The Cahuilla are a tribe of Native Americans that have inhabited California for more than 2000 years, originally covering an area of about 2,400 square miles (6,200 km²).

They are divided into Mountain, Desert and Pass Cahuillas. There are 9 reservations in Southern California; Cahuilla, Agua Caliente, Santa Rosa, Torres-Martinez, Cabeson, Morongo, Los Coyotes, Ramona, and Saboba.

Their language is of the Uto-Aztecan family. A 1990 census revealed 35 speakers in an ethnic population of 800. It is nearly extinct, since most speakers are middle-aged or older.

Evidence shows that when the Cahuilla first moved into the area a large body of water now called Lake Cahuilla was in existence, which confirms oral legends. Fed by the Colorado River, it dried up sometime before 1600 when the river changed course. In 1905 a break in a levee created the much smaller Salton Sea in the same location.

History

The first encounter with Europeans was in 1774 when Juan Bautista de Anza was looking for a trade route between Sonora, Mexico and Monterey, California. Living far inland, Cahuillas had little contact with Spanish soldiers or European civilians and Priests, many of whom saw the desert as having little or no value but rather a place to avoid. They learned of Mission life from Indians living close to Missions in San Gabriel and San Diego.

There may have been as many as 10,000 Cahuillas before contact with the Europeans who, in 1862, brought a smallpox epidemic. Only about 2,500 survived.

To encourage the railroad, the U.S. government subdivided the lands into one mile square sections, giving the Indians every other section. In 1877 the government established reservation boundaries which left the Cahuillas with only 2/3 of their previous lands.

Current Status

Today, Palm Springs and surrounding areas are flooded with people and the very rich like to be associated with it. Many of the more mountainous areas are still largely unpopulated and some remaining small bands of Cahuilla carry on with relative quietness compared to the highly populated areas of the valley.

The Agua Caliente band in Palm Springs collect Park fees for tourists and hikers.

References

• Lowell John Bean, Mukat's People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972);
• Lowell John Bean, Sylvia Vane, and Jackson Young, The Cahuilla Landscape: The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains (Menlo Park, Calif.: Ballena Press, 1991);
• Harry C. James, The Cahuilla Indians (Banning, Calif.: Malki Museum Press, 1969).