Cahuilla Bibliography

(Arranged Topically)

 

Ethnographic

 

Adams, Henry E.

      1973    A Comparison of Ceremonial Practices Among the Serrano and Pass Cahuilla Indians. Quarterly of the San Bernardino County Museum Association 5(4):22-35.

Apodaca, Paul

      1995    An Analysis of Variants in Performances of Cahuilla Bird Songs. Master's Thesis, University of California, Los Angeles.

      1999    Tradition, Myth, and Performance of Cahuilla Bird Songs. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.

 

Baldwin, C. P.

      1938    Toro Reservation Indian Wells. Masterkey 12:151-153, 157.

This short article describes a series of eight wells located in a half-mile segment of the then Toro reservation in the Coachella valley.

 

Barrows, David P.

      1900    The Ethno-Botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

This book is actually Barrows’ doctoral dissertation for the University of Chicago, from which he graduated in 1897.  His goal was to discover how a considerably large population could live and flourish in such a “forbidding, arid, and unfruitful” habitat.  This ethnography is important because, not only is it a classic of California Indian studies, with regard to California ethnography, it is the first professionally written ethnography of a single tribe.  Barrows describes the linguistic and tribal affinities of the Cahuilla, followed by their habitat, houses and house building, baskets and basket-making, plant materials used in manufactures and arts, the gathering, preparation, and storing of foods, food plants, and lastly, drinks, narcotics, and medicines.  In his introduction, Barrows says that his ethnography is “an attempt to describe some of the native plant resources known and used by the Coahuilla Indians of southern California” (Barrows 1900:7).  He not only wanted to describe all plants and all their various uses, but to determine how the Cahuilla satisfied all their needs from the flora of the region.  Using an ethno-botanical perspective, Barrows’ paper is an attempt to study the native culture of the Cahuilla, which prefigures the cultural ecology school of the second half of this century.

 

      1973    The Ethno-Botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

      1978    The Ethno-Botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California. New York: AMS Press.

 

Bean, Lowell J.

      1960    The Wanakik Cahuilla. Masterkey 34:111-120.

Bean suggests that new evidence reveals that instead of the traditional designation given to the Pass Cahuilla, the aboriginal inhabitants should be called Wanakik Cahuilla.  He argues against evidence presented by Kroeber (1908) and Strong (1929).  Based on his research with informants, he describes the patri-sib structure, considers the boundaries of its exploitation area, and examines the conflict concerning the aboriginal boundaries in the San Gorgonio Pass region.

 

      1964    Cultural Change in Cahuilla Religious and Political Leadership Patterns. In Culture Change and Stability:  Essays in Memory of Olive Ruth Barker and George C. Barker, Jr. R.L. Beals, ed. Pp. 1-10. Los Angeles: University of California, Department of Anthropology.

“Despite a considerable literature concerning aboriginal customs of the Cahuilla Indians, contemporary Cahuilla life has been neglected. ... This paper deals in the religious and political activities from aboriginal times to today.  It appears that women are now central in religious and political affairs, not only being legally equal as is characteristic of the larger American culture, but also equal and sometimes dominant in these affairs as officeholders, political participants, and opinion leaders.  This political activity permeates not only the politics of the individual reservations but also pan-Indian political organizations and local, state, and national political participation.  Our purpose here will be to point out:  1) the role of women in the Cahuilla religious and political system today; 2) the influence of the aboriginal culture on political roles today; and 3) those culture-historical factors which have influenced contemporary Cahuilla Indian political behavior” (Bean 1964:2).

 

      1967    A Bibliography of the Cahuilla Indians of California. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

      1972    Mukat's People:  The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California. Berkeley: University of California Press.

In Mukat’s People Lowell Bean seeks to resolve a conflict that he sees in cultural ecology studies:

Cultural ecologists are now often challenged for placing too much emphasis on the adaptive aspects of technology, settlement pattern, and social organization, while excluding the potential adaptiveness of less easily measurable aspects of culture such as ritual, values, and world view.  Thus, whereas anthropologists see various aspects of culture as adaptive mechanisms from a theoretical position, a review of recent anthropological literature indicates a conflict within anthropology ... This conflict concerning the function of folk beliefs and religious attitudes is seen in two theoretical orientations (Bean 1972:2).

To address this dichotomy, Bean develops two sets of hypotheses concerning the Cahuilla to be used as a test case.  The first is that ritual actions are wasteful of productive goods, decrease the production of goods, and therefore ritual obligations impede the satisfaction of the economic needs of society, ritual obligations take people away from productive activities.  The second hypothesis is that the economic needs of society are impeded by existential and normative postulates “which place valuable resources outside the realm of the economic order.”  By demonstrating how the various parts of the ecosystem integrate successfully for the Cahuilla, Bean hopes to answer how ritual and religion operate in an ecological context.

