TheJews ofNorth Americaare arelatively assimilated ethnic group intheUnited States and Canada.. In 1986 the Jewish population in North Americawasabout 6.3million, with5.9millioninthe Uni
Trang 1168 Jews
Jews ETHNONYMS:Ashkenazim, Hebrews, Sephardim
Orientation Identification TheJews ofNorth Americaare arelatively
assimilated ethnic group intheUnited States and Canada
Thename"Jew"is anAnglicizedversionof theHebrew word
yehudi, meaning "Hebrew, the language of the kingdom of
Judah,"andoriginallyreferredtothemembersof the tribe of
Judah,oneof twelvetribes of Israelinthe Middle East about
fourthousandyears ago.Jewish self-identityrests on a
num-ber of factorsincludinga unique setofreligiousbeliefs and
practices, ancestryfromJewishpeoples,ashared
understand-ing of the Holocaust, and a beliefin Israel as the Jewish
homeland
Location JewsinNorthAmericaliveprimarilyin cities or
adjacent suburbs Although urbanJewish ghettos nolonger
exist, a patternofresidentialisolationpersists,withmany city
neighborhoodsorsuburbancommunitiesdefinedas"Jewish"
becauseof thelargenumber ofJewswho reside there and the
Jewish institutions such as synagogues, community centers,
andkosher food stores located there Sixty percent ofJews
liveontheEastCoastof theUnited States andabout20
per-cent on the West Coast, with relatively few, save those in
major cities, intheSouth and Midwest InCanada, thesame
patternholds,withtwo-thirds of theJewishpopulation living
in or nearTorontoorMontreal
Demography In 1986 the Jewish population in North
Americawasabout 6.3million, with5.9millioninthe United
States and305,000inCanada.Thus,North American Jews
constitute about43 percent of the 14.5 million Jewsinthe
world Bywayofcomparison, inEuropethereare4.1million
Jews, inAsia3.3 million, inSouthAmerica600,000, in
Af-rica 159,000,andinOceania72,000.TheUnitedStateshas
the largestJewishpopulation intheworld and Canada the
seventh largest.InNorth America,themajorityofJewslivein
twelve largecities,with 1.9millioninthemetropolitanNew
York Cityregion (over 30percentof U.S.Jews),500,000in
Los Angeles, 300,000 in Philadelphia, 250,000 each in
Miamiand Chicago,over100,000eachinBoston,
Washing-ton, D.C., Montreal, andToronto,andover50,000eachin
Baltimore and San Francisco In Canada, the otherJewish
population centers are Winnipeg, 15,000, and Vancouver,
14,000 TheJewish populationhasbeenrelatively stablefor
the past decade, despite a relatively low birth rate, offset
somewhat by recent emigrations ofJews from the Soviet
Unionand Israelto the UnitedStatesandCanada
Linguistic Affiliation The overwhelming majority of
NorthAmericanJewsuseEnglishastheirprimary oronly
do-mesticlanguage,orFrenchinthe French-speakingprovinces
ofCanada,with about 20percentof CanadianJewsbilingual
inthe two languages Recent immigrants from Europeand
theMiddleEastoften speakthelanguage of theirhomeland,
those from the Soviet Unionspeaking Russian, those from
Syria speaking Arabic, and those from Israel speaking
He-brew.Hasidic JewsuseYiddish,writtenwith Hebrew
charac-ters,andsomeJewsof central andeasternEuropeanancestry
speak Yiddish at home.Yiddish, the traditional language of Jewsof Eastern Europe, sharescommonmedievalrootswith
HighGermanand contains Slavicloan-words, althoughit is usually writtenwith Hebrew characters and fromrighttoleft
as isHebrew A number of Yiddish words have become part of theU.S.English lexicon, including blintze, chutzpah,goy, kib-itz, landsman, mensh, nebbish, shlemiel, shock, shnook, and shmooz
Hebrew is the religious language for Orthodox andsome Conservative Jews, withprayerbooks written in and prayers chanted in Hebrew Hebrew is a branch of the Canaanite group of Semiticlanguages Reform JewsuseEnglishintheir religious services
History and Cultural Relations
Theimmigration history of Jews to the U.S and Canada dif-fersasdoes thenatureofcultural relations between Jews and other groups inthose nations
UnitedStates The first Jews inNorthAmerica-23 Se-phardic Jews from South America-arrived in New Am-sterdam (now New York City) in1654.Sincethen Jews have continued to immigrate to North America, with the bulk ar-riving in three periods: 1830-1880, 1881-1924, and
1935-1941 Prior to 1830 mostJews inNorth America were Se-phardic (see "Social Organization" below) and numbered about sixthousand in 1830 From 1830 to 1880 the Jewish population increased to 250,000, most of whom were Ash-kenaziJewswho emigrated from Germany, as part of a larger movement of Germans toNorth America Not only did these immigrants,largely young, rural or small-town peoples escap-ing religious persecution, swell the Jewish population, but they alsospread across the continent establishing communi-tiesindozens of cities The second period of migration from 1880-1924 closed with a Jewish population of over 4 million
