the following three native terms for numbers

as follows: 20 Wehez wehez maghar (g and h combined) 30 Pahez wehez maghar 40 Watzahez wehez maghar

50 Mahares wehez maghar Hoffman adds the following note of explanation: “The combination of the letters g and

h is intended to represent the sound of the Spanish j in mujer; ach, German, etc., now expressed by the character

% in the ms., Mr. Ried wrote the letter g over the h .”

30 Pahes wehes mahar

40 Watzahes wehes mahar

50 Mahares wehes mahar

100 Wehes wehes mahares wehes mahar

There is Woni

33. Hoffman (1885: 4) adds to “There is”, “There are.”

There is not Yahay

34. Hoffman gives the native word as Yahez with the English meaning “There is none; there are none.”

Yes Ehé

35. Hoffman renders this Ehez and adds in the list of words the following which were apparently omitted in the

Star , 1852: Presently Wake Before Aunuco To-day Mitema Yesterday Poana To-morrow Yamte Here Ycuaro

There Muro Far off Poane

No Hay

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

I Nóma

Thou Oma

He or she Mane

Man Woróyt

Woman Tocór

Boy Quiti

36. Hoffman gives this as Quité and prefaces the conjugation with “To hear, -- Nahacua.”

Black Yupiha

White Arawatay

Red Quaóha

Blue Sacasca

Yellow Payuhuwi

Green Tacape

The Sun Tamit

The Moon Moar

The Stars Zoót

Dog Woze

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Coyote Ytur

Bear Hunar

Deer Zucat

37. Hoffman renders this Zacat .

And Coy

Two examples of their verbs in the present, past, and future tenses, will suffice to show [their]

formation.

I hear Non im nahacua

Thou hearest O-a nahacua

He hears Mané nahacua

I heard Non him nahacua

Thou hearest O-a him nahacua

He heard Mane him nahacua

I shall hear Nop uom nahacua

38. Hoffman gives the second native word as nom rather than uom , apparently a printer's error in the Star ,

1852.

Thou shalt hear O-pam nahacua

39. Hoffman gives the second native word as pom .

He shall hear Mane pam nahacua I speak Nou im sirauaj

40. Hoffman gives the first native word as Non and prefaces the conjugation with “To speak, -- Sirauaj.”

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Thou speakest O-a sirauaj

He speaks Mane sirauaj

I spoke Non him sirauaj

Thou spokest O-a him sirauaj

He spoke Mane him sirauaj

I will speak Nop uom sirauaj

41. Hoffman gives the second native word as nom .

Thou wilt speak O-pam sirauaj

He will speak Mane pam sirauaj

42. Hoffman gives the second native word as pom .

It will be preceived that neither the person or tense alter the verb, but the pronoun preceeding it.

Their language is simple, rich, and abounding in compound expressive terms. Although they have

words denoting to desire, to like, to possess, to regard, to have an affection for , and to esteem , yet,

they have no word to express Love .

At the same time they have many phrases to which we have

no equivalent.

43. In Hoffman (1885: 5) there follows: “The nearest approach to express the idea of love is uisminoc . (Present

Tense) Sing. 1. Nonim uisminoc 2. O-a uisminoc 3. Mané uisminoc (Past Tense) 1. Non him uisminoc 2. O-a

him uisminoc 3. Mane him uisminoc (Future Tense) 1. No que im uisminoc 2. O-que-a uisminoc 3. Mane que

uisminoc”

Their innumerable stories are all legends, and more than half believed; being of incredible length

and containing more metamorphises than Ovid could have engendered in his brain had he lived a

thousand years.

Everything is Oriental, even to their language. -- Their fables are few and short.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

We may perhaps be tempted on some future occasion to give a couple of their traditions, one of

their legends and a fable as an example.

44. Kroeber (1925: 622-626) gives a brief survey of Gabrielino mythology.

Their language has deteriorated so much since the conquest, that the present generation barely

comprehend a part of what one of the “old standards” say, when they speak the original toungue.

There is now at San Gabriel an old woman named Bona, who takes a pride in speaking sometimes

the “Court language” to the “young ones,” to stultify their intelligence.

[LETTER NO. III]

45. Reid's published Letter III is Hoffman's Letter V. Hoffman's Letter III does not appear in the Reid letters

published in 1852. Hoffman's Letter III follows: The Santa Inéz tongue is understood by the Indians of the

Purissima. Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura (Missions), with this difference, that the two latter splutter

their words a little more, which seems almost impossible! The l is used in this (Chumash) tongue, although not

in the Gabrielino, which is strange. The only word in the Gabriel tongue which has an l is an interjection, alala

equal to Oho! The Serranos have no l either, in use, and their language is as easy as that of San Gabriel. The

Serranos generally employ a t when the Gabrielinos would use an r . Dakin (1939: 196) says that, after Reid

wrote and published in 1852 his Letters , he “then commenced another long-cherished project, that of compiling

a vocabulary and complete language-manual, Indian-English, for the Southern California tribes, that they might

understand their new (American) masters better than the old, and he hoped, fare more happily under them. But

before finishing the congenial task, Hugo fell sick again.” It is possible that Hoffman's Letters III and IV are part

of this unpublished linguistic project of Reid's. Alexander S. Taylor (California Farmer , May 11, 1860) prints

a vocabulary of 148 words which he recorded “from an old Christian-Indian about sixty years old” and which

was the “vocabulary of the Indians living near the Mission of San Gabriel.” Woodward (1944) has published an

important mission period document, which he found at Mission San Fernando, entitled “The Quiligui, That Is

to Say, Language San Gabrielino,” which is, in effect, an abbreviated primer on how to speak Gabrielino. The

original author is not known, but may be assumed to have been one of the resident priests.

Government, Laws and Punishment The government of the people was invested in the hands of

their Chiefs: each Captain commanding his own lodge. The command was hereditary in a family.

If the right line of descent ran out, they elected one of the same kin, nearest in blood. Laws in

general were made as required, with some few standing ones. Robbery was never known among

them. Murder was of rare occurrence, and punished with death. Incest was likewise punished

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

with death: being held in such abhorrence, that marriages between kinsfolk were not allowed. The

manner of putting to death was by shooting the delinquent with arrows.

46. Hoffman (1885: 7) adds to this sentence “descending from father to son, and from brother to brother.”

All prisoners of war, after being tormented in a most cruel manner, were invariably put to death.

This was done in the presence of all the chiefs, for as war was declared and conducted by a council

of the whole, so they in common had to attend to the execution of their enemies. A war-dance on

such an occasion was therefore grand, solemn and maddening.

47. Hoffman (1885: 29) adds the following informative note: Three forms of war-clubs are given in Figures 2, 3

and 4. They are all made of extremely hard, heavy wood, and in some examples there is evidence of an attempt

at ornamentation, done in lines burnt upon the surface, no doubt with a metallic substance. The club represented

in Fig. 2, measures thirty-four inches in length, one and a quarter inches in diameter near the handle, and two

and a half inches at the opposite end; Fig. 3 measures eighteen inches in length, the handle two and a half

inches in diameter, while the four-sided head, four inches each way, is armed with sharp conical points of wood

projecting nearly an inch above the surface. These projections are of hard wood, and are secured by a socket,

into which the pieces were driven previous to pointing. Fig. 4 is of the same length as the preceding; it has three

sides, each face measuring four inches in width, with just sufficient handle to afford a good grasp. The object

represented in Fig. 5 was used as an accompaniment to the rattle, in dances. Two pieces of hard wood twenty

inches long, each two inches broad and a little more than half an inch thick, are secured at the handle with thongs

and vegetable gum, allowing the ends of the wooden blades to be about an inch apart. This is shaken, and

makes a noise resembling clapping of hands. Fig. 6 is a rattle, made by passing a wooden handle through two

boards, each three and three-fourths by four inches in width, over which rawhide is stretched to form a hollow

case. Inside of this are seeds, and small stones. The top is ornamented with feathers.

If a quarrel ensued between two parties, the chief

of the Lodge took cognizance in the case, and

decided according to the testimony produced. But, if a quarrel occurred between 16 parties of

distinct

Lodges, each chief heard the witnesses produced by his own people; and then, associated

with the chief of the opposite side, they passed sentence. In case they could not agree, an impartial

chief was called in, who heard the statements made by both,

and he alone decided. There was no

appeal from his decision.

48. Hoffman says “chiefs.”

49. Hoffman says “distant.”

50. Hoffman says, in place of “associated”, “in council.”

51. Hoffman does not say “both”, but “the two captains.”

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Whipping was never resorted to as a punishment; therefore all fines and sentences consisted in

delivering money, food and skins.

If a woman proved unfaithful to her husband, and he caught her in the act, he had a right to kill or

wound

her without any intervention of chief or tribe. And any one hurting him made it a crime

for which he stood ameanable to the captain. But what was more generally practiced, the injured

husband informed the wife's paramour that he was at liberty to keep her . He then went and took

possession of the lover's spouse and lived with her. The exchange was considered legal, and no

resource was left to the offending party but submission.

52. Instead of “kill or wound”, Hoffman says “put her to death.”

53. In place of the last phrase in this sentence Hoffman writes “and the paramour would not object.”

Until the age of puberty, they were under the control of their parents; in default of these, of their

nearest relatives. But from the age of puberty upwards, they came under the jurisdiction of the

chief.

If a seer or wizard (they had no witches) 17 was known or suspected of having made away with any

one, the chief had no jurisdiction over him, because he conversed with the Great Spirit . But other

seers could do him the damage they saw fit, in their capacities as such.

54. This paragraph and the one immediately preceding it do not occur in Hoffman's Letter V, which is Reid's

published Letter III. Hoffman instead provides the following: Although they counted by moons, still they had

another mode for long periods, which was to reckon from the time the sun was farthest north, till he was at his

southern extremity, and then back again. Summer was counted from the time frogs were first heard to croak.

This was used to count war scrapes by, and under the recollection of the chief. When other tribes had to be

chastized, the chief sent an express to all other lodges. They brought up from children a number of males, who

were taught to hear long stories by the chief and to repeat them word for word. In this manner they became so

perfect as to be able to recite the longest oration any one could produce. They were not much given to travel,

for they only relate of one who left his people and proceeded north till he came to the land where the geese

breed. And even he appears to have possessed that property ascribed to his race, for on his return he informed

them of having fallen in with people whose ears reached down to the hips; others of a small stature; and finally

a people so perfect that they would lay hold of a rabbit or other animal, put it near the mouth, draw a long breath

and then throw the rest away; which upon examination was nothing but excrement. They sucked with their breath

the essence of the food and so lived without any calls of nature. What is mentioned here that is of interest is the

solstitial calendar where the year is divided into two equal halves. This calendrical system is described in detail

by Cope (1919) and Spier (1955).

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

José Salvideo, a Gabrielino Indian whose father was born on Catalina Island. Photographed by C.

Hart Merriam at San Manuel Reservation, June 21, 1933.

[LETTER NO. IV]

55. This Letter does not occur in Hoffman (1885). Hoffman adds a note to the mention of snow and ice, saying

“The word, at the present time, is iv'at .

Religion and Creed

“They believed in one God, the maker and creator of all things, whose name was (and is) held so

sacred among them, as hardly ever to be used; and when used only in a low voice. That name is

Qua-o-ar . When they have to use the name of the Supreme Being on any ordinary occasion, they

substitute in its stead, the word Y-yo-ha-rivg-nain , or “The Giver of Life.” They have only one

word to designate life and soul .

The world was at one time in a state of chaos, until God gave it its present formation; fixing it on

the shoulders of Seven Giants , made expressly for this end. They have their names, and when they

move themselves, an earthquake is the consequence.

. Animals were then formed; and lastly man

and woman were formed separately from earth, and ordered to live together. The man's name was

TOBOHAR,

the woman's PABAVIT. God ascended to Heaven immediately afterwards, where he

receives the soul of all who die. They had no bad spirit connected with their creed; and never heard

of a “Devil” or a “Hell” until the coming of the Spaniards.

56. A widely held belief among California Indians is that earthquakes were caused by an underground sleeping

giant who rolled over.

57. The word Tobohar is derived from the widespread word stem for “earth”. Since elsewhere in Southern

California the earth is the first mother, it seems probable that Reid was in error in naming the first man Tobohar.

It has been a current belief in this county, 20 that the Indians of it worship the “Bald headed Eagle”

as a GOD. There is no such thing. -- The Indians make “feasts” to the Eagle

on account of a

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

tradition, which states it formerly to have been a remarkably clever, industrious man, chief of a

large tribe, and who, when dying, told his people that he intended becoming an eagle, and that

he bequeathed them his feathers , from henceforth to be employed at their feasts and ceremonies.

Feasts are in consequence held in honor of his memory; and great reverence is shown to the bird.

58. The eagle figures importantly in ritual among all Southern California tribes. For details on the ceremonial

killing of eagles among the Serrano, Cahuilla, Cupeño and Luiseño tribes see Strong (1929: 34, 83, 119, 177,

261, 307).

Now, ten to one if an Indian at the present day be asked if they worship the Eagle as a god, he will

answer, yes! because he is accustomed to hear the whites make game of their ceremony, and he

does not care about giving an explanation which he knows will be laughed at.

The porpoises were believed to be intelligent beings, created for the purpose of guarding the world,

and whose duty consists of going round and round the earth to see that all is safe.

The owl was held in deep reverence, and supposed to predict death, by screeching near the

residence of the doomed one. It was never killed.

The crows advised them when a stranger was coming on a visit.

They believed in no resurrection whatever; either in particular cases, or a general one; but the

transmigration of the souls of wizards for a time into the bodies of animals, particularly of the Bear,

is firmly believed in.

Each Lodge had a church, called Yobagnar , which was circular and formed of short stakes, with

twigs of willow entwined basket fashion, to the height of three feet. This church was sacred, but

was consecrated nevertheless every time it was used. This took an entire day, being done by the

seers in a succession of different ceremonies. There was also an unconsecrated one used for the

purpose of rehearsing in and teaching children dedicated to this end, to dance and gesticulate.

Having nothing to care about their souls, it made them stoical in regard to death. The only services

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

performed in their churches were -- asking for vengeance on their enemies; giving thanks for a

victory; and commemorating the worth of their dead relatives.

The only ones admitted into the church, were the seers and captains, the adult male dancers, the

boys training for that purpose, and the female singers. But on funeral occasions the near relatives of

the deceased were allowed to enter.

