GRAPEVINE CREEK REGION – KASHTIQ VILLAGE GROUP

By John Johnson

The Grapevine Creek region in southern Kern County contains the modern town of Lebec and roadstops at Wheeler Ridge and Grapevine. The region was home to a small local group that spoke an interior dialect called Castac Ventureño. The central village in this region was Kashtiq on Castac Lake. It was called Sasau by the Yokuts and Auvapya by the Kitanemuk. Mat’apxwelxwel at the mouth of Grapevine Canyon and Tak’uy at Tecuya Canyon were intermittently occupied during the Mission Period. Also mentioned in ethnohistoric accounts is a ranchería called Tats’ik’oho that may have been located in this area. The people from this region were mentioned as early as 1788 and appear in the baptismal records of three missions between 1790 and 1838.

Environment

The Grapevine Creek region abuts the northern edge of the Mt Pinos uplands of the Transverse Range. Elevation in the region, as drawn here, varies from a low of 600 feet on the Kern Lake plain (at the north end) to a high of 4,600 feet along the upper limits of the year-round habitat (at the south end). The steep uplands continue to rise beyond that boundary, reaching 6,000 and even 7,000 feet in some areas immediately to the south. Salt Creek, Tecuya Creek, Grapevine Creek, and Pastoria Creek, all seasonal, run through the region. Tejon Pass is an important low spot in the mountains that separate the southern San Joaquin Valley from the Antelope Valley portion of the Mojave Desert. (The pass is not at Tejon Creek or Tejon Ranch, which lie miles to the northeast, but Old Fort Tejon is in the central part of this region). The pass is a valley or plateau at 3,570 feet in elevation. Castac Lake on the western plateau is fed from Cuddy Canyon on the west, then supplying the main Grapevine Creek running to the north.

Native vegetation was grassland on the plain in the north and the low foothills in the central area. Blue oak stands, which occur on the higher southern ridges, begin to intersperse with the higher pinyon forest along the southern edge of the region. Cottonwood trees and occasional canyon live oak occur in shaded canyons. Most of the hill country north and east of Castac Lake was valley oak/blue oak woodland, with valley oak savannah in Castac Valley. Canyon live oaks were common in moist canyons and formed a woodland on the high (5,430-foot) mountain east of Castac Lake.

Early Expedition References

Investigation of an Indian Attack in 1790. A detachment of soldiers from the Santa Bárbara presidio was attacked in San Emigdio Canyon in 1790. While most of the soldiers were away from camp, two soldiers left as guards were taken by surprise and killed. The subsequent investigation revealed that the war party of 58 men had been composed mostly of men from Kashtiq and allied mountain rancherías, along with a few Yokuts allies (Johnson 2007:91-93).

Zalvidea 1806. The Ruiz-Zalvidea party visited the Grapevine Creek region during their 1806 exploration of the southern San Joaquin Valley. They explored the area on July 29 from a camp in the El Paso Creek valley of the adjacent Tejon Creek region to the east:

This morning I went out with the Sergeant, Corporal, and seven soldiers toward the village of Tacui, while the others stayed in camp. At three leagues we came to a stream of water which runs out of the canyon called the Grapevine. This watercourse discharges onto some plains which are similar in character to those of San Gabriel. … On the other side of Grapevine Canyon there is a mountain range which has much pine. At one league from the creek the village of Tacui lies in a valley. It consists of twenty-three souls. There I baptized two old men whom I named Fernando and Ramon. At sunset we returned to the camp [Zalvidea 1806 in Cook 1960:246].

Cook (1960:283) pointed out that the village of Tacui "was undoubtedly Tecuya on Tecuya Cr." After further explorations, the expedition exited the San Joaquin Valley by way of San Emigdio Creek and Cuddy Valley. On the morning of August 7, Zalvidea wrote: "This morning I went out with the Sergeant and seven soldiers to the village of Casteque. We found no Indians for they were all away at their fields of Guata [i.e., harvesting Juniper berries]" (Zalvidea [1806] in Cook 1960:247).

Muñoz 1806. The Moraga-Muñoz party visited the Grapevine Creek region during their trek down the San Joaquin Valley and over the mountains to Mission San Fernando in late 1806. On October 31 they came into the region directly from the east side of Kern Lake, in search of a sheltered spot along their march out of the San Joaquin Valley: "Just before sunset we came to the sheltered place mentioned above. We found it to have an abundance of running water in a little creek and many wild grapevines, these being almost the entire vegetation" (Muñoz [1806] in Cook 1960:253).

