TEJON CREEK REGION – KITANEMUK FAMILY GROUPS

By Randall Milliken

The two-part Tejon Creek region straddles the central spine of the Tehachapi Mountains in southern Kern County. It does not contain any modern towns. This region was the home of village groups that spoke the Kitanemuk language at the time of Spanish contact. Kitanemuk is a Takic Shoshonean language closely related to Serrano, a language that may have been spoken by neighbors to the near southeast, but is not well documented closer than the Mojave River, 50 miles to the east. The Kitanemuk had a rich local granary of oak—black, canyon live, valley, and blue—within their region and nearby uplands. Nevertheless, they probably made winter and spring visits out onto the Mojave Desert, as did their northern Kawaiisu neighbors. At such times, they may have made a conscious effort to meet and maintain family ties with Mojave River Serrano family groups. Much of the well-watered Tejon Creek region became a reservation during the 1860s. Groups from a wide area of south-central California were moved there.

Environment

The western and eastern watersheds of this region are separated by the crest of the Tehachapi Range, with peaks rising to 6,800 feet at the south end and almost 7,900 feet at the north end. The western subregion varies in elevation from 600 feet on the alluvial fans of the Kern Lake basin up to 4,600 feet against the mountain ridge at the upper level of year-round habitation. A number of creeks run westward through this region. Of them, Tejon Creek has the largest watershed and may have been perennial over part of its course. The next drainage to the south is El Paso Creek, which gets its name from the fact that it was a major route over the Tehachapis, although no highway runs over its pass today. The eastern subarea drops down from 4,600 feet to 3,000 feet in Antelope Valley, the western end of the Mojave Desert. No fewer than five named creeks run down to the desert floor and disappear into the alluvial fans in this southern area, all of them short and seasonal.

Native vegetation is a mosaic of associations as complex as any place in California. The open Kern Lake flat lands, the Tejon Ranch valley, and Cummings Valley, now partially dedicated to agriculture, once were grasslands. Mojave mixed woody scrub covers much of the western Mojave Desert in the east, although grasslands may have existed at earlier times. Blue oak woodland, the most typical woodland in nearby areas of similar elevation, is limited to Tejon Canyon and slopes overlooking the semi-closed valley of Tejon Ranch in the central part of the western subregion. An extensive stand of valley oaks covers the hills between Tunis and El Paso creeks in the southwest. Canyon live oak stands are found on the headwaters of El Paso Creek. Mixed blue oak-grey pine woodland dominates the rugged lands north of the Tejon Ranch valley. Most remarkable are the extensive stands of black oak, found on north-facing slopes in each important westward-running stream valley in the region. Finally, pinyon woodland forms a skirt below the 4,600 feet level in the southern subregion.

Early Expedition References

Zalvidea 1806. The Moraga-Zalvidea party visited the Tejon Creek region during their 1806 exploration of the southern San Joaquin Valley. They arrived in the region on July 27, after spending the night at the Hometwali Yokuts village of Sisipistu at the east end of Kern Lake:

At 8:30 in the morning we left the village and went eastward. … We traveled about four leagues over arid, slightly grassy plains. Soon we entered a valley and after a further two leagues we established our camp with the intention of staying in it several days so as to explore the country, which merited some attention. … All this territory is similar in character to that around Mission San Gabriel. ….

All this territory is covered with a species of herb which has a little stem with a yellow flower, the stalk being no more than a quarter [of a yard] high. … There is also in the vicinity of this site a mountain range covered with pine forest. The place where we established camp is called Tupai. To the north of this range are several Indian villages, according to what they say [Zalvidea 1806 in Cook 1960:246].

Camp was established in the valley of Tejon and El Paso creeks and the later Tejon Ranch headquarters. The source of the name Tupai may have been Yokuts, but the party did have a Mission San Fernando interpreter with them who may have known the local name. When Zalvidea visited inhabited villages, he recorded aspects of their populations, so it is clear that no Indian people were living in the valley that week. People of the region may have been living on Comanche Creek in the north, but the comment about several villages probably refers to the Tehachapi Valley to the north, as well. The Moraga-Zalvidea party left the Tejon Creek region on July 31, 1806.