[LETTER NO. V]

59. This is Hoffman's Letter VI. Hoffman's Letter IV is different and does not appear in the 1852 L.A. Star letters.

It reads: Father, mother, husband, son, daughter, face, hair, ear, tongue, mouth and friend, are words never

used without a personal pronoun, as: Father, nack , my father, ni nack , they father, mo nack , his or her father,

a nack . Husband and wife. If they have had children, instead of saying ni asum , my husband, they often say ni

taliaisum , which may be translated part of my body. All brothers older than the speaker are styled apa; ni apa ,

my brother; all younger, by apeitz; ni apeitz , my younger brother. They have no word to express Indian. Tahat

signifies people. The whites are termed chichinabro , reasonable beings. Face and eyes are expressed by the

same word. Ear, nanah; the leaves of a tree are called its ears. Snow and ice are the same. Tobagnar , the whole

earth; lahur , a portion of it, a piece of land. Caller , forest. No word to signify tree, all varieties have their special

names. Cabatcho , good looking. Zizu , devil, an evil spirit. Ayopu-cushna , brother-in-law. Qua-o-ar , God. Held

in great reverence, and the name was seldom pronounced among them. They generally used the term, y-ro-ha-

riv-gnina , that which gives us life.

Food and Raiment The animal food in use among them was deer meat, young coyotes, squirrels,

badgers, rats, gophers, snakes, racoons, skunks, wildcats, the small crow, the blackbirds, hawks,

ground owls, and snakes, with the exception of the rattle snake. A few eat the bear, but in general it

is rejected, on superstitious grounds hereafter to be mentioned. The large locust or grasshopper was

a favorite morsel, roasted on a stick at the fire. Fish, whales, seals, sea-otters, and shellfish, formed

the principal subsistence of the immediate coast-range of Lodges and Islands. Acorns, after being

divested of their shell, were dried, and pounded in stone mortars, put into filterns of willow twigs

worked into a concave form, and raised on little mounds of sand, which were lined inside with a

coating of two inches of sand; water added and mixed up. -- Then filled up again and again with

more water, at first hot, then cold, until all the tanning [tannin] and bitter principle was extracted.

The residue was then collected and washed free of any sandy particles it might contain. On settling,

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

the water was poured off. After being well boiled, it became a sort of 23 mush, and was eaten when

cold. The next favorite food was the kernel of a species of plum which grows in the mountains and

Islands, called by them, Islay (pronounced eeslie). Some Americans call it the Mountain Cherry

, although it partakes little either of the plum or cherry. It has a large stone, to which numerous

fibres are attached, pervading the pulp, of which there is very little. Its color, when perfectly ripe,

inclines to black, and very much like what in Mexico is called the Ciruela . This, cooked, formed a

very nutritious, rich, saccharine aliment; and looked much like dry boiled frijoles. Chia , which is a

small, gray, oblong seed, was procured from a plant apparently of the thistle kind, having a number

of seed vessels on a straight stalk, one above the other, like wild sage. This, roasted and ground

into meal, was eaten with cold water, being of a glutinous consistency, and very cooling. Pepper

grass seed was also much used, the tender stalks of wild sage, several kinds of berries and a number

of roots. All their food was taken either cold or nearly so, which, of course, tended to preserve the

teeth. Salt was used very sparingly in their food, from an idea that it had a tendency to turn their

hair grey .

The men wore no clothing, but the women in the interior had a deerskin wrapped round the middle,

while those on the coast had sea-otter 24 skins put to the same purpose. Their covering at night

consisted of rabbit skins, cut square and sewed together in the form of a bed-spread.

Rings or

ornaments of any kind were never attached to the nose, although all the Indians of Buenaventura

and Santa Barbara used them. The men inserted a reed or a piece of cane through each ear; while

the women wore regular ear-rings; each of which was composed of four long pieces of a whale's

tooth, ground down smooth to a cylindrical form of eight inches in length, and half an inch in

diameter. These were hung with the feathers of the hawk and turkey-buzzard, from a ring made of

the oblong

shell. Their necklaces were very heavy and large consisting of innumerable strings, of

various lengths, of their money beads, of beads made of black stones,

and pieces of whale's teeth,

ground round and perforated. They used bracelets on both wrists, of very small shell beads.

60. Hoffman (1885: 29-30) provides a note of information on the flat curved throwing club for killing rabbits:

Rabbits were killed with the Makana , or boomerang, the form of which is given in Fig. 7. The original measures

two feet in length in a straight line, one and one-fourth inches across at the handle and one and three-fourth

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

inches at the broadest part. The average thickness is about three-fourths of an inch. The weapon is made of

hard wood (apparently dogwood, or mesquite), and ornamented with various markings which are burnt upon

the surface. The end opposite the handle is finished so as to imitate the head of what appears to be a snake.

When viewing the weapon edgewise, it will be observed that considerable curve exists, but it is not known that

these Indians were ever acquainted with the art of throwing the Makana so as to produce the strange and erratic

motions pursued by a boomerang at the hands of a native Australian. The weapon was thrown near the ground,

so' as not to pass over a rabbit while it was running. Its general form seems similar to the Zuni Kleani, and a

similar weapon used by the Moqui, a notice of which was first published by the writer in the Trans. Anthrop. Inst.

of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. IX. p. 464. The curved throwing clubs are discussed by Kroeber (1925: 632),

Davidson (1873) and Heizer (1942). They were noted as in use as far north as the Gabrielino by the Spanish

explorers in the late eighteenth century.

61. The 1852 L.A. Star version of the Reid letters says “oblon.” Ellis (1926: 13) and Dakin (1939: 231) say

“oblong.” Hoffman (1885:10) uses what is obviously the correct word, “abalone.”

62. Mollusk shells rather than whale's teeth provided the main material for shell disc beads. Hoffman (1885:

30-31) gives a rather prolix note on the manufacture of stone and shell beads in the Santa Barbara area (cf.,

Henshaw 1955: 148 ff.). It may be assumed that similar methods were employed by the Gabrielino. Hoffman's

note reads: The black beads referred to are made of dark, greenish black serpentine, some specimens

resembling diorite, excepting as to hardness. They vary in size; the smallest one measuring about one-fourth of

an inch in diameter and one-eighth in thickness, and the largest, known to the writer, measures seven-eighths of

an inch in diameter by one and a half inches in length. The perforation in this specimen is one-fourth of an inch in

diameter, and presents transverse striae caused by the sand used in drilling. The shell beads were usually made

of Haliotis and Tivola [i.e., Tivela] . Shell money-beads were flat, and about one third of an inch in diameter. Other

beads used for necklaces were cylindrical or sub-cylindrical, larger in the middle than toward either end. Many of

them, found in graves, present the same style of delicate perforations as we find in the beads from Santa Cruz

Island. The writer is of the opinion that these narrow perforations were made by means of sea lions' whiskers as

drills, and extremely fine silicious dust. The channels are scarcely large enough to admit a good sized thread,

and in several beads which have split lengthwise it is apparent that drilling was done from both ends, as the

perforations cease a short distance beyond the middle of the bead, thus passing one another, perhaps less

than the tenth of an inch. It is evident, from the appearance of other unfinished specimens, that the boring was

begun by using a stone drill -- of which many and various forms occur -- after which the bristle was applied.

The channels are slightly conical toward the outer end, and at about one-fourth the length of the shell there is

a constriction beyond which and near the middle of the bead, the channel again becomes wider, assuming an

elliptical form. No doubt the rapid rotary motion of a flexible drill would cause sufficient divergence to produce

such an effect. In addition to this, delicate transverse striae are also visible without the aid of a lens. A body was

recently discovered on Santa Cruz Island, with which was obtained a bunch of these bristles carefully wrapped

from end to end. Furthermore, it is well known that Chinamen on the Pacific coast purchase all the bristles of the

sea lion that can be obtained, paying twenty-five cents apiece therefor, to be prepared and sold as tooth-picks.

Most of the shells required for use were obtained at the Santa Catalina Islands. These, as well as the islands

opposite Santa Barbara, are fine localities for Haliotis shells even at this time. The Serpentine, used in making

beads, ollas and large rings, was also obtained at the islands first named.

During the season of flowers, the females and children decked themselves in splendor; not only

entwining them in the hair, but stringing them with the stalks and leaves, making boas of them.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

[LETTER NO. VI]

63. This is Hoffman's Letter VII.

Marriages Chiefs had one, two or three wives , as their inclinations dictated. The subjects only

one.

When a person wished to marry, and had selected a suitable partner, he advertised the same to

all his relations, even to the nineteenth cousin . On a day appointed, the male portion of the lodge,

and male relations living at other lodges brought in a collection of money beads. The amount of

each one's contribution was about twenty-five cents. All the relations having come in with their

share, they (the males) proceeded in a body to the residence of the bride, to whom timely notice

had been given. All of the bride's female relations had been assembled, and the money was equally

divided among them; the bride received nothing, as it was a sort of purchase. After a few days the

bride's female relations returned the compliment by taking to the bridegroom's dwelling baskets of

meal made of Chia , which was distributed among his male relations. These preliminaries over, a

day was fixed for the ceremony, which consisted in decking out the bride in innumerable strings

of beads, paint, feathers and skins. On being ready, she was taken up in the arms of one of her

strongest 26 connections, who carried her dancing towards her sweetheart's habitation. All of her

family, friends and neighbors accompanied, dancing around, and throwing food and edible seeds

at her feet every step, which were collected in a scrabble as they best could by the spectators. The

relations of the man met them half way, and taking the bride, carried her themselves, joining in

the cerimonious walking dance. On arriving at the bridegroom's (who was sitting within his hut)

she was inducted into her new residence by being placed along side of her husband: while baskets

of seeds were liberally emptied on their heads, Lb denote blessing and plenty. This was likewise

scrambled for by the spectators; who on gathering up all of the bride's seed cake , departed, leaving

them to enjoy their “Honey Moon,” according to usage.

64. Plural wives for chiefs was also true for the Chumash (cf., Henshaw 1955: 149).

A grand dance was of course given on the occasion, where might be seen warriors and hunters in

full costume, making their various gestures in character, indicative of their respective callings. The

old women took a part in the dance either as if carrying of game, or of dispatching their wounded

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

enemies, as the avocation of their husbands called for. The younger portion of the women and old

men sat around as singers.

The wife never visited her relations from that day forth, although they had undebarred 27 leave to

visit her.

In case her “Lord” ill used her, and continued to beat her in a cruel manner, she gave advice of

it to her kin, who in consequence collected together all the money which had been paid in at the

marriage, and taking it in deputation to the husband's hut, left it with him, leading off the wife. They

immediately married her to another.

The last case of bigamy or rather polygamy, was in one of the Chief's from Santa Catharine; who

was ordered by the priest to San Gabriel, and there baptized. He had three wives, the first of which

was allowed him, and the others discarded. The Priest joined him in the holy bonds of matrimony

according to the form of the Catholic Church; which to him appeared highly ridiculous. He is still

alive and now resides at San Fernando; his name, as known at present, is Canoa , or Canoe: he is

still a Captain and accounted a great wizard.

Above: Coiled basketry bowl, 13.75 inches in diameter, made at San Gabriel but date of

manufacture unknown. E. L. McLeod Collection, Lowie Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley.

Below: Shallow round coiled basket, 17 inches in diameter, attributed to Gabrielino manufacture

on basis of weaving technique and decorative motifs. Purchased from a descendant of the Ochoa

family and presented to Lowie Museum.

[LETTER NO. VII]

65. This is Hoffman's Letter VIII.

Births and Burials Immediately on the birth of a child, the mother and infant were baked , or

in other words purified. In the centre of a hut a large hole was dug; an immense fire was kindled

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

therein, and large stones heated until red-hot; when nothing but hot embers and the aforesaid stones

remain, bundles of wild tanzy are heaped on, and then the whole is covered with earth, with the

exception of a small aperture in the middle. The mother had to stand over this hole, with her child

wrapt up in a mat, funnel fashion, while cold water was gradually introduced into the opening.

This generated great quantities of steam, which was so hot at the commencement as to cause the

patient to leap and skip not a little, while it produced profuse sweating afterwards. When no more

steam was produced, the mother and child laid down on a heap of earth, and were well covered up

until the steaming process was renewed. Three days was the term of purification, and morning and

evening the times for sweating. No food was allowed to the mother during that time, and her drink

(water) was warmed. She was now allowed to eat of everything at discretion, except animal 30

food, which was debarred her for the period of two moons. Her diet at length completed, three pills

were prepared of the size of a musket ball compounded of one part meat and one part wild tobacco.

These were administered to her, swallowed, and from henceforth she was declared free to eat meats

of any kind. But not until the child could run about, was she privileged to share her husband's bed.

If a child was born to a chief, the old women immediately assembled, and washing it in water drank

the same, with great gusto . They then had a dance around the happy father, chanting all the while

the future renown of the little one.

When a person died, all the kin collected to lament and mourn his or her loss. Each one had his

own peculiar mode of crying or howling, as easily distinguished, the one from another, as one

song is from another. After lamenting awhile, a mourning dirge was sung, in a low whining tone,

accompanied by a shrill whistle, produced by blowing into the tube of a deer's leg bone. Dancing

can hardly be said to have formed a part of the rites, as it was merely a monotonous action of the

foot on the ground. This was continued alternately until the body showed signs of decay, when

it was wrapt up in the covering used in life. 31 The hands were crooked upon the breast, and the

body tied from head to foot. A place having been dug in their burial place, the body was deposited,

with seeds, &c, according to the means of the family.

If the deceased were the head of a family,

or a favorite son, the hut in which he died was burned up, as likewise all of his personal effects,

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

reserving only some article or another, or a lock of hair. This reservation was not a memento of the

deceased, but to make a feast with on some future occasion, generally after the first harvest of seeds

and berries.

66. Hoffman (1885: 31) adds the following note which is of some archaeological significance: Between Los

Angeles and the coast, near San Pedro, gravestones were erected to the memory of the deceased, or, perhaps

simply to identify the location of the body, so that his friends might come to offer food, and to mourn. Fig. 8

represents the etchings upon a piece of sandstone slab obtained from the above mentioned locality. On account

of the fracture of the specimen, and the loss of, perhaps, important parts, only a few characters are visible, but

these, resembling whales, were evidently carved there to show that the deceased had been a fisherman or whale

hunter. Such a custom prevails very extensively among the Kiate%amut Innuit of southern Alaska. There, the

profession of a man, and even a woman, is carefully recorded upon wooden slabs.

67. This is a fairly standard practice among Shoshonean-speaking tribes in the Far West.

[LETTER NO. VIII]

68. This is Hoffman's Letter IX.

Medicine and Diseases Their medical men

were esteemed as wizards and seers, and called A-hub-

su-voi-rot . They not only cured diseases, but created them; they poisoned people with herbs and

ceremonies, made it rain when required, consulted the good spirit and received answers, changed

themselves into the form of divers animals, and foretold coming events. All of this was firmly

believed by the people, and in consequence their seers were held in dread and deep reverence.

