The Santa Ysabel Band of Diegueño Mission Indians of the Santa Ysabel Reservation is a
federally recognized tribe
This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
of
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 ...
Indians,
["California Indians and Their Reservations: J.]
''SDSU Library and Information Access.'' (retrieved 22 May 2010) who are sometimes known as
Mission Indians
Mission Indians are the indigenous peoples of California who lived in Southern California and were forcibly relocated from their traditional dwellings, villages, and homelands to live and work at 15 Franciscan missions in Southern California and ...
.
Reservation
The Santa Ysabel Reservation () is a federal reservation, located in northeastern
San Diego County, California
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...
, near the mountain towns of
Santa Ysabel and
Julian.
[ The reservation was founded in 1893 and is large.][Pritzker, 146] 110 people of 300 enrolled members lived there in the 1970s.
The Santa Ysabel Indian Reservation ranges from 3,200 feet to 5,700 feet in elevation and it comprises a land base of over 15,000 acres on three tracts of land. The mountainous topography of the Reservation is home to a wide variety of indigenous plants and trees, including seven different species of oak trees, musky sage plants, verdant wild ferns, vibrantly blue lilacs, and waves of golden poppies that flourish along the hillsides and ridges of Volcan Mountain. The Santa Ysabel Reservation enjoys four beautiful seasons every year, with blossoming springs, warm summers, colorful and breezy autumns, and snow in most winters.
Government
The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel is recognized by the United States Government as a Sovereign Government. The Santa Ysabel Band is headquartered in Santa Ysabel, California
Santa Ysabel (Spanish for "St. Elizabeth"; Kumeyaay: ''Ellykwanan''), is an unincorporated community in the Santa Ysabel Valley of eastern San Diego County, in southern California.
History
The 1818 Santa Ysabel Asistencia is located here, a Spa ...
. They are governed by a democratically elected tribal council. Bernice Paipa is their current tribal chairperson and Brandie Taylor is the vice chairwoman. Paipa succeeded Virgil Perez in office. In 2007 the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel established their Constitution in order to preserve and protect their culture, lands, and rights, and to promote equality and justice. The power of government is divided into four branches: General Council, Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The General Council is the Supreme governing body of the Nation, and consists of over 700 adult voting members. The Executive Branch is composed of a Chairman and Vice-Chairman; The Chairman and Vice-Chairman seek office as a team, and serve four year terms. The Legislative Branch consists of seven Legislators; Legislators serve two and four year staggered terms.
Economic development
The tribe owned and operated the Santa Ysabel Resort and Casino and the Orchard Restaurant and the Seven Oaks Bar and Grill, located in Santa Ysabel until they went out of business on February 3, 2014 after being denied chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Activities
In mid-November every year, the tribe celebrates a Feast Day at Santa Ysabel Asistencia
The Santa Ysabel Asistencia was founded on September 20, 1818 at Cañada de Santa Ysabel in the mountains east of San Diego (near the village of Elcuanan), as a asistencia or "sub-mission" to Mission San Diego de Alcalá, and to serve as a rest ...
.[Eargle, 136]
References
* Eargle, Jr., Dolan H. ''California Indian Country: The Land and the People.'' San Francisco: Tree Company Press, 1992. .
* Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. .
* Shipek, Florence C. "History of Southern California Mission Indians." ''Handbook of North American Indians
The ''Handbook of North American Indians'' is a series of edited scholarly and reference volumes in Native American studies, published by the Smithsonian Institution beginning in 1978. Planning for the handbook series began in the late 1960s and ...
''. Volume ed, Heizer, Robert F. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978. 610-618. .
External links
Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel
{{authority control
Kumeyaay
California Mission Indians
Native American tribes in San Diego County, California
Native American tribes in California
Federally recognized tribes in the United States