PRAYERS ON MENU FOR MISSION TRIBE AREA'S ORIGIONAL SETTLERS RECALL LONG-AGO HARVESTS.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- American Indians whose ancestors were Santa Clarita's original settlers partake in the usual Thanksgiving customs, and many bond with a larger tribal family by attending powwows.

While football may be on the menu, prayers for their families and for guidance surely are.

``We are proud of who we are and thankful for what we have, and to participate with our Native American community like we do,'' said Marie Mia, a member of the San Fernando Band of Mission Indians. ``Long ago, there was a time when we weren't able to.''

The Tataviam, who lived in Santa Clarita, the Fernandeno from the San Fernando Valley, and the Vanyumes, a Mojave Desert group, make up the mission band. Little is known about the Tatavium because they were a small group that was fully absorbed into Mission San Fernando, where they intermarried. Their language was mostly lost by the 20th century.

While John Valenzuela, chairman of the band's tribal council, has lost interest in football since retiring, he faithfully tackles the turkey while his wife, Rose, prepares dressing and gravy. Their home is not adorned with seasonal holiday bounty, but ritual gourd rattles John incises with Indian designs may harken back to long-ago harvests.

Many California tribes held fall harvest festivals, among them a Chumash celebration called hutash. Hutash refers to a seed used for food, but in some cases it means Mother Earth.

``The ceremony had a deeper significance,'' said John Johnson, curator of anthropology for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. ``It was a celebration of the harvest as well as a celebration of Mother Earth as a giver of food.''

Johnson is a descendant -- on his mother's side -- of a pilgrim who settled in Massachusetts.

The San Fernando band was not related to the Chumash, who lived in about 150 towns and villages from Malibu to north of San Luis Obispo, but Johnson said local tribes possibly had similar customs. Local groups participated in ceremonies where people of many villages came together, which sounds a lot like a powwow.

Mia's family might head to a powwow in Indio this weekend. People tend to forget American Indians are prayerful people, she said.

``When we gather in a group, we will burn sage, cedar,'' she said. ``The smoke rises to the Creator and takes our prayers to him.''

Like many families, at large family gatherings they sometimes set out a cup of water or plate of food as an offering to ancestors, to give thanks.

Tribal vice chairwoman Donna Yocum's family sometimes serves meals in homeless shelters and attends Thanksgiving powwows, which she said are regular powwows held at this time of year. Yocum lives on the outskirts of Portland, Ore., where platters of smoked and barbecued salmon may sit alongside the turkey.

Members of the band hope a DNA match from bones found in Palmdale in 2005 -- that link them with American Indians who died about 800 to 1,000 years ago -- will strengthen their claims to federal recognition as a sovereign nation. While looking ahead, they are sometimes reluctant to look back, but sometimes it is a reflex.

``I personally don't make anything political about it anymore ... I've set it all aside -- we all know the facts,'' Yocum said. ``We can criticize and scratch at everything until it is raw ... but there's so much hurt and emotion flying high right now in our country. We need ... to be thankful for everything we have and that we live in a free country.''

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) Marie Mia, a member of the San Fernando Band of Mission Indians, says her family might head to a powwow in Indio to pray with other American Indians.

(2) Marie Mia looks at names of family members at the Newhall Veterans Park.

David Crane/Staff Photographer