 

      1973    Cahuilla Indian Cultural Ecology. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.

      1978    Cahuilla. In California. R.F. Heizer, ed. Pp. 575-587. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 8. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

This article from the California volume of the Smithsonian’s Handbook of North American Indians discusses several aspects of Cahuilla history and ethnology.  Included are sections on language and environment, territory, and history.  In the section on Cahuilla culture, topics such as subsistence, games and music, hygiene and diseases, social and political organization, war and trade, cosmology, and ritual are covered.

 

      1985    Indians of Southern California. Masterkey 59(2-3):32-41.

This article is part of a special double issue of Masterkey, meant to serve as a catalog for a new exhibit at the Southwest Museum, “People of California”.  Bean summarizes the cultures of the Chumash, Gabrielino, Luiseño, Serrano, Cahuilla, Ipai, and Tipai.  He discusses subsistence patterns, settlement patterns, division of labor, housing, clothing and adornment, aesthetics and craftsmanship, social organization, marriage, war and feuds, trade and commerce, religion, and religious ritual.  The article is well illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

 

      1992    Menil (Moon): Symbolic Representation of Cahuilla Woman. In Earth and Sky:  Visions of the Cosmos in Native American Folklore. R.A.W.a.C.R. Farrer, ed. Pp. 162-183. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

In this article, Bean examines the role of the moon in Cahuilla culture.  He includes a discussion of Cahuilla cosmology, with sections pertaining to their ideas regarding the universe, folklore about the moon, her creation and teachings, women’s rituals, and Cahuilla astronomy.

 

Bean, L. J., L. J. Bourgeault, and F. W. Porter III.

      1989    The Cahuilla. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.

This book is part of a series on numerous tribes of North American Indians.  The focus of the series is to examine “the problems that develop when people with different cultures come together” (Bean et al 1989:7).  The series is intended for young adults, to understand the significant place American Indians have had and continue to have in our society.  The Cahuilla culture is described in its own context and as it relates to the majority culture.  The book is very well illustrated with photographs, maps, and drawings.

 

Bean, Lowell J., and Harry W. Lawton

      1965    The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California:  Their History and Culture. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

      1973    Some Explanations for the Rise of Cultural Complexity in Native California with Comments on Proto-agriculture and Agriculture. Ramona: Ballena Press.

“Bean and Lawton discuss the complexities of hunting and gathering techniques in Native California and describe the ecological and social significance of the methodologies employed by native peoples in manipulating their environment in order to achieve maximally efficient levels of energy extraction.  The authors argue, in fact, that agricultural techniques were known to California’s native populations, and that agriculture of the type commonly associated with the Greater Southwest was probably practiced by groups (e.g. Diegueño, Cahuilla, Kamia) in regions where ecological conditions were favorable and where it provided a viable, competitive alternative to the sophisticated, well established economic institutions found in other parts of the state” (Bean and Blackburn 1976:11).

 

Bean, Lowell J., and Katherine Siva Saubel

      1960    Cahuilla Ethnobotanical Notes:  The Aboriginal Use of the Oak. University of California, Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1960-1961:237-245.

The notion that acorn oriented cultures provide a problem in classification, in that the density of population, combined with a favorable hunting and gathering environment may reach an equal or greater cultural complexity that some agricultural communities “encourage an examination of the details of the acorn complex among a specific people, the Cahuilla Indians of Southern California, in order to answer questions concerning the use, dependability and problems inherent in this economic resource.  It is anticipated that the present information will give insights indicating such things as migration and settlement patterns, equipment used in this complex, ownership patterns, division of labor, etc.  It is gratifying that so much of Cahuilla culture can be reflected by an examination of a single food resource” (Bean and Saubel 1960:237).

 

      1963    Cahuilla Ethnobotanical Notes:  The Aboriginal Use of Mesquite and Screwbean. University of California, Los Angeles, Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1962-1963:51-75.

“This paper is the second in a proposed series concerned with Cahuilla ethnobiology, the aim of which is the detailed examination and study of the sources of aboriginal subsistence patterns for the Cahuilla . . .. Two desert plants - the mesquite and the screwbean - were particularly important to the economy of the Cahuilla Indians of Southern California, who regularly exploited certain parts of the Colorado Desert area” (Bean and Saubel 1963).

 

      1972    Temalpakh (From the Earth):  Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

“Temalpakh (From the Earth) represents more than ten years of meticulous field work and collaboration by the authors on knowledge and usage of plants among the Cahuilla Indians.  The work extends our understanding of Cahuilla use of plants far beyond the scope encompassed by David Prescott Barrows in his pioneer monograph Ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California, published in 1900.  The studies of Bean and Saubel reveal the high degree of sophisticated knowledge possessed by the Cahuilla concerning plant life, suggest the acuteness of their ecological awareness, and have implications of considerable significance for southern California Indian research as a whole.  This new ethnobotany for the Cahuilla covers more than 250 plats and the often fascinating ways in which they were utilized.” [Cover]

 

Bean, Lowell. J., Sylvia Brakke Vane, and Jackson Young

      1981    The Cahuilla and the Santa Rosa Mountain Region:  Places and Their Native American Associations:  A Review of Published and Unpublished Sources. Riverside: United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, California Desert Planning Program.

