Serrano People - Culture

Culture

Traditionally, Serrano people were hunter-gatherers. Their society was divided into two exogamous moieties. Their villages had from 25 to a hundred people.

Their dwellings were large and communal. Framed with willow branches and covered over with woven mats, the lodges were made with fireplaces inside for each family. The Serrano crafted baskets and vessels with mother-of-pearl inlays, which were often traded to the Chumash people in the coastal Ventura and Santa Barbara County regions, the Tongva in the Los Angeles basin and San Fernando Valley, and the Tataviam in the upper Santa Clara River Valley. The men did not wear clothing and the women wore deerskin, otter, and rabbit furs.

The Serrano who inhabited the San Bernardino Mountains would go to the milder areas of Apple Valley and Lucerne Valley during the winter, and the area in and around Big Bear Lake during the summer. They hunted small game such as rabbits, using traps along with bows and arrows. They did not hunt the grizzly bears, which they believed were reincarnations of their ancestors' spirits. They were skilled craftsmen and experts in basketweaving, which they created in a variety of sizes and shapes for different purposes, such as storage, carrying, and sorting.

Their diet consisted of the game which they caught, and nuts and vegetables which they gathered and cooked. The women ground pinon nuts into a dough and made a flat tortilla-like bread. They also gathered acorns from oak trees and ground them for a coarse flour, from which they made a porridge called wiich. Other staples were roasted agave, prickly pears, and yucca blossoms.