in the United States, mostly urban and mostly on the East Coast This time the immigrants weremostly Ashkenazi Jews from eastern andcentral European countries such as Poland, Romania, Hungary, and especially western Russia These im-migrants werethe forebears of about 80 percent of Jews in North America today Restrictive immigration laws in the United States and the depression slowed immigration, but beginning in the mid-1930s until the late 1940s, some 200,000 Jewsfleeing Nazi-controlled Europe and extermina-tion in concentration camps arrived in the United States The 1900-1950 period was also a time of upward (socially and economically) and outward (from the cities to the sub-urbs) mobility for the eastern European Jews Since the estab-lishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Jews have arrived in the United States mainly from the Middle East, the Soviet Union, and mostrecently from Israel One key feature of
Jew-ishimmigration is that most of the immigrants stayed, with only one in fourteen returning to theirhomelands as com-pared to about one in three returns for most other ethnic
groups
Despite overt discrimination in education and employ ment in the past and organizedanti-Semitism in some sectors
ofAmerican society, laws have generally guaranteed Jews reli-gious freedom and relations with other ethnic and religious groups have beengenerally peaceful if not friendly Political ties to the African-American community are no longer as strong as they oncewere Current tensions with the
Trang 2African-Jews 169
Americans reflect, in part, Jewish concerns over
African-Americansupport for thePalestiniansinthe MiddleEastand
African-American concernsoverJewishtiestoSouthAfrica
and lack of Jewish support for affirmative actionprograms
Jews generallydistinguishthemselvesfromallnon-Jewswho
areclassified and referredto asgoyim,commonly understood
tomean "non-Jew." Some scholars suggest thatJews inthe
UnitedStatestodayare moreapttostressthesecular aspects
ofJewishness, suchastheuseof Yiddishwords,asopposedto
thereligious aspects such as following Jewish law regarding
dietary restrictions
Canada In contrast to the immigration history in the
United States, the majority of Jewish immigrantstoCanada
arrived after 1945, with about 40 percent of thecurrent
Ca-nadianJewish populationcomposed of recent arrivals as
com-pared to about 20 percent for the United States In 1900
there were 15,000 Jews inCanada, but by 1915the
popula-tionhad grown to 100,000through massemigrations from
easternEurope.FewJewsimmigratedtoCanadainthe years
beforeWorld War 11, and about 200,000 have arrived since
then These include Jewsfleeing war-torn Europe, Hungarian
Jews escaping from Hungary in 1956, French-speaking Jews
coming fromNorth Africa, and, most recently, about 22,000
arriving from Israel and 8,000 from the Soviet Union
Largely because Canada is abicultural nation with
dis-tinctFrench- andEnglish-speaking populations andbecause
of greater acceptance of cultural diversity, Jews in Canada,
like other ethnic groups, are relatively less assimilated than
their counterpartsinthe United States While thishas led to
a morevisible emphasis onreligious elements of Jewishness
and the survival of European customs, ithas also placed Jews
outside the two mainstream Canadianreligious traditions of
Catholicism and Protestantism This positionas athird
reli-gion and other factors have sometimes subjected Jews to laws
interfering with traditional religious practices Laws
intro-duced after WorldWar 11removed most of these restrictions
Today, Canadian Jews are slowly becoming more like U.S
Jews, with the use of European customs and languages
dis-appearing
Economy
Jews are nowlargely integrated into the U.S and Canadian
economic systems Although they work inmost trades and
professions, theyareoverrepresented (asapercentage of the
population) in several, including ownership of small and
middle-sized businesses, the communication and
entertain-mentindustries,public service, and professions such as
medi-cine, dentistry, law, accounting, teaching, andscientific
re-search Past and present discrimination has been cited by
some as thecauseof therelativelyfewJews foundinthe upper
echelons ofthebanking industry and large corporations in
general Civilrights legislation ofthe 1960s and 1970s has
outlawed old laws and private covenantsthat restricted
Jew-ishownership of land or membershipinprivate associations
The traditional Jewish division of labor with men working
outside the home andwomenworkinginthe home has given
way to many women having professionalemployment
Kinship, Marriage and Family
Marriage and Family Jewish marriage and kinship prac-tices conform to those of mainstream North American
cul-ture: monogamous marriage, nuclear families, bilateral de-scent, and Eskimo-type kinship terms Surnames are patri-lineal, althoughthere is a trendtoward women keeping their own surnames at marriage or hyphenating their husbands' surnamesand their own.The importance offamily continuity
is emphasized by the custom of naming children after de-ceasedrelatives Although marriage with non-Jews (goyim) was proscribedand sanctioned by ostracism in the past, the intermarriage ratetoday is increasing as among North Ameri-cansingeneral ThoughJewishfamilies have fewerchildren,