      1991    The Cahuilla Landscape:  The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains. Menlo Park: Ballena Press.

“This book had its beginning in a cultural resource management report published by the Bureau of Land Management, The Cahuilla and the Santa Rosa Mountain Region:  Places and Their Native American Associations (Bean, Vane, and Young 1981), but it contains approximately twice as much information.  It covers more of the Cahuilla territory, . . . The purpose of the 1981 study was to put together data on the cultural resources of the Santa Rosa Mountains and associated parts of the California desert as part of a larger study then being conducted by the Bureau of Land Management Desert Planning Staff.  This larger study was directed toward the identification and evaluation of Native American traditional use areas, ritual associated resource localities, and sacred locations or areas, so that these Native American sites under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management could be identified, evaluated, and protected . . .. In this revision of the study, we have expanded the Study Area to cover most of the Cahuilla territory, bringing in privately owned lands, U.S. Forest Service lands, and lands set aside as Indian Reservations” (Bean, Vane, and Young 1991:1).

 

Brumgardt, John R.

      1981    People of the Magic Waters:  The Cahuilla Indians of Palm Springs. Palm Springs: ETC Publications.

 

Dozier, D.

      1998    The Heart is Fire:  the World of the Cahuilla Indians of Southern California. Berkeley: Heyday Books.

“In relaxed, conversational language, Cahuilla elders discuss a variety of topics:  family, language, rock art, basketry, pottery, song, medicine, traditional food preparation, and other aspects of Cahuilla life” (cover).  This book is the result of daylong discussion which took place in July 1991 at the University of California, Riverside, to be used as catalog information for a traveling exhibit entitled Cahuilla Voices:  We Are Still Here.  The Cahuilla elders who participated in the discussions are Katherine Saubel, Alvino Siva, Dolores Alvarez, Anthony Andreas, and JoMay Modesto.

 

Fenenga, G. L., and E. M. Fisher

      1978    The Cahuilla Use of Piyatem, Larvae of the White-lined Sphinx Moth (Hyles lineata) as Food. Journal of California Anthropology 5:84-90.

“Our purpose in writing this paper was twofold.  First, we wished to call attention to an overlooked minor source of Cahuilla ethnohistory.  Second, we were concerned with clarifying the ethnographic record in regard to the identification and utilization of piyatem.  In researching this subject, it has become apparent to us that the relatively uncharted field of ethnoentomology has considerable potential for adding to existing knowledge of California Indian life (Fenenga and Fisher 1978:86).

 

Gifford, E. W.

      1918    Clans and Moieties in Southern California. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 14:155-219.

Gifford analyses kinship, social organization, and some mythology in his discussion of the clans and moieties of the tribes of southern California.  This was the first work of its kind in the region, and an important early source in the ethnology of southern California.  Gifford examines kinship and social structures for the Shoshonean and Yuman speaking peoples.

 

Harvey, H. R.

      1967    Population of the Cahuilla Indians:  Decline and its Causes. Eugenics Quarterly 14:185-198.

“While the Cahuilla . . . represented less than 2% of the total aboriginal population of California, by 1890 the surviving Cahuilla constituted 7 to 9% of the surviving Indian population.  In other words, they survived early white contact in proportionately greater numbers than most other Indian groups.  Moreover, the reduction in their population that did occur took place in the late nineteenth century after the period of great population decline experienced by other groups.  The purpose of the present paper is to examine the evidence for estimating the size of the aboriginal Cahuilla population and to determine the rate and possible causal factors involved in its decline” (Harvey 1967:185).

 

Hays, James Robert

      1974    The Creation Narrative of the Native Iviatim of Southern California:  An Ethnopoetic Study. Dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz.

 

Heizer, R. F.

      1974    An Early Cahuilla Ethnographic Sketch. Masterkey 48:14-21.

“In 1854 C. C. Lovell, Captain Second Infantry, U.S.A., wrote from Rancho de Jurupa, where he was stationed at a military post, the following account of the “Cohuilla” Indians.  His account, dated January 31, 1854, is addressed to General J. E. Wool, commanding the Pacific Division.  The copy available to me is from the C. Hart Merriam Collection, where it exists as a typescript copy secured by Merriam from the Old Files Division in the Adjutant General’s Office” (Heizer 1974:14).

