The Cahuilla Tribe
Understanding the past. Exploring the future.
A mother with her kids
Introduction
Who were the Cahuilla People?
The Cahuilla people are indigenous to southern California's inland regions. Around 2,000-2,500 years ago, Uto-Aztecan cultures settled in southern California and occupied the entire San Bernardino Basin, the San Jacinto Mountains, the Coachella Valley, and parts of the southern Mojave Desert.
Each clan governed their own territory and lived in isolated clans of approximately 600-800 people. To provide game for their clans, these friendly hunter-gatherers used throwing sticks, clubs, nets, spring-poled snares, and sometimes poison-tipped arrows. It wasn’t until 1774 that they were discovered by Juan Bautista de Anza, a Spanish explorer, who was searching for a trade route between Mexico and California.
The Cahuilla lived far inland and had no contact with Spanish troops, priests, or missionaries.
During the Mexican-American War, the Cahuilla joined the Californios, and the government agreed to accept Native American rights to some lands in the treaty that ended the war.
After the United States annexed California, gold was soon discovered. White settlers on Indian lands became a growing issue.
Tribal leaders resorted to attacks on advancing settlers and soldiers after the California Senate declined to ratify an 1852 treaty giving Cahuilla control of their territories.
In 1877, the United States government split their territory into reservations.
Today, the Cahuilla people live on nine reservations in Southern California.
These can be found in the counties of Imperial, Riverside, and San Diego.
Regions previously inhabited
Short overview of the Cahuilla history. Click video below...
ESP 200_The Plight of the Cahuilla
The Cahuilla People were the first people to live in the Coachella Valley. For over 3,000 years, they have lived in the Coachella Valley and nearby mountains. The Cahuilla were provided with sustenance, shelter, and places to escape the heat and cold in this area, which included tall mountains, deep valleys, rocky canyons, passes, and arid desert land.
One of Coachella's Dunes
Cahuilla People lived in this region long before the United States of America was formed, and long before the first Europeans set foot on the North American continent. According to the White Man's record from the late 1700s, the Cahuilla population was estimated to be around 6,000 people. Some Cahuilla people claim the figure was closer to 15,000 people.
The Cahuilla can be classified into three classes based on where they lived: desert, mountain, and western (San Gorgonio Pass). All three spoke Cahuilla, lived similar lives, and followed the same customs. The Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians is one of nine Cahuilla Indian nations.
Coachella valley
The term "Cahuilla" has been translated as "master," "powerful one," or "ruler." The Cahuilla language belongs to the Takic group of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic family, which is the most well-known of the Americas' linguistic families. Just about 35 people could speak Cahuilla, according to a census taken in 1990.
Worldview/epistemology
Tribal leader Moraino J. Patencio speaks about Cahuilla's history in video...
C-SPAN Cities Tour - Palm Springs: Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians
Community
According to their worldview, the entire universe and everything in it was closely linked together. The Cahuilla recognized a supreme power, neither good nor bad, but unpredictable.
Cahuilla ritual, Coachella Vally.
Cahuilla Indians performed a large number of rituals. The most significant ones were an annual mourning ceremony, the eagle ceremony (honoring a dead chief or shaman), rite-of-passage rituals, and food-related rituals.
Song cycles were a key part of Cahuilla ritual. They sought to reaffirm the people’s place in the universe and their connections with the past and with all things. Ceremonial implements included rattles, headdresses, wands, eagle-feathered skirts, and especially the "mdyswut", a ceremonial bundle.
Reciprocity
The Cahuillas frowned upon hasty behavior; conversely, it was appropriate to do things slowly, deliberately, and cautiously. They enjoyed regular interaction, including intermarriage, with other Indian groups such as the Gabrieleno and Serrano.
Although each extended family had a village site and resource area, land away from the village could be owned by anyone. Mens’ games were based on endurance and the ability to withstand physical punishment. Women’s games included footraces, juggling, cat’s cradle, top spinning, jackstones, and balancing objects. People often bet on games.
Cahuilla natives keeping traditions alive
Cahuilla songs contained tribal history and cosmology, and they accompanied all activities. Singing was common.
Bathing and cleanliness in general were important. Spouses were selected by parents from the opposite division. Divorce was difficult to obtain.
Everyone observed specific rules of deference and behavior toward other people.
Traditional ecological management
Cahuilla Tribe
Beliefs
In their traditions, that force made the first two human beings, Makat and Tamaioit, huge and powerful beings who then made everything else. But with the exception of the shaman (pronounced SHAH-mun or SHAY-mun), the creatures who came after these first two did not have the same powers.
Desert Indian shaman
The shaman controlled rain, created food, and conducted ceremonies, where they performed amazing feats like eating hot coals. They told stories of creation in songs and dances; special rattles made from gourds supplied the music. Shaman passed their knowledge and powers on to successors who were chosen because they exhibited certain special qualities when young.
The Cahuilla believed in a life after death. The dead were reborn and lived a life much like the one they had left behind, but in the new life only good things happened.
Although their early experiences with Spanish Catholic missionaries were not pleasant, after the Cahuilla moved to reservations, missionaries renewed their efforts. In time many Cahuilla converted to Catholicism and others to Protestantism. Today the Cahuilla still maintain elements of their traditional beliefs and practices.
Ethics/economic development
Land management
The Cahuilla Band of Indians is a sovereign entity that recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving its reservation's natural resources and of enacting environmental regulations. The Cahuilla Band of Indians recognizes that the lands of the Cahuilla reservation were created as a homeland for the Cahuilla people. While the Cahuilla Band recognizes that the lands and resources of the reservation will be used and developed for the benefit of the people, the Cahuilla Band also recognizes that such lands must be protected and preserved for future generations to come.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sign
The Tribe on November 12, 2005, passed "an Ordinance by the Cahuilla Band of Indians in Preventing the Discharge of Pollutants into the Waters of the Cahuilla Reservation.” The Ordinance states in part that "it is the policy of the Tribe to protect the quality of surface waters and groundwater of the Reservation in order to support the efforts of the Tribe to pursue economic development while safeguarding traditional waters, lands and the health and welfare of the Tribe."
Economy
The traditional Cahuilla economy was based on a complex system of hunting and gathering, which required a complete knowledge of the local plants and animals (there were hundreds of plant varieties). The people traded plants with other tribes for gourd rattles and baskets.
The Spanish introduced cattle to the region in the 1800s. The cattle ate many local plants, and this reduced food for game animals as well as people. Unable to hunt and gather as before, some Cahuilla went to work on farms and ranches owned by the Spanish and other whites.
Cahuilla woman.
After the move to the reservations in the late 1800s, Cahuilla women earned money by making and selling woven baskets. This art is not as widely practiced today. Most reservations in the early twenty-first century run their own money-making enterprises for the benefit of the tribe: bingo, camping facilities, and casinos, for instance. Tourism and recreation, agriculture and livestock, manufacturing, service and retail businesses, real estate development, mining, and tribal government provide additional employment opportunities for many Cahuilla. Others choose professional jobs both on and off the reservation.
TEK in the modern world
Current issues
Aerial view of Malki Museum
The Cahuilla work hard to preserve their culture. A major part of this effort can be seen at the Malki Museum on the Morongo Reservation.
Cahuilla scholars and storytellers have done a great deal to educate others about Cahuilla culture and history.
The museum also revived the fiesta system, once thought to be a lost tradition.
Malki Museum, Morongo Reservation
While the Malki Museum was the first Native American museum ever established on a California reservation, today several other Cahuilla reservations have opened museums of their own, where they sponsor annual fiestas.
The Cahuilla remain active in political issues like land and water conservation. Like so many American Indian tribes, they must continually fight the reduction of their lands by outside developers, oil companies, and highway builders.
Water rights
Coachella valley canal
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians filed a lawsuit on May 14, 2013 against Coachella Valley Water District and Desert Water Agency seeking to take away the public’s water use rights and prevent the agencies from delivering water to their customers.
On July 5, 2017, CVWD and DWA filed petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court asking them to review the case.
On Aug. 7, 2017, three amicus briefs were filed that support the water agencies. CVWD is providing the following documents to help educate customers about this important issue.
The United States Supreme Court announced on November 27, 2017 it will not review a court decision in a lawsuit that the Agua Caliente Tribe filed against Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) and Desert Water Agency (DWA) in 2013 seeking unprecedented rights to groundwater, superseding all other water users. The decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, granting superior rights to groundwater to the Tribe will remain in effect.
A federal court announced on April 19, 2019 that the Agua Caliente Tribe was not harmed because it has always had access to as much high-quality water as it needs. The judge ruled that the Tribe does not have standing, the right to pursue a lawsuit against the local public water agencies, CVWD and DWA.
The only claim remaining in the Tribe’s lawsuit is the “narrow issue” of whether the Tribe has an ownership interest in storage space for groundwater under its reservation. Under the court’s decision, the agencies’ recharge operations are free to continue providing critical water supply. Accordingly, the court wrote, the Tribe did not have standing because “there is no evidence that the Tribe will not be able to access sufficient water to fulfill any particular purpose, much less the purposes of the reservation.”
The agencies and tribe are continuing to work through outstanding issues. The District will continue to defend the rights of all of our customers and stakeholders against costly litigation.
Bibliography
aguacaliente.org. (n.d.). http://www.aguacaliente.org/content/History%20and%20Culture/.
Cahuilla (Native Americans of California). (n.d.). whatwhenhow RSS. http://what-when-how.com/native-americans/cahuilla-native-americans-of-california/.
Casey Kennedy. (2021, May 20). Environmental Protection Agency. Cahuilla Band of Indians. https://www.cahuilla.net/departments/environmental-protection-agency.
Encyclopedia.com. (2021, May 22). ." U*X*L Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. . Encyclopedia.com. 15 Apr. 2021 . Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cahuilla.
Information About Agua Caliente Lawsuit. Information About Agua Caliente Lawsuit | Coachella Valley Water District - Official Website. (n.d.). http://www.cvwd.org/331/Information-About-Agua-Caliente-Lawsuit.
The Cahuilla People. Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians. (n.d.). https://augustinetribe-nsn.gov/cahuilla-people/.
YouTube. (2013). "C-Span Cities Tour - Palm Springs: Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians." YouTube, uploaded by C-SPAN, 13 June 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcOHSfG9czI&ab_channel=C-SPAN.
YouTube. (2016). "Cahuilla." YouTube, uploaded by Erica Cotto-Kovacevic, 4 Nov. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlvlp8Z3QU0&ab_channel=EricaCotto-Kovacevic.
YouTube. (2019). "Esp 200_The Plight of the Cahuilla." YouTube, uploaded by Environmental Geography Channel, 10 Jan. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtlfklklqfk&ab_channel=EnvironmentalGeographyChannel.
