After hundreds of years of archaeological research by experts, and gathering of artifacts from many hundreds of Southern California indigenous sites, it is widely accepted that today’s Kumeyaay tribal members can trace their lineage back to at least 12,000 years in the San Diego area – that’s 600 generations.
PRE-CONTACT: 10000 BC – 1542
12000 BC – 5000 BC Paleo-Indian (San Dieguito)
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. This was a world of astronomers, horticulturists, healers, scientists, and storytellers.
5000 BC – 1000 AD Milling Stone (La Jollan)
1000 – 1769 Pottery period (Yuman)
1542 FIRST CONTACT:
First European explorer in California, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer, sailed into what is known today as San Diego Bay and made first contact with the Kumeyaay people.
1602 SAN DIEGO IS NAMED:
Sebastian Vizcaino, a wealthy merchant sailing from Acapulco to San Diego lands to explore. He bestows the name “San Diego” on the area.
CALIFORNIA MISSION PERIOD (1769-1823)
1769 FIRST SPANISH MISSIONARY:
The Portola expedition and the efforts of Father Junipero Serra were to establish a chain of Spanish missions and military forts (bases) on the West Coast and build good relations with the local indigenous tribes in an old-world effort to gain their cooperation in finding the fabled cities of gold so their untold wealth could be plundered for Spain and personal gain. Father Junípero Serra, established the first Franciscan mission in California near the ancient Kumeyaay village of Kosa’aay (Cosoy), known today as Old Town, San Diego.
It was under the strong influences of the “California Mission Period” (1769-1823) that some of the tribes took on the “Mission Indian” namesake, and their ethnographic art was labeled “Mission Indian” art. This name association continues today.
1770 Father Serra contemplates abandoning the mission
After one year of futile effort, not one Indian in San Diego has been converted to the Catholic faith. The Kumeyaay were the most resistant of all the California tribes to the conversion efforts of the Spanish priests.
1775 REBELLION ERUPTS:
The Kumeyaay resisted the Spaniards’ attempts to take their land, govern them, and convert them, including forcing them into slave labor forces. One year after the mission was completed, Father Luís Jayme was killed by rebellious warriors at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, November 4, 1775, and the mission was burned down.
1776 FIRST SPANISH SETTLERS ARRIVE:
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 or cloth fabrics when the first Spanish settlers arrived.
1798 First U.S. citizens reach San Diego
They arrived by walking from Baja California (where they had been put off a ship – presumably for some unacceptable behavior).
1777 The San Diego mission is re-established and was completed in 1784:
It was rebuilt four times between 1775 and 2008. The uprising was the first of a dozen similar incidents that took place in Alta California during the Mission Period, however, most rebellions tended to be localized and short-lived due to the Spaniards’ superior weaponry. Kumeyaay resistance more often took the form of non-cooperation (in forced labor), return to their homelands (desertion of forced relocation), and raids on mission livestock.
MEXICAN PERIOD (1812 – 1848):
1812 Mexican government makes grants of unoccupied lands in California.
1821 ALL KUMEYAAY COASTAL LANDS TAKEN BY MILITARY FORCE:
BY 1821 the Kumeyaay had lost control of all their prime coastal tribal lands to the Spanish; the Spanish had been defeated by the Mexicans in the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821); and San Diego had officially come under Mexican rule.
1821 Treaty of Cordoba marks the beginning of Mexican Independence:
Large land grants in the San Diego area are given to Mexican supporters
1824 Mexican Constitution
Mexican Constitution of 1824 grants equality to all citizens, including Indians.
1836 – 1842 KUMEYAAY WARS
In 1821, following the successful Mexican revolution, California became part of Mexico. The Mexican government sought to eliminate the Spanish system centered on the Missions and Pueblos.
Lands were carved up for distribution as Ranchos and Indians were either evicted or forced to work as laborers. This resulted in a massive uprising of Kumeyaay throughout their territory. Armed with modern weaponry and horses, Kumeyaay warriors launched recurring raids on the Mexican Ranchos.
Kumeyaay attacks 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.By 1842, the Ranchos had been abandoned and the warriors were attacking the last stronghold, the City of San Diego. The City was spared destruction by the entry of another faction, the United States of America.
1826 Skirmish between Indians and Mexican troops in San Diego kills 28 Kumeyaay.
1827 Smallpox epidemic sweeps through California Indian population.
1832 Malaria epidemic hits California.
1835 The Mexican military abandons the Presidio at San Diego
1846 – 1848 THE MEXICAN AMERICAN WAR:
In 1846 the United States Government declared war against Mexico. The Mexican-American War ended with signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty, between the Mexican and American governments, established the current US-Mexico border and divided California from Mexico. This meant the boundary cut the international border through the heart of the Kumeyaay ancestral homelands, and to this day the ‘border situation’ effectively alienates the southern Kumeyaay in Mexico from their northern Kumeyaay relatives in the United States.
This North American border region is known today as Southern California (County of San Diego) and Baja California Norte (Mexico), and it is located in the extreme southwestern corner of the U.S.A.
1847 U.S. – Mexico hostilities end with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
United States pledges in the treaty to respect Indian land rights.
THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH (1848 – 1855)
The California gold rush sealed the fate of the California Indians for the next 150-plus years. In 1848, Indians in California out numbered whites by ten to one. The gold rush brought 300,000 gold prospectors and immigrants pouring into California during this seven-year period, effectively tripling California’s population in seven years. During the ten year period from 1845 to 1855, approximately 100,000 indigenous people perished, reversing the balance of whites to Indians.
This 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 aboriginal population of California. The ensuing U.S. government and California state and local militia control over the Kumeyaay were blatantly genocidal to the California Indian peoples.