they are often described as child-oriented, with family
re-sourcesfreelyexpended on education for both boys and girls Jewish identityistraced matrilineally That is, ifone's mother
is a Jew, then that person is Jewish according to Jewish law and entitled to allthe rights and privileges that status brings, including the right to emigrate to and settle in Israel as citizens
Socialization As with most Americans and Canadians, early socialization takes place in the home Jewish parentsare indulgentand permissive and rarely use physical punishment Socialization asaJew takesplace in thehome through
story-telling and participationinJewish rituals,and through atten-dance atHebrewschoolinthe afternoon or eveningand par-ticipation in Jewish youth groups at the synagogue or community center.Orthodox Jews often run their own gram-mar and high schools, whereas mostnon-OrthodoxJews at-tend public orprivate secular schools Acquisition of knowl-edge and the open discussion of ideas are important values and activities for Jews, and many attend college and profes-sionalschools
TheBarMitzvah ceremony for a boy at age thirteen is an important rite of passage as it marks him as an adult member
of the community for religious purposes, and the Bat Mitzvah ceremonyfor a Reform or Conservative girl at age twelve or thirteen serves thesamepurpose In the past the Bar Mitzvah ceremony was much more elaborate and spiritual in focus; today both ceremonies have become important social as well
as religious events for many Jews
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization Today, Jews are highly integrated into the North American classsystem, with Jewsfound in the upper,middle, and working classes Upward social mobility is
animportantvalue, and has been achieved for about three generations largely through education Although Jews are often thought to be concentrated in theupper-middle and lower-upper classes, there is still a sizable number in the work-ing class and some elderly Jews live below the poverty line Vestiges of discrimination remain and Jews are still excluded from some socialorganizations open to non-Jews In commu-nities with large Jewish populations, exclusively or largely Jew-ish social organizations such as community centers, the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Associations (YMHA, YwHA), B'nai B'rith, and Hadassah are important And
in some communities the synagogue shull) plays an impor-tant social and recreational role Many Jewsarealsoinvolved
in or contribute to national or international organizations
Trang 3170 Jews
that support Jewish causes such as the Anti-Defamation
League of the B'naiB'rith,the UnitedJewish Appeal,andthe
UnitedJewish Welfare Fund
Internally, Jews have noformal socialorpolitical
organi-zation,although theycanbe andareoftendividedinto
sub-groupson the basis of threeoverlappingcriteria:degreeof
re-ligiousness, place of one'sown orone'sancestor'sbirth, and
AshkenazicorSephardic ancestry Degree ofreligiousness is
reflectedinthelabels Orthodox, Conservative,orReform
Ju-daism Orthodox Jewsgenerally follow andresistchangesin
traditional religious beliefs and practices, which theybase on
the halakhah, the Jewish literature that coversethical,
reli-gious,civil, and criminalmatters.ConservativeJudaism
com-prises a combination ofthought reflecting different
philo-sophical, ethical, and spiritual schools.Ingeneral,
Conserva-tives stresschangefromwithin, Zionism, andaningathering
of all Jews Because of thediversity of opinion, Conservative
religious practicesrun awide gamut, althoughmost areless
traditional than those of Orthodoxy Reform Judaism,asthe
namesuggests, reflectsamodification ofOrthodoxy in light
of contemporary life and thought Thus, Reform Jews do not
believe that Jewish law isdivinely revealed and eschew many
practices central to Orthodoxy such as eating only kosher
foods, wearing a skull-cap (yarmulke) when praying, and
using Hebrew inprayer The differences among Orthodox,
Conservative, and Reform Jews go well beyond religion and
aremanifestedinmanyday-to-day activities and events and
the degree to which members of each are assimilated into
North American society Other categories of Jewsbased on
degree of religiousness include Hasidic (ultra-Orthodox)
Jews, Reconstructionalists, and "Civil" Jews
Asmentionedabove, Jews arrived in North America in
waves,largely from European nationsand these placesof
an-cestry are usedtodelineateoneJeworgroup of Jews from
an-other Thus, for example, one speaks of German Jews,
Rus-sian Jews, Polish Jews, Syrian Jews, andsoon, or in a more
general sense, eastern, central, orsouthern EuropeanJews
These distinctions are no longer especially important,
al-thoughGermanJewsarestill looked upon as wealthier and of
higherstatus thanother Jews
The final major distinction is between Jews of
Ashkenazic (Ashkenazim) or Sephardic (Sephardim,
Sfar-dim) ancestry Ashkenazim Jews are those descended from
