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contact culture is no longer practiced. Others, including

anthropologists and historians and local observers, have

made the same assumption: "A tribe called by themselves

Tahichapahanna...is now extinct" (Powers, 1877: 393, in

reference to the Kawaiisu). "They slowly lost their

culture, assimilated the whiteman's way, and except for a

handful of families still in the region, have disappeared

completely from the land." (Barras, 1973). "There is

nothing in the day-to-day life of the modern Kawaiisus that

would identify them as Indians." (Zigmond, 1986). These

statements characterize cultures as static entities,

resigning the Kawaiisu to a past tense orientation. The

Kawaiisu are depicted as passive to external forces,

rendering a Kawaiisu identity no longer viable.
Kawaiisu informants knowledgeable in traditional

Kawaiisu practices have been asked by researchers to

describe such practices, as well as the pre-contact Kawaiisu

material culture. Seldom have Kawaiisu individuals been
asked to talk about their lives and their perceptions of

their world. It is as though once the Kawaiisu obtained
jobs, sent their children to school, and began to attend

church, they relinguished their claim to a unique identity
and were no longer of interest to observers who were quick

to declare the Kawaiisu extinct. Forbes (1969: 130)
describes this phenomenon:

"Indian culture," in brief, is perceived of as
being a static thing which no longer exists