The Cahuilla homeland in California was bounded on the north by the San Bernardino Mountains; on the south by the northern Borrego Desert; on the east by the Colorado Desert; on the west by the present-day city of Riverside. As a tribal designation, Cahuilla is more of a linguistic designation than a governmental or political one: the many different Cahuilla villages tended to be autonomous and there was no single overall governmental structure which united them.
Lowell John Bean, in his entry on the Cahuilla in The Handbook of North American Indians describes the geography of the Cahuilla homelands:
“The Cahuilla area was topographically complex: mountain ranges interspersed by passes, canyons, valleys, and desert, with elevations from 11,000 feet in the San Bernardino Mountains to 273 feet below sea level at the Salton Sink.”
The Cahuilla language belongs to the Cupan subgroup of the Takic family of Uto-Aztecan languages. It is closely related to Serrano, Tataviam, Kitanemuk, Gabrielino, Cupeño, and Luiseño.
While some people claim that the name Cahuilla means “the masters” or “powerful ones,” (possibly from the Cahuilla word kawi’a meaning “boss”) the actual origin of the name is not known. In his 1925 Handbook of the Indians of California, A. L. Kroeber writes:
“Indians of all tribes regard the designation as of Spanish origin.”
In his book Native American Basketry of Southern California, Christopher Moser reports:
“As an interior group the Cahuilla were never directly forced into the Spanish Mission system, but the Cahuilla were both aware of and affected by the Spanish institutions long before direct contact. Their hostility, in fact, encouraged the Europeans to use sea routes to settle California.”
Villages and architecture
The Cahuilla lived in villages of 100-200 people. Prior to European contact, it is estimated that the Cahuilla population numbered about 6,000.
Christopher Moser reports:
“Permanent villages were usually near adequate water sources and occupied the year round except for seasonal hunts or acorn gathering at upland groves.”
The Cahuilla built circular brush-covered shelters over a scooped-out hollow in the ground which were called Kish. They also made rectangular houses with walls plastered with mud and roofs of thatched tules.
Like many other tribes, the Cahuilla had ceremonial buildings. Lowell Bean and Harry Lawton, in their book The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California, report:
“Religious observances were centered in the large ceremonial house known as Kishumnawat. It was usually circular with a floor sunk several inches below the ground.”
In their book Native American Architecture, Peter Nabakov and Robert Easton describe it this way:
“Usually circular, its floor was slightly sunken; its steeply pitched roof of arrow weed, palm fronds, or tule rested upon 5-foot-high walls and was also supported by interior uprights.”
Peter Nabakov and Robert Easton also report that this building served as the living quarters for the local clan nét —the religious and civil leader.
The Cahuilla also used ramadas (shade arbors) which consisted of a roof supported by poles.
Social Organization
The most important social structure among the Cahuilla was their patrilineal clans. There were about a dozen independent clans. In his entry on the Cahuilla in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Lowell John Bean reports:
“These clans controlled separate territories of several hundred square miles and maintained their own political authority. Each clan was allied through ritual systems that provided political stability and networks for economic exchange. Each clan was dialectically different from the others.”
The position of lineage leader (nét) was inherited, usually in a patrilineal manner from father to the eldest son. Lowell John Bean describes leadership duties:
“He was an economic executive, determining where and when people gathered foods or hunted game, administering first-fruit rites, and storing and collecting goods for community use (ceremonial, subsistence, or exchange to other groups). He knew the boundaries and ownership rights and adjudicated conflict with binding decisions.”
Lowell John Bean also notes:
“The chief was assisted by a manager or administrator who were usually associated with the ritual or cult systems, since it is through ritual that many economic and political affairs were articulated in native California.”
In general, chiefs were assisted by a council of elders who attempted to reach consensus for decision-making.
Lowell John Bean and Harry Lawton write:
“A nét (or chief) served as ceremonial leader, economic administrator, political leader, and adjudicator. He was assisted by another official called a paha. Other position also carried political weight. Medicine men or pulem were often included in the decision-making of the group.”
As with all peoples, the Cahuilla had laws. Lowell John Bean reports:
“Cahuilla law, embodied in oral tradition, provided Cahuilla administrators with precedent and authority for proper behavior and punishment. Laws were reinforced through ritual, story, anecdote, and action.”
Reciprocity was an important Cahuilla value. Lowell John Bean writes:
“A well-balanced and rigidly enforced system of reciprocal relations operated at every level of society as well as throughout the universe. Each Cahuilla was taught and encouraged to share possessions, food, and capital equipment. It was proper to give and receive, neither action requiring much formal recognition.”
Plants
Regarding subsistence, the Cahuilla were primarily hunting and gathering people who raised some corn, beans, squash, and melons. They used about 200 different wild plants for food, fiber, and medicine. Some of the plants gathered by the Cahuilla include agave, yucca, wild onion, barrel cactus, tuna cactus, goosefoot, catclaw, ocotillo, chia, thimbleberry, wild raspberry, wild blackberry, and chokecherry. Lowell John Bean and Harry Lawton report:
“Foods were gathered from the Colorado Desert basin to above the pinon range of the San Jacinto Mountains. From the lower desert came such staples as mesquite and screwbean, slightly higher, agave and yucca provided dependable foods; and still higher, the acorn and pinon, to mention only a few.”
Agave (ámul) grows at elevations from 500 to 3,500 feet. It was traditionally harvested in March and April. Writing in 1900, David Prescott Barrows, in a report reprinted in The California Indians: A Source Book, reports:
“Most remarkable of all the plants that flourish in these wastes is the agave, perhaps the most unique and interesting plant of all America.”
