The Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians of California is a
federally recognized tribe of
Mono Native Americans. Cold Springs Rancheria is the tribe's reservation, which is located in
Fresno County, California
Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Ca ...
.
[Pritzker, 137] As of the
2010 Census the population was 184.
Culture
The Cold Springs tribe is composed of Western Mono Indians, whose traditional homeland is in the southern
Sierra Nevada foothills of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. The
Mono language is part of the
Uto-Aztecan language family.
Acorns are a traditional staple food with great symbolic importance. Their oral history is included in
Mono traditional narratives Mono traditional narratives include myths, legends, tales, and oral histories preserved by the Mono people, including the Owens Valley Paiute east of the Sierra Nevada and the Monache on that range's western slope, in present-day eastern Californi ...
.
Government
They ratified their current tribal constitution on April 11, 1970 and last amended it in 2001.
[Constitution and Bylaws of the Cold Springs Rancheria.]
(retrieved 24 July 2009) Their Tribal Council is democratically elected and includes a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Secretary-Treasurer and three Council Members. Additionally all tribal members 18 years old or older form a voting General Council.
[
]
Enrollment
Tribal enrollment to the Cold Springs Rancheria is limited to those members listed on the 1960 Plan for Distribution of Assets of the Cold Springs Rancheria roles and their lineal descendants that have a blood quantum
Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States that define Native American status by fractions of Native American ancestry. These laws were enacted by the federal government and state governments as a way to estab ...
of at least one-quarter degree of Californian Indian blood.[ Approximately 159 to 193 people lived on the Cold Springs Rancheria, and there are 265 to 275 enrolled members of the tribe.][Pritzker, 136-7][California Indians and Their Reservations.]
''SDSU Library and Information Access.'' (retrieved 24 July 2009)
Reservation
The Cold Springs Rancheria occupies in Sycamore Valley, located east of Fresno, California
Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...
. The lands are close to Tollhouse, California, where the tribe is headquartered.[
]
Mono tribes
Other federally recognized Mono tribes are the Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation
The Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans. The Tule River Reservation is located in Tulare County, California. The reservation was made up of Yokuts, about 200 Yowlumne, Wukchu ...
, the Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono Indians of California,
Education
The ranchería is served by the Sierra Unified School District.
Notes
References
* Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
External links
Constitution and Bylaws of the Cold Springs Rancheria
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cold Springs Rancheria Of Mono Indians Of California
Mono tribe
Native American tribes in California
Federally recognized tribes in the United States