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Puhú (''Payómkawichum'': “its arrow place”) was a major residential village in the Santa Ana Mountains shared by the Tongva,
Several archaeological excavations of Puhú were conducted from the 1930s onward and found that it featured "17 bedrock milling/
Re-Assembling Radical Indigenous Autonomy in the Alta California Hinterlands : Survivance at Puhú.
�� Dissertation Stanford University. Stanford University. As a result, this memorialization urged interest in excavation of the area. From 1936-1937, the village site was poorly excavated by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which took 200kg of artifacts from the site without cataloguing or analyzing them. The artifacts were spread throughout various museums, while others were cast off as too fragmented to preserve or study. The WPA mischaracterized the village as a small hunting and acorn-processing camp, rather than a large village.Acebo, Nathan P. 2021. “Survivance Storytelling in Archaeology.” In The Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas, edited by Lee M. Panich and Sara L. Gonzalez, 468–85. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429274251. The narrative of the villagers memorialized has since been critiqued based on in-depth research, both in relation to the size of the village and the activities of the villagers. The claim that villagers were consuming horse flesh has been identified as a common trope promoted by Spanish colonial authorities, particularly in the
Puhú (''Payómkawichum'': “its arrow place”) was a major residential village in the Santa Ana Mountains shared by the Tongva, Acjachemen
The Acjachemen (, alternate spelling: Acagchemem) are an Indigenous people of California. They historically lived south of what is known as Aliso Creek and north of the Las Pulgas Canyon in what are now the southern areas of Orange County and t ...
, Payómkawichum, and Serrano near Santiago Peak. The village resided approximately 600m above sea level in the upper areas of the Black Star Canyon
Black Star Canyon is a remote mountain canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains, located in eastern Orange County, California. It is a watershed of the Santa Ana River. Black Star Canyon is a popular destination for mountain bikers as well as hikers du ...
. The village was at its height from the years 1220-1770. The village retained its multi-seasonal occupancy and economic and political systems up until its destruction and a communal massacre in 1832.
The Puhú site is listed as a California Historical Landmark as the ''Black Star Canyon Indian Village Site'', registered in 1935 and named after the Black Star Coal Mining Company that operated in the area in the late nineteenth century. The village site is north of the town of Silverado Silverado may refer to:
Places
*Silverado, California, United States, an unincorporated community
*Silverado Canyon, Orange County, California, near the above community; associated with Silverado Creek
* Silverado Trail, a scenic route in Napa V ...
.
Village life
Several archaeological excavations of Puhú were conducted from the 1930s onward and found that it featured "17 bedrock milling/rock art
In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...
features surrounding a single mounded habitation midden
A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...
." The nearby Tongva village of Pamajam was located near Puhú in a meadow in a small valley with a body of water and marsh, or ''cinega'', with a view of the Channel Islands. San Gabriel Mission records referred to Christian converts of this village as Pamaibit, which was derived from the word ''pa'ajvar'', meaning "above." This village was located near what is now referred to as Corona, California
Corona (Spanish for "Crown") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 157,136, up from 152,374 at the 2010 census. The cities of Norco and Riverside lie to the north and north ...
.
For meat supply, the village primarily subsisted on mule deer. Other animals, such as bears, ravens, and mountain lions were not consumed, likely because of their position as "animal ancestors/deities within Chinigchinich religion." Shell ornaments were likely an important crafting resource for the village. The village had trade connections with the San Joaquin Valley, Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...
, and Colorado River regions.
Destruction
By 1810, the village was becoming closer to private ranch allotments, such asRancho Santiago de Santa Ana Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana was a Spanish land concession in present-day Orange County, California, given by Spanish Alta California Governor José Joaquín de Arrillaga in 1810 to Jose Antonio Yorba and his nephew Pablo Peralta. The grant exten ...
, given out by Spanish colonial authorities.
After a claim that the village residents had stolen horses and other livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs) for a period of several months to subsist on due to alleged food shortages in 1832, the village was massacred by American and Mexican fur trappers, led by William Wolfskill.
In a recount of the event, it was claimed that "the Indians were very fond of horseflesh" and that they were "feasting on juicy horseflesh" at the time of the raid on the village. According to the account, only a few villagers survived the raid by escape.
Memorialization
After a publication of the story in 1931, the story of the massacre became part of Orange County folklore and textual history.Acebo Nathan Patrick Barbara L Voss Ian Hodder Li Liu Lee M Panich Michael V Wilcox and Stanford University. 2020. �Re-Assembling Radical Indigenous Autonomy in the Alta California Hinterlands : Survivance at Puhú.
�� Dissertation Stanford University. Stanford University. As a result, this memorialization urged interest in excavation of the area. From 1936-1937, the village site was poorly excavated by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which took 200kg of artifacts from the site without cataloguing or analyzing them. The artifacts were spread throughout various museums, while others were cast off as too fragmented to preserve or study. The WPA mischaracterized the village as a small hunting and acorn-processing camp, rather than a large village.Acebo, Nathan P. 2021. “Survivance Storytelling in Archaeology.” In The Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous-Colonial Interaction in the Americas, edited by Lee M. Panich and Sara L. Gonzalez, 468–85. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429274251. The narrative of the villagers memorialized has since been critiqued based on in-depth research, both in relation to the size of the village and the activities of the villagers. The claim that villagers were consuming horse flesh has been identified as a common trope promoted by Spanish colonial authorities, particularly in the
Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
region. Scientific analysis of the village's midden
A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...
in 2021 found that no horse or European livestock remains were present.
See also
Native American villages in Orange County, California: *Acjacheme
Acjacheme ("a heap of animated things") was an Acjachemen village that was closely situated to the mother village of Putuidem in what is now San Juan Capistrano, California. The Spanish missionaries constructed Mission San Juan Capistrano less tha ...
* Ahunx
* Alauna
* Genga
* Hutuknga
* Lupukngna
* Moyongna
* Pajbenga
* Piwiva
* Putiidhem
* Totpavit
Totpavit, alternative spellings Totabit and possibly Totavet, was a Tongva village located in what is now Olive, California. The village was located between the Santa Ana River and Santiago Creek. It was part of a series of villages along the S ...
References