69. Hoffman says “medicine men,” and appends the following note: The term Shaman is more appropriate in

this connection. The Seer was an individual whose profession was distinct from that of the Shaman. With some

tribes there are Rainmakers, etc. During the performance of religious or professional ceremonies, the Shaman

resorts to many and various utterances and movements not understood by the uninitiated. Rattles, small dried

animals or skins, curiously shaped vegetable growths, rare sparkling minerals and wrought stones of odd forms,

are employed as fetishes. Among the last named the writer found both oblong and pyriform polished stones,

such as have hitherto been considered, and described, as “plummets, plumb-bobs, sinkers, and weights.” An

old Tobikhar said that such stones would require too much time and labor to be used only to cast into the sea.

The Indians term them “medicine stones,” and consider them as possessing medicinal properties. That the

Shaman also prepared arrow-poison, there is no doubt. Nearly all of the tribes between the Pacific ocean and the

Rocky mountains had more or less knowledge of plants, insects, or other materials, which rendered it capable of

producing septicaemia in any person or animal wounded thereby. For more extended information by the present

writer, respecting the methods of preparation, and the tribes by whom used, See Bull. Societe d' Anthropologie

de Paris , Vol. VI, 3rd Series, 1883, p. 205, et seq.; Verhandl. Berliner. Gesell. fur Anthrop. Ethnol. und Urgesch .,

1880, p. 91, et seq .

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

In regard to the diseases then prevalent, inasmuch as siphilis was unknown, Brandy and its

associates unused, and high living at a low ebb, their nosology was very limited. Toothache seldom

or never troubled them for which reason they carried the teeth perfect to the grave. Rheumatism was

cured by applying a string of blisters to the part affected, each about the size of a ten cent piece. The

blister used was made of the furz of dry nettle stalks, rolled up and compressed, put on and made

to adhere with spittle. Fire being applied, it burned like spunk

and when one went out another was

lit. The blisters formed were immediately opened. Lumbargo was cured by 33 making the patient

lay on his back for twenty or thirty hours on hot ashes and giving him sweating herbs to drink.

Fever was cured by giving a bolus of wild tobacco,

to insure vomiting, herbs administered and

manupitations [manipulations] of the seer, accompanied by a song. Local Inflammation was treated

by drawing blood from the surrounding parts by scarifying with sharp pieces of flint. Paralytic

affections, stagnation of the blood, and loss of action in the limbs were cured by whipping with

bunches of nettles; as likewise by drinking the juice of the thornapple (datura stramoniuns) which

produced an ebriety of three days duration.

-- Decline (of very rare occurrence) was treated by

giving, for a length of time, the meat of mudturtles , cooked.

70. Hoffman has this word as “punk”. This is the curative practice, known also in the Old World, called moxa.

71. Datura metaloides (toloache or jimsonweed) contains a powerful alkaloid. It was widely used by aboriginal

Southern California peoples as a means of inducing a state of unconsciousness during which time the person

saw “visions.” Its use was almost exclusively religious, and Reid's statement that it was employed as a curative

medicine is of interest. Strong (1929: 31-34, 62, 108, 116, 165, 173-174, 259, 290, 296-297, 303, 306, 308-309,

321-325, 330-340, 344, 349) gives a great deal of detail on how one toloache drink was prepared, administered,

and the ritual context of this practice among the Serrano, Cahuilla, Cupeño and Luiseño tribes.

They were well acquainted with lime in medicine, and made it from shells; but not aware of its

presence in rocks. It was pounded up with wild tobacco and used immediately if intended to

produce a nauseous intoxicating feeling, but in a more agreeable state it was powdered up well

and kneaded into thick cakes, kept, and when required, a piece of the requisite size broken off and

eaten.

-- Lime was supposed not only to clean the stomach, but likewise the bladder.

72. The fullest study of the Central and Southern California Indian practice of swallowing tobacco mixed with lime

(usually made by burning mussel shells) is by Voegelin (1938: 37-38).

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Strangury was cured by steaming the patient as in the purification of women after parturition;

34 only that marsh mallows were used instead of tanzy. Immediately after a very large ball of

masticated tobacco was given, which caused great depression and relaxation of the nervous

system, often times producing the desired effect. If not, blood was drawn by sucking the abdomen

immediately over the region of the bladder. This operation was performed with many prior rights

[rites], such as smoking to the Great Spirit, pressure and rubbing of the part

with the hands, and a

song,

every verse of which concluded with NOM IM MANOC, IN MANOC, NOM IM MANOC,

IN MANOC. YOBARSE! I do, what I am doing, I do, what I am doing. Oh Church!

73. Hoffman (1885: 15) says “pressure and frotation (sic) of the abdomen” instead of “pressure and rubbing of the

part.”

74. Hoffman (1885: 15) gives the native words as: “Non im mainoc, ni mainoc. Non im mainoc, ni mainoc.

Yobare!”

Even the name of the Deity was not invoked in this, but the place of worship. Bites of snakes were

cured by the application of herbs and ashes to the wound; and herbs, ashes, and the fine dust found

at the bottom of ant's nests given internally. The hair was at times plastered all over with red clay,

which was allowed to remain twenty four hours on and was then washed off. This 35 was supposed

to impart a gloss and prevent it from splitting. To cure baldness, [chilicotes]

were burned to a

charcoal, ground to paste and rubbed into the grain of the scalp, morning and evening.

75. In the L.A. Star this word is omitted. Hoffman (1885) supplies the word given here in brackets. Chilicote is

identifiable as Echinocystis macrocarpa .

The seers (as medicine men) collected the poison used for dipping the heads of arrows -- Fire was

supposed to destroy its hurtful properties; consequently the flesh of animals killed with poisoned

arrows was eaten without any misgivings. The truth of the matter is that said poison contained

nothing virulent, it being only gall boiled down to the consistency of honey.

The seers pretended not only to be acquainted with poisons which destroyed life, by giving

it internally, but also with others whose tact [contact?] alone produced death, some being

instantaneous, and other requiring one, two, or even twelve moons to operate.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

76. Hoffman (1885: 13-14) adds, following this point, this paragraph: The medicine man collected the poison

used for dipping the heads of arrows. Fire was supposed to destroy its hurtful properties, consequently the

flesh of animals so killed were eaten (after cooking) without any misgivings. The Seers pretended not only to

know poisons which destroyed life by giving it internally, but also others which the simple touch was sufficient to

produce the desired effect; and that some were instantaneous, and that others required one, two, or even twelve

months before action took effect.

[LETTER NO. IX]

77. This Letter does not occur in Hoffman (1885).

Customs A great number of their young men being hunters, they of course had their peculiar

superstitions. During a hunt they never tasted food; nor on their return did they partake of what

they themselves killed, from an idea that whoever eat of his own game hurt his hunting abilities.

Before going on a hunting expedition they stung themselves all over with nettles, more particularly

the eyes, the lids of which were opened to introduce the leaves. -- This was done to make them

watchful, vigilant and clear sighted. The skin of a deer's head and neck was put on their own, and

on seeing game they would feign to be grazing -- lifting up the head occasionally to stare about.

By such means they approached so near to make the first arrow “tell.” To make them hardy and

endure pain without wincing (for cowardice as to corporeal suffering was considered, even among

the women, as disgraceful) they would like down on the hill of the large red ant, having handfuls

of them placed in the region of the stomach and about the eyes. Lastly, to insure a full dose, they

swallowed them in large quantities, alive!

78. Young men who submitted to being bitten by ants, often in conjunction with being whipped with nettles,

usually did this in connection with the rites of initiation into manhood. For details on the ant ordeal among the

Cahuilla and Luiseño see Strong (1929: 176, 317, 339). What Reid describes here is a test of fortitude by young

men already initiated, and it seems possible that he is referring to the ant ordeal of the pre-Mission period which

was still remembered, but imperfectly, in 1852.

A small string of buckskin was tied around the neck of those who were swift of foot.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

When a girl came to the age of puberty, it was a joyful occasion for her relations. She underwent a

purification in the same manner as women did at child birth,

accompanied by singing, and all were

informed of her being marriageable.

79. This ritual has been described for the neighboring Luiseño by Rust (1906) and Kroeber (1925: 673-675).

The children were not without some education, for if an adult asked a boy or girl for a drink of

water, they were not allowed to put it to their lips until the other had satisfied his thirst. If two

persons were in conversation, a child was not permitted to pass between them, but made to go round

them on either side. No male from childhood upward was allowed to call his sister liar even in

jest.

The word for liar being yayare .

80. This paragraph gives us a hint of the ethical teachings connected with the Chinigchinich or toloache cult. We

have practically no information on the cult practices among the Gabrielino, but they were probably similar to those

of the Luiseño, for which see Kroeber (1925: 683-685) and Strong (1929).

The name of God, as before mentioned, was never taken in vain, and the only exclamation

amounting to anything like an oath was nió-mare! which simply means bless me!

81. C. H. Merriam recorded the following Gabrielino words which can be compared to those given by Reid in this

and the second following paragraph: Greeting, ah-vah'-ah-hah; goodbye, yah-mon-h[e];'-ne; go, me-ah'; well, te-

her'-vit; sick, tsi'-e't; I am sick, chi-n[o];k-noi .

Animosity between persons or families was of long duration, particularly between those of

different tribes. These feuds descended from father to son until it was impossible to tell how many

generations. They were, however, harmless in themselves, being merely a war of songs, composed

and sung against the conflicting party, and they were all of the most obscene 38 and indecent

language imaginable. -- There are two families at this day whose bad feelings commenced before

Spaniards were even dreampt of and they still continue yearly singing and dancing against each

other. The one resides at the Mission of San Gabriel, and the other at San Juan Capistrano; they

both lived at San Bernardino when the quarrel commenced. During the singing they keep stamping

on the ground to express the pleasure they would derive from tramping on the grave of their foes.

Eight days was the duration of the song fight.

82. Song duels occur widely among primitive peoples. They are best known among the Eskimos.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

They saluted each other on meeting by saying ava aha? how are you? To which the other, if well,

responded by answering tehépko; but if unwell, by chainoc . On parting they bid no good bye; the

one merely said yamu uimi , I am going; to which the other answered, mea! go!

In regard to painting themselves, they had different grades according to the occasion. -- Warriors

and dancing parties were painted with different colors. Young females in “love” painted sparingly

on the cheeks with red ochre. Women to the middle age and a little over, when required to be in the

sun, put it on plentifully all over their features, to prevent their getting sun burnt.

Summer was considered to have commenced 39 whenever the croaking of frogs was heard. -- This,

with the sun's declination north and south, served them to reckon long periods by; but short time

was reckoned by days and months.

[LETTER NO. X]

Customs -- Continued

83. This Letter does not occur in Hoffman (1885).

Boys were trained to carry messages from one chief to another, and they continued in that service

until worn out. It required a retentive memory.

They were not much given to travel, for they only relate of one traveller, who left his people and

proceeded North , until he came to where the geese breed . And even he appeared to have possessed

the organ ascribed to his genus; for on returning, he reported having fallen in with a nation whose

ears reached to the hips! with another of diminutive stature; and finally, with a people so perfect,

that they would take a rabbit or other animal, and merely with the breath inhale the essence;

throwing the rest away, which on examination proved to be excrement!

84. An abbreviated version of this paragraph occurs in Hoffman's Letter V and is reprinted here in note 51.

They had only names for the four cardinal points of the compass, to wit:

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

85. C. H. Merriam in 1903 heard from a Gabrielino woman the following: North, pi'-e-mo; East, tah-mingar'-

ro; South, ke-tah'-me; West, too'-o-me' . Merriam recorded the name of the North Star as e-u'-ko. North, Fúmi.

South, Kitámi. East, Crúmi. West, Páymi. They were acquainted with the North Star, which was called rómi .

When a church feast was held -- for instance 41 in commemoration of the dead -- they rehearsed

with the tiros for eight days previous, in unconsecrated place of worship. All being ready, the seers

took an entire day to consecrate the church; this done the fast [feast] commenced on the second day.

The singers (women) were seated in a circle around the church, leaving only the doorway free. The

men and children, adorned with eagle and hawk's feathers, and a plentiful supply of paint laid on the

face, neck, arms, and upper part of the body, proceeded to dance, being governed in the operation

by numerous gestures, both of hands and feet, made by the seers. Each dancer represented some

animal in his movements; but the growl given simultaneously at the end of each verse, was for the

Bear.

At the four quarters of the compass, poles of some ten feet in length, were placed upright with a

string at the end, on which feathers were filed, forming a sort of banner. Food was furnished the

performers in abundance, at short intervals, and this continued six days and nights. They sung songs

in praise of the deceased, and sung others to the destruction of his enemies. They danced to his

memory, and did the same to the destruction of his foes.

On the eighth day the church was more adorned than before. When no more feathers 42 could be

stuck around, they placed them on their persons in profusion. The old women were employed to

make more food than usual, and when the sun was in its zenith it was distributed, not only among

the actors, but to the spectators likewise. After eating, a deep hole was dug, and a fire kindled in it,

when the articles reserved at the death of relatives were committed to the flames; at the same time,

baskets, money, and seeds were thrown to the spectators, as in the marriage ceremony. During the

burning process, one of the seers, reciting mystical words, kept stirring up the fire to ensure the total

destruction of the things. -- The hole was then filled up with earth and well trodden down. The feast

was over.

86. Reid is describing here the great annual mourning ceremony held in the yoba; an unroofed brush-walled

enclosure which he calls the “church.” The annual commemoration for the dead by California Indians is

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

summarized by Kroeber (1925: 859-861), and for some Southern California tribes by Strong (1929). Merriam

(1962: 77-85) gives a detailed account of the Gabrielino mourning ceremony for the dead.

[LETTER NO. XI]

87. This Letter does not occur in Hoffman (1885).

Traffic and Utensils Although money in the strict sense of the word did not exist among them,

they had an equivalent, consisting of pieces of thick rounded shells, less in diameter than a five

cent piece. These had a hole in the centre and were strung on long strings. Eight yards of these

beads (for they were also used as such) made about one dollar of our currency. Their mode of

measuring consisted in meting from the knuckles of the left hand to the point of the middle finger,

thence round to the wrist, back again to the end of the finger, and thence round to one inch above

the wrist. This quantity was called pucu ponto , and a real of Spanish currency received the same

name.

