Acjachemen
The Acjachemen (/ɑːˈxɑːtʃəməm/) are an Indigenous people of California. Published maps often identify their ancestral lands as extending from the beach to the mountains, south from what is now known as Aliso Creek in Orange County to the Las Pulgas Canyon in the northwestern part of San Diego County.[2] However, sources also show that Acjachemen people shared sites with other Indigenous nations as far north as Puvunga in contemporary Long Beach.[3]
The Acjachemen language does not have any fluent speakers. It is closely related to the Luiseño language still spoken by the neighboring Payómkawichum (Luiseño) people.
Name[edit]
Acjachemen is also spelled Acagchemem. Spanish colonizers called the Acjachemen Juaneños, following their conversion to Christianity at Mission San Juan Capistrano in the late 18th century.[4] Today, many contemporary members of organizations for Acjachemen descendants prefer the term Acjachemen as their autonym, or name for themselves. The name is derived from the village of Acjacheme, which was less than 60 yards from the site where Mission San Juan Capistrano was built in 1776.[5][6]
Religion[edit]
Gerónimo Boscana, a Franciscan scholar who was stationed at San Juan Capistrano for more than a decade beginning in 1812, compiled the first, comprehensive study of Acjachemen religious practices. Religious knowledge was secret, and the prevalent religion, called Chinigchinich, placed village chiefs in the position of religious leaders, an arrangement that gave the chiefs broad power over their people.[24] Boscana divided the Acjachemen into two classes: the "Playanos" (who lived along the coast) and the "Serranos" (who inhabited the mountains, some three to four leagues from the Mission).[25] The religious beliefs of the two groups as related to creation differed quite profoundly. The Playanos held that an all-powerful and unseen being called "Nocuma" brought about the earth and the sea, together with all of the trees, plants, and animals of sky, land, and water contained therein.[26] The Serranos, on the other hand, believed in two separate but related existences: the "existence above" and the "existence below". These states of being were "altogether explicable and indefinite" (like brother and sister), and it was the fruits of the union of these two entities that created "...the rocks and sands of the earth; then trees, shrubbery, herbs and grass; then animals...".[27] The "Starman" drawn by artist Jean Goodwin has become an iconic image with the Acjachemen people and is seen often in art and tribal seals.[28]
Language[edit]
The Acjachemen language is related to the Luiseño language spoken by the nearby Luiseño tribe located to the interior.[29] Considered to speak a dialect of Luiseño, the Juaneño were part of the Cupan subgroup of the Uto-Aztecan languages. Northern Uto-Aztecan (NUA) is divided into four branches; Numic, Tubatrlabalic, Takic, and Hopic. Takin includes seven languages; Kitanemuk, Serrano (including Vanyume), Gabrielino (including Fernandeńo), Luiseño (including Acjachemen), Cahuilla, Cupeño, and Tataviam.[30]
Their language became extinct by the early 20th century. People are working at reviving it, with several members learning it. Their studies are based on the research and records of Anastacia Majel and John P. Harrington, who recorded the language in 1933. (The tape recordings resurfaced around 1995.)[31]
Acjachemen villages and significant sites in Southern California (a partial list):