KUMEYAAY HISTORY in San Diego

EDITOR's FORWARD:

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 a Kumeyaay Indian speak ill of or express bitterness over the past — they seem to be more interested in the present and future.

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

SO-CALLED MODERN EXPERTS have detailed Kumeyaay history, so my essay reflects a general overview of Kumeyaay tribal history in San Diego County with LINKS to Kumeyaay historical experts.

HARD ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE clearly proves the Kumeyaay Indigenous peoples have lived in the greater San Diego and northern Baja California Mexico area for at least 12,000 years:

"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 3000 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, 1542, was a Spanish sailing expedition led by the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. (The above picture captures today's Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma 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 what is known today as Old Town in San Diego, CA.

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 California Indian culture over THOUSANDS of years, including their Yuman languages and vast knowledge of the Kumeyaay homelands, indigenous plants and medicinal herbs.

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

In 1779 Lt. Colonel 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 Spanish invaders which continued throughout the Mexican Revolution.

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 Revolution, and San Diego had officially come under Mexican rule.

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

In 1846 the United States Government declared war against Mexico.

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.

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

By all known accounts the ensuing U.S. Government and California local militia control over the Kumeyaay — the California Missions and California Genocide periods — were blatantly genocidal and disastrous to the Kumeyaay tribes, the California aboriginal peoples.

For example:

"Militias were at the forefront the of 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. In 1848, Indians in California out numbered whites by ten to one. By 1855, the population had dropped to 50,000. By 1900 less than 16,000 survived."

- www.campo-nsn.gov

Of the 16,000 surviving California Indians in 1900 — only 1,000 Kumeyaay Indians had survived the turn of the century in San Diego County — and all but their least desirable tribal lands had been taken.

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

The 1900s saw the California Indigenous peoples, the Kumeyaay, psychically and culturally decimated, impoverished and dependant on federal government assistance, a world away from the strong, independent people they were prior to the 1800s and European contact.

Unlike the eastern Native Americans who lost all their Indigenous tribal lands to the white immigrants, the Kumeyaay Indians today have retained very small, remote parcels of their ancestral lands — Kumeyaay Indian reservations — likely because Kumeyaay territory was not invaded until much later, 1776, and there was some undesirable land here to relocate them to.

The 2000s and California Indian gaming and Kumeyaay owned San Diego County casinos resorts golf courses hotels and banks are bringing new hope for the Kumeyaay Indigenous peoples....

GARY G. BALLARD
Webmaster, Editor

Please visit the on-line KUMEYAAY RESEARCH DEPARTMENT.

KUMEYAAY BANDS KUMEYAAY TRIBES

United States Southern California tribes Kumeyaay bands:

Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians
Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation
Barona Band of Mission Indians
San Pasqual Band of Indians
Inaja Cosmit Indian Reservation
Capitan Grande Indian Reservation
Santa Ysabel Band of Diegueño Indians
Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians aka Cuyapaipe
Manzanita Indian Reservation
La Posta Indian Reservation
Jamul Indian Village A Kumeyaay Nation
Mesa Grande Indian Reservation
Campo Band of the Kumeyaay Nation

Baja California, Mexico Kumeyaay Kumiai bands tribes:

La Huerta
San Jose de la Zorra
Juntas de Neji
San Antonio Necua
Santa Catarina (Kumeyaay Paipai)

KUMEYAAY HISTORY EXPERTS:

Please visit the Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians website for more complete information on the Kumeyaay history, the arrival of the Spanish, the Spanish expansion into Kumeyaay Indigenous territory, the Kumeyaay attacks on the Spanish to regain their ancestral lands, the Treaty of Santa Ysabel, the California Genocide, and the current Kumeyaay bands of Native American Indians in Southern California and northern Mexico.

Kumeyaay Historical Maps:

MAPS of KUMEYAAY HISTORY 1769 - 2005, by the Campo Band of Kumeyaay Indians, illustrate the above outlined points of Kumeyaay history, including current Kumeyaay lands.

Courtesy of www.kumeyaay.com The Premiere Source for Kumeyaay Indian Information

TIMELINE OVERVIEW kumeyaay.com (link broken):

Follow the Timeline from creation to present day, seeing how the Kumeyaay have survived and overcome the challenges of the ages to thrive today. Kumeyaay.com gives special thanks to Mike Connolly of the Campo Tribe, and Nancy Carol Carter of the University of San Diego for their invaluable input in this section.

ARTICLES kumeyaay.com (link broken):

All of the publications that appear on (Kumeyaay.com) are representative of the Kumeyaay Nation's true heritage - past, present, and future. The following collection of articles was gathered and/or composed by the Kumeyaay.com panel of experts.

THE KUMEYAAY daphne.palomar.edu by Michael Baksh:

This ethnographic overview focuses on the Kumeyaay of southern San Diego County. It is based upon the detailed descriptions and research findings of several important ethnohistorical and ethnographic studies. Includes Subsistence, Housing & Technology, Settlements & the Seasonal Round, Kumeyaay Agriculture, Social Organization, Trade, Spiritual Life.