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 native population had dropped to 50,000. By 1900, only about 16,500 survived.
Of the 16,500 or so surviving California Indians in 1900, only around 1,000 Kumeyaay Indians are believed to have survived at 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.
1850 California becomes a state.
1851 Indian revolt against Warner Ranch
Defeated, after burning the ranch house and stage station; Indians resist efforts of sheriff to collect taxes.
1852 “Garra Revolt” ends with the arrest of Antonio Garra
Garra is executed after being found guilty of treason, murder, and theft in the aftermath of organizing Warner’s Ranch area Indians.
US TREATY PERIOD (1852 – Present):
1852 Treaty of Santa Ysabel
The unratified Treaty of “Santa Ysabel was meant to establish a Kumeyaay Diegueño Indian Reservation over 60 miles inland in the most remote, hostile, high-mountain deserts of San Diego County, Riverside County and Imperial County.
Unfortunately, the Treaty of Santa Ysabel was illegally and unethically voted down and placed under seal by the Senate of the United States. State sponsored militias then sought to enslave or exterminate all Indians in California. The population of Indians in California dropped by 90% from 1850 to 1860. Because of the nearby Mexican border and the lack of large gold strikes to lure more Americans, the Kumeyaay on the Mexican side of the border fared somewhat better than the northern tribes on the US side.
1859 Indian property awarded to settlers in Rancho Land Grants.
1860 Common School act excludes Indians from California public schools.
1862 San Diego City Council orders the sheriff to remove “the Indian rancheria” one-half mile from any town residence.
1869 The San Francisco Alta newspaper reports that 22,000 California Indians have died in less than 20 years from disease and deprivation.
1870 Gold discovered in Julian, CA – Reservation in area cancelled.
1875 President Grant gives executive order, setting aside Indian land allowing the establishment of reservations for the Santa Ysabel, Pala, Sycuan, La Jolla, Rincon, Viejas, and Capitan Grande bands.
1877 Severe San Diego drought results in attacks on Indians holding water resources.
1885 California Southern Railroad gives San Diego its first rail connection with the East and population grows to 40,000 within two years.
1891 La Jolla and Cuyapaipe Reservations established.
1893 Campo Indian Reservation established, Pauma and Yuima Reservation at the foothills of Mount Palomar, and Rincon Reservation officially established.
1900 Total Indian population in California drops to about 16,500 (11,800 of this number are considered “landless”).
1901-1903 Additional funds set aside to purchase more acreage for reservations.
1912 A small reservation is created for San Diego’s Jamul Band of Mission Indians.
1924 Citizenship Act Passed
Under the Citizenship Act of 1924, Indians get US citizenship. Women get right to vote (including Indian women). However, Indians could not vote for local officials.
1932 Kumeyaay forced off ancestral land on the San Diego River, making way for the El Capitan Dam and its reservoir. The federal government helps to relocate the Barona Band to the present-day Barona Reservation.
1934 Reservation established for the Viejas Band from their displacement by the reservoir.
1952 Indians get full right to vote.
They are now able to vote for local politicians.
1953 Public Law 280 authorized states unilaterally to assume jurisdiction over criminal and civil matters on reservations.
1958 Interstate Highway 8 opens in San Diego County, following ancient Indian trails through Mission Valley.
1969 The La Jolla Band sues the cities of Escondido and Vista to recover water diverted from Reservation lands in 1895 and 1924.
1969 Seizure of Alcatraz Island
Indians took over Alcatraz to bring public attention to Indian issues. Most California Indians are living in abject poverty.
1976 The Health Clinic and Community Center is opened on the Sycuan Reservation, in cooperation with six other reservations.
1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act is passed.
For the first time in 100 years, american indians can excercise the American constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.
1982 Anthony Pico is elected tribal chairman of the San Diego the Viejas Band and subsequently becomes a national voice in Native American affairs, particularly on the matter of Indian gaming.
1983 Sycuan Indian Reservation opens a gaming center offering bingo games.
In 1989, 1992 and 2000 the facility is expanded and new types of gaming offered.
1988 Congress enacts the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to bring tribal gaming under a regulatory structure and to give state governments added control over the types of casino-style games allowed on reservations.
1990 Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act was passed by the 101st Congress.
1991 Viejas Reservation starts a gaming operation.
1992 Native Cultures Institute begins organizing cross-border travel to reunite members of tribes split by international boundaries, including the Kumeyaay of San Diego and Baja, Mexico.
1994 The Native American Environmental Protection Coalition (NAEPC) is founded in Southern California to share common concerns and bring a team effort to the protection, preservation, and restoration of the environment.
1996 A special California State Senate committee report concludes that Indians in California receive less consideration in state policy making than Indians in other states.
1997 The Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee is formed, with representatives from 12 Kumeyaay bands in the San Diego area, to work with museums and universities in the implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
1998 A Kumeyaay Border Task Force works with federal immigration officials to secure the rights of Baja, Mexico, Indians to freely visit and interact with Kumeyaay in the U.S.
1984 Barona Band builds a bingo hall and initiates gaming on their reservation.
1999 Viejas tribal chairman Anthony Pico delivers the first “state of the tribe” public address, announcing that “tribes are governments and that (the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians) are not an extinct people or a stagnant culture.”
1999 The Sycuan Tribe is named as a contender in the multi-million dollar bidding war for naming rights to the planned San Diego Padre downtown ballpark.
1999 The Barona Tribe opens the first Museum on a San Diego County Indian Reservation.
2000 California voters end years of debate and legal battles over casino-style Indian gaming by enacting Proposition 1A, a constitutional amendment removing the legal impediment resulting in the overturn of Proposition 5 (a gaming initative enacted in 1998 but overturned by the California Supreme Court)