the Ashkenazic Jews ofeasternand central Europeand
cur-rentlymake upabout90percent of North American Jews
Se-phardim aredescendedfromtheSephardic Jews who lived in
southern Europe fromabout the seventh to the fifteenth
cen-tury whentheywereexpelledfrom Spainby Queen Isabella
and King Ferdinand.Mostof the exilessettledintheMiddle
East andNorthAfrica Beyondadifference inplace of
ances-try,Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews differed and in some ways
continue to differ in language (Yiddish or European
lan-guages versusJudeo-Spanish orMiddle Eastern languages),
thepronunciation and spelling of Hebrew, liturgy, and
sur-names.But members of both groups freely acknowledge that
members of the other group are Jews, although some
Ashkenazimwere lessaccepting ofSephardimin thepast
Al-though North American Judaism is dominated by
Ash-kenazimbecause of their large numbers, there are important
Sephardic communities in NewYork, LosAngeles, Seattle,
Atlanta, Chicago, Montreal, Rochester, and Indianapolis
These communitiesderive from amigration occurring from
1900 to 1925when Sephardic Jews left areas that are now Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Rhodes, and other territories of the Ottoman Empire
Finally, mention should be made of otherJewish groups such as Karaites (Qaraites), Israeli, and Russian Jews who have recently immigrated to North America from their re-spective countries, and Black Jews who have formed their own sects (though byJewish-defined criteria most of these sects arenot consideredJews) These groups, who sometimes follow an ultra-Orthodox life-style or a life-style different from that of assimilated Jews, also sometimes choosetolive
inrelatively isolated urban communities andformtheir own synagogues The recent emigrants from Israel are looked uponby somewith puzzlement, astheyseem tobe rejecting thealiyyah, or ascent to theland of Israel, a marker of Jewish identity if not agoal for many Jews
PoliticalOrganization Although North American Juda-ismhas no overarching political structure similar tothat of RomanCatholicism orthe Church of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform syna-goguesare aligned with centralorganizations-the Union of Orthodox Congregations of America, theUnited Synagogue
of America (Conservative), and the Union of American He-brew Congregations (Reform) Although in the past the syn-agogue played an important organizational and leadership role, it no longer does so for most Jews Similarly, the rabbi, thespiritual and moral leader of the synagogue congregation, now rarely plays a leadership role in the community, based solely on his status as the rabbi
Jews have been seen (often by anti-Semitic commenta-tors) as aligned with liberal or radical political philosophies including socialism,communism, unionization, and the New Dealand tended to vote heavily in favor of candidates of the Democratic party in the United States; in the past decade or two, amarked trend towardconservatism andidentification with the Republican party has been noted among aminority
of Jews.Jews,despite being only about 2 percent of the popu-lation, are an important voting bloc because large numbers vote and because they make up a sizable percentage ofthe population in some large states such as New York and Florida and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec Jews run for and have beenelected to numerous local and state offices
SocialControl and Conflict Integrated as they are into U.S and Canadian society, Jews generally resolve legal
con-flicts with Jews ornon-Jews through the legal system Legal remedies available through Jewish agencies are rarely used Among the Orthodox there is recourse to some religiously sanctioned social control such as Orthodox divorce Al-though overtdiscrimination against Jews is waning in North America, there is a long tradition ofanti-Semitism, reflected
in limited access tocertainprofessions and residential isola-tion Within the Jewishcommunities inboth nations, there are long traditions of supporting Jewish causes and institu-tions through charitable donations to and work for
syna-gogues, schools, community centers, social welfare agencies, and the stateof Israel
Trang 4Jicarilla 171
Religion and Expressive Culture
ReligiousBeliefs Judaismistheoldest monotheistic
reli-gionto survive tomodemtimes ToJews,Godisthe Supreme
Being, the Creator of the Universe, and ultimate Judge of
HumanAffairs Some importanceisalso giventoparticular
prophets and angels The Hebrew calendaris alunar calendar
(basedonthemovementofthemoonaround theearth) and
has 354days, 12months of29 or 30dayseach withextradays
addedsothatthe lunar calendar conformstothesolar
(Gre-gorian) calendar, andsevendaysin aweek The Hebrew
cal-endarisbasedonthedate 3761 B.C.E., the year traditional
Jew-ish scholars believed the world began Thus, the years
5748-5749 aretheequivalent of1989 inthe Gregorian
cal-endar.Jewish weekly synagogue attendanceisrelativelylowat