Double that quantity was called wehé peca, as also were two reals; three times the quantity

was called páhe ponco; four times, sayaco; five times, máhar ponco; six times, babahe paca ,

and seven times, which was watza cavia or páhe motke , finished their count. On account of their

having no “eight times,” they now adopt the Spanish economy, and say puen peso , one dollar. They

had thereby a circulating medium and legal tender to transact business, when barter could not be

employed. Considerable barter 44 and trade was carried on between those of the coast and those of

the interior, the latter furnishing deer skins and seeds in exchange for money, fish, sea otter skins

and soapstone pots.

88. This description of length-value measurements of shell beads is very similar to that known for the Chumash of

the Santa Barbara region. For details see Henshaw (1955: 150) where other references are cited. The Chumash

term is ponco or ponti , to which compare Gabrielino ponco, ponto .

89. Davis (1961) has written a detailed study of aboriginal California trade and trade routes.

Hemp

was made from nettles, and manufactured into nets, fishing lines, thread, &c. Needles, fish-

hooks, awls and many other articles were made of either bone or shell, although for cutting up meat,

a knife made of cane was invariably used.

90. That is, cordage.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Mortars and pestles were made of granite, about sixteen inches wide at the top, ten at the bottom,

ten inches high and two thick. Sharp stones and perseverance were the only things used in their

manufacture,

and so skillfully did they combine the two, that their work was always remarkably

uniform.

91. Cf. Bryan (1961)

Their present clay pots were at that time unknown; the Spaniards taught them their manufacture.

Their pots to cook in were made of soap-stone of about an inch in thickness, and procured from the

Indians of Santa Catalina; the cover used was of the same material. Their baskets made out of split

rushes are too well known so [to] require description; but though water-proof, they were used only

for dry purposes. The vessels in use for liquids were roughly made of rushes and plastered outside

45 and in with bitumen or pitch, called by them sanot .

[LETTER NO. XII]

92. This is Letter XI of Hoffman (1885).

Sports and Games These were few, and all of a gaming nature. The principal one was churchurki

or peon as it is called by the Spaniards. It consists of guessing in which hand a small piece of

stick was held concealed by another. Four persons on a side composed a sett, who sat opposite each

other. They had their singers, who were paid so much a game, and an umpire who kept count, held

the stakes, settled disputes and prevented cheating. He was paid so much a night, and had to provide

the firewood. He was provided with fifteen counters, which were of reed and eight or ten inches

long. The guessers never spoke, but giving the palm of the left hand a sharp slap with the right

pointed with the finger to the side they guessed contained the peon. Those who guessed right, won

the peon, and the others took a counter each, and so on, until they possessed all the counters or lost

all the peons, when the opposite side took the counting part.

93. C. Hart Merriam recorded the name of this game as choo-chooch'-k#ch .

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

The peon was white, of an inch or two in length; but they had also a black one, which to prevent

fraud, they had to remove to the other hand on changing; so as always to retain one in each hand, to

show when called upon.

This was their favorite game, and they at times bet their all on it. It still continues to be their ruling

passion to bet at this game in preference to any other; for the by-standers take as much interest and

wager as heavily as those principally concerned.

Another game called chachaukel

was played between two. The counters consisted of 50 small

pieces of wood, stuck on end in the ground in a row, and two inches apart, with a pointer for each

player to show his stage of the game. Eight pieces of split reed, with the under side blackened, were

thrown, points down, and as many white sides as came up, counted to the thrower; but where all

came up black, they counted also. To throw eight entitled the player to another throw.

94. Hoffman has Charcharake . C. Hart Merriam recorded the name of this game as chah-chahn'k# .

The adversaries counted from opposite ends, and if one's count came to that of the other, the rule

was for the party caught to commence anew; which prolonged the game sometimes to a great

length.

A game called hararicuar consisted in rolling a ring

and two persons threw long lances of reed,

and if the ring lay on one or the other so it counted. Three times constituted a game.

95. Hoffman adds: “The ring was made of buckskin with a twig of willow inside, and four inches in diameter. This

[game] is not played now.” C. Hart Merriam recorded the name of the hoop-and-pole game as ne-yah'-ka'-ech .

The last I shall mention is wauri , in which one person placed under a basket eight pieces of reed

(painted on one side) as he thought proper; while another made corresponding 48 marks on the

ground. They were then compared to see whether the guess were right or not.

Foot-ball was unknown until the conquest, when they learned it of the Indians of San Diego.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

96. Hoffman (1885: 18) says this game was “played by children and by those swift of foot. Betting was indulged in

by the spectators.”

[LETTER NO. XIII]

97. This is Letter X of Hoffman (1885).

Tradition There were seven brothers married to seven sisters , according to their respective ages,

who lived in a large hut together. The men went daily to hunt rabbits and the women to gather

roots of flags for food. The husbands invariably returned first and on their wives' arrival invariably

reported “bad luck” in their hunt, with the exception of the youngest, who, without fail, handed

his wife a rabbit. Consequently the poor women fared badly as far as animal food was concerned.

This continued, as a daily occurrence, for a long time, until in a conference held by the females they

were convinced that they were cheated by their partners. Considering that it was so very strange that

nothing was ever killed except by the youngest, they determined to arrive at the truth. Accordingly

they agreed that the youngest sister should remain at home on the morrow, under pretext of having

a pain in her jaw,

and so watch the return of the party -- Next day the men as usual took their

bows and arrows and set forth. The six sisters then departed leaving the other concealed among the

flags and rushes at the back of the hut in such a position as to command a view of everything 50

transacted within.

98. Hoffman (1885: 16) says “a toothache.”

Several hours before sunset the hunting party returned laden with rabbits which they commenced

roasting and eating, except one which the youngest put apart. The others called him a fool and

bade him eat the remaining one which he refused to do saying he still had some affection for his

wife and always intended to reserve one for her. More fool you said the others; we care more for

ourselves than for these root-diggers. On the conclusion of the feast, the bones were carefully

gathered together and concealed in a suitable place on the outside.

After some time had elapsed, the youngest wife arose and presented herself to the men in the hut, to

their great surprise. On being asked where she came from she answered: I have been asleep at the

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

back of the house, having had to remain behind from a pain in the jaw, but am now better, as the

sleep did me good. After a while the women came home and running up to their sister inquired after

her health.

They soon found an opportunity to leave the hut and inquired the result of the espionage besides

visiting the deposite of bones. They cried a great deal and talked over what they should do. Let

us turn into water said the eldest. That would never do responded the rest for in that case our

husbands would drink us. 51 The second proposed being turned into stones which was rejected

on the ground of being trodden upon by the fraternity. The third wanted they should turn to trees

which was not acceded to because they would be used for fire wood. Everything proposed was put

aside on account of some defect until it came to the turn of the youngest. Her proposition to change

themselves into Stars was objected to on account of being seen but not overruled as they would be

out of reach.

They proceeded to the lagoon where they daily collected flag-roots and constructed a machine

(impossible to describe)

out of reeds, and ascended to heaven and located themselves at the

Pleiads . These seven stars still retain the names of the originals.

99. Hoffman writes “an engine (flying concern)” rather than “a machine (impossible to describe).” A variant of this

same myth is recorded by Gayton and Newman from the Michahai-Waksachi (a bilingual Yokuts-Western Mono

tribe of the southern Sierra Nevada range). Here one of the women “threw her eagle-down rope up in the sky; it

caught in the center so that both ends hung down to the ground. These ends the woman tied around the ropes on

the ground. Then the girls all clasped hands, called upon their talismans to help them, and began to sing. Slowly

the ropes on which they were standing began to rise and swing slowly round and round like a buzzard. It swung

in bigger and bigger circles.” Some such “machine” may be meant in the Gabrielino myth, and Reid did not wish

to take the trouble to give the details.

Only the youngest brother appeared to be vexed at the loss of his spouse seeking her daily in

the woods. One day, on going to the edge of the lagoon, bewailing his hard fate, the sisters had

compassion on him. They instructed him how to use the machine they had made, and receiving him

on high, placed him apart, as the constellation Taurus shows. The Indians still retain a song about

these seven stars.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

[LETTER NO. XIV]

100. This letter does not appear in Hoffman (1885).

Tradition and Fable Among the most curious of their traditions was the following: Four brothers

and a sister lived together in [a] hut and were very fond of each other. The young men were

principally engaged in hunting. The girl, whose name was Chukit , had refused many offers of

marriage. After a while she became melancholy and fond of solitude and appeared to be enamored

of the lightning , after expressing a desire to possess it. -- Her eldest brother in the course of time

perceived that she was with child and taking the others into the woods spoke as follows: “Bretheren,

I perceive with sorrow that our sister has been harmed; she holds no intercourse with the young men

of our village, therefore one of you has done this evil. -- Which of you is it? Speak!”

The three declared themselves innocent, and each one mentioned his having had his suspicions

regarding his fellows. They concluded at last to ask their sister, which was done. -- “Who is the

father of your child,” said the eldest on their return to the hut. Bursting into tears she denied ever

having had any connection with man, but stated that about seven 53 moons previous, having

wandered into the woods saying ever and anon to herself “would that the lightning were mine!”

that the lightning came out of a cloud and flashed over her, when she perceived a strange sensation

of cold pass like a piece of ice through her brain into the abdomen. That she had subsequent

intercourse with it always producing the same effect.

After some time the pains of labor commenced and a man-child was born. The midwife having

asked for something to cut the navel string, to the astonishment of all, the child said, “No! It will

hurt me !” According to the Indian custom all new-born children are given urine to drink for a

medicinal purpose and on a by-stander's recommending the dose to be given, the child said, “No! it

is bitter.” He was called Mactutu , and every day became more and more wise, arguing with all the

old men and seers on divers subjects, always to the discomfiture of their allegations and prostration

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

of their wisdom. After gaining a victory he always told them it was useless to dispute with him, as

he was the Son of God .

The chiefs and wise men of the tribe at length determined to put him to death. He was aware of it

and bantered them continually by saying, “Put me to death, but in three days I will arise again!”

After many consultations his enemies hit upon a plan which destroyed him completely, for they said

among themselves, if we burn his body how can he rise again, seeing that he is consumed! He was

accordingly burned alive, and his body dissipated. He never appeared more.

Some Indians after this said, “there is no God,” because they had destroyed him; but the greater part

said “No! we have only destroyed his body, for his soul ascended to Heaven!”

101. Kroeber (1925: 624) suggests that the virgin sister and her four brothers are part of the “pantheon”

connected with the Chinigchinich religion. The sister's name, Chukit, is the same as the Yokuts divinity, Tsukit ,

and the Fernandeño god Chuquit mentioned in a missionary record of 1811 (Kroeber 1908: 14).

The Coyote and the Water A coyote, which, like all the rest of his kin, considered himself as the

most austire animal on the face of the earth, not even excepting man himself, came one day to the

margin of a small river. Looking over the bank, on seeing the water run so slow, he addressed it in

a cunning manner. “What say you to a race?” “Agreed to.” answered the water very calmly. The

Coyote ran at full speed along the bank until he could hardly stand from fatigue and on looking over

the bank saw the water running smoothly on. He walked off with his tail between his legs and had

something to reflect upon for many a day afterwards.

[LETTER NO. XV]

102. This is Letter XII of Hoffman (1885).

Legend In the Lodge of Muhuvit , which lay behind the hills of San Fernando, once lived a chief

connected with the following legend, who was a great wizard and enchanter. He had a son and

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

daughter. The daughter was good-looking and possessed as her father and brother did, a most

astonishing head of hair, which, when loose, trailed on the ground. She however possessed a

niggardly disposition, and moreover was lazy. After awhile the chief of Hahamogna (Verdugos)

asked her in marriage, and was accepted.

In due time she presented her husband with a daughter. Shortly after, she proved herself to be a

glutton as well as parsimonious, for the people were commanded every day to bring rabbits, ready

roasted, for her to eat, and she devoured the whole, without ever offering the lookers on a single

morsel. This caused universal discontent, so much so that the wise men of the village consulted

together and at last urged the chief to send her home. “Do with her as seemeth best,” said the

husband. So, on a second consultation, the old men determined to put her to death instead of putting

her away, fearing her father. “What shall be done 56 with the child?” asked the seers. “Let it die

with the mother!” answered the husband.

Orders were given the next day to have no water brought from the wells to their huts, but that all

should go there and drink when so inclined. The rabbit-hunters were likewise instructed to stuff

the game, before cooking it, with all kinds of reptiles. A large basket used for bringing water was

placed in the last hut of the village and filled with urine. The hour having arrived for her to eat, the

rabbits were presented, according to custom. On this occasion, however, she proceeded differently

than in the habit of doing; for pulling out the leg of a toad, she enquired what it was. “It is part of

a quail,” replied some one, Then eat it,” said the victim. “No, eat it yourself,” was the response.

Pieces of lizards and other disgusting matter came to light, with the same result, until she finished

the mess. This repast gave her great thirst, and she asked for water. Not procuring it there, she

proceeded from one habitation to another in quest of it, with the same success. At last she arrived

at the extremity of the Lodge, and on receiving the proffered dish with eagerness, and at three

draughts she finished it, with the exception of a little which she reserved for the child. For ten days

did the same thing occur; at the end of which time, finding all the hair of her head and eye-brows

57 gone -- for it fell off by drinking the urine -- and moreover that she was wasted in flesh and

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

wrinkled, she determined on leaving and going to her father's. So taking her child in her arms, she

left the hut secretly.

After proceeding some distance, she repented having done so, exclaiming, “What a fool I am to

carry this burden, as if he liked me so much!” Throwing it away, she went on her road; but after

going on a short way, she looked back and saw the infant, with its arms stretched out towards her:

her heart relented at the sight, and returning, she again took it up saying ” thou hast committed no

sin, that I should revenge myself upon thee.” She went on and on, until extreme fatigue from her

load, brought her to stand; when observing a large rock close by, she took the child by the heels

and dashed its brains out. The blood still exists, visible on the stone to this day. Still some Indians

maintain that the child did not die, but turned into a squirrel. On she went, alone, sad and slow, until

she came to where her mother preserved her seeds in the woods, and she crept into a large basket,

called a chamuca ,

capable of containing about sixteen bushels.

103. Hoffman renders this word as Charnuca . Merriam recorded the name of the large storage basket as chah-

moo'-hah .

Not long after her arrival, came the mother to procure a supply of seeds and acorns, and putting her

hand in at the mouth, she touched 58 her daughter, and not being aware what it was, gave a scream.

“Yes!” said the daughter, “be afraid of me, after the injury you have done me, in marrying me to a

man who cared nothing about me!” The mother approached, but could scarcely recognize her own

daughter, and heard from beginning to end the tale of her sorrows. The parent then said, “I will go

to thy father and inform him.” which she did.

