KUMEYAAY HISTORY 12,000 years in San Diego

"Before gaming and revenue our people lived in despair, in abject and grinding poverty.

"This lifestyle was not a choice that we made.

"We were driven into the mountains, into the rocks — languished there for 150, 200 years not having an opportunity to access the economics of this rich and abundant country.

"We need to be in a place where those children that are not yet born — we know those seven generations ahead of today — need to be in a place where they can stand, have their own land to stand on to be able to make choices, to be able to live in dignity."

-Excerpted from Kumeyaay Chairman Anthony Pico, Ph.D., Viejas Indian Reservation, PBS interview, 1997

EDITOR's FORWARD:

2004 (updated 2010), PARA ESPANOL

AS A NON-NATIVE WEBMASTER with superficial perspectives and OPINIONS on the Kumeyaay-Diegueño peoples, I feel it important to say that I've rarely heard San Diego Indians speak ill of or express bitterness over the past — they seem to be more interested in their present and future.

However, I have certain editorial responsibility to present some known historical facts and personal accounts about American Indian aboriginal history in San Diego County — the historical tribal homelands of the Kumeyaay Indians.

SO-CALLED MODERN EXPERTS have detailed Kumeyaay history, so my essay reflects a general overview, a timeline of California tribal history in San Diego County with LINKS to Kumeyaay historical experts and how to identify and research San Diego County tribes on the Internet — including the surviving four tribes indigenous to Imperial County and San Diego County: Kumeyaay-Diegueño-Tipai-Iipai-Kumiai, Luiseño, Cupeño, Cahuilla.

Eighteen-year-old Citlalli Salazar, Kumiai models an antique basket hat (probably desert Cahuilla), her Baja ejido pictured in background, a rare old Kumeyaay polychrome olla clay artifact to right.

HARD ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE clearly suggests the Kumeyaay Indians have lived in the greater San Diego and northern Baja California Mexico area for some 12,000 years — that's the year 10,000 B.C. for anyone counting backwards, and that's 7,500 years before the Great Pyramids of Giza were built.

"The earliest documented inhabitants in what is now San Diego County are known as the San Dieguito Paleo-Indians, dating back to about 10,000 B.C. Different groups later evolved as the environment and culture diversified. It is from one of these groups that the Southern Diegueño emerged at about 3,000 B.C. The Southern Diegueño are the direct ancestors of the Sycuan Band currently living in Dehesa Valley...."

- sycuan.com

PRE-CONTACT Kumeyaay Life:

"Southern California has always been a haven of good weather, and good life. The Kumeyaay of Pre-Contact wanted for nothing. With ideal climate, and a land that they cared for and in turn provided a bounty of crops, game, and medicine. With little to no thought given to hardship of survival, the Kumeyaay were able to turn their thoughts to ways to improve their life. This was a world of astronomers... horticulturists... healers... scientists... and storytellers...."

- kumeyaay.com (link broken)

FIRST EUROPEAN EXPEDITION known to visit San Diego, in 1542, was a Spanish sailing expedition led by the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Note: The picture at the top of this page captures Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma today as it overlooks San Diego Bay in honor of the first known European to enter California.

FIRST EUROPEAN IMMIGRANT SETTLERS arrived in California, 1769, and first settled in the ancient Kumeyaay village of Kosa'aay (Cosoy), known today as Old Town in San Diego, CA, at the base of Presideo Hill.

SPANISH ARRIVAL (map graphic) 1776, it is estimated the California Indian population was over 150,000 strong — up until which time the Kumeyaay were living off the land in harmony with nature, developing their unique North American tribal culture over THOUSANDS of years, including their native Yuman (Hokan) languages.

One of the most famous Spanish explorers of this period was Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira, the founder of San Diego and Monterey, Calif.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS reflect the Pre-Contact Kumeyaay were thriving populations of Native Americans who, by archeological criteria, were still living in the Stone Age with no use of metals and no cloth fabrics.

In 1779 Lt. Colonel Pedro Fages summed up the Kumeyaay attitudes as follows:

"Indeed this tribe, which among those discovered is the most numerous, is also the most restless, stubborn, haughty, warlike, and hostile toward us, absolutely opposed to all rational subjection and full of the spirit of independence."

- www.campo-nsn.gov

By 1798 the SPANISH MISSIONS (map), immigrants and military had expanded into Kumeyaay territory causing continual friction and bloody, murderous fighting between the Kumeyaay and the non-native invaders which continued well beyond the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821).