about 20 percentcomparedtootherreligions.Becauseof the
wide divergence ofreligious belief and practice (Orthodox/
Conservative/Reform,Ashkenazic/Sephardic,andsoon),no
single all-encompassing system of Jewish belief and practice
canbe described
ReligiousPractitioners Thereis nohierarchyofreligious
leaders.The rabbi (master, teacher) isthespiritual leader of
the synagogue congregation Today, the role and status of the
rabbi is roughly the same as that of a Protestant minister or
Catholic priest and involvespastoral, social, educational,and
interfaith responsibilities Reform Jews and
Reconstruction-alists permit women to be ordainedasrabbis Cantorsarealso
important, leading the congregation in the chanting of
prayers(prayersarechanted,notrecited) andintrainingboys
for the Bar Mitzvah
Ceremonies Rosh Hashanah (NewYear) andYom
Kip-pur(the Day ofAtonement), the High Holy Days, usually fall
in September Pesach (Passover), Shavout (Festival of
Weeks), and Succot (Feast of the Ingathering) were originally
harvest festivals involving pilgrimages to the Temple
Pass-over today marks the escape of the Hebrews from ancient
Egyptabout 3,500 years ago and is widely celebrated Minor
holy days or festivals include Hanukkah(dedication Feast of
Lights), Purim (Festival of Lots), and Tisha B'Av (Ninth
Day of Av) Although of less importancetoday, Rosh Hodesh
(Beginning of a NewMoon) is still noted and marked by
spe-cial prayers Shabbat (the Sabbath) is the only Holy Day
mentioned in the Ten Commandments and is celebrated
from sundown Friday to sundownSaturday each week of the
year The Sabbath is aday of rest and reflection In addition
to these Holy Daysand festivals, all major life-cycle
events-birth, age of religious majority, marriage, and death-are
marked by prayer and ritual observances
Death and Afterlife Jewish law requires that the deceased
be buried withintwenty-fourhours of death Some Reform
Jewsallow cremation For close relatives there is a seven-day
mourning period (shivah) involving prayer and restrictions
on the activitiesof the moumer Regular prayerinmemory of
the deceased follows at set intervals following the mourning
period Jewish beliefs concerning the soul and afterlife are
vague and vary fromone group to another
SeealsoHasidim,and entries on Jews in the Europe and
Mid-dle East, Soviet Unionand China, and SouthAsiavolumes
Bibliography
Cohen, Steven (1983).AmericanModernityandJewish
Iden-tity. New York: Tavistock
Goren, Arthur A (1980) "Jews." In Harvard Encycopedia of American Ethnic Groups, edited by Stephan Thernstrom,
571-598 Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press
Gross, DavidC (1981) The Jewish People's Almanac Gar-den City,N.Y.: Doubleday
Rosenberg, Stuart E (1970-1971) The Jewish Community in Canada Toronto: McClelland & Stewart
Rosenberg, Stuart E (1985) The New Jewish Identity in America NewYork: Hippocrene Books
Tillem, Ivan L., comp and ed (1987).The 1987-88Jewish Almanac NewYork: Pacific Press
Weinfeld, M., W Shaffir, and 1 Coder, eds (1981) The Ca-nadianJewish Mosaic Toronto: John Wiley
DAVID LEVINSON
Jicarilla
ETHNONYM:Tinde
Orientation
Identification TheJicarilla are an American Indian group whose names for themselves, 'Haisndayin" and "Dinde," have been translated as"people who came from below" and
"people." The name "Jicarilla"wasused first by the Spanish
in 1700 in reference to a hill or peak associated with theloca-tion of the tribe at that time
Location The homelands of the Jicarilla were located in the high country of present-day southern Colorado and north-central New Mexico The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, ranging inheight from two thousand to fourteen thousand feet, roughly bisect the former Jicarilla territory from north to south and are flanked on the east and west by high plains The considerable variation in the topography of this region results in a varied climate, but one that isgenerally moderate with low annual precipitation Summers arehot and dry and winters cold and snowy The principal rivers in the region are the Rio Grande, the Arkansas, the Canadian, and the Chama Spruce, fir, aspen, juniper, andpifiontrees arefound
at the higher elevations, while short grasslands predominate
on the high plains and in the intermontane basins Demography In 1860 the Jicarilla numbered 860 By
1900 their numbers had declined to 815 and continued to
Trang 5172 Jicarilla
decline to588in 1920 This decline inpopulation wasdue
mostdirectlytotuberculosis,but thespreadof the disease
it-selfwas the result of poverty and poor nutritionassociated
with limited employment and insufficient rations on their
New Mexico reservation Inthe 1920sgovernment programs
to improvehealth and economicconditions onthe
reserva-tionhelpedreversethepopulationdecline By1955the
num-berofJicarillaexceeded1,000andin1981stoodat2,308on
theJicarilla Reservation innorth-centralNew Mexico
LinguisticAffiliation TheJicarillalanguage is a dialect of
the ApacheangroupofSouthern Athapaskan languages.
