Meet “Sweet.” Or, a “Tule Swaying in the Wind.” Or, “Morning Star.” Poetry, beauty, and imagination are found in the names of traditional Luiseño clans that Native American Elders shared with anthropologists more than 100 years ago.
Here are a few, found in William Duncan Strong’s classic, Aboriginal Society in Southern California.1
Location given by W.D. Strong: “Saboba”
Litcic.*2 Slipping.
Amurax.* Curled, as the leaves of a plant from the heat.
Yulotcuwat.* Morning Star.
Location: Pechanga
Teauwi.* To chase or scare up game. “(Also represented at Rincon. Gifford.)”
Atatci.* Bark of a Tree.
Kocak.* Sweet.
Wavic.* People piling food for fiesta.
Cahama.* In the White Willows.
Totmani.* Rolling Stone.
Tosamal.* A small plant with yellow flowers “(Baeria gracilis).”
[Editor’s note: A search of the USDA PLANTS Database shows us that this appears to be a variety of California Goldfields.]
California Goldfields in Antelope Valley (Dawn Endico Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Location: Aguanga
Atōla. Root.
Aīyal. Poison Oak.
Location: San Luis Rey
Atuulu.* A plant growing abundantly.
Towic.* Ghost.
Pevesañahoiket.* Tule swaying in wind.
Totomal.* Small Stone.
Saume.* Sound of Sea Shell at Ear.
Location: Pala
Teorī.* To Roll.
Sokisla.* To Live Forever.
Pevēsesh. Tule.
Teehaīa. The Pleiades. “(Said to be related to the Nasikut clan at Aguanga.)”
The Pleiades, Photo © Raul Villaverde Fraile, via NASA
Location: Rincon
Tcevic. Breaking by Pulling.
Location: La Jolla
Sūvic. Rustling.
Akī. Hole in the Ground.
Pakut. Deep Basket.
Lukutcic. Mosquito. [Marked by W.D. Strong as “extinct.”]
Thanks for exploring these names today with News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. For more clan names, see William Duncan Strong’s Aboriginal Society in Southern California.
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Strong, William Duncan, Aboriginal Society in Southern California, (reprint from Berkeley, Calif., University of California Press, 1929. Series: Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, v. 26.), 1972, Malki Museum Press, Table 29, pp. 276-278.
William Duncan Strong wrote in a footnote: “This list includes many family names, or nicknames, as well as those of the clans or ceremonial and political units. The modern [circa 1920s] sites under which they are grouped merely indicate the general locality of each in late historic times. … Clan names marked with asterisk, from [anthropologist Edward] Gifford.”