 

Hooper, Lucile

      1920    The Cahuilla Indians. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 16:315-380.

Hooper’s ethnography deals primarily with the Desert Cahuilla.  She presents a picture of the Cahuilla as they existed in 1918, and so is useful in providing a time marker for understanding Cahuilla cultural change and persistence.  Topics included in her ethnography are origin beliefs, religious life, social life, “industries and knowledge”, and mythology.

 

James, Harry C.

      1960    The Cahuilla Indians. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

Similar to Strong’s (1929) work, The Cahuilla Indians by Harry C. James (1960) seeks to reconstruct Cahuilla culture prior to Euro-American contact.  However, it is not a book written for the academic world, rather it is written with the general public in mind, written in “laymen’s terms”.  James utilized existing ethnographic data, as well as personal interviews with the Cahuilla.  So from this standpoint, his work is important because it provides new contributions of ethnographic and historical material about the Cahuilla.  Another important feature of James’ work is that it provides factual, historical information regarding such legendary Cahuilla figures as Juan Antonio, Antonio Garra, Ramona, and Fig Tree John.  Most importantly, for the first time in the ethnographic literature, information on the Cahuilla is given regarding present conditions (as of 1960), all previous works seeking to reconstruct conditions prior to the period in which they were written.

 

Kroeber, Alfred. L.

      1908    Ethnography of the Cahuilla Indians. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 4:65-165.

Kroeber wrote this monograph on the Cahuilla as he was beginning to collect data for his massive survey on California Indians (1925).  Kroeber collected the data for his ethnography while briefly visiting the Morongo, San Manuel, and Torres-Martinez reservations to collected artifacts for the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.  He was interested in collecting linguistic data, as well as material culture, and questioned people regarding environment, mythology, social organization, etc., to place the artifacts in their appropriate cultural context.

 

      1925    Handbook of the Indians of California. New York: Dover.

“Far and away the most important work ever prepared” regarding California Indians.  “Based on more than 15 years of exhaustive research by Kroeber, it is a summation of just about everything of importance known about these Indians.  Kroeber covered demographic situations, linguistic relations, . . . social structures, folkways, religion, material culture and whatever else was needed to offer a full picture of each ‘tribe.’  The resulting book is a survey of each group . . .. Indispensable for every student of the American Indian, it can be read with great profit by both specialist and layman.” [cover]

 

Lando, R., and R. E. Modesto

      1977    Temal Wakhish:  A Desert Cahuilla Village. Journal of California Anthropology 4:95-112.

“An environmental impact survey of property on the Riverside County Airport at Thermal, California, has recently revealed the remains of a major Desert Cahuilla village.  Instead of the ethnographic summary drawn from published sources which usually accompanies environmental impact reports, it was decided to undertake an ethnohistorical investigation of the site.  This paper represents a collaboration between the authors aimed at providing a brief ethnography of the village of Temal Wakhish on the Thermal Airport property.  The data presented here were obtained from a review of ethnographic sources, the junior author’s extensive knowledge of oral history of the village and the surrounding area, and as the result of a walkover survey of the site” (Lando and Modesto 1977:97).

 

Lawton, H. W.

      1974    Agricultural Motifs in Southern California Indian Mythology. Journal of California Anthropology 1:54-79.

“The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of crop plants in the Cahuilla creation myth through a comparative study of agricultural motifs and elements which may be found elsewhere in Cahuilla mythology or in the myths of other California Indian groups” (Lawton 1974:58).

 

Lawton, H. W., and L. J. Bean

      1968    A Preliminary Reconstruction of Aboriginal Agricultural Technology Among the Cahuilla. The Indian Historian 1(5):18-24, 29.

“This paper is limited to an examination of some of the agricultural practices of the Cahuilla in the historic period.  The purpose is not to review the historical and ethnographic evidence suggesting aboriginal agriculture, although some of this material must be cursorily presented for background, but rather to examine the feasibility of aboriginal agriculture.  Discussion will center on those agricultural techniques of the historic period that appear to be distinctly native, and which may provide a foundation for eventual reconstruction of pre-Spanish agriculture among the Cahuilla” (Lawton and Bean 1968:18).

 

Modesto, Ruby and Guy Mount

      1980    Not for Innocent Ears:  Spiritual Traditions of a Desert Cahuilla Medicine Woman. Angelus Oaks: Sweetlight Books.

 

Murillo, Pauline

      2001    Living in Two Worlds:  The Life of Pauline Ormego Murillo. Highland: Dimples Press.

 

Patencio, Francisco, and M. Boynton

      1943    Stories and Legends of the Palm Springs Indians. Los Angeles: Times-Mirror.

In 1943, “Chief” Francisco Patencio published Stories and Legends of the Palm Springs Indians “as told to Margaret Boynton.”  Unfortunately, there is no foreword or introduction by Boynton, stating her role in this project.  All we know is that Patencio “told” her these things.  It would be helpful to know the process by which this data was collected, what were her editing decisions, how true was she to retaining the tone and flavor of Patencio’s speech.  This book is divided into two sections.  The first contains legends and traditions, as told by Patencio.  Some of these are the Creation story, the beginning of war and the death of Mo-Cot the Creator, Tahquitz, and the story of the New Stars.  The second section consists of stories from Patencio’s life history.