Mission Register References

To Be Developed.

1840-1910 Historical References

1851 Treaty Negotiations. US government commissioners treated with native groups of the Tejon Creek region and a wide surrounding area in 1851. The government party, led by Commissioner George Barbour, worked its way south down the San Joaquin Valley. On June 7 they passed from the Bakersfield region through the Kern Lake region to the area of the later Tejon Ranch headquarters:

This morning by 4 O’clock we were on the Road to El paso de Texon. After traveling about 35 miles under a blistering sun we arrived at the pass where we found good shade and water [Barbour in Hoopes 1930:249].

Leaders of 11 local tribes, representing 597 people, gathered to sign the treaty on June 10. Among those who gathered were "Vicente & Chico" of the Texon band of 80 people (Barbour in Hoopes 1930:250). Land pledged to the 11 combined groups stretched from the head of El Paso Creek down to Kern Lake and Buena Vista Lake in the San Joaquin Valley. The Texon band were the first to sign, led by Vicente and followed by Chico and four other men (Heizer 1972:39 [Treaty D]). For an analysis of the home locations of some of the other local tribes that signed the treaty that day, see Phillips (2004:36-37).

Classic Ethnographic References

Merriam 1905. Merriam gathered a large amount of information about the late nineteenth-century groups in the valley of Tejon Ranch, as well as about ethno-geography for the entire south San Joaquin valley environs, during a visit to the Tejon Ranch headquarters on Tejon Creek between Nov. 10 and 12, 1905. He identified six specific village locations within the Tejon Creek region, inhabited in the nineteenth century by people speaking five distinct languages (Kitenemuk Takic, Kawaiisu Numic, Valley Yokuts, Buena Vista Yokuts, and Emigdiano Chumash). Five of the villages were in the core area of the region, near El Paso and Tejon creeks. His published notes for the six village locations, somewhat difficult to interpret, are presented here by language group. We start with the Kitanemuk, whom Merriam (1967:429) called a "Serrano" tribe, reflecting their Takic language:

El Monte. Tribe, Ke’-tan-a-moo-kum or Ke-tah-nah-mwits (Mohinean). On present Tejon Canyon Creek two miles north or north-northeast of Tejon Ranch house…. It belonged to and as occupied solely by the Ak-ke-ke-tam tribe (commonly called Ham’-me-nat’). Their proper name for themselves appears to be Ke’tan-a-moo-kum. In their own language: The Place: Mum’-num-pe [Merriam 1967:431].

Merriam identified a "Tol-chin’ne" village in Tejon Canyon, some three miles up from "Mum’-num-pe." Circumstances and language relations indicate that the language was Kawaiisu:

Tejon Canyon Rancheria (Rancheria El Cañon). Tribe, Tol-chin’-ne (Chemeweve, Nuwuah). At mouth of present Tejon Canyon, five miles northeast of Tejon rancheria [sic]. Always a large rancheria … In their own language: The Place: Tol’-teu …. At present, and for some years past, this is the only rancheria in the Tejon-Bakersfield region [Merriam 1967:432].

Merriam identified a village belonging to the "Tin’lin-ne," a "Yokut tribe, same as Yowelmane" (Merriam 1967:430). In hindsight, it is clear that they were speakers of Valley Yokuts from the Bakersfield region. The village was on Tunis Creek, said by the local people to have been the original Tejon Creek:

Tejon Viejo (Old Tejon). Tribe, Tin’-lin-ne (Yokut). Three miles southwest of present Tejon Ranch house, on the creek next west of the creek which passes the Tejon ranch house. In 1856 it was an immense rancheria[,] Mrs. Rosemeyre tells me.

The tribe originally living at Tejon Viejo called themselves Tin’-lin-ne, from Tin’-leu the place (tin’-leu is their name for badger) [Merriam 1967:430].

