The Tataviam which means "people facing the sun", also sometimes called the Alliklik, are a Native American group in southern California. They traditionally occupied an area lying primarily in the upper basin of the Santa Clara River.
The meager evidence concerning the language spoken by the Tataviam has been extensively debated by scholars. The prevalent view is that it was an Uto-Aztecan language, probably belonging to the Takic branch of that family. See the separate article on the Tataviam language.
Population
Estimates for the pre-contact populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. (See Population of Native California.)Alfred L. Kroeber (1925:883) estimated the combined 1770 population of the Serrano, Kitanemuk, and Tataviam as 3,500, and their population in 1910 as about 150.
History
The Tataviam were first contacted during the 1769-1770 expeditions that established the Spanish presence in California. According to Chester King and Thomas C. Blackburn (1978:536), "By 1810, virtually all the Tataviam had been baptized at San Fernando Mission."
Johnson, John R., and David D. Earle. 1990. "Tataviam Geography and Ethnohistory". Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 12:191-214.
King, Chester, and Thomas C. Blackburn. 1978. "Tataviam". In California, edited by Robert F. Heizer, pp. 535-537. Handbook of North American Indians, William C. Sturtevant, general editor, vol. 8. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Kroeber, A. L. 1925. Handbook of the Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 78. Washington, D.C.
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