Everything about The Chemehuevi totally explained
The
Chemehuevi are a
Native American tribe who presently live with the
Mohave in and near the
Colorado River Reservation in
Arizona. The tribe also lives with the
Paiutes on various California reservations. "Chemehuevi" is a
Mojave name applied to them; the Chemehuevi call themselves
Nüwüwü ("The People", singular
Nüwü). Their language, Chemehuevi, now considered by most linguists to be a dialect of the
Ute language, is near extinction.
History and traditional culture
The Chemehuevi were originally a desert tribe among the
Numu or
Paiute-Shoshone nations. Post-contact, they lived primarily in the eastern
Mojave Desert and later the
Chemehuevi Valley along the
Colorado River in
California. They were a nomadic people living in small groups given the sparse resources available in the desert environment. Carobeth Laird indicates their traditional territory spanned the
High Desert from the
Colorado River on the east to the
Tehachapi Mountains on the west and from the
Las Vegas area and
Death Valley on the north to the
San Bernardino and
San Gabriel Mountains in the south. Throughout the ages, their traditional ancestral territory has spanned three states:
Arizona,
California and
Nevada. They are most closely identifed as among the
Great Basin Indians. Among others they're cousins of the
Kawaiisu. (Laird 1976)
The most comprehensive collection of Chemehuevi history, culture and mythology was gathered by
Carobeth Laird (1895-1983) and her second husband, George Laird, one of the last Chemehuevi to have been raised in the traditional culture. Carobeth Laird, a linguist and ethnographer, wrote a comprehensive account of the culture and language as George Laird remembered it, and published their collaborative efforts in her 1976
The Chemehuevis, the first and, to date, only ethnography of the Chemehuevi traditional culture.
Describing the Chemehuevi as she knew them, and presenting the texture of traditional life amongst the people, Carobeth Laird writes:
The Chemehuevi character is made up of polarities which are complementary rather than contradictory. They are loquacious yet capable of silence; gregarious yet so close to the earth that single families or even men alone might live and travel for long periods away from other human beings; proud, yet capable of a gentle self-ridicule. They are conservative to a degree, yet insatiably curious and ready to inquire into and even to adopt new ways: to visit all tribes, whether friends or enemies; to speak strange tongues, sing strange songs, and marry strange wives. [P.4] |
Population
Estimates for the
pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially.
Alfred L. Kroeber estimated the combined
1770 population of the Chemehuevi,
Koso (Western Shoshone), and
Kawaiisu as 1,500, and the combined population of the Chemehuevi, Koso (Western Shoshone), and Kawaiisu in
1910 as 500. An Indian agent reported the Chemehuevi population in
1875 to be 350. Kroeber estimated U.S. Census data put the Chemehuevi population in
1910 as 355.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chemehuevi'.
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