He identified another "Tin’lin-ne" village on Ranch [El Paso] Creek, northeast of the first and one and a half miles west of the Tejon Ranch. He gave the name of the village and its people in the "Too-lol’-min" language; i.e., the Buenavista Yokuts language of the Tulamniu, suggesting that some people from there shared the village with the Yawelmani:

Caporal Monte. Tribe, Tin’-lin-ne (Yokut). In the small grove of cottonwoods where the lower ranch house … now is, a mile and a half below Gen. Beale’s adobe ranch house (headquarters). In the Too-lol’-min language: … The Place: Pal’-lew cha-pan’-na. The rancheria: Ah-kok’-e Pal’-lew cha-pan’-na [1967:431].

Merriam’s fifth core-area village was a Chumash village about three and a half or four miles southeast of Tejon Viejo, farther up Tunis Creek:

Las Tunas…. This was not an aboriginal rancheria but was established by a San Emigdio Indian … at the time when the Government was overcrowding the old rancherias by bringing in Indians from various quarters. It was inhabited by several tribes—Emigdio, Kastak, Yowelmanne, and perhaps others [1967:431].

In addition to the five core-area villages, Merriam (1967:432) documented another Tol-chin-ne’ (Kawaiisu) village in the north portion of the Tejon Creek region:

Comanche Creek Rancheria. Tribe, Tol-chin’-ne or Nuwuwah (Shoshonean). At foot of mountains at head of narrow valley (first creek and canyon northeast of Tejon Canyon). In Too-lol’min language: The place Ko’-koo’-kow.

The sum of Merriam’s collected information makes it clear that he was documenting the post-contact reservation phenomenon in the Tejon Creek region. He did not attempt to reconstruct the pre-reservation period.

Kroeber 1925. Kroeber split the Tejon Creek region between Yokuts and Kitanemuk speakers. He mapped the lowlands in the western subarea as Yawelmani Yokuts land as far into the hills as the Tejon Ranch headquarters, then assigned lands farther east and north to the Kitanemuk, including the entire Mojave Desert subregion (Kroeber 1925: Plates 1,47). In text he presented information, in agreement with Merriam, that the Yawelmani Yokuts lived at Tinliu:

They held Tinliu ("at the hole") on Paso Creek below the Tejon ranch house—perhaps the most southerly of all Yokuts settlements. This must have been a favorite abode, since it gave them the appellation Tinlinin, which … is still used as a synonym of Yauelmani [Kroeber 1925:482].

Kroeber discussed the Kitanemuk of the Tejon Creek region elsewhere in his Handbook:

The Kitanemuk lived on upper Tejon and Paso Creeks, whose lower courses are lost in the Yokuts plains before reaching Kern River. They held also the streams on the rear side of the Tehachapi Mountains in the same vicinity and the small creeks draining the northern slope of the Liebre and Sawmill Range, with Antelope Valley and the westernmost end of the Mohave Desert. The extent of their territorial claims in this case is not certain. The population perhaps resided more largely in the smaller San Joaquin part of the Kitanemuk area; the bulk of their territory was over the mountains in southern California [Kroeber 1925:611-612].

Note that the La Liebre and Sawmill ranges are to the south of the Tejon Creek region, across Antelope Valley (see Kroeber 1925: Plates 1, 47). Kroeber mapped a large swath of land along the southern edge of the Mojave Desert as Kitanemuk territory. Evidence for and against the presence of Kitanemuk-speaking family groups or bands in those areas are part of the discussions to be developed for the La Liebre, Fairmont, Leona Valley, and Palmdale regions of northern Los Angeles County (see Volume 12). Kroeber did document names for four Kitanemuk village locations in the Tejon Creek region, both in their "Serrano" language and in Yokuts:

A few Serrano place names have been reported. Their present principal village, where Tejon Creek breaks out of the hills, is Nakwali-ve, Yokuts Pusin-tinliu; Tejon ranch house on Paso Creek is Wuwopranha-ve, Yokuts Laikiu; below it lies Honewimats, Yokuts Tsuitsau; on Comanche Creek is Chivutpa-ve, Yokuts Sanchiu [Kroeber 1925:612].