The father being informed by his wife, secretly he proceeded with her to the place of deposit taking

his daughter food and drink. -- This they did day after day, and herbs were administered to her,

to restore her, and purge her from the filth she had eaten. Her head was also cured by the oil from

a black berry growing on the seacoast, called hamisar . In four moons the wrinkles had nearly

disappeared from her face, and her hair reached to her waist.

At this stage of her cure, she was commanded by her father to go daily and bathe in her brothers'

bathing place. She did so, but the brother soon began to note how turbid the water was when he

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

came to bathe. He became sad in consequence, and more so when he saw a hair in the water, which,

on measuring with those of his own, was not one third their length. He spoke to his mother on the

subject, but she threw no light on the subject, being 59 anxious to conceal with her husband, the

daughter's return until her shame and sickness had both passed away. The son going to his bath one

day sooner than usual, caught his sister in the water, but he knew her not. Taking her by the leg he

threw her out, saying, “so it is you who daily disturb my well, be-gone!” In doing so, he beheld her

nakedness, which caused her so much shame that she wandered off, and travelling to the sea shore,

drowned herself.

104. Hoffman (1885: 20) gives this last incident in more detail. He writes: ” . . . she left and proceeded to the

seashore to drown herself. She made a run twice to throw herself into the sea, but each time turned back, but the

third time accomplished it.”

The brother, well satisfied with himself, returned home and told his mother of having found an

unknown woman in his bath, how he had thrown her out and had seen her nakedness. The parents

left the hut and went in search of the daughter, but without success. -- “Shame has driven her away,

where can we find her?” said the wife. The husband answered not, but taking a willow twig he

made a ring of it, covering it with buckskin: this he threw to the north, but the ring returned to him.

He then threw it south, and back it came again; then east, with the same result: but when he threw it

west, it kept on. The father followed it up in all its crooks and turns until he saw it enter the Ocean.

“She has drowned herself from shame, but deeply shall she be 60 revenged,” said he.

On arriving home, he informed his wife, who cried bitterly, much to the astonishment of all the

Lodge, but knew not what had occurred.

He called all of his people and told them to go a-hunting, stop out all night, and take his son along.

The son was then advised of the party he was to join, and dressed in all his ornaments, finery and

money beads. They set out and obeyed orders, by sleeping in the mountains, having a large fire to

warm themselves at.

105. Hoffman (1885: 21) writes: “Calling together all of his people, he told them they must take his son with them

on a hunting excursion and let him be killed by wild beasts.”

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

A little before daylight one of the old men let loose a screech owl, which he had brought concealed

and which was no other than the boy's father. This caused general consternation, and all fled

save the young man himself. Immediately an enormous bird called by the name of Cuwot ,

(but

which was the father again) carried him up into the air. Seeing this, the people came running back,

exclaiming, “The Cuwot has carried off the Chief's son!” On coming to the spot his bones fell

among them, which were gathered up and buried.

106. Hoffman (1885: 21) adds “(cry cu) nothing of which, save its shadow, had ever been seen.” Kroeber (1909:

251) gives acawut as the Gabrielino word for eagle.

A few days after this, a man was seen approaching the village: the chief went and met him.

“Where dost thou come from?” asked the chief.

“From Hahamogna” (Verdugos).

“Ah!” said the chief, “how are they getting on there?”

“Very well, indeed; the Captain there is about to take a new wife, and in consequence a great feast

is progressing.”

“Be it so,” said he, “they have had their laugh, now I shall have mine, and we will all perish

together.”

He took the road to the village, and before arriving there, he fell in with all the women gathering

prickly pears. He asked one of the women to do him the favor of sifting a basket full of tunas over

his eyes. She objected and he persisted, until her companions told her to comply; but no sooner had

she done so, than all of them commenced crying out and wailing in piteous terms -- they were all

stone blind! “Now it is my turn to laugh,” said the chief, and he proceeded on towards their village.

Going to the west side of the Lodge, he transformed himself into a huge eagle, and proceeded,

flying close down to the ground. The cry was immediately raised among the people of “catch the

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

eagle!” But an old woman who was taking care of two children

while their mothers

were off,

begged them not to do so, as it was not an eagle, but a wizard; at this they only laughed, but the old

woman covered up the children with a basket to keep 62

Above: Flat throwing stick of hard wood (species unidentified), 24 inches long. Collected in

Santiago Canyon, San Bernardino County in 1872 and said to be of Gabrielino manufacture. Lowie

Museum. Below: Flat throwing stick of oak, 26.5 inches long. Collection data same as in specimen

shown above. Lowie Museum.

63 them from harm.

107. Hoffman says “grandchildren”, specifying that there were two.

108. Hoffman says “her daughter's absence” and not “while their mothers were off.”

They soon caught it, and saying “let us pull its wings off,” put it into execution. The moment its

wings were seperated from the body, a gush of blood poured out from one side, and another of

green water

from the other. Fever and billious vomiting commenced, and killed all, save the old

woman and children. The eagle soared, without his wings, to the clouds, and the chief was never

heard of more by his people.

109. Hoffman says “matter.”

The old woman had to bury the dead, as she best could, and rested contented in raising the children,

who consisted of a boy and girl. -- When old enough she made a bow with arrows for the one,

teaching him how to use it, and a flat basket for the other, showing her how to clean seed for food.

When of age, she married them, and they lived happily together.

110. Hoffman adds, following this sentence, “The boy, at last, killed first a lizard, then a mouse, then a gopher.”

The girl's disposition altered very much after her marriage, for her husband being a great hunter she

never lacked meat: and yet, with all, she refused to supply the old creature with animal food. The

old woman, to be revenged, placed an awl made of deer's bone, with the point upwards, where the

young one usually sat. It come near killing her, and it was again placed in her pool for bathing, with

a like consequence. At last she informed her husband telling him moreover that she expected 64 to

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

be made away with, in which case he would be apprised of it by a few drops of water falling on his

left shoulder.

Being out ahunting one day, the fatal sign was given. Throwing down his bows and arrows he

hastened home, and enquired for his spouse.

“Poor thing, she is dead!” answered the hag, “and I have buried her there,” pointing to a grave.

“Bad woman, thou hast murdered her,” said he, snatching up a billet of wood to kill her with, but

she was too quick for him, for in a moment she was converted into a gopher, and burrowing in the

earth.

For three days and nights did he lie upon her grave, lamenting her loss. On the third day he

observed a small whirlwind arise from the grave and immediately disappear. Shortly after another

arose and exhausted itself quickly. A third made its appearance, of a large size, and proceeded to the

south. This he followed up, and at every step he perceived it augment in its proportions. Still going

on in pursuit, he at length saw footprints in the sand where it passed over. “It is my dear wife,”

exclaimed he, and the more he urged forward, until he had gone an immense distance.

A voice at length proceeded from the cloud saying, “Return back, husband mine, for I am 65 not

as formerly. No earthly thing ever came where I am going; remember I am dead to the world.” He,

however, could not be persuaded and insisted on accompanying her. “I will risk it,” said the spirit,

taking him up, but forget not that no earthly eye ever did, or ever will see us.”

111. Hoffman's version (1885: 24) differs slightly in wording, and adds that the whirlwind “bound him to her waist

with her sash, telling him to hold his breath as they went through the air.”

They passed over an immense sea, and ultimately reached the land of spirits, where he heard

myriads of voices in unison say in sweet tones, it smells of an earthly substance, sister, what has

thou brought hither?” The wife spirit confessed having brought a human being. “Take him away,”

exclaimed the voices, which, though all around him, still he saw nothing. She pleaded his being

allowed to remain, on the ground of superior qualities to the common herd, as well as for hunting

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

powers. “Let us try him,” said the voices. He was ordered to bring down a feather from the top of

a pole so long as hardly to be visible, which made him hesitate. “Fear not,” said the voice of his

wife, “but look not down in thy ascent.” He accomplished it,

and was given a long hair to split

from end to end. This likewise was a hard task, but the wife told him to have faith. He had faith

and the difficulty was overcome. Lastly, he was commanded to make a map on 66 the ground of

the constellation of the lesser Bear,

and show the exact situation of the North Star. Now he had on

earth often seen the seers draw the required map,

but he knew nothing about doing it himself. His

wife once more lent her aid, and he performed his job satisfactorily, for the spirits cried out, “Well

done our brother-in-law.” Nothing now remained but to give proof of his hunting abilities; and in

order to assist him, four spirits went along to drive the deer in his tract. It was not long before he

heard the cry of “there they come!” but nothing could he see during the entire hunt, notwithstanding

the number of advices he had. He was hooted at on his return, but allowed another trial of his skill

which resulted the same as before. A third and last trial was allowed on the intercession of his wife,

who told him he must now kill something. He declared it impossible if game could not be seen;

to which she replied, “you have doubtless observed black beetles when a hunting, these are deer,

kill them!” He went out, the cry was raised as before, “here they come.” Beetles came swarming

along, he killed one, and in an instant a fine buck was lying at his feet. Encouraged by this he went

on slaying, until voices bade him desist. All he killed was lifted in the air and carried home, but

he saw nothing of the porters, though their shadows 67 were visible on the ground. Great joy was

manifested at his success, for he heard them saying, “Sister, no one, as thou knowest, was ever

permitted to return to earth: death, thou art aware, exists not among beings in Tucupar (heaven)

but [as] our brother-in-law is unable to participate in the pleasures we partake of, on account of

the grosser materials of which he is composed, it is permitted out of compassion to him that thou

return again to earth.” And addressing the husband, the voices added, go thou with thy wife, but

remember thou must not have intercourse with her until after three days; for a punishment awaits

thee, if disobedient.”

112. After this first phrase Hoffman's version adds “and there was great applause, when the voices cried out

ayopui-cushna -- our brother-in-law -- is good at climbing.”

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

113. Hoffman says “Ursus Major.”

114. Perhaps this is an allusion to the sand-paintings known to have been made at Mission San Fernando

(Kroeber 1925: 626) and by the Luiseño and Diegueño (Kroeber 1925: 665. Fig. 56). The Juaneño and Gabrielino

may be assumed to have made similar ground-paintings, but no record of their form seems to have survived.

115. C. Hart Merriam gives too-koo'-par as the word for sky.

They left the spirit realms and travelled on earth; still she was invisible to him, until at night having

made a fire and laid down, he perceived a short distance off the outline of his wife, asleep. They

travelled the second day in the same manner, and he again made a fire, and on laying down he saw

her more distinct than the previous night. On the third night, she was perfectly plain. He could stand

it no longer. “Wife of my bosom!” exclaimed he, and at the same time he clasped in his arms a

billet of rotten wood! He remained a sorrowful wanderer on earth until the day of his death.

Here ends a legend, firmly believed in, 68 which is selected from many others, as giving a good

idea of their mode of thinking, belief, &c. It is faithful to the text, but the conversations, being

tedious, are curtailed.

116. Hoffman (1885: 26) adds, “Whenever this legend was to be told, the hearers first bathed and washed

themselves, then came to listen.”

Some persons affirmed that the woman did not kill her child, but that it became a squirrel. This is

reported as having caused much bloodshed between the contending parties of belief.

The bird called Cuwot is strenuously believed in, at the present day. It is never seen, inhabits the

mountains, and is nocturnal. Its cry is simply cu , and it often carried people

away.

117. Hoffman adds here, “It is said that a man was once carried away by it from the Lodge of Yan (Yangna) (Los

Angeles).”

In regard to the woman's returning to life, they say it never would have happened, as the whole

affair was merely a heavenly ruse, out of compassion to the man, to get him back to earth, so as to

appear again among them in his proper form as a celestial being.

118. Kroeber (1925: 625) gives a synopsis of this myth and uses it to illustrate the quality of the mythology of

the tribes of Southern California. He says: The ethical inconsistency of this story is marked to our feelings. The

heroine certainly is blameworthy, but those who rid themselves of her, even more so. Hardly is sympathy aroused

for her when she dispels it by dashing out her child's brains. Then she becomes beautiful once more, and elicits

interest through the disgraceful treatment accorded her by her brother. But this hardly seems sufficient cause for

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

suicide. Her brother, too, committed the offense unwittingly; and his fatal punishment by his father comes to us

as a shock. That the old chief should cruelly revenge himself by his magical powers on the foreigners who had

first attempted his daughter's destruction seems natural enough; but the focus of interest is suddenly shifted from

his means of vengeance to the successful escape from it of the old woman and her grandchildren. Then these,

brother and sister as they are, marry. Now it is the old lady who is abused but suddenly it is her granddaughter

who is persecuted and finally slain; after which follows the episode in which the loving and grieving husband is

the central character. Nothing can be imagined farther frog a plot according to the thoughts of civilized people

than this one; it appears to revel in acmes of purposeless contradictions. And yet, this trait is undoubtedly the

accompaniment of an effect that, however obscure to us, was sought for; since it reappears in traditions, following

an entirely different thread, told by the Luiseño and Diegueño, and is marked in the long tales of the Mohave.

This deliberate or artistic incoherence, both as regards personages and plot, is thus a definite quality of the

mythology of the southern Californian tribes. It has some partial resemblances to the Southwest, but scarcely any

in central or northern California except in the loosely composite coyote tales. In central California we have the

well-defined hero and villain of the normal folk tale of the world over; and however much the oppressed endure,

there is never any doubt as to who is good and who wicked, and that before the end is reached the wicked will be

properly punished. That in the southern California traditions this simple and almost universal scheme is departed

from, is of course not due to absence of aesthetic feeling, but rather an evidence of subtle refinement of emotion,

of decorative overelaboration of some literary quality, to such a degree that the ordinary rules of satisfaction in

balance and moral proportion become inconsequential. The traits that shock us ethically and artistically were

the very ones, we may be sure, that gave the keenest satisfaction to the craftsmen that told these tales and the

accustomed public that delighted to listen to them.

[LETTER NO. XVI]

First Arrival of the Spaniards

The Indians were sadly afraid when they saw the Spaniards coming on horseback. -- Thinking them

gods, the women ran to the brush, and hid themselves, while the men put out the fires in their huts.

They remained still more impressed with this idea, when they saw one of their guests take a flint,

strike a fire and commence smoking, having never seen it produced in this simple manner before.

An occurrence however soon convinced them that their strange visitors were, like themselves,

mortals, for one of the Spaniards leveled his musket at a bird and killed it. Although greatly terrified

at the report of the piece, yet the effect it produced of taking life, led them to reason, and deduce

the impossibility of the “Giver of Life” to murder animals, as they themselves did with bows and

arrows. They consequently put them down as human beings, of a nasty white color, and having

ugly blue eyes! This party was a small one, and soon left; having offered no violence, they were in

consequence not disliked. They gave them the name of Chichinabros , or reasonable beings . It is a

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

fact worthy of notice, that on becoming acquainted with the tools and instruments of 70 steel used

by the Spaniards, they were likewise called Chichinabros , which shows the estimation in which

they held them.

