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 United States. Their Kumeyaay language belongs to the Yuman–Cochimí language family.

The Kumeyaay consist of three related groups, the Ipai, Tipai and Kamia. The San Diego River loosely divided the Ipai and the Tipai historical homelands, while the Kamia lived in the eastern desert areas. The Ipai lived to the north, from Escondido to Lake Henshaw, while the Tipai lived to the south, in lands including the Laguna Mountains, Ensenada, and Tecate. The Kamia lived to the east in an area that included Mexicali and bordered the Salton Sea.

Name

The Kumeyaay or Tipai-Ipai were formerly known as the Kamia or Diegueños, the former Spanish name applied to the Mission Indians living along the San Diego River. They are referred to as the Kumiai in Mexico.

The term ''Kumeyaay'' translates as "Those who face the water from a cliff", with the word ''meyaay'' meaning "steep" or "cliff".

Language

All languages and dialects spoken by the Kumeyaay belong to the Delta–California branch of the Yuman language family, to which several other linguistically distinct but related groups also belong, including the Cocopa, Quechan, Paipai, and Kiliwa. Native speakers contend that within their territory all Kumeyaay (Ipai/Tipai) can understand and speak to each other, at least after a brief acclimatization period.

Nomenclature and tribal distinctions are not widely agreed upon. According to Margaret Langdon, who is credited with doing much of the early work on documenting the language, the general scholarly consensus recognized three separate languages: Ipai (Iipay) (Northern Kumeyaay), Kumeyaay proper (including the Kamia/Kwaaymii), and Tipai (Southern Kumeyaay) in northern Baja California. Katherine Luomala considered that the wide range of dialect variations reflected only two distinct languages Ipai and Tipai, a view supported by other researchers.

History

Pre-European contact

Evidence of the settlement in what is today considered Kumeyaay territory may go back 12,000 years. 7000 BCE marked the emergence of two cultural traditions: the California Coast and Valley tradition and the Desert tradition. The Kumeyaay had land along the Pacific Ocean from present Oceanside, California in the north to south of Ensenada, Mexico and extending east to the Colorado River. The Cuyamaca complex, a late Holocene complex in San Diego County is related to the Kumeyaay peoples. The Kumeyaay tribe also used to inhabit what is now a popular state park, known as Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.

One view holds that historic Tipai-Ipai emerged around 1000 years ago, though a "proto-Tipai-Ipai culture" had been established by about 5000 BCE. Katherine Luomola suggests that the "nucleus of later Tipai-Ipai groups" came together around AD 1000. The Kumeyaay themselves believe that they have lived in San Diego for 12,000 years. At the time of European contact, Kumeyaay comprised several autonomous bands with 30 patrilineal clans.

Spanish exploration and colonization

The first European to visit the region was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542 and met with the Kumeyaay, but did not lead to any colonial settlement. Sebastián Vizcaíno also visited in 1602 and met with a band Kumeyaay during the feast of San Diego de Alcalá, giving the region of San Diego its name, but this also did not accumulate to colonial settlement.

In 1769, the Portolá expedition landed in the San Diego Bay and arrived to the Kumeyaay village of Cosoy (Kosa'aay) to recover and resupply. After their recovery, the Spanish established a presidio over the village and the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, incorporating the village into the settlement of San Diego. Under the Spanish Mission system, bands living near Mission San Diego de Alcalá, established in 1769, were called Diegueños, and later bands living near Mission San Luis Rey de Francia were called Luiseño. The Spaniards brought with them non-native, invasive flora and domestic animals, which brought about degradation to local ecology.

After years of sexual assaults from the Spanish soldiers in the Presidio and physical torture of Mission Indians using metal-tipped whips by Mission staff, the Tipai-Kumeyaay villages led a revolt against the Spanish, burning down Mission San Diego and killing Father Luis Jayme and two others. Missionaries and church leaders forgave the Kumeyaay and rebuilt the mission by the Kumeyaay village of Nipaquay or ''Nipawai''. However, the Spanish solidified their control over the area to the end of the mission era.

Early Mexican rancho era

First Mexican Empire and First Mexican Republic period

The Mexican Empire assumed ownership of Kumeyaay lands after defeating Spain in the Mexican War of Independence in 1821. The following year, Mexican troops confiscated all coastal lands from the Kumeyaay in 1822, granting much of the land to Mexican settlers, who became known as Californios, to develop the land for agriculture, beginning the California rancho era.

Kumeyaay fell victim to smallpox and malaria epidemics in 1827 and 1832, reducing the Kumeyaay population.

Various disputes culminated to a skirmish between the Kumeyaay and Mexican soldiers stationed in San Diego in 1826, killing 26 Kumeyaay. This provoked Lt. Juan M. Ibarra to lead several attacks on Kumeyaay-controlled lands, killing 28 people in his attack on Santa Ysabel.

After decades of debates and delays, the missions in Alta California were secularized in 1833, and Ipai and Tipais lost their lands; band members had to choose between becoming serfs, trespassers, rebels, or fugitives. This increased tensions between the Kumeyaay and the Mexican settlers as the Kumeyaay economic instability threatened the security of Mexican and American merchants transiting through the area.

Centralist Republic of Mexico period

Under territorial governor José Figueroa, some of the Kumeyaay from Mission San Diego were allowed to resettle and establish San Pasqual pueblo in 1835, who would later become the San Pasqual Band of Diegueno Mission Indians