The Cupeño (or Kuupangaxwichem) are a Native American tribe of Southern
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
They traditionally lived about inland and north of the modern day
Mexico–United States border
The Mexico–United States border ( es, frontera Estados Unidos–México) is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traver ...
in the Peninsular Range of
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
. Today their descendants are members of the federally recognized tribes known as the
Pala Band of Luiseno Mission Indians
The Pala Indian Reservation is located in the middle of San Luis Rey River Valley in northern San Diego County, California, east of the community of Fallbrook, and has been assigned feature ID 272502.
Historic variant names used to describe the ...
Several different groups combined to form Cupeño culture around 1000 to 1200 AD. They were closely related to Cahuilla culture.Bean and Smith, 588 The Cupeño people traditionally lived in the mountains in the San Jose Valley at the headwaters of the San Luis Rey River.Pritzker, 124 Their name in their own language is "Kuupangaxwichem" ("people who slept here")."California Indians and Their Reservations. SDSU Library and Information Access. (retrieved 18 May 2010)
They lived in two autonomous villages, Wilákalpa and Kúpa (or Cupa),Pritzker, 125 located north of present-day Warner Springs, California. Their homelands extended to Agua Caliente, located east of
Lake Henshaw
Lake Henshaw is a reservoir in San Diego County, California
at the southeast base of Palomar Mountain, approximately northeast of San Diego, California and southeast of Los Angeles.
The lake covers approximately and holds of water when full ...
in an area now crossed by State Highway 79 near Warner Springs. The Cupeño Indian village site is now abandoned but evidence of its historical importance remains.
Spanish and Mexican occupation
Spaniards entered Cupeño lands in 1795 and took control of the lands by the 19th century. After Mexico achieved independence, its government granted
Juan Jose Warner
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...
, a naturalized American-Mexican citizen, nearly of the land on November 28, 1844. Warner, like most other large landholders in California at the time, depended primarily on Indian labor. The villagers of Kúpa provided most of Warner's workforce on his cattle ranch. The Cupeño continued to reside at what the Spanish called Agua Caliente after the American occupation of California in 1847 to 1848, during the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
. They built an adobe ranch house in 1849 and barn in 1857, that were still standing as of 1963.
According to Julio Ortega, one of the oldest members of the Cupeño tribe, Warner set aside about of land surrounding the hot springs as the private domain of the Indians. Warner encouraged the Cupeño to construct a stone fence around their village and to keep their livestock separated from that of the ranch. Ortega felt that if the village had created its own boundaries, the Cupeño would still live there today.Morrison, 1962, p.21
American occupation
In observing the Cupeño's living conditions in 1846, W. H. Emory, brevet major with the
United States Army Corps of Engineers
, colors =
, anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day)
, battles =
, battles_label = Wars
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, commander1 = ...
, described the Indians as being held in a state of
serf
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...
dom by Warner, and as being ill-treated. In 1849, Warner was arrested by the American forces for consorting with the Mexican government and was taken to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
In 1851, because of several issues of conflict, Antonio Garra, a Yuma Indian living at Warner's Ranch, tried to organize a coalition of various southern California Indian tribes to drive out all of the European Americans.Bean and Smith, 589 His '
Garra Revolt
The Yuma War was the name given to a series of United States military operations conducted in southern California and what is today southwestern Arizona from 1850 to 1853. The Quechan (also known as Yuma) were the primary opponent of the United ...
' failed, and the settlers executed Garra. The Cupeño had attacked Warner and his ranch, burning some buildings. They lost structures at their settlement of Kúpa, too. Warner sent his family to Los Angeles, but continued to operate the ranch with the help of others.
Forced eviction
Following European contact but prior to the time of their eviction, the Cupeños sold milk,
fodder
Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food g ...
, and craftwork to travelers on the Southern Immigrant Trail and passengers on the stagecoaches of the Butterfield Overland Mail, that stopped at Warner's Ranch and passed through the valley. The women made lace and took in laundry, which they washed in the hot springs. The men carved wood and manufactured saddle pads for horses. They also raised cattle and cultivated of land. In 1880, after numerous suits and countersuits, European-American
John G. Downey
John Gately Downey (June 24, 1827 – March 1, 1894) was an Irish-American politician and the List of Governors of California, seventh governor of California from January 14, 1860, to January 10, 1862. Until the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger ...
acquired all titles to the main portion of Warner's Ranch.
In 1892, Downey, the former governor of California and owner of the ranch since 1880, began proceedings to evict the Cupeño from the ranch property. Legal proceedings continued until 1903, when the court ruled in '' Barker v. Harvey'' against the Cupeño. The
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
government offered to buy new land for the Cupeño, but they refused. In 1903, Cecilio Blacktooth, Cupeño
chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the boa ...
at Agua Caliente, said: "If you give us the best place in the world, it is not as good as this. This is our home. We cannot live anywhere else; we were born here, and our fathers are buried here."
Cupeño trail of tears
On May 13, 1903, the Cupa Indians were forced to move away, to
Pala, California
Pala is a small, mostly Native American, community and CDP located in the Pala Indian Reservation, located within San Diego County, California. For centuries a traditional gathering place of native peoples, it was selected in the early 19th ce ...
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', academics, and the
Pala Band of Mission Indians
The Pala Indian Reservation is located in the middle of San Luis Rey River Valley in northern San Diego County, California, east of the community of Fallbrook, and has been assigned feature ID 272502.
