Mythologies of the Mono (Monachi) Tribe
The Mono (/ˈmoʊnoʊ/ MOH-noh) are a Native American people who traditionally live in the central Sierra Nevada, the Eastern Sierra (generally south of Bridgeport), the Mono Basin, and adjacent areas of the Great Basin. They are often grouped under the historical label “Paiute” together with the Northern Paiute and Southern Paiute – but these three groups, although related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, do not form a single, unique, unified group of Great Basin tribes. Today, many of the tribal citizens and descendants of the Mono tribe inhabit the town of North Fork (thus the label “Northfork Mono”) in Madera County. People of the Mono tribe are also spread across California in: the Owens River Valley; the San Joaquin Valley and foothills areas, especially Fresno County; and in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Mono Mythological Figures
Walking Skeleton (Ninitikati in the Mono language)
One of many fearsome man-eating monsters of Mono folklore. Ninitikati was once a human (often a woman) who ate the flesh off her own bones during a famine, turning herself into an undead spirit with an insatiable desire for eating humans.
Mono Stories
The Earthdiver
Mono myth about the creation of the world.
California Big Trees:
Mono legend about owls and the redwood trees.
Mythology of Southern California:
Early 20th-century collection of Mono and other California Indian legends.
The “Mono” lived on both sides of the Sierra Nevada and are divided into two regional tribal/dialect groups, roughly based on the Sierra crest:
- Eastern Mono live on the California-Nevada border on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in the Owens Valley (Mono: Payahǖǖnadǖ/Payahuunadu – “place/land of flowing water”) along the Owens River (Wakopee) and south to Owens Lake (Pacheta). They are also known as the “Owens Valley Paiute”
- Western Mono on the west side in the south-central foothills of the Sierra Nevada, including the “Northfork Mono,” as labeled by E.W. Gifford, an ethnographer studying people in the vicinity of the San Joaquin River in the 1910s.
The current tribal name “Mono” is a Yokutsan loanword from the tribe’s western neighbors, the Yokuts, who however hereby designated the southernmost Northern Paiute band living around Mono Lake as monachie/monoache (“fly people”) because fly larvae was their chief food staple and trading article and not the “Mono”. This “Kucadikadi Northern Paiute Band“, whose autonym Kutsavidökadö/Kutzadika’a means “eaters of the brine fly pupae”, are also known as Mono Lake Paiute or Mono Basin Paiute, a holdover from early anthropological literature, and are often confused with the non-Northern Paiute ethnic group of the “Mono”.
Mono Language Resources
Mono Vocabulary
Our list of vocabulary words in the Mono language, with comparison to words in other Uto-Aztecan languages.
Language Museum: Mono
Translation of a Christian prayer into the Mono language.
House of Languages: Mono
Information about Mono language usage.
Ethnologue: Mono:
Demographic information about the Mono language.
Survey of California Indian Languages: Mono:
Profile of the Mono language from the University of California at Berkeley.
Mono Language Tree:
Theories about Mono’s language relationships compiled by Linguist List.
Mono Language Structures:
Mono linguistic profile and academic bibliography.
Plateau Shoshonean Vocabulary:
Early 20th-century wordlists of Mono and Paviotso.
Mono Culture and History Links
Big Sandy Rancheria of Mono Indians
Overview of the modern-day Mono tribe.
Western Mono Indians
Information on traditional Mono culture and history.
Mono Legends:
Collection of Mono Indian legends and folktales.
Mono Authors:
Mono writers, their lives and work.
The Mono Indians:
Curtis’ early 20th-century ethnography of the Mono tribe.
Indian Hair:
Mono and other California Indian clothing.
Not much is known about the paleo-history of the . Archaeological thought dictates that they, like the majority of California Native Americans, migrated down from Siberia, across the Bering Strait, and into modern-day Alaska and Canada. It is believed that their ancestors once occupied the Colorado Plateau, along with several other Uto-Aztecan language groups. At some point, between 890 A.D. and 900 A.D., a severe drought forced the outward migration of these groups. One group, the ancestors of the Western Mono people, traveled along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada seeking relief. They made their way over the crest and settled on the western slope. They are grouped under the Paiute people because of their linguistic relationship, which only differs in dialect. Still, the Native Americans within the historical label of Paiute do not form a single unified Great Basin tribe.
The Western Mono people are descended from the people now known as the Owens Valley Paiute or Eastern Mono. The ancestors of these groups occupied most of the Great Basin and southeastern California. Around 900 A.D., a devastating drought forced these groups to migrate along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, seeking relief from the drought. Eventually, they crested the mountains and made their way along the western slope. There they met the ancestors of the Yokut people who had traveled up the west slope to escape drought in the Central Valley, from where they originated. The two groups became trading partners, as each had items that were not available on the other’s home territory. Once the drought ended, the Yokut made their way back down to the valley. The Eastern Mono made their way back over the Sierra Nevada mountains. But a portion of those people decided to stay and settled on the western slope. The Yokuts designated the Mono people as the Monache, or fly people. This is because the fly larvae of the saline waters of Mono Lake, known as Ka-cha-vee, was both an important food staple, and a favored trade article. However, they called themselves nümü, which translates to the word “persons.”
The territory of the Western Mono people encompassed the western slope of the Sierra from the summit to the foothills of the lower country. They spent most of their time in the foothills because the crest of the mountain was only accessible during the summer months. The Western Mono were hunter/gatherers. As was common in most Native American groups, labor was divided along gender lines. Men hunted, and women gathered. The Western Mono relied heavily on deer, and killing the animals was highly ritualistic. The night before a hunt, the men would cleanse themselves in the sweathouse. Then they would dive into the creek. Afterward, they would coat themselves in pungent herbs so that their scent would not be recognizable to the deer. Deer were hunted with spears, thrown from an atlatl, a spear-throwing tool that uses leverage to achieve a throw, which is greater in both speed and force. The projectile points used for both spears and arrows were made of obsidian and obtained in trade with the Eastern Mono people. Deer meat was roasted for immediate use and dried on racks to preserve the rest for winter. The men also hunted smaller game using traps and fished with traps and spears.
Mono, also called Monachi, either of two North American Indian groups, originally from what is now central California, U.S., who spoke a language belonging to the Numic group of the Uto-Aztecan family and were related to the Northern Paiute. The Western Mono, who resided in the pine belt of the Sierra Nevada mountains, had a culture similar to that of the nearby Yokuts. The Owens Valley Paiute (previously called the Eastern Mono) were more similar to their neighbours from the Great Basin culture area. Historically, the two divisions traded with each other, the Owens Valley Paiute exchanging salt, piñon nuts, baskets, and poison in return for acorn flour, baskets, and shafts for arrows. Traditional Mono social organization consisted of small villages of as many as 50 to 75 people, organized in patrilineal families and ranging over loosely defined hunting areas. Although the power of the chief was far from absolute, his consent was required for all major religious or warlike undertakings; his greatest responsibilities were the settlement of disputes and the sanctioning of punishment. Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 3,000 Mono descendants.
Comments
Post a Comment