On the morning of November 1 they left their camp at the foot of Grapevine Canyon and started south:

Today we set out from this oasis and after about two leagues we found the source of the stream. It is a marsh well covered with grass. The open area may be entered by a valley filled with oak trees. At the end of it one sees a lake which, however, is pure salt water [Castac Lake]. To the east is located a moderate-sized village [Kashtiq], the Indians of which seemed to us altogether too cunning and crafty in trading. Guided by three Indians from this village we came to another of the same size but hidden among ravines and badlands. The number of inhabitants could not be determined because they were absent at a fiesta in another village near by [Muñoz 1806 in Cook 1960:253].

The last ranchería visited by Muñoz is difficult to locate, given the lack of geographical clues; however, it apparently was outside the Grapevine Creek region, perhaps on upper Piru Creek.

Mission Register References

The total number of registered baptisms for this area is 24: at San Buenaventura: 20 from Kashtiq (1802-1822); three from Mat’apxwelxwel (1804, 1813, 1838); and one from Tats’ik’oho (1790). At Santa Bárbara: one from Kashtiq (1820). At San Fernando: three from Kashtiq (1836-1837).

At San Buenaventura, the ranchería name almost always was recorded as "Cashtéc," but at least once as "Castec." At Santa Bárbara the ranchería’s name was written as "Caxtec." At San Fernando, it was recorded as "Castech."

Intervillage Kinship Links. The mission records document the following intervillage kinship connections pertaining to people from Kashtiq: eight marriages and/or parent-child relationships with other Chumash rancherías in the far interior (three Tashlipun, two Mat’apxwelxwel, one K’o’owshup, one Shuxwiyuxush, one Mat’apxaw); six links to rancherías in the mountains and valleys behind Santa Bárbara and San Buenaventura (two S’eqp’e, one Sisa’, one ’Awha’y, one Mat’ilha); two connections to Ventureño Chumash coastal towns (one Shisholop, one Muwu); and two marriages to non-Chumash groups (one Tulamni Yokuts, one Tsawayang (a Tataviam ranchería at Santa Clarita, called by its Chumash name "Tacuyaman" in the San Buenaventura baptismal register).

Special Note. Zalvidea’s baptisms of two elderly men at Tak’uy were not entered into the registers of any mission; however, the burial records of Mission San Buenaventura document the death of one of them.

1840-1900 Historical References

Castac land grant

1851 Treaty

Classic Ethnographic References

Merriam gathered a large amount of information at Tejon Ranch headquarters about the nineteenth-century ethnogeography of the southern San Joaquin Valley and surrounding uplands between Nov. 10 and 12, 1905. His information about the people of the Grapevine region is as follows: "Canada de las Uvas (or Cajon de las Uvas). Fort Tejon Canyon. Tribe, Kas-tak (Chumash). The rancheria was at the mouth of the Canyon and was a large one" (Merriam 1967:435).

Merriam secured the Buenavista Yokuts name for the main Kas-tak village at the mouth of the canyon ("La-pew" or "La-peu"), but he was unable to find anyone who knew its Chumash name. He did, however, receive a Chumash name for the canyon of nearby Tecuya Creek, three miles to the west of Grapevine: "Tacuya Canyon [two or three miles west of Las Uvas or Fort Canyon]. Tribe, Kastak [Chumash], same as at Castac Lake and mouth of Las Uvas Canyon. … In the Emigdio [Chumash] language the people are Hol-koo’-koo Ta-koo’-e" (Merriam 1967:435-436).

Kroeber (1925: Plate 48) mapped "Takuyo" on Tecuya Creek and "Lapau" on Cañada de las Uvas. He wrote: "Kamupau, Tashlipunau [San Emigdio region] are Yokuts forms, but some of them may rest on Chumash originals. Takuyo, reflected in the modern name of Mount Tecuya, may be a locative of Tokya, the generic name with the Yokuts apply to the Chumash" (Kroeber 1925:552).

In addition, Kroeber (1925:Plate 48) marked a village on Castac Lake with the three names Kashtuk, Auvapya, and Sasau (the latter two were the Yokuts and Kitanemuk names for Kashtiq). All of these names translate roughly to "what is like an eye," referring to the reflection off of the water at Castac Lake. In the eastern portion of the region Kroeber mapped a northern extension of his Allilklik division of Serrano Shoshoneans (now recognized as a distinct Takic language called Tataviam), but he wrote that little was known about the Alliklik and that that they only "probably" held Pastoria Creek (Kroeber 1925:614).

Recent Ethnographic References

To Be Developed.