Another event soon convinced them of their visitors' mortality, for shortly afterwards they received

another visit from a larger party, who commenced tying the hands of the adult males behind their

backs; and making signs of their wish to procure women -- these having again fled to the thicket,

at the first appearance of their coming. Harsh measures obtained for them what they sought, but

the women were considered contaminated, and put through a long course of sweating, drinking of

herbs, &c. They necessarily became accustomed to these things, but their disgust and abhorrence

never left them till many years after. In fact every white child born among them for a long period

was secretly strangled and buried!

The whites made them a number of presents prior to using any means to convert them; the presents

were never refused, but only those consisting of goods were put to any use whatever. All kinds and

classes of food and eatables were rejected and held in abhorrence. -- Instead, therefore of partaking

of them, they were buried secretly in the woods. Two old Indians, not long since dead, related to

me the circumstance of having once assisted when boys to inter a quantity of frijol and Indian corn,

71 just received from the whites. Some length of time afterwards, being out in the woods amusing

themselves, they came where the articles were deposited. Their surprise knew no bounds when

they beheld an infinity of stalks and plants unknown to them, protruding through the earth which

covered the seed. -- They communicated the fact at home; it was ascertained to be the case, and

the wizards pronounced it white witchcraft! Even panocha, of which they are now so fond, was

declared to be the excrement of their new neighbors.

[LETTER NO. XVII]

Conversion

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Having now given a brief sketch of the manners and customs of the Indians, prior to their

acquaintance with reasonable (?) people,

and having noticed the first impression produced by their

appearance on the aboriginals, I shall continue a letter or two more, so as to give an idea of the state

they were brought to, by the formation of the Missions of San Gabriel

and San Fernando. Still the

former shall serve as a guide in reference to everything; although on a smaller scale, the same will

answer for the latter, or, in fact, any other establishment of the kind in California.

119. A direct translation of the Spanish “gente de razon.”

120. On the founding of Mission San Gabriel see Temple (1959).

However, I may as well remark that no attention whatever will be paid to dates -- and the text is as

related by the old Indians, or as noted by the writer himself.

The site occupied by the principal building of the Mission, the vineyards and the gardens, was at the

conquest of this country, a complete forest of oaks, with considerable underwood.

The water, which now composes the lagoon of the Mill, (one mile and a half distant) being free,

like everything else, to wander and meander where it pleased, came down into the hollow nearest

to the Mission, on the Angeles 73 road. This hollow was a complete thicket, formed of sycamores,

cotton-wood, larch, ash and willows; besides, brambles, nettles, palma cristi, wild roses and wild

grape-vines lent a hand to make it impassable, except were footpaths had rendered entrance to its

barriers a matter more easy of accomplishment. This hollow, cleared of all encumbrance, served

to raise the first crops ever produced at the Mission, and although now a washed waste of gravel

and sand, nevertheless, at that time it rejoiced in a rich black soil. On the side of this hollow, stood

the Lodge of Sibagua .

Bears innumerable prowled about their dwellings and large quantities of

deer sported in the neighborhood. The present site, however, was not chosen until some time after

a building had been erected at the “Old Mission,” which was intended to have been the principal

establishment. The now San Gabriel river was named Rio de las Temblores (earthquake river)

and the building referred to, the “Mission of the Temblores.” Those names were given from the

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

frequency of terrestrial convulsions at that time and for many years after. They were not only

monthly and weekly, but oftentimes daily.

121. That is, Sibagna , the village at San Gabriel. Alexander S. Taylor (in the California Farmer , Vol. 13, p. 90,

May 11, 1860) says the name of the site of San Gabriel was Toviscanga .

122. On earthquakes in California during the mission period (1769-1834) see Heizer (1941).

The brand for marking animals was a T with an S on the shank, like an anchor and entwined cable,

to express “Temblores.” Even 74 after San Gabriel was founded, no other iron was ever adopted.

When the Priest came to found the Mission, he brought a number of vagabonds, under the name

of soldiers, to carry out the proposed plan. Some of these were masons, carpenters, &c. The priest

having converted some few by giving them cloth and ribbons, and taught them to say Amar á Dios ,

they were baptized and co-operated in the work before them.

Baptism as performed, and the recital of a few words not understood, can hardly be said to be a

conversion; nevertheless, it was productive of great advantage to the Missionaries, because once

baptized they lost “caste” with their people, and had nolens volens to stop with the oppressor. This,

of course, was put down by the Padre as a proof of the influence of religion on their minds, and

the direct interposition of the Virgin Mary! Poor devils, they were the Pariah of the West! Not one

word of Spanish did they understand -- not one word of the Indian tongue did the Priest know. --

They had no more idea that they were worshiping God, than an unborn child has of Astronomy.

Numbers of old men and women have been gathered to the dust of their Fathers -- and a few still

remain -- whose whole stock of Spanish was contained in the never-failing address of “Amar a

Dios!” And whose 75 religion, as Catholics, consisted in being able to cross themselves, under

an impression it was something connected with hard work and still harder blows. Baptism was

called by them soyna , “being bathed”, and strange to say, was looked upon, although such a simple

ceremony, as being ignominious and degrading.

123. An important element in Gabrielino ritual was bathing and other forms of purification. If the priests insisted

upon this the shamans may have tried to take a stand against baptism precisely because it seemed to them a

practice of native religion which was being preempted by the Catholics (cf. note 116).

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

We are, of course, unable to say that the severe measures adopted emanated from the Priest;

still there can be no doubt he either winked at the means employed by his agents, or else he was

credulity personified! Baptism could not be administered by force to adults, it required a free act; so

taking an Indian as guide, part of the soldiers or servants proceeded on expeditions after converts.

On one occasion they went as far as the present Rancho del Chino, where they tied and whipped

every man, woman and child in the Lodge, and drove part of them back with them. On the road

they did the same with those of the Lodge at San Jose. On arriving home the men were instructed

to throw their bows and arrows at the feet of the Priest, and make due submission. -- The infants

were then baptized, as were also all children under eight years of age; the former were left with

their mothers, but the latter kept apart from all communication with their parents. The consequence

was, first, the women consented to the right [rite] and 76 received it, for the love they bore their

offspring; and finally the males gave way for the purpose of enjoying once more, the society of wife

and family. Marriage was then performed, and so this contaminated race, in their own sight and that

of their kindred, became followers of Christ (?).

The Indians, from the beginning, never offered resistance or flew to arms,

although they had

ofttimes distinguished themselves in warfare with other tribes. At first, surprise and astonishment

filled their minds; a strange lethargy and inaction predominated afterwards. All they did was to hide

themselves as they best could from the oppressor.

124. Generally speaking the California Indians were peaceable peoples. They would go to war for certain reasons

such as avenging a killing, capture of women, or transgression of boundaries by people in search of food. The

Yuman tribes (Mojave, Yuma and Diegueño) were more warlike than other California tribes, and the destruction

of the Yuma mission and the revolt at San Diego which were the two most violent Indian reactions against the

missionaries in the mission period involved Yuman tribes.

From the first misnamed conversion until the arrival of Fray Jose Maria Salvadea, they knew

nothing about the various rites and ceremonies daily performed, and in which they took a part. No

explication was, or could be offered, for the Indians only learned a few words of Spanish, and the

Padres none of their language. The soldiers, it is true, picked up a smattering of the Indian tongue,

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

but such words only, as to enable them to gratify with more ease their lust and evil propensities, and

not to afford instruction.

But the Padre Jose Maria, who was a man of talent, and possessed of a powerful mind -- which

was as ambitious as it was powerful, 77 and as cruel as it was ambitious -- formed a new era in

their existence. In a short time he mastered the language and reduced it to grammatical rules. He

translated the prayers of the church, and preached every Sunday a sermon in their own tongue. His

translation of the Lord's prayer, commencing with Ayoinac (our Father,) is a grand specimen of his

eloquence and ability.

125. Pimentel (1862, Vol. II, pp. 423-424) gives the Lord's Prayer in Fernandeño and Gabrielino. Bancroft (1875:

675) reprints these, but with some errors. The Fernandeño prayer is: Yyorac yona taray tucúpuma sagoucó

motoanian majarmi moin main monó muismi miojo y iactucupar. Pan yyogin gimiamerin majarmi mi fema coyo'

ogorná yio mamainap mii, yiarmá ogonug y yoná, y yo ocaynen coij armea main y tomo mojay coiyama' huermi.

Parima. The Lord's Prayer in Gabrielino (from Pimentel 1862: 424) is: Y yonac y yogin tucupugnaisá sujucoy

motuanían masarmí magin tucupra 'maimanó muísme mílléosar y ya tucupar jiman bxí y yoni masaxmí mítema

coy aboxmi y yo mamaínatar momojaích milli y yaxma obonac y yo no y yo ocaihuc coy jaxmea main itan

momosaich coy jama juexme huememesaích.

He gave them, thereby, an insight of the Catholic religion, but did not in one iota alter their own.

His predecessors had done nothing of the kind, and his successors, Padre Jose Bernardo Sanchez

and Padre Tomas Estenaga, contented themselves in having their sermons translated sentence by

sentence, to the Neophites, through an Indian interpreter, named Benito. On the death of Padre

Tomas, the custom ceased.

I shall have occasion to say more regarding their present religious state, before concluding this

series of letters, as well as to speak more fully of Padre Jose Maria.

[LETTER NO. XVIII]

First Missionary Proceedings

Having, at length, a sufficiency of Neophites to build with, ground was cleared and laid off; adobes

were made and laid up; timber, cut in the neighboring mountains, was hauled; and at last a proper

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

covering being required, tule or flags were put on, tied with nettle hemp made by the Indians, which

formed a thatched roof suitable for present exigency. The Church had a steeple to it, which was

afterwards taken down, having sustained damage during an earthquake. The present belfry was

substituted instead.

In after years, not only were other buildings erected, but tile manufactured, and placed on all of the

edifices, including four rows of new double houses, forming three streets for the married portion

of the community. Living in houses, however did not suit their tastes; they were always vexed and

annoyed with them, and debarred the satisfaction of burning them up according to usage, when their

observances demanded it.

126. The “demand” (cf. Letter VII) was that of destroying the house and its contents of a person when he died.

All this while, the former small stock of animals were carefully herded and were augmenting

greatly.

Vine slips, fruit trees, and pulse, &c., were 79 procured from Lower California. The first vineyard

planted consisted of 3,000 Vines. It retains the name of Vina Madre , and from it spring all the

present generation of vineyards.

A better class of people than the low vulgar soldiers, both men and women, were induced to

emigrate from Sinalva

and Lower California. They were a great acquisition, as were likewise a

few Indians from the latter place, who had been well instructed by the “Jesuits” in various arts.

The men among the newcomers served as major-domos and overseers in the different branches of

industry carried on. And being likewise well acquainted with agriculture, and some of the required

trades, their services were invaluable. The women were no less useful, for they taught the young

female Indians to sew, and they became most expert at the business. Last and not least in the eyes

of many beside Priests, they instructed the older heads in the art of cooking, making of chocolate

paste, preserves, and other edible knickknacks unknown for some time previous to our Missionary

friends.

127. That is, Sinaloa.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Water was brought to irrigate the crops, from numerous little streams, and more produce was raised

than necessary for the sustenance of all. The Neophites were supplied with blankets and some few

cotton goods, but not to any great amount.

Indians of course deserted. Who would not have deserted?

Still, those who did had hard times

of it. If they proceeded to other missions, they were picked up immediately, flogged and put in

irons until an opportunity presented of returning them to undergo other flagelations. If they stowed

themselves away in any of the rancherías, the soldiers were monthly in the habit of visiting them;

and such was the punishment inflicted on those who attempted to conceal them, that it rarely was

essayed. Being so proscribed, the only alternative left them was to take to the mountains, where

they lived as they best could, making occasional inroads on the Mission property to maintain

themselves. They were styled hindas , or runaways, and at times were rendered desperate through

pursuit, and took the lives of any suspected of being traitors. They were always well informed of all

passing at the Mission. -- They, sometimes, when things got too hot, went as far as the Tulares.

128. For a thorough analysis of fugitivism among mission neophytes in California see Cook (1943: 57-67). Up to

1831, about one in every 24 neophytes (3400 of a total of 81,586) had resorted successfully to fugitivism. Up to

1817, 473 fugitives were recorded at San Gabriel.

129. The “Tulares,” by which is meant the southern San Joaquin Valley, held a very large population of unconverted Indians.

The people (mainly Yokuts) were numerous enough to be able to risk giving sanctuary to mission runaways, even though the

soldiers attached to the missions might try to recapture them. For examples of such Spanish “military” expeditions see Cook

(1962).

A considerable quantity of books to compose a library, were brought from the College of San

Fernando, in Mexico, and a number of additional contributions were received during the time of

Salvedea and Sanchez, from the same source, and also, some by purchase from Lima. I cannot say

much for the collection -- it being nothing to compare with remnants of 81 the Bibliothekes I have

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

examined in Lower California, in the Missions established there, which are now, I am sorry to say,

reduced to ashes.

The more valuable part of the works consisted of those treating on Theology and Law, with a

scanty number of rather curious, quaint manuscript; the balance being antiquated and erroneous

productions on natural history, geography, &c., imparting little or no information. The best of

the library has, long ere this, either been stolen or destroyed, and the refuse at the present time,

consisting of some three or four hundred volumns is mere rubbish.

[LETTER NO. XIX]

New Era in Mission Affairs

On the arrival of Padre Jose Maria Salvedea, cattle were plenty, as were likewise horses, mares,

sheep and hogs. Cultivation was carried on to considerable extent, but it was to him that the after

splendor of San Gabriel was due. He it was who planted the large Vineyards intersected with

fine walks, shaded by fruit trees of every description, and rendered still more lovely by shrubs

interspersed between -- who laid out the orange garden, fruit and olive orchards -- built the mill

and dam -- made fences of tunas (cactus opuntia) round the fields -- made hedges of rose bushes --

planted trees in the Mission square, with a flower garden and sun-dial in the centre -- brought water

from long distances, &c., &c.

He likewise remodeled the general system of government, putting everything in order and to its

proper use, and placing every person in his proper station. Everything under him was organized and

that organization kept up with the lash!

