By Ken Brafman, Image from the ROWHS Collection
TITLE: SERRANOS ON THE MOUNTAIN: The Serrano arrived approximately 2,500 years ago, are indigenous to California, and were a branch of the Takic-speaking people. They call themselves Taaqtam, meaning ‘people’; Maarrênga’yam, ‘people from Morongo’; and Yuhaaviatam, ‘people of the pines.’ They lived part-time in the San Bernardino Mountains and in other transverse (east/west) ranges, as well as the southern Mojave Desert within California. Serrano means ‘highlander’ or ‘mountaineer’ in Spanish and the name was largely created by Spanish missionaries in the late 18th century. The name helped distinguish them from neighboring tribes in the area. The founding of the first mission in 1771, San Gabriel Arcangel, began the claiming of Serrano lands by the Spanish, leading up to a revolt in 1812 against the Spanish practice of ‘Indian reductions,’ joined by the Cahuilla and Quechan tribes. In 1834 the Mexican Alta California government forcibly relocated many Serrano to the missions, where they suffered devastating smallpox outbreaks in 1840 and 1860. In 1867 the Yuhaviatam Serranos were the victims of an alleged massacre carried out over 32 days by valley settlers at Chimney Rock, which is thought to have been the result of a raid the Indians had carried out against a white settlement in Little Bear Valley. Tribal leader Santos Manuel led his people down the mountain to safety and established what is now the San Manuel Indian Reservation. The Serranos were a peaceful people who returned to the mountain every spring to enjoy the cooler weather and plentiful acorn crop. At our Mountain History Museum in Lake Arrowhead the Serranos are featured prominently in our mountain timeline. This week’s image shows examples of metates, which are hollows in bedrock used by the native women to grind acorns and other grain using a mano, or pestle. The photo is of the metates at nearby Rock Camp via the Metate Trail at Highway 173 just north of Grass Valley Road – an easy, family-friendly hike.