This article is part of
Wilderness Way
VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4.
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Meet the Tataviam
by Christopher Nyerges
Photos by Dude McLean
It was a cool winter night as Rudy Ortega, Jr. arrived at the Southwest Museum, located on top of a bluff in the hilly Highland Park section of Los Angeles. Ortega entered the research library to speak to the small gathering, who were eager to hear Ortega speak about his people, the Tataviam...
Ortega was neatly dressed in a black T-shirt, jeans, cowboy boots, and a silver bear medallion around his neck. He is the son of the chief of the Tataviam, Rudy Ortega, Sr., also known as Standing Bear. We learned that the bear is a key totem to the Tataviam.
Rudy spoke of the history of his people before the Spanish
priests established the San Fernando Mission in the heart of
their territory. He talked of his traditional neighbors, the
Serrano to the east, the Gabrielino to the southeast (who
occupied much of Los Angeles County), and the Chumash to the
west (who occupied much of Santa Barbara County). He spoke
of the work he does today to provide food and housing
assistance to needy Tataviam.
In the course of the evening, Ortega told a story about his father, who was once told that the Tataviam people were extinct. "Then who am I?" boomed Ortega, Sr. (who claims to be one of only six pureblood Tataviam left). Ortega, Jr. went on to explain the situation-when the Tataviam were driven north to Fort Tejon in 1865, and eventually left of their own accord in 1870. Years later, when the BIA saw that there were no more of the Tataviam at the Fort, they declared the land uninhabited, the Tataviam. extinct, and sold the land to the El Tejon Corporation.
According to anthropologist Chester King, the Tataviam are clearly not extinct. "The only thing extinct about the Tataviam is their language," says King. Rudy Ortega, Sr. pointed out that young Indian children were punished if they spoke their language. (This was generally the case all across the United States on reservation lands.) This was just one element of the "forced assimilation" that many Indian children were subject to, which led to not only loss of language, but loss of culture, and loss of their own social cohesion. And it is that loss of social cohesion that makes it very difficult to "prove" one's tribal identity.
Official Federal recognition has eluded the Tataviam. The Federal government allows two methods that a tribe can obtain Federal recognition. One is through an act of Congress. The second method is for a tribe to petition the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and demonstrate that it meets the following seven criteria:
1. Demonstrate that it has been identified on a continuing basis as an American Indian tribe from historical times to the present.
2. Demonstrate that it has been a distinct community from first contact with Europeans to the present.
3. Demonstrate that it has been an autonomous entity, maintaining political influence or authority over its members, since historical times.
4. Present some form of a tribal constitution.
5. Present a list of members of the tribe (who are descendants of the historical tribe).
6. Provide evidence that the membership does not consist of members who are counted as members of other tribes.
7. Show that the group is not the subject of any Congressional legislation that either terminates recognition or expressly forbids it.
Currently, different Tataviam individuals are working in different areas to obtain federal recognition.
Chester King pointed out that the Tataviam are certainly related to, but not identical with, the neighboring Gabrielinos. He pointed out that there are linguistic similarities between the dialects of the Gabrielinos and Tataviam, but the two are distinctly different. King believes that the original Tataviam language is largely lost today. The Tataviam people have also been known as the Fernandenos, after the San Fernando Mission. Indeed, the mission was built there precisely because these people were there.
The neighbors to the southeast were called the Gabrielinos, now known as the Tongva. The traditional Tongva territory was the city of Pasadena, and most of the San Gabriel Valley. (Some divide the Tongva into the eastern and western branches). To the west were the Chumash, and to the east were the Serrano Indians. These four distinct groups shared many cultural and linguistic traits and also inter-married. Records indicate that the Tataviam married with Serrano and with Chumash, but generally not with Tongva.
King stated that though these were four distinct groups with their own dialects, customs, and sacred places, they all began to intermarry once the Mission system was established. "The mission at San Fernando had all four of these ethnic groups," said King. "When spouses died, they remarried others from the mission. And over time, the clear lines back to the four groups really did not exist anymore. A great many of the Indians from the San Fernando Mission had roots of all four of these ancestors-Chumash, Tataviam, Serrano, Tongva. "
Ortega, Jr. and I met a few months later in San Fernando to visit one of the Tataviam sites. By chance, as we met at the Tataviam office, we met his father. Chief Rudy Ortega, Sr. is a big bear of a man, wearing his bear totem at his neck. Open-eyed and eager, he shared with us a few stories of his people, as he pulled out various news clippings from the years past, detailing their quest for federal recognition.
Then we drove to a canyon north of San Fernando, located adjacent to the Interstate 5 freeway, just a short distance from the popular Magic Mountain amusement park. It had been a hot and dry day. But as we walked into the narrow side canyon, a cool breeze flowed from the west. It felt good. We could see that the canyon had burned in the previous season's wildfires that swept through many parts of southern California. The oaks were all blackened. The streamside willows had been burnt to the ground and were now sprouting back up. The stream was dry, and tall grasses swayed in the breeze.
We
viewed several plants along the trail, which had grown up
after the fire, plants that had been used in the old days.
Acorns from the oaks were leached and used as meal. Wild
buckwheat seeds were gathered and eaten. Yerba santa and
mugwort leaves were used for their medicine. White sage was
used for medicine and ceremonies. Mulefat, growing along the
trail with its long straight shoots, was used in the old
days for arrow shafts. Most of the plant uses and skills of
the Tataviam were the same as practiced by the Chumash,
Serrano, and Gabrielino.
Ortega
seemed more relaxed now, as if he was more in his element
here among the oak woodland and riparian environment. He
shared stories of taking school children into this canyon to
learn about the ways his people lived in the pre-Mission
days. "But why are you dressed like that?" one child asked
Ortega.
He laughed as he recalled the incident. "Some third graders still believe that all Indians lived in tipis and still wear traditional clothing. But that idea is changing," he added.
"What's that over there?" I ask, pointing to the flat area with all the large rocks overlooking the stream.
Ortega looked at me and smiled."That's the village site," he explained, as we walked over to explore it in more detail. We surmised that the stream must have changed course many times over the past centuries, which likely would have affected the relative size of this particular village.
Ortega added that all the Tataviam put together probably numbered no more than about 5,000 in the old days. An average village may have contained anywhere from 100 to 300 people. "There are about 1,000 of us today," he said, "and it's a good turnout if we get 100 folks for an event."
We
walked deeper into the canyon, eventually coming to a hidden
cave up on a rocky hillside that Ortega said was used by men
to do fasts. Inside the cave were tally markers-some
somewhat recent, at least one appeared to be quite old and
made of red ochre. Ortega said that a man fasting might make
four tally marks per day to denote special events, and the
large tally marker that consisted of about 45 slashes, would
have indicated a fast of about 11 days.
Paul Campbell, author of Survival Skills of Native California, also visited this canyon and found good specimens of red ochre lying on the surface throughout the area. "Some of the best yellow ochre that I've ever seen is here at this site," he commented. Campbell is currently working on a new book about the natural pigments used by Native people. Ochre (the red and the yellow) was one of the most prized of the natural pigments. Campbell has lectured at the famous Southwest Museum in Los Angeles on the various natural pigments used in the old days, with ochre being the most notable.
The Tataviam currently commemorate four main ceremonies each year, corresponding to the solstices and equinoxes. Only the summer solstice is closed to the general public. Today, members still do sweats, typically in private gatherings in backyards. Ortega, Jr. works to follow in the footsteps of his father. As the administrative director of the Tataviam tribe, he assists with schooling, mentoring, and anti-gang and anti-alcohol programs. (There is a total prohibition against alcoholic beverages by the Tataviam).