Kroeber did recognize the complex mix of people living in the Tejon Creek area in the late nineteenth century. He wrote, "the former Tejon Reservation contained a little Babel of tribes" (1925:612). Nevertheless, he claims only two language groups (Valley Yokuts and Kitanemuk) had historic rights in the region, excluding the Buenavista Yokuts, Emigdiano Chumash, and Kawaiisu mentioned by Merriam as having had villages there.

Latta 1949, 1977. Latta identified the northern and central portions of the Tejon Creek region as having belonged originally to the Kitenemuk, specifically Tejon Creek upstream from Tejon Ranchos Headquarters, Bear Valley, Comanche Creek, and Cummings Valley. He also specified a Mojave Desert area, Willow Springs southwest of the town of Mojave, as having been Kitenamuk territory. "When asked for their tribal name, some aged Tejón Indians still would answer, ’Ah kik-ke tah-nim’, meaning, my tribe is Kitanemuk" (Latta 1949:40). In his 1977 edition, Latta added "as late as 1940" to the statement. Also in 1977 he added, "the quotation is partly Shoshone. The last word, nim, is Yokuts, meaning my or mine" (Latta 1977:271); that commentary was probably beyond his true expertise.

Latta noted the only active village in the Tejon Creek region during the 1920s, one that had been mentioned by Merriam as Tolteu and by Kroeber as Nakwali-ve or Pusin Tinliu: "A Kitanemuk village was located on Tejon Creek six miles northeast of Tejon Ranchos headquarters. It was named Tusin Tinliu. The site is now occupied by a settlement of Indians of mixed tribes" (Latta 1949:40).

Latta’s other names and locations, seemingly in the Kitenamuk language, were not known to Kroeber or Merriam. They are listed here as he published the information in 1949:

• Ahyah Kahbe ("Cottonwood"): A village on Tejon Creek where the Overland Stage Station was located
• Cheut: Village at the mouth of Comanche Creek [presumably Kroeber’s Chivutpa-ve]
• Ahbahvo Kahse: A village at the first canyon north of Comanche Creek [presumably Little Sycamore Canyon]
• Ahtuse: Village at the White Wolf Ranch [Google Maps Terrain View for August 2008 labels this ranch in the Caliente region, off of Highway 223 some 4 miles southwest of the town of Caliente]
• Cutset Ahobe: Tejon Canyon back of Tejon Ranch headquarters
• Kiets: Bear Mountain
• Hunah Vahmutch: Village where the Tejon Ranchos vaquero headquarters was located [probably Kroeber’s Wuwopranha-ve].

Additionally, Latta (1949:40) identified the village of Ahtuse, in the Caliente region to the north of the Tejon Creek region, as Pusin Kitanemuk.

Recent Ethnographic References

Blackburn and Bean 1978. Blackburn and Bean (178:564) agree with the summary conclusion of this monograph that the entire Tejon Creek region was territory of the Kitanemuk; they state, "Precise data on village locations, demographic characteristics, and political organization can no longer be obtained." Nevertheless, they map a village called "Nakwalki-vi" in the heart of the region. Curiously, and probably incorrectly, they also give the heart of the Caliente Creek region to the north to the Kitenemuk; they map the Kitanemuk village of "Hihikeave" there on Caliente Creek. Their conclusions are primarily based upon their interpretation of the Fort Tejon field notes of J.P. Harrington (Blackburn and Bean 1978:569).

Wallace 1978. Wallace (1978:448) mapped the western portion of the Tejon Creek region as land of Yokuts-speaking people, following Kroeber’s 1925 Handbook. He placed the historic Yokuts-speaking village of Tinliu in the region [Wallace 1978:Figure 1, item 37], again following Kroeber. Wallace (1978) offered no original data on the contact-period people of the Tejon Creek region.