UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Strategies for Survival: Indian Transitions in the Mountains of San Diego County, 1846 - 1907 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4vr603fq Author Hicks Dunn, Dana Ruth Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Strategies for Survival: Indian Transitions in the Mountains of San Diego County, 1846 – 1907 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Dana Ruth Hicks Dunn June 2013 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Clifford Trafzer, Chairperson Dr. Catherine Gudis Dr. Michelle Raheja Copyright by Dana Ruth Hicks Dunn 2013 The Dissertation of Dana Ruth Hicks Dunn is approved: _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge a variety of people that I had the privilege of working with while attaining information and adhering to this process to make this dissertation possible as well as those that surround and support me on a daily basis. Dr. Clifford Trafzer for his patience, expertise, support and guidance; Dr. Catherine Gudis and Dr. Michelle Rahaja for their support and professional direction; Dr. Robert Perez for teaching me about the realities of Indian perspective when applying it to culture and history; colleagues Dr. Alfred Flores and Dr. Kevin D. Motes for always believing in me; UCR Interlibrary staff Janet Moores and Maria Mendoza; Librarian Susan Painter at the San Diego Public Library/California Room; the archivists at the San Diego History Center Research Library; curatorial staff at the San Diego Museum of Man; Dr. Seth Mallios and David Caterino at the South Central Coastal Information Center; the curatorial staff at the San Diego Archaeological Center; Richard Carrico for welcoming my questions and his offers of mentorship; Nelda Taylor for being a gracious, kind hostess and welcoming me into her home; David and Debbie Duro for opening their home and sharing their family history with me; Mel Vernon, Diana Caudell and Joyce Vernon for taking time to share their family history with me; Joe Garcia and his wife for their patience, hospitality and welcoming me into their home; Tracy Lee Nelson for his friendship and for walking the landscape with me and teaching me about San Diego Indian culture, history and community from a very real and undeniable ground zero; William Pink for the camaraderie, friendship, support and hands-on teaching; all of the people I had the iv privilege to meet, brush shoulders with and talk to on the La Jolla, Mesa Grande, Santa Ysabel, Pauma, Pala, Rincon, Los Coyotes and Pechanga Reservations; George Peck for making a comment one day, that I will never forget; Richard Melanovich for the enlightening, passionate talk we had in the fields of Poomacha and the promise given; David L. Toler for welcoming me, revealing his personal family information and making me feel comfortable; Gary DuBois for pushing me to go to graduate school and opening the door; Eric Elliot for going out of his way to help me with the Luiseño language; my lifetime friends Christy French, Cindi Alvitre, Gary Farmer, Dr. Tharon Weighill, Jonathan Baker, Dodie Rogers, Lindsey Sun, Jack McCrea, Dr. Wendy Teeter, Lori Glover Sisquoq, Richard Scearce, Dr. Eric Foemmel, Don Agdeppa, Robert and Edwina Freeman, Craig Torres, Michael Coleman, and Carrie Garcia who held me up with positive encouragement; Rick Serrano for loving support and a place to rest when all is said and done; my son Matthew Rooney and my daughter Rachel Rooney for their patience, support, love and belief in me over two decades of study. v This Dissertation is dedicated to: Hokoyel Mattaweer (Cinon Duro), The People of Nipiguay and the Padre Dam, and in memory of my loving daughter Rachel Rooney (1985 – 2010) vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Strategies for Survival: Indian Transitions in the Mountains of San Diego County, 1846 - 1907 by Dana Ruth Hicks Dunn Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History University of California, Riverside, June 2013 Dr. Clifford Trafzer, Chairperson Survival Strategies were chosen by Indians in the mountains of northern San Diego County from 1846 to 1907 according to their personal, individual transition situation and needs of their families, tribes and clans. These choices were complex and varied from clan to clan and village to village. Americans arrived and permanently settled in San Diego, California in 1846 during the Mexican War. By 1850 California had become a part of the United States. In 1848, gold was discovered in northern California and American Easterners received word of free, rich lands to the west. Luiseño, Iipay, Diegueño and Cupeño Indians adhered to their wisest choices in survival strategies according to the abrupt and immense changes that were overcoming them such as the organization of American law that affected them profoundly, American thievery of Indian land and resources, forced removals of villages and the establishment of reservations. Indian lives would never be the same. As Americans continued to flood onto Indian lands, Indians came under more and more pressure. During this time period, Indians vii responded with many strategies for survival from diplomacy to revolt, always choosing what was best for their families and the coherence of their socio-cultural foundations. These strategies carried and reflected the thread of ancient Indian culture, as the Luiseño, Diegueño, Iipay and Cupeño used their traditional cultural manners, traditions, oral law and customs to balance and correct the traumatic experiences raining down on them as they adapted to loss of land and resources. Luiseño, Diegueño, Iipay and Cupeño succeeded in their survival and are still alive and thriving today in the mountains of northern San Diego County. Some of their socio-cultural structure is not being utilized today, at the turn of the twenty-first century, as they have adapted to the American wave of colonization. However, they have succeeded in living wisely in two worlds and still keep Indian identity intact. viii Table of Contents Chapter 1 – The Arrival of America: Transitioning Once Again ………………………1 Chapter 2 – Strange Ways: Transitions with Oral Sovereignty and Written Law………42 Chapter 3 – Diplomatic Leadership: The Treaties of Temecula and Santa Ysabel…….120 Chapter 4 – People in Motion: Removals and the Reservation System………………..159 Chapter 5 – Whispers in the Wind: Celebrating Survival and Preserving the Past…….205 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...249 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………251 ix Chapter 1: The Arrival of America: Transitioning Once Again By 1846, when the war between the United States and Mexico reached Indian populations in the mountains and valleys of northern San Diego County, Indians had already experienced two major transitions. The first was the arrival of the Spanish padres and soldiers in 1769. The second included both the transition that Indians and Californios brought to California after Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821 and the secularization of the missions that followed around 1834. All of these situations required specialized survival strategies. The next and most injurious transition was the arrival of the Americans, which has still not seen its end. Indians today are still in survival mode. In 1846 Indians in the valleys of Warner Springs, Santa Ysabel, and San Pasqual became involved in historic events that occurred in and around their villages from December 3 to December 6. These indelible events include the entry of American troops into California and the Battle of San Pascual.1 Many changes came to Indians that lived in the mountains of northern San Diego County after the Americans arrived. The Garra Revolt would also become an event that separated allegiances between Indians as well as Indians and Californios, and Indians and Americans. These challenges forced varied survival strategy decisions throughout the area. Indians found themselves in decision-making positions concerning strategies to deal with these new invading Americans and to keep balance within Indian communities. 1 In order to gain control of California at the commencement of the Mexican- American war, the United States sent Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny with Kit Carson and Companies C and K of the First Dragoons on the trail from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to California. Their orders were to assist in overthrowing the Californios under the leadership of the Mexican government and to take control of California. The heavily traveled trail, which the American troops took into California, was until an old route between the pueblo of Los Angeles and Sonora.2 The trail led through Cupeño territory near the Indian village of Cupa, presently in north eastern San Diego County. This portion of the territory, once known as Agua Caliente because of its hot springs, was renamed Warner Springs in 1844 after John Warner, the American owner, was granted Mexican citizenship. He had received the land from Governor Pio Pico. At the Cupeño village site of Cupa, at the headwaters of the San Luis Rey River, Warner’s land included the hot springs where locals from San Diego city and southern California