The heads of the agave plant are cooked in earth ovens: large pits (náchishem) which are lined with stones. Fires are kept in the pits until the stones are hot, then the agave is placed in the pit, covered with dirt and grass, and allowed to roast for a day or two. Agave which is prepared this way is said to last for years.
The mesquite tree was an important source of plant food. In their book The Natural World of California Indians, Robert Heizer and Albert Elsasser write:
“The Cahuilla divided the year into eight seasons, each recognized partly on the basis of the growth cycle of the mesquite, whose beans were an important food resource.”
Mesquite bean (ményikish) grows at elevations from 250 feet below sea level to 3,000 feet above sea level. David Prescott Barrows writes:
“The fruit of the algarroba or honey mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) is a beautiful legumin, four to seven inches long, which hangs in splendid clusters. A good crop will bend each branch almost to the ground, and as the fruit falls, pile the ground beneath the tree with a thick carpet of straw-colored pods. These are pulpy, sweet, and nutritious, affording food to stock as well as to man.”
Mesquite beans were traditionally harvested in June and July. For the Cahuilla, the mesquite tree was an important source of plant food. In the early summer, the mesquite blossoms would be roasted, formed into balls, and then stored for later consumption. Later in the year, the mesquite beans would be harvested. The mesquite beans were stored until needed and then processed using a milling stone. David Prescott Barrows reports:
“The beans are never husked, but pod and all are pounded up into an imperfect meal in a wooden mortar.”
Pine nuts (tévat) grow at elevations of 2,500 to 9,000 feet. It was traditionally harvested in August and September. In harvesting pine nuts, the cones are beaten from the tree and roasted in a fire. The cones are then broken open and the nuts are harvested.
Acorn nuts (qwínyily) grow at elevations of 1,000 to 8,000 feet. It was traditionally harvested in October and November. Traditionally, the people gathered the acorns by climbing the tree and then beating off the nuts with a long slender pole. The acorns were ground in a mortar and then leached.
With regard to plants used by the Cahuilla, A.L. Kroeber reports:
“Nearly every variety of cactus was made use of. Most generally the fruit was consumed, but the fleshy stalks or leaves of some species helped out when diet became scant, and sometimes buds or seeds are edible.”
Food was stored in large basket granaries for use during the winter months.
The Cahuilla used solar, lunar, and stellar observations to predict the ripening of certain wild foods.
Hunting
With regard to Cahuilla hunting, Christopher Moser, in his book Native American Basketry of Southern California, writes:
“Everything from reptiles to deer were fair game for their traps, bows and arrows, or throwing sticks.”
Lowell Bean and Harry Lawton describe the Cahuilla bow:
“Bows ranged from three-and-a-half to five feet in length, and were made of mesquite, desert willow, and sometimes palmleaf stem.”
Arrows varied in size according to their intended use. Two kinds of arrows were generally used: (1) cane reed arrows which were tipped with a hardwood foreshaft, and (2) arrows made from artemisia which had been sharpened.
Hunting was done by the men, and it was usually done in groups so that there would be help in carrying the meat back to the village. In his entry on the Cahuilla in the Handbook of North American Indians, Lowell Bean describes their hunting this way:
“Hunting was the occupation of adult able-bodied men who stalked their prey, chased it, hid in blinds, maneuvered them down trails into pits, or exhausted them so they could be clubbed to death.”
Prior to hunting, the men would traditionally fast. According to a Riverside Metropolitan Museum display written by Sean C. Milanovich:
“He prayed to the Creator giving thanks for the life of the animals hunted. Sometimes there were songs. When the ámuwet [hunter] was hunting súkat (deer), there were songs asking the súkat to give its life so the hunter and his people could eat.”
Large game, such as deer and antelope, were hunted with the bow (hul) and arrow (húyal).
Rabbit sticks were not the only tool for killing or stunning rabbits; nets, snares, and traps were also used.
While many Southern California Indian tribes used dogs for hunting, the Cahuilla did not. They considered dogs to be special pets with supernatural powers. Dogs could understand human conversation but could not speak.
Basketry and Pottery
Lowell John Bean and Harry Lawton report:
“Cahuilla women were among the finest basketmakers in the world, and a Cahuilla wife who was an outstanding basketmaker found her social prestige considerably enhanced.”
Lowell John Bean and Harry Lawton also write:
“Cahuilla baskets were of varying shapes: shallow trays for sifting; small wide-mouthed globular baskets for storing personal objects; large gathering baskets; and basket caps. Large, loosely-woven containers—made of willow, palm leaves, mesquite branches and other plants—were used for gathering baskets and for storing large amounts of food.”
The Cahuilla probably learned pottery making from the Colorado River Indians who lived to the east of them. Pottery was acquired by the Cahuilla relatively late. Lowell John Bean and Harry Lawton report:
“Among the items manufactured from clay were cooking pots, water jars, parching trays, storage jars, and pipes. The pottery was made from clay that burned red and very thin-walled, fragile, and porous.”
Dress
In a brief reference to Cahuilla dress, Lowell Bean and Harry Lawton write:
“Men wore loin cloths for everyday wear and women wore grass skirts.”
Robes made from woven rabbit fur were used in colder weather. Sandals were made from yucca and agave fibers.
Ceremonies
One of the important Cahuilla ceremonies was the Eagle-Killing Ceremony. According to Cahuilla beliefs, the eagle lived forever and by permitting itself to be killed by people it assured them of life after death. Eagles’ nests were closely watched, and a feast was held when the eggs were laid. When the birds were well-feathered, one would be removed and raised in a cage. When the bird was grown, the Eagle-Killing Ceremony would be held. This included singing songs about the death of eagles and dancing with the eagle.
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