 

Patencio, Francisco, and Kate Collins

      1971    Desert Hours with Chief Patencio. Palm Springs: Desert Museum.

 

Prather, Bonnie Gean

      1964    Palm Springs Cahuilla Indians. Quarterly of the San Bernardino County Museum Association 12(1).

 

Quinn, H. M.

      1997    Observations on the Cahuilla Indians...Past and Present. Palm Springs: Coachella Valley Archaeological Society.

 

Shaw, Rachel Dayton

      1999    Evolving Ecoscape:  An Environmental and Cultural History of Palm Springs, California, and the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, 1877-1939. Dissertation, University of California, San Diego.

 

Smith, Brenda Dawn

      1999    Leveling the Ground: Cultural Investigations into Precontact Use of the Northern Shoreline of Ancient Lake Cahuilla. Master's, University of California, Los Angeles.

 

Smith, Desmond Mohler

      1972    The Effect of the Dessication of Ancient Cahuilla Lake upon the Culture and Distribution of Some of the Desert Indians of Southern California. Master's, University of Southern California.

 

Strong, W. D.

      1929    Aboriginal Society in Southern California. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Strong describes the societies of six “tribes” belonging to the Shoshonean language family:  the Serrano, Desert Cahuilla, Pass Cahuilla, Mountain Cahuilla, Cupeño, and Luiseño. He considered the Desert, Pass, and Mountain Cahuilla distinct enough in their practices and social structure to warrant their own sections.  He is the first researcher to make this distinction.  Most ethnographies describe the different groups, but treat them as a homogeneous whole in their research.  For each of these groups, he examines various aspects of their territorial, political, and ceremonial organization.  He spent six months during the winter of 1924-1925 with the groups mentioned.  He may be criticized for this, in that he was not exposed to a yearly round of activity, and these six months were divided among six different cultural groups.  But his interest was not in describing their current culture, but in reconstructing an image of those cultures as they existed 50 years in the past.  His data are considered accurate for the time period around 1875 because his informants were adults at that time.

 

Ward, Jack Wayne Shahan

      1967    The Cahuilla:  A Historical-Anthropological Study of a Southern California People. Master's, University of Southern California.

 

 

Historic

 

Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians

      1973    The Story of the Palm Springs Reservation. Riverside: The Sherman Institute Press.

 

Ainsworth, Edward Maddin

      1965    Golden Checkerboard. Palm Desert: Desert-Southwest.

 

Garesche, Alexander J. P.

      1892    Coahuila or Mission Indians of California:  Letters to Secretary of the Interior in Their Behalf by Alex. J. P. Garesche of St. Louis, Mo. St. Louis: R. & T.A. Ennis Stationery Company, Printers.

 

Jackson, H. H., and A. Kinney

      1893    Report on the Conditions and Needs of the Mission Indians of California. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

In 1883, Helen Hunt Jackson and Abbot Kinney sent a report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs outlining “The Condition and Needs of the Mission Indians.”  She states that the label “Mission Indians” originally applied to Indians who lived in the mission establishments, under the care of the Franciscan missionaries.  The term continued to be applied to their descendants in 1883, but also came to comprise all Indians living in the three southernmost counties of California, namely, the Serrano, Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Diegueño.  In this report she contrasts, somewhat melodramatically in my view, the condition of the Mission Indians, describing those that have migrated to white settlements such as Riverside, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles as “wretched wayside creatures” with those that remained in the more “pristine” conditions of the mountains and deserts.  Following the report, Jackson and Kinney provide several “exhibits” that serve to illustrate conditions.

 

Lane, Ambrose I.

      1995    Return of the Buffalo:  The Story Behind America's Indian Gaming Explosion. Westport: Bergin & Garvey.

 

Phillips, G. H.

      1975    Chiefs and Challengers:  Indian Resistance and Cooperation in Southern California. Berkeley: University of California Press.

The idea behind this work is that much of the historical literature regarding Indian-white relations is concerned with the mistreatment of the Indian by the white man.  Phillips feels that this theme often distorts instead of clarifies the nature of these relations.  He emphasizes the idea that this approach must be shifted, to give Native Americans agency in the historical process, to show “Indians responding to the foreigners in ways that were logical and valid in light of their own experiences and aspirations” (Phillips 1975:1).  He is trying to help us to understand how the Indians of southern California responded to the pressures of an encroaching society, what were the meanings behind their actions, how they were working to make their own history, not passively have history happen to them.  Phillips relates the history of southern California Indians from the actions of three separate individuals representing three language groups.  Juan Antonio (Cahuilla), Antonio Garra (Luiseño), and Manuelito Cota (Cupeño).

