Vanyume

The Vanyume lived along the Mojave River, from the eastern Mojave Desert west towards the San Bernardino Mountains. Their villages included Wá’peat. Although closely related in language and culture to the neighboring Serrano, they formed a distinct political community before European contact. The river was a route for exchange through the desert, linking coastal shell beads and asphaltum with goods such as pottery and textiles from farther inland. The missionary Francisco Garcés recorded the people under the Mojave name Beñemé, from which the name Vanyume was later derived.