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Hawk Shadow
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Title
Hawk Shadow
Collection Guide (External)
Created Date
June 9th, 2017
Published Date
July 8th, 2017
Description
Acjachemen (Juaneño) tribal member, David Avitia, presents some examples of Acjachemen accessories, weapons, and traditional currency and discusses contemporary tribal cultural events and the historical dilution of traditional native languages. Recorded at Blas Aguilar Adobe
San Juan Capistrano, California.
San Juan Capistrano, California.
Transcript
When the Spanish got here, it was not appropriate to be Indian. Like, when my mom went to school and my grandparents went to school, you weren't allowed to speak Indian. At home, my granddad would - and grandmother - would speak Indian to the kids, my aunts and uncles, and mom, and would - they would, in turn, speak Spanish, or English, back to them. So, that's kind of how they washed out the language. There are some wax cylinders at the Smiithsonian, that they have of one of the ancestors speaking our language, but that was pretty much the last that was a fluent speakerof the language.
Text: "Are you involved with cultural revival efforts?"
I'd say that the gatherings we would have, or the cultural events we would have, have tapered off because unfortunately they can't separate - some of the families can't separate the government recognition process with the family process. So, some are like, "Well, I'm just not - we don't talk to them anymore", or, "we don't see them anymore;" so, a lot of the different cultural events we would normally have as a big group are now broken into three different groups, having different times of the year.
We do have the summer and winter solstice here at the Blas, just in the field to our south here, where we have the summer and winter solstice ceremonies, stuff like that. Gathering. We have gatherings for reunions, where some of the different groups will come, some don't. Like I said, it's become a real point of contention. And we would like to - I know 'Mingo and Matt [Belardes], some of the other guys have talked about trying to start a peon [?] game here in the field. You know, try to get some of that going, you know, to try to get some of the youth, the younger kids, interested in it. You know, regardless of particular group. You know, just to get them involved.
Being, like I said, being my name, Hawk Shadow, I‚ve always been more interested in the birds of prey. Raptors, stuff like that. And at one point, I did find a red tailed hawk that I wanted to preserve to get different items for different uses; for regalia, ceremonies, gifts for different family members, stuff like that.
This is actually a lance that my uncle, an archeologist, actually found in a cave here, back in the Mission Viejo area. What the Native Americans would do is, after a battle, or if they found a sword or ‚Äì usually, the cavalry swords depending on which one it was ‚Äì what they would do is take the scabbard off, the hilt off because it had a thin metal shaft that they would put into ‚Äì the hilt ‚Äì what they would do is they would get a long, straight pole, split it down, insert the hilt piece into the spear, and then lash it together. And then, all of a sudden, you have a sword that‚s become a spear; something easier to throw longer distance, depending on what animal you‚re going after, or person.
Drying these for different items. This would be more for, like, say, the top of a staff, a koo [?] staff; I'm not sure if anybody mentioned those. Some of the warriors wouldn't - if they went into battle - wouldn't use a spear. They would use what‚s called a koo [?] staff. If they were very prestigious warriors, if they would meet in battle and not have that staff with them, they would stop. They would hold off the battle until they went to go get it because it had preceded ‚Äì the name of that koo [?] staff had preceded them. That‚s how they would battle. With the staff instead of actual weaponry ‚Äì knives, bows, spears.
A lot of the coastal tribes, the Tongva, us, would use shells from the coastline as currency because the inland tribes didn't have access to these types of shells. They had access to obsidian, other types of shells that we didn't have access to. So, in a barter system, we would use them as currency. But yeah, these are what we‚d use for jewelry, ear rings, currency.
But they would gather reeds from the creeks here, all the different creeks, bundle them together into long pieces, long cylinders and then get those pieces, those cylinders and tie them all together to make a boat. A long canoe. We would use local tar from the area to tar the bottoms of ‘em. But yeah, us, the Tongva – they actually have a very large collection of boats up there that they would use. And they actually do – I think they do an excursion every year to Catalina – or not Catalina, but the Channel Islands. But yeah, we would run fishing all along the coastline, diving for abalone, diving for these.
Creators and Contributors
Creator:
Orange County Public Libraries
Interviewer: Enos, Lee
Contributor: California Humanities
Camera: Reyes, Steven
Interviewee: Avitia, David
Interviewer: Enos, Lee
Contributor: California Humanities
Camera: Reyes, Steven
Interviewee: Avitia, David
Subject Topic
Subject Entity
Genre
Spatial Coverage
Language
Media Type
Format
mp4
Extent
1
File
Generation
Copy
Color or Black and White
Color
Silent or Sound
Sound
Copyright Statement
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This item may be used for non-commercial and educational purposes.
The opinions expressed in OC Stories do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of OC Public Libraries or its partners and no official endorsement should be inferred.
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Music and sound in accordance with fair use and Creative Commons [ http://creativecommons.org ].
Country of Creation
United States
Contributing Organization
Contributing Organization Contact Information
Email: ocstories@occr.ocgov.com
Phone: 714-566-3055
Phone: 714-566-3055
Organization Websites
Link to Internet Archive
Additional Technical Notes for Item
Original file was named calhum18_David Ativia1.mp4, which was renamed corcl_000094_prsv.mp4. An access file was produced from it and named corcl_000094_access.mov.