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NorthLake Specific Plan
Draft Supplemental EIR

anthropologists began to collect data about traditional native cultures in California (about 1900),
virtually no Tataviam could be found. Decimated by Spanish missionization and absorbed by other
groups through inter-marriage, the Tataviam vanished rapidly from the cultural landscape. What
is known about their culture has been reconstructed through linguistic and ethnohistoric research,
archaeological analysis, and remembrances of individuals from neighboring bands.

Most of what is known about the Tataviam has been gleaned from raw field notes taken by
anthropologists John P. Harrington and Alfred L. Kroeber; from records at Mission San Fernando,
where many Tataviam were taken; and diaries of early Spanish explorers. Recent work with these
materials has helped considerably in understanding more about Tataviam life. Their territory
encompassed a roughly triangular area from the Piru area, eastward along the upper Santa Clara
River through the Newhall area to Soledad Pass, and northward across the Sierra Pelona,
Sawmill, and Liebre Mountains to the westernmost edge of the Antelope Valley and southernmost
slopes of the Tehachapi Mountains.

The Tataviam were hunter-gatherers that spoke a variant of the indigenous Takic language.
Takic-speakers are believed to have migrated into Southern California from the Great Basin
sometime between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago, an event some archaeologists believe interrupted
the long-standing Millingstone way of life. Tataviam subsistence centered upon the seasonal
gathering of plant foods (yucca, acorns, sage seeds, and juniper berries) and hunting (rabbit,
rodents, deer, and antelope). Acorns, the staple food of most Late Period groups in California,
may have been less important to the Tataviam, who utilized yucca more extensively. The plant
was roasted in stone-lined earth ovens, often identified archaeologically.

With the Santa Clara River Valley and Antelope Valley acting as east-west corridors between the
deserts and coast, the Tataviam likely participated in “down the line” long-distance trade. Shell
beads found in the western Mojave Desert, for example were acquired by the Takic-speaking
Kitanemuk through a trade network in which the Tataviam may have been linked with Hokan-
speaking Chumash on the coast.

A number of Tataviam villages have been identified through historic registers at Mission San
Fernando, including tsawayung at the original Newhall Ranch site near Castaic Junction;
naqava’atang in the Elderberry Canyon area along Castaic Creek; and pi’ing at the confluence of
Castaic Creek and Elizabeth Lake Canyon. The village site of pi’ing probably lies under Castaic
Lake, which was created when Castaic Creek was dammed in 1972. The Castaic area and Lake
Castac near Lebec, though separated by some 25 miles, are named from the same Native
American root: the Chumash kashtik.

Historic Background

The major historic periods for the greater Los Angeles area are defined by key events documented
by participants, witnesses, historians, and cartographers:

• Spanish Period (1769–1822 or 233–180 years ago)
• Mexican Period (1822–1848 or 180–154 years ago)
• American Period (1848–Present or since 156 years ago).

Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo made a temporary landfall at the Chumash village of
šišolop (present-day Ventura) on October 12, 1542. However, the beginning of the post-
prehistoric era in Southern California is marked by the arrival of the Gaspar de Portolá overland
expedition from New Spain (Mexico) and the founding of the first Spanish settlement at San Diego
on July 16, 1769. With the onset of the Spanish Period, the Tataviam first came into direct contact
with Europeans when the Portolá expedition passed through their territory about two weeks later,

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