The Kumeyaay: Native San Diegans N 1542, Spanish Conquistador Juan

Queen Califia Voyage to California J?8==<I>IL99#9<KF8CM8I<QD@:?<CC<>@C:?I@JK U-T n 1542, Spanish conquistador The original DETAIL ABOVE Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed up ‘California Dream’ The word “California” existed the uncharted coast of present-day in fiction before it was ever on California in search of treasure a map. A novel published DETAIL BELOW around 1500 had “an island aInd passage to the Atlantic. The journey called California, very near to A mural at the yielded neither and Cabrillo died along the region of the Terrestrial Mark Hopkins Hotel Paradise.” In the story, the in San Francisco the way. It was 50 years after Christopher island was populated by “black depicts Queen Amazons” who rode gri"ns Calafia and her Columbus landed in North America and and used gold armor and Amazons greeting was Spain’s final push to find wealth on weapons; they were ruled by visitors in the beautiful queen Calafia. California. the scale of the Aztecs and Incas. The story is in line with other Amazon myths: California is a wealthy, hard-to-reach paradise filled with free, warrior women. Cabrillo — and other mariners for the next two centuries — missed San Francisco Bay. Fog and high cli!s obscure the harbor’s entrance. 7 The fleet IMAGES COURTESY turns south INTERCONTINENTAL a second 4 Two Channel Brief stop preludes wide settlement MARK HOPKINS time to Islands were named Though Cabrillo’s visit was relatively non-violent, it preceded later return home. after the two larger settlement that would kill or displace most of the native Californians. ships, San Salvador (now called Santa Cabrillo found the Kumeyaay people living near San Diego Catalina) and Victoria Bay. The earliest description of their aboriginal territory 6 The fleet turned (now San Clemente). (shown in pink) is from Spanish missionaries in 1769. south and returned to the Channel Santa Islands for winter. Catalina Today, most of the Kumeyaay’s land is limited to Island r reservations in the United States and less-autonomous San e v 5 i Cabrillo injured Celemente R indigenious communities in Mexico (shown in red). Island o himself at present-day d a r o San Miguel Island. l o EARLIER SPANISH VISITS This led to gangrene C 1540: Hernando Alarcón traveled up the present- which caused him to day Colorado River and might have preceded die on a return trip U Cabrillo as the first European to set foot in the months later, where .S.- Me xico bor present-day state of California. he’s believed to be der 3 On Sept. 28, 1542, Cabrillo sailed into buried. present-day San Diego Bay and named it San Miguel, the name of his smallest ship. 1539: Francisco de Ulloa reached the mouth of the Colorado River, which confirmed Baja California was not an island, though the idea WHY THE NAME CHANGED surviced into the 18th century. Cabrillo chose the name San Miguel, but it is San 2 Past Cedros Diego today. Because the expedition was fruitless, Island, the fleet it fell into obscurity, and another Spaniard — was in uncharted Cedros Sebastián Vizcaíno — renamed San Diego and waters. Island 1535: Hernán Cortés founded many other areas along the coast 60 years later. the first Spanish settlement in California on the Bay of La Paz; it was soon abandoned. The Kumeyaay: Native San Diegans Cabrillo spent a week in San Diego Bay. He met the local Kumeyaay people, who had been in the area for more than 10,000 years and lived a simple, subsistence life typical of the other native tribes along the coast. ‘Ewaa: Ramadas: shelters Kumeyaay that allowed work home to be done in the shade. 100 miles Puerto de Navida ‘Ewaa, tule Cabrillo’s route canoes and Schematic view, ships typically stayed close ramadas are to shore. The ships also sometimes being constructed separated in storms and regrouped later. at the build site. 1 Cabrillo’s fleet of three ships — the San Salvador, La Victoria and San Miguel — departed on June 27, 1542 Tule canoes were and returned on April 14, 1543. used to fish in the kelp beds o! shore. Sources: Maritime Museum of San Diego; Cabrillo Historical Association; The Island of California: A History of the Myth; Ray Ashley; Louis Guassac; The History of San Diego: The Explorers; Barona Cultural Center and Museum; Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo biography; ESRI; Tele Atlas.

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