Thus people were divided into various classes and stations. There were baqueros, soap-makers,

tanners, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers, cooks, general servants, pages, 83 fishermen,

agriculturists, horticulturists, brick and tile makers, musicians, singers, tallow-melters, vignerons,

carters, cart-makers, shepherds, poultry keepers, pidgeon tenders, weavers, spinners, saddle makers,

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

store and key keepers, deer hunters, deer and sheep skin dress makers, people of all work, and

in fact every thing but coopers, who were foreign; all the balance, masons, plasterers, &c., were

natives.

Large soap works were erected; tanning yards established; tallow works, bakery, cooper,

blacksmith, carpenter, and other shops; large spinning rooms where might be seen 50 or 60 women

turning their spindles merrily; and looms for weaving wool, flax and cotton. Then large store rooms

were allotted to the various articles, which were kept separate. For instance, wheat, barley, peas,

beans, lentils, chick-peas, butter and cheese, soap, candles, wool, leather, flour, lime, salt, horsehair,

wine and spirits, fruit, stores, &c., &c.

Sugar cane, flax and hemp, were added to the other articles cultivated but cotton wool was

imported.

The ranchos belonging to the Mission were put on another footing, as were the sheep farms.

A house was built at San Bernardino and other exterior operations carried out. -- The principal

ranchos belonging at that time 84 to San Gabriel were San Pasqual, Santa Anita, Asuza [Azusa],

San Francisquito, Cucumonga, San Antonio, San Bernardino, San Gorgonio, Yucaipa, Jurupa,

Guapa, Rincon, Chino, San José, Ybarras, Puente, Mission Viga, Serranos, Rosa Castillo, Coyotes.

Saboneria, Las Bolsas, Alamites and Serritos.

A principal head Mayordomo commanded and superintended over all. Claudio Lopez was the

famed one during Padre Salvedea's administration, and although only executing the Priests' plans,

in the minds of the people he is the real hero. Ask any one who made this, or who did not, and the

answer on all sides is the same: El difunto Claudio.! And great credit is due him for carrying out,

without flogging, the numerous works set before him.

There were a great many other mayordomos under him, for all kinds of work, from tending of

horses down to those superintending crops, and in charge of vineyards and gardens.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

It is strange no medical man was kept on the establishment, as the number of people was great,

and the stock of medicines very large. -- They were provided not by the pound, but by the quintal!

Not in gallons, but in barrels full! Still all the dependence for medical aid (with the exception of

midwives) was either on a casual foreigner passing, or on the stupidity of some foreigner employed

on 85 the premises. I know not why, but an Anglo-Saxon in those days was synonymous with

an M.D. Many an “Estrangero” who never before possessed sufficient confidence in himself to

administer even a dose of Epsom, after killing, God knows how many, has at length become a

tolerable emperic! One thing in favor of the sick was, that after a lapse of years, the greater part of

the drugs lost their virtue.

Indian Alcaldes were appointed annually by the Padre, and chosen from among the very laziest

of the community; he being of the opinion that they took more pleasure in making the others

work, than would industrious ones! From my own observation this is correct. They carried a wand

to denote their authority, and what was more terrible, an immense scourge of raw hide, about

ten feet in length, plaited to the thickness of an ordinary man's wrist! -- They did a great deal of

chastisement, both by and without orders. One of them always acted as overseer on work done in

gangs, and accompanied carts when on service.

The unmarried women and young girls were kept as Nuns, under the supervision of an abbess, who

slept with them in a large room. -- Their occupations were various; sometimes they sewed or spun,

at others they cleaned weeds out of the gardens with hoes, worked at the ditches or gathered in the

crops. In fact, 86 they were Jacks or sennies [Jennies] of no trade in particular.

The best looking youths were kept as pages to attend at table and those of musical talent reserved

for church service.

The number of hogs was great and were principally used for making soap. The Indians, with some

few exceptions, refused to eat hogs, alleging the whole family to be transformed Spaniards! I find

this belief current through every nation of Indians in Mexico. Why should they, without being

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

aware of it, have each selected the hog more than any other animal to fix a stigma upon? It probably

may be from its filthy habits; or, can something appertaining to the Jews be innate in them?

At San Francisquito, near the Mission, were kept the turkies, of which they had a large quantity.

The dove-cote was along side of the soap works, and in an upper story, affording plenty of dung to

cure leather and skins with.

The Padre had an idea that finery led Indians to run away, for which reason he never gave either

men or women any other clothing (including shirts and petticoats) than coarse frieze (Xerga)

made by themselves, which kept the poor wretches all the time diseased with the itch. If any

handkerchiefs or cotton goods were discovered among them, the same was immediately committed

to the flames.

He was an inveterate enemy to drunkenness, and did all in his power to prevent it, but to no

purpose. He never flogged, however, while the influence of liquor lasted; but put them into the

stocks, under care of the guard, until sober. Finding the lash alone was of no avail, he added warm

water and salt to the dose, which was given until it ran out of the mouth again! If was of no use, the

disease was as incurable as consumption.

Having found out the game practiced in regard to destroying the children born to the whites, he put

down all miscarriages to the same cause. Therefore, when a woman had the misfortune to bring

forth a still-born child, she was punished. The penalty inflicted was, shaving the head, flogging for

fifteen subsequent days, iron on the feet for three months, and having to appear every Sunday in

church, on the steps leading up to the altar, with a hideous painted wooden child in her arms!

He had no predilection for wizards, and generally (as some one or another was always reporting

evil of them), kept them chained together in couples and well flogged. There were, at that period,

no small number of old men rejoicing in the fame of witchcraft, so he made sawyers of them all,

keeping them like hounds in couples, and so they worked, two above and two below in the pit.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

On a breach occurring between man and wife, they were fastened together by the leg, until they

agreed to live again in harmony.

He was not only severe, but he was, in his chastizements, most cruel. So as not to make a revolting

picture, I shall bury acts of barbarity known to me through good authority, by merely saying that he

must assuredly have considered whipping as meat and drink to them, for they had it morning, noon

and night.

Although so severe to the Indians, he was kind in the extreme to travelers and others. -- There being

so much beef, mutton, pork, and poultry, with fruits, vegetables and wines, that a splendid public

table was spread daily, at which he presided. Horses to ride on were at their service, and a good bed

to sleep on at night. Whenever ready to start either up or down the coast, horses and a servant were

at command to go as far as the next Mission.

Having brought the establishment and every thing connected with it, to the climax of perfection,

he had still calculated on doing more. He purchased large quantities of iron, with the intention of

railing in all of the vineyard and gardens. But, alas! even Catholic societies are not proof against

the “capital sins” they so strongly condemn. Envy and jealousy stepped in and prevailed. He was

ordered by his superior to the Mission of San Juan Capistrano. 89 The loss of his favorite hobby

capsized his reason, and after lingering for many years in a disturbed religious state of mind, he at

length expired, regretted by all who knew his worth and gigantic intellect.

130. It is not clear here whether Reid means that the favorite hobby was cruel treatment to the neophytes or

“railing in all of the vineyard and gardens.”

[LETTER NO. XX]

Better Times

The Padre Jose Bernardo Sanchez had, for some time previous, been a colleague of Salvedeas but

attended only to matters connected with the church. On the translation of Padre Jose Maria to San

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Juan, he became his successor. He was of cheerful disposition, frank and generous in his nature,

although at times he lost his temper with the strange, unruly set around him.

He was a great sportsman and capital shot, both with rifle and fowling piece. Although no one

could complain of Salvedea, in regard to his kind treatment, still there was a certain restraint in

his presence, arising from his austerity and pensiveness, which even custom did not erase from

the mind. Padre Sanchez was different; his temper was governed according to circumstances. In

Ecclesiastical affairs, his deportment was solemn; in trade he was formal; in the government of

the Mission, active, lively and strict; in social intercourse he was friendly, full of anecdote, fond

of a joke, even to a practical one. Pic-nic parties were of weekly occurrence and generally held at

the Mill, when, independent of a yearling heifer baked under ground, many other good things 91

reigned on the table.

I cannot refrain from relating an anecdote connected with those parties of pleasure, as it shows the

relish the old man had for anything ludicrous. A few of the actors are still alive, but the greater part

have been gathered with the Padre, to the dust they sprang from.

Don J. M. M., an old Spaniard, who had large commercial relations with the Mission, having a

negro cook, called Francisco, who was science itself in all relating to the kitchen, the Priest and

M. made up a plan to carry out a joke at the expense of their guests. So having procured a fine fat

little puppy, he was stuffed and roasted in a manner that would have tempted the most fastidious

epicure to “cut and come again.” This was brought on as a last course under the name of lamb, with

an excellent salad to correspond.

All eat of it and praised it much, with the exception of the two concerned in the joke. -- After

concluding with a glass of wine, the old man enquired of his guests how they relished the Dog? No

one would believe it, until the negro made his appearance with the head and paws on a plate. Then

a mixed scene ensued, which brought tears into the old man's eyes, while he nearly killed himself

with laughter. All, of course, were squeamish, but while the quiet portion retired to ease themselves,

in 92 discharging the detested food, the pugnacious remained to fight M. first, and do the other

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

afterward. The Padre eventually procured harmony, but for many a day after, roast lamb and salad

were viewed with suspicion by the former partakers of his cheer.

The same regulations which had been observed by his predecessor, were still in force under him,

but more lenity was shown to the failings of the Neophites. Although the lash was ever ready; yet

many other modes of chastising were adopted in its stead for minor offenses.

The general condition of the Indians was rendered better, and a more healthy state prevailed

even in their morals. Many an Indian who had previously stolen and committed other acts of

insubordination, from a vindictive spirit, now refrained from such deeds, through the love and good

will held to their spiritual and temporal ruler.

131. The numbers and condition of the California Indians in the early 1850s were the subject of a great concern

by the Federal Government. The general situation is summarized by Dale (1949: Chap. III). Congress appointed

on September 30, 1850 three commissioners to make treaties with California Indians. These were Redick McKee

of Virginia, George W. Barbour of Kentucky and Oliver M. Wozencraft of Louisiana. In 1851 the commissioners

made 18 treaties with 140 California Indian groups who were termed “tribes”, but in many cases were only

villages and bands. The treaties set aside about 12,000 square miles of land for reservations. The treaties

were submitted to Congress for ratification on July 1, 1852, and, largely due to the opposition of the California

senators, were rejected by the Senate on July 8, 1852. In 1852 Benjamin D. Wilson, a long-time resident of Los

Angeles and a friend of Hugo Reid (Dakin 1939: 106, 122-124, 153, 196-199), was appointed as assistant to

replace Wozencraft as Indian agent for the southern district of California and he continued in this capacity for

a short time under the direction of Edward F. Beale, who had been named Superintendent of Indian Affairs in

California (Dale 1949: 35 ff.; Beale 1854). Wilson wrote a long official report entitled “The Indians of Southern

California” in 1852, but it was not published after its receipt in Washington. In July, 1868 the Los Angeles Star

published Wilson's report in 10 weekly installments (July 18 to September 19, 1868), perhaps for the reason that

the Indian Appropriation Act of 1868 (Dale 1949: 43) was being considered by Congress and there was a great

deal of interest in this pending legislation in California (for background see Dale 1949: Chap. III). Wilson's report

has been published by Caughey (1952).

The purchases made at one time seldom exceeded $30,000 consisting of domestics, bleached brown

and printed; flannels, cloth, rebosas, silk, goods, and, in fact, everything; besides supplies of sugar,

panocha, rice, hosiery, &c. These goods were fitted up in two large stores for the accommodation,

not only of the public, but for the necessities of servants and use of the Neophites. The females

had their freize 93 (xerga) converted into sweat-cloths, and more suitable garments provided them.

This measure effected a great change, for now of a Sunday might be seen coming out of church,

women dressed in petticoats of all patterns and colors, with their clean chemise protruding from

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

the bosom, with a 'kerchief round the neck and rebosa round the shoulders; while the men had their

pants, jacket, trousers, hat and fancy silk sash. Even the children sported in a white or fancy shirt,

with a handkerchief tied around the head.

This was, indeed, a transformation, and one for which they felt grateful. It elevated them to better

thoughts and principles, and made them esteem themselves more than probably anything else would

have done. Nor did the reformation stop here. The married people had not only sheets provided

for their beds, but even curtains. It was the duty of the Mayordomo to visit each room weekly, and

see that every article was kept clean and report accordingly. The Priest paid a monthly visit for the

same end.

On coming out of Mass, the whole community was assembled and rations given to families for

the ensuing week. Besides, each man received half a pint of spirits, and the women a pint of wine.

Panocha, molasses and honey were distributed, and if required, clothing; as 94 also two or three

dollars each on occasions. -- Although rations were given as stated, yet the Mission provided daily

food for the laborers.

The Mission bell, on being rung, roused the Alcaldes from their slumbers, who in loud voice

soon set all the world agog. Mass was heard, and again the bell rang to work. At eleven its notes

proclaimed dinner, when in they flocked with their baskets to receive posole and a piece of beef.

Posole consisted of boiled beans and corn or wheat. At twelve o'clock they were again warned to

their labors, which concluded a little before sundown to afford them time to receive supper, which

consisted of atole or mush. If a gang were at a distance, a copper kettle and attendant accompanied

to provide food on the spot.

After twelve o'clock oil Saturdays, soap was distributed, and all the world went a washing of

clothes and persons, to make a decent appearance at church on Sunday. Saturday night was devoted

to playing peon, and with few exceptions, none slept, for whites and Indians, men, women and

children, were generally present.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

After service, on Sunday, football and races were on the carpet until the afternoon, when a game

called by the Scotch “shinty,” and I believe by the English, “bandy,” took place. -- One set being

composed of all men and one 95 of all women. People flocked in from all parts to see the sport, and

heavy bets were made. The Priest took a great interest in the game, and as the women seldom had

less than half a dozen quarrels, in which hair flew by the handfull, it pleased him very much. The

game being concluded, all went to prayers, and so ended the Sabbath.

He died in 1833, regretted by all the community, and leaving every one who knew him sad at his

loss.

His course was a good one, yet probably the Padre Salvedea's was equally so. It was required in his

time, no doubt, and the step from the one to the other had a more beneficial tendency than had he

from the first carried out measures such as those of Sanchez. He was succeeded by Padre Tomas

Estenga.

[LETTER NO. XXI]

Decay of the Mission

The Mission, as received by the Padre Tomas was in a flourishing condition, but in 1834 (I think

it was) the Mexican Congress passed a law secularizing all of the Missions, by which each Indian

was to receive his share of land, gardens and stock; but immediately on the top of it a change was

effected in the general government, and instead of carrying out the law, they abolished it. They,

however, secularized them and ordered Administrators to have charge instead of the clergy. These

facts being known to the Padre Tomas, he (in all probability by order of his superior) commenced

a work of destruction. The back buildings were unroofed and the timber converted into firewood.