 

Ringwald, George

      1968    The Agua Caliente Indians and Their Guardians. Riverside: Press-Enterprise.

 

Robinson, John W. and Bruce D. Risher

      1993    The San Jacintos:  The Mountain Country from Banning to Borrego Valley. Arcadia: Big Santa Anita Historical Society.

 

Smith, Gerald A., Raymond Sexton and Elsie J. Koch

      1960    Juan Antonio, Cahuilla Indian Chief:  A Friend of the Whites. Quarterly of the San Bernardino County Museum Association 8(1).

 

Thurman, Frank

      1970    The Cahuillas and White Men of San Carlos and Coyote Canyon. Quarterly of the San Bernardino County Museum Association 17(4).

 

Wilson, B. D.

1952        The Indians of Southern California in 1852:  The B. D. Wilson Report and a Selection of Contemporary Comment. San Marino: Huntington Library.

As a sub-agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, B. D. Wilson fled a report outlining the condition and needs of the Indians of California.  The report went unnoticed for a time, but was reprinted in the Los Angeles Star in 1868.  Two factors are covered in the report, one was the matter of guarding against raids upon the Indian ranchos and settlements, the other to rescue the former mission Indians from the deteriorating conditions they were experiencing as the cumulative result of secularization of the missions and the takeover of Alta California by the United States, with the subsequent rise in settlers in the region.  It proposed a reservation system for southern California for the protection of the Indians.

 

 

Archaeology

 

Bean, Lowell J., Jerry Schaefer, and Sylvia Brakke Vane

      1995    Archaeological, Ethnographic, and Ethnohistoric Investigations at Tahquitz Canyon, Palm Springs, California. Menlo Park: Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

 

Brock, James, Brenda D. Smith, and Thomas A. Wake

      1999    Investigations at the Burning Dune Site (CA-RIV-4754). Pioneertown: Archaeological Advisory Group.

 

Craib, John L.

      1980    Archaeological Test Sampling of Sites Within the La Quinta Flood Control Channel Easement. Los Angeles: U.S. Army Corps Engineer District, Los Angeles.

 

Goodman, John David

      1993    Spring Rancheria:  Archaeological Investigations of a Transient Cahuilla Village in Early Riverside, California. Master's Thesis, University of California, Riverside.

 

Jefferson, G. T.

      1971    A Model of Adaptive Change in Late Prehistoric Southeastern California. University of California, Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1971:165-174.

“The archaeological investigations at Perris Reservoir, described in the preceding paper, have brought to focus several problems confronting most studies of extinct hunting and gathering populations, specifically problems involving the mechanisms of human adaptive changes.  The following discussion is theoretical, and examines several possible explanations which might account for changes in late prehistoric subsistence and settlement adaptation in the interior of southern California.  The final paper will examine the relevant empirical data.” [Author’s abstract]

 

King, Thomas J., Jr.

      1975    Final Report, a Cache from Cottonwood Spring (Riv-937): Archaeological Research Unit, University of California, Riverside.

      1976    A Cache of Vessels from Cottonwood Spring (Riv-937). Journal of California Anthropology 3:136-142.

 

Meighan, C. W.

      1959    Archaeological Resources of Borrego Desert State Park. Annual Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey 1:27-40.

The area described here is that part of the state park lying north of State Highway 78.  A total of 173 sites were recorded, and are distributed as follows:  San Felipe Creek - 83, Culp Valley - 30, Collins Valley/Indian Canyon - 20, Clark Lake - 8, Coyote Creek - 14, and Rockhouse Canyon - 18.  Most of the sites belong to the pottery-using period, in other word from about 1000 A.D., and are associated with the Cahuilla culture, and “indicates a relatively large influx of people . . . This may well represent the intrusion of Shoshonean speakers from the east (extending out to the Pacific Coast), but there is no direct evidence to justify this speculation” (Meighan 1959:40).

 

Michels, J. W.

      1964    The Snow Creek Rock Shelter Site (Riv-210). University of California, Los Angeles, Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1963-1964:85-128.

