| Serrano (people) from Wikipedia,
The Serrano are a Native American tribe of Southern California.
They refer to themselves variously as: Taaqtam, meaning "people", Maarenga'yam,
"people from Morongo", and Yuhaviatam, "people of the pines".
History
Members of the Serrano tribe are part of the Shoshonean
subset of the Uto-Aztecan group of Native Americans. Serrano means highlander
or mountaineer. They were an offshoot of the Takic people that arrived
in Southern California around 2,500 years ago. When the Spanish missionaries
came into the region, they helped form the tribal name Serrano, separating
them from their neighbors that were designated as the Gabrielino and Kitanemuk.
The Serrano historically populated the San Bernardino
Mountains and extended to the Mojave River region down to the Tejon Creek.
The populations along the Tejon Creek identified their
tribes as the Cuahajai or Cuabajay. Their dwellings were communal and made
of willow framing. The dwellings were complete with fireplaces for each
family and they crafted baskets and vessels with mother-of-pearl inlays
which were often traded to the native people in the Santa Barbara region.
The men did not wear clothing and the women wore deerskin, otter, and rabbit
furs.
The Serrano that inhabited the San Bernardino mountains
would go to the valleys of Apple Valley and Lucerne during the winter and
the area in and around Big Bear Lake during the summer. They hunted small
game like rabbits, utilizing traps along with bows and arrows. They did
not hunt the grizzly bears which they believed were reincarnations of their
ancestors' spirits. They were skilled craftsmen and experts in basketweaving.
Their diet consisted of the game that they caught as well as pinon nuts
ground into a dough and made into a flat tortilla-like food. They also
gathered the acorns from the oak trees to make a flour and then porridge
called wiich. Other staples were roasted agave, prickly pears, and Yucca
blossoms. Mission San Gabriel Arcangel was founded in 1771. The Serrano
revolted against the missions along with the Cahuilla and Yuma tribes in
1812. In 1834 many Serrano were forcibly relocated to the missions. They
suffered devastating smallpox outbreaks in 1840 and 1860 before a reservation
was established in 1875.
Other villages of the Serranos included Akxawiet, Cucamonga,
Homhoabit, Jurumpa, Juyubit, Muscupiabit, Topapaibit (Victorville), Guapaibit
(Hesperia), Paso del Cajon, San Benito, San Gorgonio, San Pascual, (Rancho)
San Timoteo, Temeku (Rancheria), Tolocabi, and Yucaipa.
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