History and Cultural Relations
TheJicarillaaredescendants of SouthernAthapaskan
hunt-erswho migrated from the subarctic region westof Hudson
Bay to the Southwest between 1300 and 1500.The probable
routeof migrationwasthroughthe plains alongtheeastern
edge of the Rocky Mountains The Apacheans in general
came into contactwith theSpanishinthe mid-sixteenth
cen-tury, and until thebeginningof theeighteenthcentury
con-tacts with the Spanish were limited and generally friendly
During the 1700s Hispanic settlementof Jicarilla lands
grad-ually increased throughland grantsbytheMexican
govern-ment to its citizens TheJicarilla never agreed to these land
grants.After the Jicarilla territory passedtothejurisdiction of
the United States in 1848, Americansettlement ofJicarilla
lands also increased
The expansion of Hispanic and American settlement
rendered theJicarilla's traditional way of life impossible, and
inresponsetheybegantoraidWhite wagon trains and
settle-ments In1854 the government of New Mexicodeclared war
ontheJicarilla and thefollowingyearforced them to sign a
peace treatyprovidingfor their removal to a reservation The
plan for the Jicarilla reservation did not materialize until
1887.When itdid,the system of individual land allotments
intended to transform thepeopleintofarmers failedowing to
the unfavorable climate and terrainof the reservation site,
which led to social dislocation and dependence on
govern-mentwelfare.After the turn of the centurythe federal
govern-ment added new landstothereservation in anunsuccessful
attempt to promotelivestock raising.Atthistimeliving
con-ditions on the reservation reached their low point, with
wide-spreadunemployment,poverty,malnutrition,and disease
Fi-nally, in the 1920s the federal government succeeded in
introducingsheep raising, andconditions on the reservation
improved
Culturally, the Jicarilla were heavily influenced by the
Plains Indians totheireastandthePueblo Indians to their
west, withthe result that theirowncultureexhibiteda
combi-nationof nomadichunting and settled farming
characteris-tics.Oneof the Plains IndiantraitsprominentinJicarilla
cul-ture was anemphasis on raiding andwarfare AfterSpanish
contactraidingincreasedinfrequencyand intensity withthe
useof and need for horses At thebeginningof theeighteenth
century the Jicarilla commonly raided the Plains tribes to
their east and used the fruits of theirsuccesses totradewith
the Pueblo Indians and theSpanish During the second
dec-ade ofthe eighteenth century Comanches whohadobtained
gunsfrom the French drove theJicarillaoutofColorado and
into the foothills and mountains of northern NewMexico
Subsequently, theJicarilla soughthelpfrom the Spanish by
offeringallegiancetotheking of Spain, but withlittle result
In 1779 acombined force ofJicarilla, Ute, Pueblo, and Span-ish soldiers defeated theComanche,who, after another seven years and several more military campaigns, finally sued for peace Thereafter theJicarillawereabletoreestablish them-selvesinsouthern Colorado
Settlements
The Jicarilla lived in local groups of 150 to 400 peoplewho
occupied semipermanent, dispersed settlements or camps usually situated along the banks of rivers and streams and from whichthey conducted their hunting andraiding activi-ties Dwellings were low, dome-shaped structures, called wickiups, whichconsisted ofapole frame covered over with leaves and bark Animalskinswerelaid over the structure for
additionalprotection from thecold
Economy
Subsistence and Commercial Activities The Jicarilla economywasbased on huntingand gathering, but agriculture was also practiced andincreased in importance over time Animals hunted included largegame suchasbison, moun-tainsheep, antelope, deer, elk,and small game such as bea-ver, rabbit, squirrel, porcupine, and prairie dog Antelope were killed in communal drives, and bison (after Spanish contact) were hunted on horseback and dispatched with bowsand arrows and lances Turkey, grouse, and quail were alsohunted, and fish weretaken in shallow pools, with the useofbaitednoosesand bowsand arrows Gathered foods in-cluded juniper berries, mesquite beans, yucca fruit, choke-cherries, prickly pears, acorns, and pifion nuts Cultivation waspracticedby the Jicarillaafter the late 1600s and resulted from contact withthe Pueblo Indians Crops included maize, beans, squash, pumpkins, peas, and melons, which were planted in plots along river and stream banks Over time agri-culture increased inimportance and became more sophisti-cated Bythe time of the American occupation of the Jicarilla territory inthe mid-1800s, irrigation dams and ditches were constructed andused tosupplement the region's scanty rain-fall.Agricultural tools included crude wooden plows and im-plementsfor clearing irrigationditches Sheep raisingbecame popular inthe 1920s, but waseclipsed in importance in the 1950sby revenues from tribal-owned oil, gas, and timber re-sources Since that time nonagricultural wagelabor has in-creased with thedevelopmentof small businessesand indus-tries subsidized by the tribe's natural resource revenues Industrial Arts AchiefJicarilla industry was basket mak-ing, theproducts ofwhich were an important item of barter in trade with other native groups.Some baskets were sealed with pitch and used as water vessels TheJicarilla alsomade pot-tery and ceremonial clay pipes
Trade Baskets, meat, salt, and tanned bison hides were traded to Pueblo Indians for maize and other agricultural products The Indians of SanJuanPueblo, fromwhom the Jicarilla also obtained songbirdfeathers, were special trading partners
Division of Labor Menhunted and womengathered In farming, men prepared the fields, worked the irrigation ditches, and helped with the harvest, and women were re sponsible forplanting, hoeing,weeding, andharvesting
Trang 6Jicarilla 173
Land Tenure Local groups of homesteads maintained
somewhat ill-defined territories orcampinggrounds