“This is a site excavation report for the Snow Creek Rock Shelter site (Riv-210) which appears to have been a temporary camp of the Wanakik Cahuilla occupied during the Late Prehistoric Period for the purpose of seasonally exploiting the acorn-yielding Oak groves which are situated on and near the site.  During their stay the occupants appear to have applied themselves to the hunting of small game and some larger game, a collateral activity of secondary importance.  The presence of pictographs on the walls of the shelter in association with Jimson weed growing on the site tempts one to suggest that the shelter may have been utilized for ceremonial activity of one kind or another.  Among the design elements contained within the pictographs there is reflected what appears to be a representational series - naturalistic to conventionalized - depicting the human hand and portions thereof as a symbolic motif.  Of interest also is the fact that the pottery of the site consists of almost equal proportions of Palomar Brown ware and Parker Series ware.” [Author’s abstract]

 

Murray, J. R., F. Fenenga, and R. S. Brown

      1989    A Cached Ceramic Bowl from the Squaw Tank District, Joshua Tree National Monument, California. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 25(2):22-30.

 

O'Connell, J. F.

      1971    Recent Prehistoric Environments in Southeastern California. University of California, Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1971:175-184.

“In a preceding paper, Wilke noted the existence of an apparent change in aboriginal settlement patterns in the Perris area, east of Riverside, California.  The change took place in late prehistoric times, that is within the last 300-500 years, and involved an increase in the occupation of certain microenvironments and in the utilization of certain resources.  He argues that the change was not merely a local phenomenon, but that it represented one aspect of an adaptive change which took place throughout interior southern California.  In the following paper, Jefferson suggested that the change was the result of a shift in the balance between the size and distribution of local aboriginal populations and the resources on which they were dependent.  He proposed two general explanations which might be offered to account for the phenomenon:  1) population growth, or 2) a change in the carrying capacity of the environment.” [Author’s abstract]

 

O'Connell, J. F., P. J. Wilke, T. F. King, and C. L. Mix (editors), eds.

      1974    Perris Reservoir Archaeology:  Late Prehistoric Demographic Changes in South-Eastern California. Sacramento: California Department of Parks and Recreation.

“Surveys and excavations at Perris Reservoir were designed to gain an understanding of the nature of prehistoric human adaptation within a discrete region of southeastern California, and the changes in that adaptation over time.  Data indicate a period of low but gradually increasing population intensity from at least 300 BC to about AD 1500.  Within this span, subsistence was based on the gathering of small seeds which were processed on deep basin milling stones, supplemented to some degree by hunting.  Use of the region by human populations significantly intensified after AD 1500, the period from which the vast majority of the data are derived.  After this time, use of deep basin milling stones seems to have been replaced by processing at numerous isolated bedrock milling stations.  A broader pattern of resource exploitation is indicated, involving use of additional environmental zones, and additional resources within them, but probably still only on a seasonal basis.  The settlement pattern in the later period is reconstructed as involving a single base camp, several outlying occupation sites utilized by small groups, and many scattered processing sites.  The pattern of increased land use is atypical of hunter-gatherer populations existing in equilibrium with their environments.  Since increased resource availability can seemingly be ruled out, and there is no significant evidence of technological innovation, intensified use of the region must reflect significant changes in population distributions.  Such demographic shift is most likely a result of restructured settlement patterns which accompanied the abrupt disappearance of freshwater Lake LeConte from the Salton Basin roughly coeval with the changes noted at Perris Reservoir.” [Authors’ abstract].

 

Ruby, J. W.

      1962    Aboriginal Uses of Mount San Jacinto State Park. Annual Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey 4:1-10.

 

Schaefer, Jerry

      1994    The Challenge of Archaeological Research in the Colorado Desert:  Recent Approaches and Discoveries. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 16:60-80.

 

Schaefer, Jerry and Ken Moslak

      2001    Project Inventory and Evaluation of Seven Prehistoric Lake Cahuilla Shoreline Sites for IID. Encinitas: Imperial Irrigation District.

 

Swenson, J. D.

      1984    A Cache of Mesquite Beans from the Mecca Hills, Salton Basin California. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 6:246-252.

“During the winter of 1972, a ceramic olla or storage jar containing a cache of honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa var. torreyana) beans was recovered from a small wind- and water-eroded rockshelter (CA-RIV-519) in the Colorado Desert.  The site lies within the ethnographic territory of the Desert Cahuilla.  This report describes the rockshelter and the vessel and its contents, and provides a short discussion of the cultural context in which the cache occurred” (Swenson 1984:246).

 

Treganza, A. E.

      1945    The Ancient Stone Fish Traps of the Coachella Valley, California. American Antiquity 10:285-294.

“A group of small stone enclosures, supposed by some to be of natural origin and by others to be the works of man, lies on a rocky travertine-encrusted talus slope at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains on the west side of the Coachella Valley in Riverside County, California”(Treganza 1945:285).  In this article, Treganza investigates the so-called “fish traps” along the shoreline of Ancient Lake Cahuilla.  He disagrees with the interpretation that these are actually fish traps, and instead posits two other interpretations:  they are possibly a series of house sites, or antelope blinds.

 

Wallace, W. J.

