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Language

When we begin to learn about the Desert Dwellers of early California, we come to understand that a common language base united these peoples, yet they had their own distinct dialects, their own religious observations, and shared some characteristics in common with other tribes outside their own immediate region.

The Desert Dwellers - those native peoples from early California, and those who keep alive their ancient language today - belong to the family of the Uto-Aztecan language that also untied them to the Los Angeles and southern Channel Island peoples. To better understand how they lived in the desert backcountry, we will focus on the Cahuilla Indians.