associ-ated with some familiar geographical landmark In 1891
lands ontheJicarilla reservationswereallottedon an
individ-ualbasis In 1939 the allotted landswerereturned totribal
ownership
Kinship
KinGroups andDescent Local groupsof extended
fami-lies had a base in marriage and blood ties However, kin
groups with economic orpoliticalfunctions above the level of
the local group did not exist Kinship ties were reckoned
bilaterally
Kinship Terminology Jicarilla kinship terminology
fol-lowed the Iroquoian system The father and the father's
brotherwereclassed underasingleterm,aswerethe mother
and the mother's sister Parallel cousins were grouped with
siblingsand cross cousinswereclassedseparately.No
termi-nological distinction was made between maternal and
pa-ternal grandparents nor between male and female
grand-children
Marriage and Family
Marriage Young women were eligible for marriage after
reaching puberty and young men when they proved
them-selvescapable of supportingafamily In arranging a marriage,
the man was required toobtain the permission of the parents
of his prospectivebride,anditwascompletedwhen a dowry
wasofferedand gifts were exchanged Marriages were usually
monogamous, though polygyny was practiced on a limited
basis with the sister orcousinofthe first wife as a preferred
second mate Postmarital residence was matrilocal Divorce
was common and second marriages were allowed When a
spousediedthe survivor could marry again only after a period
ofmourning and after properpurification ritualswere
per-formed In such cases, levirate and sororate marriages were
preferred A widower was considered unlucky and could
re-marryonlyafter a temporary union with a woman whom he
was not permitted towed The temporary union lasted less
thanayearandwasbelievedtobringthe widower back from
his state of ill fortune
Domestic Unit The basic unit ofJicarillasociety was the
extended family consisting of parents, their unmarried
chil-dren, and their married daughters and their husbands and
children Within theextendedfamily each nuclear family unit
occupiedaseparatehousehold Among modemJicarillathe
nuclearfamily hasreplaced the extendedfamily as the basic
social unit
Inheritance Propertywasinherited, but not according to
anyspecificrules
Socialization Grandparents, especially on the maternal
side,played an important role in the training of the young
Boys'training for hunting began in childhood when they were
taughtthe use of the bow and arrow and the techniques of
trapping,callinganimals,andreadinganimal signs.Atabout
agetwelve they were taken on their first hunt and, if
success-ful, were initiated into the fraternity of hunters and taught
the rules and rituals of successful hunting For girls, upon
reaching puberty anadolescent rite was held in which the
ori-ginsof theJicarilla and thetraitseach womanshould
person-ifywererevealedtotheminprayers and songsrelated by
eld-erlymen.The purpose of theritewas toensureinitiatesalong
and fruitful life
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization TheJicarilla were divided into two bands, the Olleros,or"potters," in the west, and the Llaneros
or'plainspeople,"whorangedeastof theRioGrande These two bands have been referredtobysomeauthorsasmoieties There were no important cultural differences between the
bands,andtheir members intermarriedfreely Each bandwas
composed of several local groups, of which there were four-teen in the mid-nineteenth century, six belonging to the Olleros andeighttotheLlaneros Each local group, consist-ingofageographical cluster of extended families associated
by ties of blood, marriage, and strong friendship, formed a co-operative unit for economic and ceremonial activities for which the individual extended family was too small PoliticalOrganization. Politicalauthoritywasweakly de-veloped Within eachlocal group aninfluentialelderly head
ofanextended family usually acted as aleader, but his
au-thoritywasquitelimited Such leaders hadnocoercive power and their positionwasnotinherited Above the level of the local group there was no formalpoliticalhierarchy, although
afew respectedindividuals such as religiousleaders and warn-ors sometimestookresponsibility fordealing with other na-tive groups, the Spanish, and the Americans This system changed somewhat during the period of American occupa-tionwhenseveral inheritedchieftainshipsexisted within each
of thetwo bands During the period from 1888 to 1896the
Jicarillawereunder thedirect control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs,which shared some authority with the native leaders
In 1937, under the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act,theJicarillasadopted a tribal government consisting of
anelected tribal council
SocialControl Disputes over matterssuch asland and re-venge within and between localgroups were usually negoti-ated by local groupleaders
Conflict Inthe late 1800s the Olleros and the Llaneros opposed each other over the location of the Jicarilla Reserva-tion Oncesettled, they occupied separate areas of the reser-vation.The animosities stemming from this period have per-sisted into the twentieth century, with the Olleros usually identified asprogressives and the Llaneros as conservatives
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs TheJicarilla held that a strong tie ex-istedbetweenthemselves and the land because all natural ob-jectsand all living things wererepresentations of the power of their chief deity, Hascin Hascin wasbelieved to have been born of the union of Black Sky and Earth Mother, two supernaturals who lived in the inner womb of the earth and whohad existed since the beginning of time In Jicarilla my-thology Hascin wasresponsible for the creation of Ancestral ManandAncestral Woman and also for thecreation of the animals and thesun and moon Sun and Moon were consid-ered important supernaturals.According to their mythology theJicarilla were the soledescendants of the first people to emerge from the underworld, the abode of Ancestral Man