By 1822 the Kumeyaay had lost control of all their COASTAL TRIBAL LANDS (map) to the Spanish; the Spanish had been defeated by the Mexicans in the Mexican revolutionary war; and San Diego had officially come under Mexican rule.

KUMEYAAY ATTACKS 1836-1842 (map) on the now Mexican San Diego territory were to put down the abusive Mexican domination in the greater San Diego area and reclaim ancient Kumeyaay coastal lands and water rights.

In 1846 the United States Government declared war against Mexico, the Mexican American War (1846-1848).

Year 1848 — A devastating turn for indigenous California peoples, including the Kumeyaay

In 1848 The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed which ended the Mexican American War and established the current UNITED STATES-MEXICO BORDER, Mexico-U.S. Border dividing California from Mexico.

Jump down page for LINKS TO OFFICIAL KUMEYAAY WEB SITES. Additional historical MAPS OF THE KUMEYAAY (1776-present). Kumeyaay-Diegueño prehistoric CAVE DRAWINGS.

The US-Mexico Border cut through the heart of Kumeyaay ancestral lands and to this day the 'border situation' effectively alienates the southern Kumeyaay in Mexico from their northern Kumeyaay relatives in the United States.

THE GOLD RUSH OF 1848 SEALED THEIR FATE

The great CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH of 1848-1855 brought a massive flood of some 300,000 gold prospectors and immigrants pouring into California during this seven-year period — effectively tripling California's population in seven years.

The GOLD RUSH changed the course California's history by bringing the full weight of the invaders' superior weaponry, their foreign diseases, and their greed for gold and land bearing down on the backward, ill-prepared aboriginal population of California.

In 1848, Indians in California out numbered whites by ten to one — can you imagine that — walking out of your home today and hiking towards your favorite park or beach in an 1848 California countryside?

OLD-WORLD ETHNIC CLEANSING ENSUED

By many credible historical accounts, the ensuing U.S. Government and California state and local militia control over the Kumeyaay were blatantly GENOCIDAL to the California Indian peoples.

For example:

"Militias were at the forefront of the government-sanctioned murder of Indians in California. Typically attacking at night, the militias would murder men, women and children. William Kibbe, the leader of a volunteer company in the Humbolt area, claimed his men had killed over 200 Indians to open up land for immigration.

"Local, State and Federal governments supported the genocide of California Indians. City governments paid bounties on heads or scalps of Indians. Volunteer militias received reimbursement from the State treasury for their expenses in Indian extermination. Furthermore, the Federal government would often reimburse the State for much of the claims against the treasury by militias.

"In 1845 the California Indian population is estimated to have been 150,000...by 1855, the population had dropped to 50,000. By 1900 less than 16,000 survived."

- www.campo-nsn.gov

Likewise, the CALIFORNIA SPANISH MISSION SYSTEM was also disastrous to the ageless California Indian spirit and timeless culture — similar to the national Indian Boarding Schools in government attempts to assimilate Native American Indians into "civilized society" during this dark, bloody chapter in early American history.

Antique colored postcard of three Native "Mission Indian" women, postmarked 1912, "Old Indian Women at Mission Luis Rey, California."

ONLY 1,000 KUMEYAAY INDIANS SURVIVED THE 1800s

Of the 16,000 surviving California Indians in 1900 — only around 1,000 Kumeyaay Indians are believed to have survived the turn of the 20th century in San Diego County — and all but their least desirable tribal lands had been taken by settlers, state and federal officials.

The TREATY OF SANTA YSABEL 1852 (map) established a Kumeyaay Diegueño Indian reservation over 60 miles inland in the most remote high-mountain deserts of San Diego County and Imperial County.

Antique, hand-colored postcard, postmarked 1912, "Indian Camp, Warner Hot Springs, San Diego, Co., Cal."

A UNIQUE ABORIGINAL CULTURE AND ITS PEOPLE ARE BROKEN

The turn of the 20th century (1900) saw the Kumeyaay survivors psychically and culturally decimated, and impoverished — a world away from the strong, independent people they were prior to the 1800s and European contact.

Unlike many of the eastern and plains Indians who lost all their aboriginal homelands to the foreign invaders — the Kumeyaay Indians today have retained very small, remote parcels of their ancestral lands — likely because Kumeyaay territory was not invaded until much later, 1776, and there was some undesirable land here to relocate them to.

