Local Nuwa tribesman is the keeper of a special co

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Local Nuwa tribesman is the keeper of a special collection of artifacts

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Description: Nuwa basketry, spears and arrowheads to be preserved at
future TPAC Museum
larger view larger view larger view larger view Harold
Williams is a 60-year-old gentleman, a resident of the greater Tehachapi
area, tanned and fit in appearance, and an elder of the local Nuwa
people (also known as Kawaiisu), descendants of the indigenous
inhabitants.

Williams was recently selected to be the custodian of an important
collection of baskets, arrowheads and spear points, pottery, grinding
stones and other Nuwa cultural artifacts, some of which will be
exhibited in the planned Tehachapi Performing Arts Center, according to
B.J. Mitchell, TPAC Foundation director.

Williams explains that when he was growing up, his people called
themselves Paiute, Southern Paiute, or even Paiute-Shoshone, knowing
they are cousins of the larger tribes known by those names living to the
north and west. It was not until the 1970s that the name "Kawaiisu" came
into use by anthropologists who heard it from other tribes.

"That word did not exist in our language back then. Our people referred
to themselves as just `Nuwa,' meaning `the people,'"
says Williams.

The Nuwa were especially skilled basket makers. Lacking any abundant
local deposits of clay, basketry was used for many purposes, including
water storage, and even cooking. These were made from various fibers,
but especially willow and deer grass, yucca and Joshua tree roots, and
Devil's Claw. Tight weave and a touch of pitch made them waterproof.
Hot stones of the right size and type were plucked from a fire with long
"tweezer sticks" and added to a basket of water to quickly cook
vegetables.

The Nuwa population may never, at any one time, have exceeded a
thousand, Williams says. Carbon-dating establishes their presence in the
area for about the last two thousand years. The Nuwa generally lived in
scattered but socially connected family groups. The local mountains were
their summer home and contain hundreds of sites where women would gather
acorns, nuts, plants and fibers, and where they spent time together
while preparing their wares on the concave grinding stones they called
"pa'has" that are also found throughout the area.

Williams's collection includes many examples of the hand-held stone
grinding tools (called "mo'its," from the Nuwa word for "hand"), as
well as arrowheads and spear points, some of them finely shaped
obsidian. The Nuwa area extended as far as Lake Isabella, and the Mojave
winter range to China Lake.

The Performing Arts Center will feature a cultural museum in which
Tehachapi residents and visitors can see the evidence of its long
history of human habitation.

"With the environment now under ever-increasing stress, we're
beginning to realize that we have a lot to learn from those who came
before us, about how to live in harmony with our surroundings.
That's one of the reasons the center will be an environmentally
friendly `green' place," said Mitchell.