Historic variant names used to describe the a ...
as the Cupeño trail of tears given the traumatic nature of the event. The forced relocation to the Pala reservation also included "the Luiseño villages at Puerta la Cruz and La Puerta, and the
Kumeyaay
The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...
villages at Mataguay, San José, and San Felipe." It was described by historian
Phil Brigandi
Phil Brigandi (1959-2019) was an independent scholar specializing in the history of Southern California with a focus on the Orange County area who published 26 books from 1982 to 2018. For 30 years he served as the historian for Hemet, California' ...
as "the last of Indian 'removals' in the United States, ending a federal policy of forced relocations that had begun 75 years earlier.
= Reactions
=
On the morning of the removal Roscinda Nolasquez, who was eleven years old at the time, recalled the last morning at Cupa. Orders were shouted in English at the Cupeño: “We were so scared. We didn’t know what he was saying. We didn’t know what was going on. We saw old people running back and forth. We cried, too, because we were afraid.” She recalls that morning trying to ensure that her cats would not be left behind, which she managed to find.
In 1903, an article for the ''
Los Angeles Herald
The ''Los Angeles Herald'' or the ''Evening Herald'' was a newspaper published in Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1873 by Charles A. Storke, the newspaper was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1931. It ...
'' described it as such: “The springs proved the Indians’ undoing. White men wanted them, and now, after years of impatient waiting, they have possession. No matter the legal aspect of the case, the act is deplorable. It is one of the saddest sequels to the white man’s first notice to the ativeson the Atlantic coast to move on. They have been moving on ever since.” An article for the ''
Los Angeles Daily Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' featured the headline: "Indians Bundled Away Like Cattle To Pala."
Two weeks after the forced relocation, American journalist
Grant Wallace
Grant Wallace (1868–1954) was an American journalist, artist, screenwriter, Esperantist and occultist. He wrote short stories and screen plays, including two black and white silent movies.
Early life
Grant Wallace was born on February 10, 18 ...
wrote, “Many of the older people were still ‘muy triste....’ Every other tent or brush ramada was still a ‘house of tears,’ for their love of home is stronger than with us.” The houses provided by the U.S. government were Ducker Patent Portable Houses; described in a report to the Indian Office as "very unsatisfactory," some of which quickly fell into disrepair or collapsed. In 1922, the Henshaw Dam was built, which significantly worsened the flow of the San Luis Rey River that ran through the relocation site.
Mesa Grande
Mesa Grande Cultural Park, in Mesa, Arizona, preserves a group of Hohokam structures constructed during the Classic Period. The ruins were occupied between AD 1100 and 1400 ( Pueblo II – Pueblo IV Era) and were a product of the Hohokam civil ...
are among descendants of the Warner Springs Cupeño. Many Cupeño believe that their land at Kúpa will be returned to them. They are seeking legal relief to that end. The Cupa site serves as a rallying point for the land claims movement of contemporary Indian people, particularly their effort to regain cultural and religious areas.
Culture
The tribe is divided into two moieties, the Coyote and Wildcat, which are divided into several
patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
clans
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship
and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...
. Clans are led by hereditary male clan leaders and assistant leaders. Marriages were traditionally arranged.
Traditional foods included acorns, cactus fruit, seeds, berries, deer, quail, rabbits, and other small game.
The Cupa Cultural Center was founded in 1974 in Pala and underwent a major expansion in 2005. The center exhibits artwork; hosts classes and activities such as basket making and beading; and offers Cupeño language classes. During the first weekend of every May, Cupa Days is celebrated at the cultural center.
Cahuilla
The Cahuilla , also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California.Luiseño languages. This grouping is of the
Takic
The Takic languages are a putative group of Uto-Aztecan languages historically spoken by a number of Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous peoples of Southern California. Takic is grouped with the Tübatulabal language, Tubatulabal, Hopi la ...
branch within the
Uto-Aztecan
Uto-Aztecan, Uto-Aztekan or (rarely in English) Uto-Nahuatl is a family of indigenous languages of the Americas, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The na ...
family of languages.
Roscinda Nolasquez Roscinda Nolasquez (1892 – February 4, 1987) was a Cupeño, and the last speaker of the Cupeño language of Southern California. She grew up speaking Cupeño and Spanish. It was not until she was forcefully sent to Sherman Indian School, previousl ...
(1892–1987), of Mexican Yaqui descent, is considered the last truly fluent Cupeño speaker. The language today is widely regarded as being extinct. In 1994, linguist Leanne Hinton estimated one to five people still spoke Cupeño, and nine people in the 1990 US census said they spoke the language. Educational materials for the language exist and young people still learn to sing in Cupeño, particularly Bird Songs.Hinton, 29, 42
Population
Alfred L. Kroeber estimated the 1770 population of the Cupeño as 500. Lowell John Bean and Charles R. Smith put the total in 1795 between 500 and 750. By 1910, the Cupeño population had dropped to 150, according to Kroeber. Later estimates have suggested that there were fewer than 150 Cupeño in 1973, but about 200 in 2000.
Notes
References
* Bean, Lowell John, and Charles R. Smith. "Cupeño". Heizer, Robert F., volume ed. '' Handbook of North American Indians: California, Volume 8.'' pp. 91–98. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978. .
* Hinton, Leanne. ''Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages''. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1994.
* Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. .