Acjacheme

An Acjachemen dwelling replica located on the grounds of Mission San Juan Capistrano (Photo taken in 2008).

Acjacheme ("a heap of animated things")[1] was an Acjachemen village that was closely situated to the mother village of Putuidem in what is now San Juan Capistrano, California. The Spanish missionaries constructed Mission San Juan Capistrano less than 60 yards from the village in 1776. Acjachemen is a pluralization of the word Acjacheme, and became the moniker for the people overall after the mission period.[2][3][4]

The village has also been referred to as Akhachmai, Ahachmai, Akagchemem, Acágcheme, and Axatcme.[3][4][5] The village site has been identified as being at an elementary school east of the Mission San Juan Capistrano by José de Grácia Cruz, who was one of the last native people born at the mission in the 1840s.[3][4] Ahachmai has been referred to as a dialect or variety of the Acjachemen language and is used, although less commonly, to refer to the people as a whole.[6][7]

  1. ^ "Juaneño Band of Mission Indians". AAA Native Arts. 2016-08-20. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  2. ^ Woodward, Lisa Louise (2007). The Acjachemen of San Juan Capistrano: The History, Language and Politics of an Indigenous California Community. University of California, Davis. pp. 3, 8.
  3. ^ a b c Brigandi, Phil. "Indian Villages". OC Historyland. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  4. ^ a b c O'Neil, Stephen; Evans, Nancy H. (1980). "Notes on Historical Juaneno Villages and Geographical Features". UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. 2 (2): 226–232.
  5. ^ White, Raymon C. (1963). LUISENO SOCIAL ORGANIZATION. p. 108.
  6. ^ Golla, Victor (2022). California Indian languages. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-520-38967-0. OCLC 1273667539.
  7. ^ "Moments in Time: Remembering the Ahachmai Way of Life". The Capistrano Dispatch. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2022-12-15.