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Serrano People [page] edits

1. Add Culture Header
2. Add History Subheader [s]
3. Add Archaeology Sub Subheader
4. Add Modern-Day Subheader
   1. Excavations of two pre-historic quarries in the Mojave indicate the lifestyles of early Serrano and Serrano-Predecessors. The quarries, dating back to the pleistocene, indicate a much wetter landscape present in the desert than exists today. The high number of hunting tools indicate that groups in this area were mostly mobile hunter groups during the Pleistocene. Conversely, holocene artifacts found at these quarries indicate a year-long occupation and a combination of foraging and hunting for sustenance. Materials harvested at the sites suggest high use of stone tools such as grinding stones. Lithic artifacts found in the Central Mojave suggest high exploitation of stone quarries.
   2. Due to the cultural suppression which occurred during the Mission Period, there was one remaining Shaman (hümtc) who revived religious ceremonies nearly lost to time in the early 1900s, as documented by anthropologist and ethnographer Ruth F. Benedict. Ceremonies such as the tuwituaim [dance] revive not only Serrano religious and spiritual practices, but communal and familial practices as well. Spiritual practices followed by female practioners are often associated with the pursuit of good health, such as the hot sand pit. Women practiced health rituals to rid themselves of bad energy associated with taboo, such as menstruation periods.
   3. The modern Band of Mission Indians is maintaining ancient trade relations with local Californian groups such as the Yurok. San Manuel Public Relations Manager, Jenna Brady, believes that these ancient trade relations should be maintained to both stimulate cultural growth and to stimulate economic security for indigenous Californian groups. The tribe is currently analysing prospects of new and ongoing inter-tribal relations, based on historic trade relations.
   4. There is significant historic documentation of trade between Serrano peoples, other, non-Serrano indigenous groups, and the Spanish in California during the 18th and 19th centuries. Diary accounts of trade from Franciscans, as well as oral accounts from Natives on the trade occurring during this time discuss Serrano “exploitation” of the Mojave River, and its use to efficiently trade both food and beads.
   5. Coastal California groups traded shell beads and asphaltum to Southwestern groups, such as and including the Serrano, for ceramics and textiles. Coastal shell beads and shell jewelry are frequently found in pre-modern Southwestern burial sites. The traded materials are treated as “prestige goods” due to the contexts in which they are currently found by archaeologists and other researchers, indicating a healthy trade economy. The power of Indigenous trade relations hindered Spanish Colonial forces from regulating [taxing] “neophytes” and hinterland natives. Textiles woven by Southwestern groups were extremely valuable to Coastal groups, and historical accounts describe the long distance trade of these textiles through Mojave desert traders.
   6. Increased moisture during the “Rose Spring” period [1700 bp- 1000bp] is closely correlated with continuous indigenous occupation of the Western Mojave, followed by an abandonment of the area during a subsequent drought.
   7. The Serrano are typically divided into the Mountain Serrano and the Desert Serrano.
   8. The Desert Serrano historically occupied the Western and Central Mojave Desert along the Mojave River. The Mojave River Region begins in the San Bernardino Mountains and provided ease of trading access between the Serrano and other Indigenous groups, including the Mojave.
   9. Louis Leakey claims that sites within the Serrano territory, such as the "Calico" site, are proof of human occupation in the Americas as far as 50,000 bp. Both contemporary and modern scholars find these claims to be dubious at best, although the site does hold promising artifacts and features which have been dated to the Pliestocene.
   10. The earliest period of occupation at this site accepted by most scholars is known as the Lake Mojave period, which dates 12,000 bp - 7,000 bp. Sites from this period are marked by the presence of Silver Lake projectile points and Lake Mojave projectile points, compared to similar sites in the Southwest, which are often marked by the presence of Clovis Points.
   11. During the Gypsum period, subsistence strategies shifted to rely more on hunting, and early Desert Serrano adapted the bow and arrow. A much cooler and moister environment meant intensified occupation of the area.
   12. The first Takic speakers are speculated to have arrived in the area around the Shoshonean Period, around 1100 CE. These are thought to be the ancestors of the modern day Serrano groups.
   13. The area of the Mojave Desert now and historically occupied by the Serrano used to have many oases, while it is now much drier and warmer.
   14. In 1819, Serrano were relocated to estancia throughout southern California, such as the Asistencia in Redlands, California. The Serrano built Mill Creek Zanja here, an irrigation system which provided water for most of the region.
       

Settlement of the Americas [page] edits

1. Additions to "Interior Route"
   1. There are many pre-Clovis sites in the American Southwest, particularly in the Mojave Desert. Lake Mojave quarries dating back to the Pleistocene [ 12,000 bp - 7,000 bp ] hold lithic remains of Silver Lake projectile points and Lake Mojave projectile points. This indicates an interior movement into the region as early as 12,000 bp, if not earlier.

   2. 

      1953 excavation of jasper projectile points from Deep Creek, Lake Mojave.