Cattle were killed on halves with people who took a lion's share. Utensils were disposed of, and

goods and other articles distributed in profusion among the Neophites. The vineyards were ordered

to be cut down, which, however, the Indians refused to do.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

It did not require long to destroy what years took to establish. Destruction came as a thief in the

night. The whites rejoiced at it. They required no encouragement, and seemed to think it would

last forever. Even the mere 97 spectators were gladdened at the sight, and many of them helped

themselves to a sufficiency of calves to stock farms.

It is not the intention here to give a detail of all that occurred, as our line, as marked out from the

first, relates merely to the Indians, and to other persons and things only so far as they are connected

with them.

General Figueroa, having been appointed political Chief and Commandant General of the territory,

arrived, and his adjutant, Col. Nicolas Gutierrez, received the Mission from the Padre Tomas, who

remained as minister of the church with a stipend of $1500 per annum from the establishment,

independent of his synod from the Pious Fund in Mexico.

As a wrong impression of his character may be produced from the preceding remarks, in justice to

his memory, be it stated that he was a truly good man, a sincere Christian and despiser of hipocrisy.

He had a kind, unsophisticated heart, so that he believed every word told him. There was never a

purer Priest in California. Reduced in circumstances, annoyed on many occasions by the petulancy

of Administrators, he fulfilled his duties according to his conscience, with benevolence and good

humor. The nuns, who when the secular movement came into operation, had been set free, were

again gathered together under his supervision 98 and maintained at his expense, as were also

a number of the old men and women. Everything he got was spent in charity upon those of the

ranchería whom he considered as worthy of it and they remember him with gratitude and affection.

The Indians were made happy at this time in being permitted to enjoy once more the luxury of a tule

dwelling, from which the greater part had been debarred for so long; they could now breathe freely

again.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

Administrator followed Administrator, until the Mission could support no more, when the system

was broken up. I shall make no remarks here on their administration: it is to be presumed they

complied either with their instructions or their own ideas.

The Indians during this period were continually running off. Scantily clothed and still more scantily

supplied with food, it was not to be wondered at. Nearly all of the Gabrielinos went north while

those of San Diego, San Luis and San Juan overran this county, filling the Angeles and surrounding

ranchos with more servants than were required. Labor in consequence was very cheap. The different

Missions, however, had Alcaldes continually on the move, hunting them up and carrying them

back, but to no purpose: it was labor in vain.

This was a period of demoralization. People from Sonora came flocking in to assist in the general

destruction, lending a hand to kill off cattle on shares, which practice, when at last prohibited by

government orders, they continued on their private account.

These Sonorenos overran this country. They invaded the ranchería, gambled with the men and

taught them to steal; they taught the women to be worse than they were, and men and women

both to drink. Now we do not mean or pretend to say that the Neophites were not previous to this

addicted both to drinking and gaming, with an inclination to steal, while under the dominion of

the church; but the Sonorenos most certainly brought them to a pitch of licentiousness before

unparalleled in their history.

100

[LETTER NO. XXII]

Finis

Having given a sketch of the Angeles County Indians from the time they were the free, natal

possessors of the soil, living contended in a state of nature, until these civilized times of squatting

and legislative oppression, in which not only they but those bearing their blood in a fourth degree,

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

are included, to the shame of this our country, and disgrace of the framers of such laws, I shall now

conclude them, with a very short review of how far their ancient manners and customs remain in

force among the handful left of a once happy people.

132. What purports to be the recollections recorded in 1877 of an old woman born at Loreto, Baja California,

brought to California shortly after 1800, and who lived at San Gabriel Mission while José Sanchez was the

presiding missionary there, is contained in a manuscript in Bancroft Library and has been published by Sanchez

(1929).

Their former lodges are not now in existence, and most of the Indians remaining in the county are

from other parts -- from Santa Ynez to San Diego. A few are to be found at San Fernando, San

Gabriel and the Angeles. Those in service on ranchos are a mere handful. You will find at present

more of them in the county of Monterey than in this, excluding the three places named above. Death

has been busy among them for years past, and very few more are wanting to extinguish the lamp

that God lighted! The Indians from the northwest coast killed great 101 numbers years ago on the

Islands.

Those of San Clemente, the remains of which some eighteen years since were collected

in caves on the Island, showed the whole of them to have been possessed of double teeth all-round,

both in the upper and under jaw.

133. Reference here is to natives from Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands who were brought to California by

Russian sea otter hunters. Some Kodiak hunters were left on San Nicolas Island for a period to collect sea

otter skins. No full study of this has been done, but some data are contained in notes attached to a published

collection of accounts dealing with the marooned woman of San Nicolas Island (Heizer & Elsasser 1961).

134. This is a bit of folklore. Alexander S. Taylor (California Farmer , January 10, 1862) provided us with a lead

to its source when he wrote, “Mention has been made in the first series of the Indianology, in several places

(particularly in the No. of 9th March, 1860), of the existence among the islanders of the Santa Barbara channel

of Indians whose skulls were found about 1830-33, with double rows of teeth, among the caves and on the site

of the old rancherías thereaway . I have been assured by old hunters and seamen (Messrs. Nidever, Hill and

others of Santa Barbara, still living (January, 1861), that they were met with in abundance on the islands of San

Clemente, San Nicholas and San Miguel even since 1850 to 1860. There can be little doubt of this as a well

established fact, confirmatory of Hugo Reid's statement. These skulls would bring, in San Francisco and Europe,

from ten to twenty dollars apiece, as they are matters of great scientific curiosity.” It thus appears probable that

Reid, who knew George Nidever and Daniel Hill, got the story from them before 1852.

I have previously mentioned that their language has deteriorated much since the conquest.

Numerous causes effect all languages, and one of the many which did so to theirs, was the want of

their former Councils held so frequently, in which their wise men spoke with eloquence suited to

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

the occasion, using more dignity and expression, which naturally elevated the minds of all and gave

a tinge of better utterance even in ordinary conversation.

They have at present, two religions -- one of custom, and another of faith. Naturally fond of novelty,

the Catholic one serves as a great treat -- the forms and ceremonies an inexhaustible source of

amusement. They don't quarrel with their neighbor's mode of worship, but consider their own the

best. The life and death of our Saviour is only, in their opinion, a distorted version of their own life.

Hell, as taught them, has no terrors. It is for whites, not Indians, or else their fathers would have

known it. The Devil, however, has become a great personage in their sight; he is called Zizu ,

and

makes his appearance on all occasions. 102 Nevertheless, he is only a bugbear and connected with

the Christian faith; he makes no part of their own. The resurrection they cannot understand, but a

future state of spiritual existence is in accordance with their creed.

135. C. Hart Merriam gives shé-soo for devil or bad spirit.

Their chiefs still exist. In San Gabriel remain only four, and those young. There are more, but

of tribes formerly from the direction of San Bernardino. They have no jurisdiction more than

to appoint times for the holding of Feasts and regulating affairs connected with the church.

No standing Church [ i.e ., church] remains nowadays; it is made yearly and consecrated when

required, on any spot they choose to select.

136. By “church” here is meant the unroofed brush enclosure (toba) made and used for ceremonial

performances. Reid usually employs the word Church when he refers to the mission establishment. Of interest is

the implication that in 1852 the Gabrielino were still practicing their ancient pre-Catholic rituals.

Their food continues the same, with the addition made to the list of what the Spaniards introduced.

Their clothing is of course distinct, and a cloak made of rabbit skins, has within his year or two

become a novelty among themselves.

For a long time back, marriage has been performed in the Catholic Church; and only one instance of

its fulfilment in their own alone , exists in the case of a young girl who contracted matrimony about

three years ago. Marriage vows, I am sorry to say, are not very binding, although many examples of

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

strict fidelity exist. Women undergo the same purification 103 after childbirth as formerly, with the

exception of such as were in the service of whites at their first parturition.

The seers have declined very much in their ability both of predicting events and doing harm;

although instances of sickness occasionally occur of which they stand the blame. In performing

cures, however, they still take the precedence of the other members of the faculty known as M.D.'s.

Ten years ago shell bead money was current in the Mission, not only between Indians, but between

them and the whites. It is now extremely scarce, and hoarded from one year to another to use at

their church ceremonies, and repurchased again for double its value.

I have refrained from touching on politics. The Administrators I have left to work out their own

salvation -- and dates, with statistics, I leave to those possessed of abler pens to furnish an account

of, and of which there is a fine field open to write about -- confining myself entirely to the title of

these letters.

If these sketches of Indian character have been at all interesting to the readers of the “STAR,” I

shall consider myself amply paid for the time occupied in writing them.

104

Gabrielino artifacts as illustrated by Hoffman. (See Notes 29, 47, 60 and 66).

137

References

BANCROFT, H. H. (1875) The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America . Vol. III

(Myths and Languages). D. Appleton. New York. BEALE, E. F. (1854) Reports of E. F. Beale.

House of Representatives, Document No. 1, 33rd Congress, 1st Session . 464-481. Washington.

BRYAN, B. (1961) The Manufacture of Stone Mortars. The Masterkey , Vol. 35. No. 4. 134-139.

Southwest Museum. Los Angeles. CAUGHEY, J. W. (1952) The Indians of Southern California in

1852 . The B. D. Wilson Report and a Selection of Contemporary Comment. Huntington Library.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

San Marino. Cook, S. F. (1943) The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization.

Ibero-Americana , Vol. 21. Berkeley.

138

(1962) Expeditions to the Interior of California: Central Valley, 1820-1840. Anthropological

Records , Vol. 20, No. 5. University of California. Berkeley. COPE, L. (1919) Calendars of the

Indians North of Mexico. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology , Vol. 16, No.

4. University of California. Berkeley. DAKIN, S. B. (1939) A Scotch Paisano: Hugo Reid's Life

in California , 1832-1852, Derived from his Correspondence . University of California Press.

Berkeley. DALE, E. E. (1949) The Indians of the Southwest: A Century of Development Under

the United States . University of Oklahoma Press. Norman. DAVIDSON. G. (1873) Remarks on

a Boomerang from Los Angeles County, California. Proceedings of the California Academy of

Sciences . Vol. 4: 233. San Francisco. ELLIS, A. M. (1926) Hugo Reid's Account of the Indians

of Los Angeles County . Privately printed. Los Angeles. GAYTON, A. H. & NEWMAN, S. S.

(1940) Yokuts and Western Mono Myths. Anthropological Records , Vol. 5. No. 1. University of

California. Berkeley.

139

HARRINGTON, J. P. (1933) Annotations of Alfred Robinson's Chinigchinich . Fine Arts Press.

Santa Ana. (1962) Preface to B. E. Johnston, California's Gabrielino Indians . Southwest Museum.

Los Angeles. HEIZER, R. F. (1941) California Earthquakes of the Mission Period, 1769-1838.

California Journal of Mines and Geology , Vol. 37: 219-223. San Francisco. (1942) Ancient

Grooved Clubs and Modern Rabbit-sticks. American Antiquity , Vol. 8: 41-56. Menasha. HEIZER,

R. F. & ELSASSER, A. B. (1961) Original Accounts of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island.

Archaeological Survey Reports, No. 55 . University of California. Berkeley. HENSHAW, H. W.

(1955) California Indian Linguistic Records: The Mission Indian Vocabularies of H. W. Henshaw.

(R. F. Heizer, Ed.) Anthropological Records , Vol. 15, No. 2. University of California. Berkeley.

HOFFMAN, W. J. (1885) Hugo Ried's Account of the Indians of Los Angeles County, California.

Bulletin of the Essex Institute , Vol. 17: 1-33. Salem, Mass. JOHNSTON, B. E. (1962) California's

Gabrielino Indians . Southwest Museum. Los Angeles.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

140

KROEBER, A. L. (1908) A Mission Record of the California Indians, from a Manuscript in the

Bancroft Library. Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology , Vol. 8. No. 1. University

of California. Berkeley. (1909) Notes of Shoshonean Dialects of Southern California. Publications

in American Archaeology and Ethnology , Vol. 8. No. 5. University of California. Berkeley. (1925)

Handbook of the Indians of California. Bulletin 78 . Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington.

MERRIAM, C. H. (1962) Studies of California Indians . University of California Press. Berkeley.

(n.d.) Vocabularies of North American Indians: Tongva (San Gabriel). Ms. on file at the University

of California. Berkeley. PIMENTEL, F. (1862) Cuadro descriptivo y comparativo de las lenguas

indigenas de México . Impr. de Andrade y Escalante. Mexico. PINART, A. (1952) California

Indian Linguistic Records: The Mission Indian Vocabularies of Alphonse Pinart. (R. F. Heizer. Ed.)

Anthropological Records , Vol. 15, No. 1. University of California. Berkeley.

141

RUST, H. N. (1904) Rogerio's Theological School. Out West ,Vol. 28: 243-248. Los Angeles.

(1906) A Puberty Ceremony of the Mission Indians. American Anthropologist , Vol. 8: 28-32.

Lancaster. SANCHEZ, N. V. (1929) Keeper of the Keys: the recollections of Senora Eulalia Perez,

oldest woman in the world, of life at Mission San Gabriel. Touring Topics . Vol. XXI, No. 1.

25-27, 52-53. Los Angeles. SPIER, L. (1955) Mohave Culture Items. Bulletin No. 28 . Museum of

Northern Arizona. Flagstaff. STRONG, W. D. (1929) Aboriginal Society in Southern California.

Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology , Vol. 26. University of California. Berkeley.

TEMPLE, T. W., II (1959) The Founding of Mision San Gabriel Arcángel. The Masterkey , Vol.

33, No. 3 & 4. 103-112, 153-161. Southwest Museum. Los Angeles. VOGELIN, E. W. (1938)

Tubatulabal Ethnography. Anthropological Records , Vol. 2. No. 1. University of California.

Berkeley. WALLACE, W. (1959) Historical Research Pertaining to the Original 142 Hugo Reid

Adobe House. Lasca Leaves , Vol. 9, No. 1. Arcadia, Calif. WALLACE, W.; DESAUTELS, R.

J. & KRITZMAN, G. (1958) The House of the Scotch Paisano: Archaeological Investigations

of the Hugo Reid Adobe, Arcadia, California. Lasca Leaves , Vol. 8, No. 1. Arcadia, Calif.

The Indians of Los Angeles County http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.007

WOODWARD, A. (1944) Gabrielino Indian Language. The Masterkey , Vol. 18, No. 5. 145-149.

Southwest Museum. Los Angeles.

Territories of the Gabrielino and Adjoining Tribes.