Chemehuevi#language

"Chemehuevi" has multiple interpretations. It is considered to either be a Mojave term meaning "those who play with fish;"[http://www.chemehuevi.net Chemehuevi Indian Tribe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122191138/http://www.chemehuevi.net/ |date=22 January 2017 }}. Retrieved 1 March 2010. or a Quechan word meaning "nose-in-the-air-like-a-roadrunner."Pritzker 23 The Chemehuevi call themselves Nüwüvi ("The People", singular Nüwü){{Cite web|url=http://www.chemehuevi.net/History.html |title=History |work=Chemehuevi Indian Tribe |access-date=2007-03-29 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070911134710/http://www.chemehuevi.net/History.html |archive-date = 11 September 2007}}{{Cite web|url=http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/elzingad/chemehuevi_dictionary/ |title=An Online Chemehuevi Dictionary |author=Elzinga, Dirk |access-date=2007-03-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071205030043/http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/elzingad/chemehuevi_dictionary/ |archive-date=5 December 2007 |url-status=dead }} or Tantáwats, meaning "Southern Men." Alternate spellings of Chemehuevi include Chemeguab and Chemegueb.{{cite book |last1=Barnes |first1=Thomas C. |last2=Naylor |first2=Thomas H. |last3=Polzer |first3=Charles W. |title=Northern New Spain: A Research Guide |publisher=University of Arizona |url=https://open.uapress.arizona.edu/read/northern-new-spain-a-research-guide/section/1f21260b-5632-4c85-a79f-dde8198f2c5c |access-date=10 May 2024}}

Their language, Chemehuevi, is a Colorado River Numic language, in the Numic language branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. First transcribed by John P. Harrington and Carobeth Laird in the early 20th century, it was studied in the 1970s by linguist Margaret L. Press.Margaret L. Press, [http://www.chemehuevilanguage.org/Chemehuevi.pdf Chemehuevi: A Grammar and Lexicon], University of California Press, 1979 whose field notes and extensive sound recordings remain available.Mary Hanks Molino, Oral History (in Chemehuevi), sound recording at http://www.chemehuevilanguage.org The language is now near extinction;{{Cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ute |title=Ute-Southern Paiute |publisher=Ethnologue |access-date=2007-03-29}} during the filming of Ironbound Films' 2008 American documentary film The Linguists, linguists Greg Anderson and K. David Harrison interviewed and recorded one of the last 3 remaining speakers.

In 2015, the Siwavaats Junior College in Havasu Lake, California, was established to teach children the language. A Chemehuevi dictionary with 2,500 words was expected to become available in 2016.{{Cite web|title = Learning the language: The tribe is working to have more children learn Chemehuevi as few adults speak it fluently|url = http://www.havasunews.com/learning-the-language-the-tribe-is-working-to-have-more/article_460e3396-341c-11e5-bf91-2f846cd0d8ae.html|access-date = 2015-10-03|first = Kevin|last = Baird| date=27 July 2015 |publisher = Havasu News-Herald}}

Image:Chemehuevi.jpg

The Chemehuevi were originally a desert tribe among the Southern Paiute group. Post-contact, they lived primarily in the eastern Mojave Desert and later Cottonwood Island in Nevada and 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. They are most closely identified as among the Great Basin Indians. Among others they are 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.Laird, p. 4

Image:Chemehuevi boy.png]]

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, and Kawaiisu as 1,500. The combined estimate in 1910 dropped to 500.Kroeber (1925:883) An Indian agent reported the Chemehuevi population in 1875 to be 350.Clemmer and Stewart (1986:539) Kroeber estimated U.S. census data put the Chemehuevi population in 1910 as 355.Leland (1986:612) Population as of 2016 is in the thousands.

• Howaits (Hokwaits, lived in the Ivanpah Mountains, called Ivanpah Mountain Group)
• Kauyaichits (lived in the area of Ash Meadows, called Ash Meadows Group)
• Mokwats (lived in the Kingston Mountains, called Kingston Mountain Group)
• Moviats (Movweats, lived on Cottonwood Island, called Cottonwood Island Group)
• Palonies ({{in lang|es}} "the bald-headed", traveled to the area north of Los Angeles)
• Shivawach (one group of them lived at Twentynine Palms, the second one in Chemehuevi Valley)
• Tümplsagavatsits (Timpashauwagotsits, lived in the Providence Mountains, therefore called Providence Mountain Group)
• Yagats (lived in the Amargosa Valley and along the Amargosa River, called Amargosa River Group)

• Chemehuevi traditional narratives
• Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas

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{{Reflist}}

• Clemmer, Richard O., and Omer C. Stewart. 1986. "Treaties, Reservations, and Claims". In Great Basin, edited by Warren L. d'Azevedo, pp. 525–557. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 11. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• Grant, Bruce. 2000. Concise Encyclopedia of the American Indian. 3rd ed. Wings Books, New York.
• Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.
• Laird, Carobeth. 1976. The Chemehuevis. Malki Museum Press, Banning, California.
• Leland, Joy. 1986. "Population". In Great Basin, edited by Warren L. d'Azevedo, pp. 608–619. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 11. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
• Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. {{ISBN|978-0-19-513877-1}}.

{{Commons category|Chemehuevi}}

• [http://www.crit-nsn.gov/ Official Colorado River Indian Tribes website]
• [http://www.chemehuevi.net Official Chemehuevi Indian Tribe of the Chemehuevi Reservation website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122191138/http://www.chemehuevi.net/ |date=22 January 2017 }} – in San Bernardino County, California.
• [http://www.chemehuevilanguage.org Chemehuevi Language Archive, 1970s Fieldwork and Analysis by Margaret L. Press]

{{Indigenous peoples of California}}

{{Indigenous People of AZ}}

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Category:Colorado River tribes

Category:Indigenous peoples of California

Category:Native American tribes in Arizona

Category:History of the Mojave Desert region

Category:Mojave Desert

Category:Uto-Aztecan peoples