PREPARATORY NOTES FOR PALO PRIETO REGION – TISAGUES LOCAL GROUP

By Randall Milliken

The Palo Prieto region lies along the Kern-San Luis Obispo county border in a dry area that lacks any modern towns. The Tisagues people moved from this region to Mission San Miguel between 1800 and 1812. They are known from the mission records, from a later Mexican-period map, and from the Harrington notes. Although none have been identified at Mission San Luis Obispo, they were almost certainly represented there under an alias group name. They probably spoke a Salinan dialect, but no sample vocabularies were ever taken.

Environment

To be developed.

Early Expedition References

To be developed.

Mission Register References

To be developed.

1840-1910 Historical References

Following the mission period, the1844 land grant of Mauricio Gonzales was named Rancho de Cholame. The grant included the lower Cholam Valley around the modern Highway 41/46 confluence and north for a distance of about eight miles. Farris (2000:132-136) summarized the land-grant documentation. The grant’s diseño (map) showed lands north of the modern highways as "Cholamen" and the lands south of the modern highways as "Techague." Farris pointed out that the names on the map represented Cholam and Tisagues, separate but adjoining areas north and south of modern Highway 46 in the Cholam Valley.

Classic Ethnographic References

Kroeber 1925. In his Handbook, Kroeber (1925:Figure 49, Plate 1) split the area that we map as the Palo Prieto between a Salinan language area west of the Temblor Range crest and a Yokuts language area east of the crest. He did not offer any explanation beyond his belief that Salinan speakers held the entire Salinas River watershed and that Yokuts speakers held the lands to the Coast Range crest (see Kroeber 1925:546-548).

Harrington 1930. Harrington gathered a great amount of information about the vicinity east and south of the Estrella River from Salinan speakers. Harrington asked María de los Angeles Bailón, who had spent her youth on the Estrella River east of Mission San Miguel, about Cholam. During re-hearings of earlier comments and on place-name trips she made a number of comments regarding Cholam, Tisagues, and even Painted Rock on the Carrizo Plain:

Tecáwec, Mg. onde tomaban agua / on mas [re-hearing of Mason] M. umticúwec, at Cholam [María de los Angeles, February 1930, Harrington 1985:Reel 87, Frame 779].

Tecúwec means "onde está pintado" o ’pintura’ [María de los Angeles, February 1930, Harrington 1985:Reel 87, Frame 779].

Tecúwes means "onde se pintura" is name of a plain—at tcolám’. Went to valle to S. of Cholam, cañada all the way came to plain where lots of tar & 2 spgs., & dried panocha 1/2 day. No plzn [place-name]—called it merely Tc’ál, panocha. Tsolám’ is SP. , tho Mig. pronounce it this way. But real name is Tecúwec [February 1930, Harrington 1985:Reel 87, Frame 781].

Mla has heard of the Piedra Pintada (in SLO County)... called it in M. Cá’yek cxáp [May 1931, Harrington 1985:Reel 86, Frame 520].

Mla Te ca we’c was the Cooy Inocente mentioned the lugar. This word means se pinta alguna cosa, mla imagines, but Dave cps. A. Te cewec, la lomadera. Mla agrees that Tcolam & Tecawec’ is the same place & it has 2 names, where the store is, she agrees [February 26, 1932, Harrington 1985:Reel 88, Frame 743].

Mla said at Cholame ranch last night that Tecawec & Cholam were 2 names for 1 place & did not agree that one n. goes to the store & the other the ranch. Tul. infs. might possibly know these names [March 1932, Harrington 1985:Reel 88, Frame 504].

The Shedd place 10.5 miles beyond Shandon, is un lugar viejo de los inditos, & was an indito... Mla was never at Piedra Pintado, but heard it mentioned as c. cxóp’ [March 1932, Harrington 1985:Reel 88, Frame 510].

Harrington and María de los Angeles may have been talking at cross purposes about Cholam and Tisagues (his Te ca we’c). At times he understood her as saying they were equivalent terms tied to the Jack Ranch Café area and Rancho Cholam. At other times, María emphasized a relationship between Tisagues and the Carrizo Plain far to the south, a relationship that did not hold for Cholam.

Recent Ethnographic References

To be developed.