Pablo Tac, Indigenous Scholar: Writing on Luiseno Language and Colonial History, C. 1840.

Trafzer, Clifford E.

PABLO TAC, INDIGENOUS SCHOLAR: WRITING ON LUISENO LANGUAGE AND COLONIAL HISTORY, C. 1840

By Lisbeth Haas with Art by James Luna (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011, 288 pp., $49.95 cloth)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

LISBETH HAAS OFFERED a significant contribution to California history by introducing and presenting the original manuscript of Pablo Tac (1820-1841), a nineteenth-century Payomkowishum (Luiseno) Indian scholar from Mission San Luis Rey. In 1930, Carlos Tagliavini published a heavily edited portion of Tac's manuscript. Here Haas provides the first full text of Tac's contribution--including a Luiseno grammar, history, and Luiseno-Spanish dictionary--in its original form. The book also contains an illustrated essay, "Fasten Your Seatbelts, Prepare for Landing," by Luiseno artist James Luna and elements of his Tac exhibition.

Haas presents an in-depth introduction to Tac's manuscript that places the work in historical context. She points out that between 1834 and 1841, while Tac lived and studied for the priesthood in Rome, the Luiseno scholar wrote his manuscript for Vatican librarian Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti. Tac's manuscript became part of Mezzofanti's archive, and Haas worked diligently to find, translate, and interpret the entire manuscript.

Pablo Tac translated his knowledge and concepts from Luiseno into Spanish and Latin, which he used to construct his writings for Cardinal Mezzofanti. His manuscript offers scholars an original source written by a Luiseno Indian about selected elements of his culture during the early nineteenth century. Contemporary scholars often rely on the writings of Spanish citizens and subsequent non-Indian scholars to understand Native Americans during the Spanish colonial periods. Tac's manuscript allows scholars to study Luiseno language, culture, and history through the written words of a Luiseno man.

Haas offers a very rare document that provides many insights into the culture and religion of Tac and his people. Tac carefully discusses cultural change over time and Native adaptation to the Spanish newcomers and their colonial institutions. He often mentions horses, villages, leaders, and laws. He provides some details about the loss of Indian self-determination, spaces, and places. He clearly understood Luiseno sovereignty and the attempt by the Spanish to control and change elements of Native culture. He examines Luiseno dance and stickball in some detail, but his most revealing discussions center on indigenous concepts of spiritual power and religion.

Tac addresses Luiseno topics tied to the sacred, including song, dance, and music. He deals with regalia, ritual, and ceremony, providing few details but placing these subjects into the body of his manuscript. His work includes a sketch of an Eagle Dancer, a man performing a sacred dance related to spiritual medicine, song, and story. Most important, he inserts comments about the Tongva, Acjachemen, and Luiseno god, Chanichnich. He wrote, "Channichnichop choonna auc," or "God is in all places." In another segment of the manuscript, he wrote the English equivalent of this phrase: "For us the son of God descended from the heavens, and also for us, he died." Significantly, Tac used the Luiseno word Chanichnich for Dios (God). Thus, he made his Native god the equivalent of the Christian god--a blasphemous statement. By doing so, he asserted his own intellectual sovereignty, which ran counter to Church teachings. In this and other ways, Tac's manuscript is bold and insightful, if not subversive.

Contemporary Luiseno scholars, including Patricia Dixon, Gary Dubois, Mark Macarro, Willie Pink, and others could have helped interpret Tac's words and their significance to Luiseno Indian culture, thereby enlarging and enhancing Haas's presentation of Tac's work. Still, in spite of this missed opportunity, Haas has brought forward a full rendition of Tac's manuscript that will be used by Indian and non-Indian scholars for generations to come.

REVIEWED BY CLIFFORD E. TRAFZER, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, RUPERT COSTO CHAIR IN AMERICAN INDIAN AFFAIRS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE, AND AUTHOR OF AS LONG AS THE GRASS SHALL GROW AND RIVERS FLOW: A HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICANS