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Comparative Mission ExperienceContinuities and Coalescences

among Southern California Tribal Groups

John R. JohnsonSanta Barbara Museum of Natural History

Federally Recognized Tribes in Southern California

Field’s & Lightfoot’s Critique of Kroeberian Anthropology

• There exists a correlation between native groups receiving land allocations and Indian peoples studied by Berkeley anthropologists

• Unacknowledged status of Central California tribes resulted from ethnographic practices of early 1900s.

“The authoritative anthropological literature of the time minimized the cultural identities of many groups. . . and even claimed that some of these groups had become culturally extinct . . . [Field 1999:190]”

Comparison of Six Missions

San Buenaventura, founded 1782 Santa Barbara, founded 1786

La Purísima, founded 1787 Santa Inés, founded 1804

San Fernando, founded 1797 San Luis Rey, founded 1798

Different Missionary Approaches

Fr. Junípero SerraFounded first Chumash missions,Advocated relocation of Indians

to missions after baptism

Fr. Antonio PeyríFounded Mission San Luis Rey,

Developed a decentralized system, Chapels built in outlying rancherías

Mission Locations and Associated Ethnolinguistic Territories

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By 1840, Spanish-Mexican colonists outnumbered Mission Indians in the Chumash region.

History of Chumash Indians after Secularization

Mexican Land Grants, 1834-1846 (Hornbeck 1983)

Post-Secularization Chumash Communities Chumash Indians at Mission Santa Bárbara, 1878

Mission San Buenaventura, 1830s (Alfred Robinson 1846) Island Chumash Settlement at Kamexmey in the 1840sas remembered by Fernando Librado Kitsepawit

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Chumash Musicians at San Buenaventura, 1873 San Buenaventura, 1880s

José Peregrino Winay & wife Susana Juan Esteban Pico

Juan Esteban Pico’s Ventureño Chumash Lexicon Candelaria Valenzuela Apolonia Guzman & Petra Pico with Petra’s great granddaughter

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Santa Inés Chumash Community at Zanja de Cota

Rafael’s Home at Zanja de Cota(Henry Chapman Ford sketch, abt. 1880)

Rafael Solares, capitán of the Santa Inés Indians

(Leon de Cessac, 1879) Francisca Solares at Old College Hotel in Santa Ynez

Adobe House at Zanja de Cota, about 1900 Santa Ynez Indian Reservation, established 1901

John Harrington and Fernando Librado reconstructing a Tomol, 1913

María Solares, 1916

Ineseño Chumash speaker

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Luisa YgnacioNu’tu, 1913

Barbareño Chumash speaker

Ventura County Fair, 1923

Contemporary Chumash Indians, descended from all former mission communities

Mission San Fernando (Edward Vischer, 1865)

Indians of Mission San Fernando after Secularization

Some Families Returned to Former Tribal Homelands:Juan José Fustero and Family, Piru Area Diseño accompanying Samuel’s Land Grant near San Fernando Valley, 1843

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Rogerio, Chief of the San Fernando Indians, evicted from

his land at Pacoima in 1884

Elderly women at Mission San Fernando, Late 19th Century

Canyon Country (upper Santa Clara River Valley) where some Fernandeño families relocated after eviction from homes near San Fernando

Family of Dolores Cooke and Neighbors at Their Property near Castaic, 1880s

Descendants of Dolores Cooke in Newhall, 1990s(members of San Fernando Band of Mission Indians)

Diseño for El Tejón Land Grant, 1843

Granted to José Antonio Aguirre and Ignacio Del Valle by Governor Manuel Micheltorena

1851 Tejón Treaty

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Sebastian Military Reserve, 1853-1864

Official Map, Tejón Reservation, encompassing 49,928 acres

Sebastian Military Reserve at Tejón,the first Indian reservation in California, 1853

Tejón Indian AdobeCarlton Watkins photograph, about 1889

Tejón Indians listed in the 1880 Census (part)

Tejón Indian Chapel, dedicated 1878

Tejón Indians at Chapel, about 1910

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Indian Residents at Tejón, 1905

Altamirano Badío, Fernandeño and

Kitanemuk consultant

María IgnaciaYokuts consultant

José Juan OlivasVentureño Chumash

consultant

Tejon Indian Photographs taken by Edward S. Curtis, about 1916

Eugenia MendezChief Juan Lozada

John Harrington’s Research at Tejón Ranchería, 1917

L-R: Maria Gomez holding baby, Willy Gomez, Angela Lozada, Juana Encinas, Pete Gomez

Angela Lozada

Lands Occupied by the Tejón Indians, 1917 Tejón Indian School, Established in 1920s

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Tejón Tribal Gathering, May 2005

Mission San Luis Rey in 1827 (Duhaut-Cilly)

History of Luiseño Indians after Secularization

From California Patterns (Hornbeck 1983)

Greater Survivorship at Mission San Luis Rey

Mission San Luis Rey padrones (census books) make possible the partial reconstruction of missing baptismal register.

Mission Register Data Collection

Native Polities Affiliated with Mission San Luis Rey

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Baptismal pattern differs from Chumash regionin that native rancherías were not abandoned

but continued to be occupied throughout the Mission PeriodPala Assistencia, founded in 1816 to serve the

population of inland Luiseño rancherías

Mission San Luis Rey, 1830s (Alfred Robinson 1846)Land Grants in the vicinity of San Luis Rey

Luiseño and Cupeño Gathering at Pala, 1880sLuiseño Women at Mission Rededication , 1893

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Residence of Omish Family, Rincon Reservation(C. H. Merriam Photo, Bancroft Library)

Allotments at Rincon Reservation, 1933

Home of Juan Sotelo Calac, Rincon Reservation, 1930s(J. P. Harrington photograph)

Ceremony at Wamkishat Juan Sotelo Calac Allotment,

Rincon Reservation, 1930s

(Photos from J. P. Harrington Collection,Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History)

Juan Sotelo Calac(at San Juan Capistrano)

Pala Reservation

Pala Reservation, about 1900 Pala Reservation, about 2000

Pala Casino Resort

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Josie Subish and Raymond Basquez, Pechanga Reservation

Summary: Historical Roots for Lack of Federal Acknowledgement

• Not the fault of early twentieth century ethnographers

• Different missionization strategies

• Different demographic histories

• Usurpation of Indian lands located on Mexican Period ranchos

• Urban vs. rural locations