Coahuilla
Desert Cahuilla woman by Edward S. Curtis, 1926
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (2010: 4,238 alone and in combination) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States  (California) |
|
| Languages | |
| English, Spanish, Cahuilla language | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (Roman Catholic, Moravian, Protestant), and Traditional Tribal Religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Cupeño, Luiseño, Serrano, and Tongva |
The Cahuilla, also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the inland areas of southern California. Their original territory included an area of about 2,400 square miles (6,200 km2). The traditional Cahuilla territory was near the geographic center of Southern California. It was bounded to the north by the San Bernardino Mountains, to the south by Borrego Springs and the Chocolate Mountains, to the east by the Colorado Desert, and to the west by the San Jacinto Plain and the eastern slopes of the Palomar Mountains.
The Cahuilla language is in the Uto-Aztecan family. A 1990 census revealed 35 speakers in an ethnic population of 800. It is critically endangered, since most speakers are middle-aged or older. In their own language, their autonym is ʔívil̃uqaletem, and the name of their language is ʔívil̃uʔat (Ivilyuat), however they also call themselves táxliswet meaning 'person'.Cahuilla is an exonym applied to the group after mission secularization in the Ranchos of California. The word "Cahuilla" is probably from the Ivilyuat word kawi'a, meaning "master."
Oral legends suggest that when the Cahuilla first moved into the Coachella Valley, a large body of water which geographers call Lake Cahuilla was in existence. Fed by the Colorado River, it dried up sometime before 1700, following one of the repeated shifts in the river's course. In 1905 a break in a levee created the much smaller Salton Sea in the same location.
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Wikipedia