Serrano Bibliography

Bean, L. J., and C. R. Smith

      1978    Serrano. In California. R.F. Heizer, ed. Pp. 570-574. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 8. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

This article from the California volume of the Smithsonian’s Handbook of North American Indians discusses several aspects of Serrano history and ethnology.  Included are sections on language, territory and environment, subsistence, and history.  In the section on Serrano culture, topics such as structures, technology, socio-political organization, life cycle, religion and shamanism are covered.

 

Benedict, R. F.

      1924    A Brief Sketch of Serrano Culture. American Anthropologist 26:366-392.

      1926    Serrano Tales. Journal of American Folk-Lore 39:1-17.

“These stories are recorded as told by old Rosa Marongo, who learned most of them from her father-in-law, chief of the Marina (Morongo) local group, who died thirty-five years ago” (Benedict 1926:1).  Benedict presents several myths and stories with a few very brief footnotes, and no commentary.  Included are the following:  the creation, a fragment of the Marina origin story, the twin children of the sun, Bow-legged, the man who followed his wife to the land of the dead, the gluttonous wife, the ghost kidnapper, the Waterbaby, Coyote loves his youngest daughter, Coyote and Wolf, Coyote kills Takwitc, Coyote loses his sacred feathers, the people decide to get rid of Coyote, another Coyote and Wolf story, Coyote and Frog, Coyote kills Wildcat, and the bungling host.

 

Grenda, Donn R.

      1998    Between the Coast and the Desert : Archaeological Data Recovery at the Yukaipa't Site, CA-SBR-1000, Yucaipa, California. Tucson: Statistical Research, Inc.

 

Johnston, Frank

      1965    The Serrano Indians of Southern California. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

 

Ramón, Dorothy and Eric Elliot

      2000    Wayta' Yawa' Always Believe. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

 

Schneider, Joan

      1987    Archaeological Investigations at Afton Canyon (CA-SBR-85) Mojave Desert, San Bernardino County, California. Master's, University of California, Riverside.

      1989    The Archaeology of the Afton Canyon site (CA-SBR-85) : Mojave Desert, San Bernardino County, California. Quarterly of the San Bernardino County Museum Association 36(1).

 

Shinn, George Hazen

      1941    Shoshonean Days : Recollections of a Residence of Five Years Among the Indians of Southern California, 1885-1889. Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Company.

 

Smith, G. A.

1950        Prehistoric Man of the San Bernardino Valley. Redlands: San Bernardino County Historical Society.

This short (32 pages) pamphlet published by the San Bernardino County Historical Society gives brief ethnographic and archaeological information about the aboriginal population of the San Bernardino Valley, the Serrano Indians.  It contains several photographs of artifacts found in the area.

 

Sutton, Mark Q. and Joan S. Schneider

      1996    Archaeological Investigations at Guapiabit, CA-SBR-1913. Quarterly of the San Bernardino County Museum Association 43(4).