THE 20TH CENTURY — Stories of Perseverance, Survival and Leadership

The 1900s contain too many sad stories of forced relocation, generational cycles of abject reservation poverty and personal struggles for American Indians living in the United States during this period — but the 20th century also contains many great inspiring stories of survival, leadership and cultural renaissance.

One such story is that of the men and women who made up the Mission Indian Federation (MIF). Active 1919-1965, the MIF was Southern California's most popular and long-lived grass-roots political organization.

MIF members fought against many local, state and federal policies that discriminated against American Indians, including hard-fought tribal sovereignty issues, securing equal rights for Indians — the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and ensuring voting rights for Indians under the U.S. Constitution.

The Mission Indian Federation, pictured in Riverside, California, 1920, at the home of Jonathan Tibbet (founder of the MIF).

GREAT HOPE FOR THE FUTURE at the Turn of the 21st Century in San Diego County

Important Kumeyaay leaders at the turn of the 21st Century (pictured 2005-2006, l-r): Chairman Paul Cuero (Campo), Chairman Leroy Elliott (Manzanita), Medicine Man Ron Christman (Santa Ysabel). For more information about tribal chairmen, please visit the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association SCTCA Web site.

Kumeyaay museum exhibit "Our Lives" at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington D.C., 2005

KUMEYAAY FIESTA: Local Southern California Indians gathered on an east county Indian reservation in 2005 and celebrated their shared Yuman culture with traditional singing and dancing.

Yuman tribal members gathered on the Barona Indian Reservation during the Sixth Annual Yuman Family Language Summit — Yuman tribes participating in the language event include Quechan Kiliwa, Pai Pai, Diegueño, Kumeyaay, Kumiai, Cucapa, Cocopah, Cochimi, Maricopa, Prescott, Wiipuhka'pah, Mohaves, Fort Mojave, Hualapai, Havasupai Indians.

Key Kumeyaay activists ralley on the Viejas Kumeyaay reservation during the political fight for California Indian Gaming rights in 2000. Pictured (l-r) are Louis Guassic (Mesa Grande), Anthony Pico (Viejas) and John Christman (Viejas).

Top three Kumeyaay casinos in San Diego County, January, 2000: Barona, Sycuan, Viejas.

CALIFORNIA INDIAN GAMING BACKGROUND & HISTORY IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY

With congress passing the INDIAN GAMING REGULATORY ACT (IGRA) in 1988, and voters overwhelmingly approving PROPOSITION 1A in 2000 — California Indians, as SOVEREIGN INDIAN NATIONS, at last have a shot at participating in the American Dream....

FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION

This sort of essay (and my limited perspective) cannot possibly convey a rounded or complete history of the Kumeyaay, but it is my best attempt.

For more detailed information, please visit the official Kumeyaay tribal Web sites to get their information directly from their tribal historians — just click on their Web site's History and Culture links.

Campo, Viejas and Barona tribal councils appear particularly committed to Kumeyaay education and sharing their tribal culture with the public.

The BARONA CULTURAL CENTER & MUSEUM (on the Barona Indian Reservation), and the SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF MAN (in Balboa Park) are two fine museums to learn about the Kumeyaay way.

Samuel Brown, Kumeyaay of Viejas reservation, published a treasure of KUMEYAAY STORIES on his popular Kumeyaay Web site: www.kumeyaay.org — Sam's collection of some 60 Brown-Curo stories are my all time favorite Kumeyaay writings.

Michael Connolly Miskwish, Kumeyaay of Campo reservation, is likely the best known writer about early Kumeyaay history. Check out his two recent books: "Kumeyaay: A History Textbook, Vol 1, Precontact to 1893" (2006) and "Sycuan. Our People. Our Culture. Our History." (2006). Much of the information presented in this Kumeyaay history article is based on Michael's historical writings and map drawings.

Michael Baksh, of daphne.palomar.edu, published a great academically-researched ETHNOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW OF THE KUMEYAAY including: Subsistence, housing and technology, settlements and the seasonal round, agriculture, social organization, trade, spiritual life. Michael's writing is based on the detailed descriptions and research findings of several important ethnohistorical and ethnographic studies.

Very respectfully,

GARY G. BALLARD
KUMEYAAY.INFO Founder, Webmaster, and Editor