Trang 7174 Jicarilla
and AncestralWoman whoproduced the firstpeople
Ani-malswerereveredand entreated by theJicarillawithspecial
ceremoniespriortohuntingbecauseit wasbelievedtheywere
descended from the first animals who had used their powers
tofacilitate the emergence of the firstpeoplefrom the
under-world In the 1970s approximately 70 percent ofJicarillas
continued to holdtotheir traditional religiousbeliefs
Religious Practitioners The Jicarilla believed that at
birthachildmightreceive aspecialpower fromananimal,a
celestialbody, or some naturalphenomenon Inlater years
this power would appear to the select individual who then
hadtodecidewhethertoacceptthe power and becomea
sha-man.If the personaccepted it, heorshe underwenta testof
courageand thenaperiodof training under the guidance of
anexperiencedshamanduringwhichprayers, songs,and
ritu-alswerelearned The shaman's power could be either goodor
evil andwasbelievedtobeafinite resource, the effectiveness
of which diminished withtoofrequentuse
Ceremonies Jicarilla religious ceremonies were of two
types,personal orshamanistic ceremoniesand long-life
cere-monies Shamanisticceremonies includedcuringand
divin-ingrituals thatrequired the shaman'sspecial power Long-life
ceremoniesdidnotrequiresuchspecialpersonal power One
of themostimportant long-life ceremonies wasthe annual
autumnRelayRacethatpitted the young menof the Ollero
and Llanero bands againstone another The purposeof the
race was to ensure anabundant food supply during the
com-ing year Participantswerepainted anddecorated with
feath-ersand yucca leaves according to their band affiliation and
racedon aneast-west-orientedcourse.Ifthe Olleros won the
race, it wasbelieved thatplantfoodswould be abundant; if
theLlaneros, animal foods.Inthe1930slong-life ceremonies
enjoyed much popularity among the Jicarilla, and in the
1970stheRelay Racewasstillactiveand supported by the
tri-bal council
Arts Grounddrawingswere an integral part ofthe Relay
Raceceremony Onthe eveningprecedingtheraceeach band
selected aleader who,with his assistants,"painted" colorful
drawings in the ground with pollen and colored materials
The drawings usually included the images of the sun and
moonand two fast birds The evening also included a good
deal of singing, with the bands competing withoneanother
and singing songs to theraceparticipants
Medicine TheJicarilla attributed a variety of sicknesses
and ailments afflicting children to contact with birds and
other animals Forexample, the shadow ofa turkeyvulture
flying overheadcouldmakeachild sick anddie Contact with
eagles or the tracks of snakes and bears could give a child
rheumatism Contactwith menstrualblood could also cause
rheumatism Somesicknesses were believed to be caused by
ghosts Ghostsickness was marked by nervousness, hysteria,
and derangement Curing ceremonies were of both the
shamanistic and the long-life type Oneofthe most
impor-tantlong-life ceremonies, the Holiness Rite,wasa curing
cer-emony Held three days prior to the appearance of a full
moon, this ceremony was conducted inside a tipi within a
brush enclosure Patients were confined to the tipi andwere
theobject of extended periods of singing by shamans for three
successivenights On the fourthnight sacred clowns entered
the tipi and participatedinthecurewithspecial prayers On
the morning of the fifthday the patients and participants re-ceivedablessing within the tipi and thenexited the tipi and the brush enclosure totheeastwherethey"deposited" their ailmentson a treeespeciallyprepared byamedicineman.At the conclusion of the ceremony all returnedtothe brush en-closure withoutlooking back and had their faces painted by a shaman
Death and Afterlife The Jicarilla believed that in the process ofdyinganindividual's ghost or spirit was conducted northward tothe edgeof the earth where it wasoffered fruit
Ifthe ghost refusedthe offer, it returned to itsphysical body andlife,but ifitaccepted,itslid downintothe afterworld and death occurred Upon death close relatives of the deceased went into mourning and one or two relatives prepared the corpse Burial tookplace during the daytime as soon after death as possible Some personal possessions were buried with thedeceased,andthe person's horsewaskilledatgrave side The burial party returned from the gravesitebya route different from thatbywhichithad come, being carefulnot to lookback andrefraining from discussing the location of the gravewith others whentheyreturned The burial party then discarded their clothes and washed themselves thoroughly These elaborate precautionsby the burial party were followed
inorder to avoid the vengeful, evil nature of the ghost of the deceased The Jicarilla believed that the evil ofghosts was the result oftheaccumulation of its frustrations, conflicts, and disappointmentswhile living and that ghosts could return to theliving to avenge some past injury Ghosts were believed to visittheliving in the form of coyotes, which were considered
an omenof one'sowndeathorthe death ofaclose relative
Bibliography
Gunnerson, Dolores A (1974) The Jicarilla Apaches: A Study in Survival DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press Opler, Morris (1936) "A Summary ofJicarillaApache Cul-ture." American Anthropologist, n.s 38:202-223
Opler, Morris (1971)."JicarillaApache Territory, Economy, and Society in 1850." SouthwesternJournal of Anthropology 27(4):309-329
Tiller, Veronica E (1982) The Jicarilla Apache Tribe: A His-tory, 1846-1970 Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press Tiller, Veronica E.(1983) "JicarillaApache." In Handbook of North American Indians Vol 10, Southwest, edited by Alfonso Ortiz, 440-461 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian In-stitution
GERALD F REID