      1962    Prehistoric Cultural Development in the Southern California Deserts. American Antiquity 28:172-180.

“Archaeological remains from the southern Californian desert region, spanning a period from 7000 B.C. to historic times, are segregated into four broad cultural horizons.  The earliest certain evidences of human occupation consist of stone tools and weapons from the shore line of ancient Lake Mohave.  The Lake Mohave artifacts comprise types designed primarily for hunting and related activities.  Next in sequence are the lithic materials from Pinto Basin and other localities that demonstrate a mixed hunting-gathering economy.  The third or Amargosa period is inadequately known.  Triangular arrowpoints, pottery, and numerous seed-grinding implements distinguish the closing aboriginal phase.  The major research needs are indicated.” [Author’s abstract]

 

Wilke, P. J.

      1971    Late Prehistoric Change in Land Use Patterns at Perris Reservoir. University of California, Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1971:155-164.

“This series of papers is an outgrowth of attempts to resolve a particular research problem which was brought to focus in the course of archaeological salvage work at Perris Reservoir, Riverside County, California.  Specifically, the problem is to provide an explanation for the pattern of significantly intensified land-use late in prehistoric time.  While evidence of intensified land-use is particularly obvious at Perris Reservoir, a similar pattern is reflected over a large sector of interior southern California.  The Perris locality has been subjected to intensive investigation and it is with this body of data that we are most familiar.  This paper will therefore offer a brief, preliminary assessment of the settlement and subsistence adaptation at Perris Reservoir and the change it sustained through time.  Following this summary, some comparisons will be drawn with other localities in the interior which reflect a similar change in land-use patterns.  The remaining two papers will then explore possible explanations for this late prehistoric adaptive change in interior southern California.”  [Author’s abstract].

 

      1976    Late Prehistoric Human Ecology at Lake Cahuilla, Coachella Valley, California. Dissertation, University of California, Riverside.

“Insight into the nature of late prehistoric human ecology in Coachella Valley, Colorado Desert, California, is found in Cahuilla Indian oral tradition.  Traditions recorded in early historic time describe a former adaptation to lacustrine conditions.  This would have occurred when Lake Cahuilla filled the Salton Basin forming a body of fresh water over 100 miles long, as a result of inflow of the Colorado River.  Archaeological data drawn primarily from analysis of human coprolites from open sites on the shore reveal that lakeside adaptation occurred, and that occupation in Coachella Valley during the most recent stand of Lake Cahuilla was probably sedentary.  Subsistence was drawn from open water, marsh, low desert, and montane zones.  These conditions persisted for most of the interval from A.D. 900-1500, with one brief interruption.  Diversion of the river, causing it to flow directly into the Gulf of California, occurred about A.D. 1500, and Lake Cahuilla dried by evaporation within about 55 years.  This set in motion population movements throughout inland southern California that are believed to be documented by existing archaeological data.  Reoccupation of Coachella Valley, especially the dry bed of Lake Cahuilla, occurred after the establishment of low desert vegetation.  By historic contact in 1823, permanently occupied Cahuilla villages were located on the lakebed, and subsistence was based on limited agriculture with primary emphasis on low desert and montane resources.  Informant testimony indicated that settlement of the lakebed occurred from the adjacent uplands.  Agriculture is seen as a probable addition to a primarily hunting and gathering adaptation.  It may have spread to this region from the Lower Colorado in the period of ecological adjustment that followed the drying of Lake Cahuilla” (Wilke 1976:x-xi).

 

Wilke, P. J., and D. N. Fain

      1974    An Archaeological Cucurbit from Coachella Valley. Journal of California Anthropology 1:110-114.

 

Wilke, P. J., T. W. Whitaker, and E. Hattori

      1977    Prehistoric Squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) from the Salton Basin. Journal of California Anthropology 4:55-59.

The authors discuss the findings of seeds of squash in the vicinity of ancient Lake Cahuilla, and associated with prehistoric Cahuilla villages.  They further discuss the possibility of the practice of agriculture by the Cahuilla prior to Spanish contact and missions influence.

 

 

Linguistics

 

Bright, W.

      1965a  The History of the Cahuilla Sound System. International Journal of American Linguistics 31:241-244.

“A major step was taken in the comparative study of the Uto-Aztecan languages in the recently published typological and comparative phonology of Voegelin, Voegelin, and Hale (1962).  However, detailed data on the Cahuilla language of southern California were not available for that work, although many statements made for the neighboring Luiseño language hold equally true for Cahuilla.  The aim of the present paper is to state as fully as possible the relations between the Cahuilla sound system and that which has been reconstructed for Proto-Uto-Aztecan, and to list Cahuilla vocabulary items which show these relationships.  Most of the Cahuilla data used for this purpose were obtained from Mrs. Katherine Saubel, who was born at Los Coyotes Reservation and now lives at Banning.  Supplementary items were given by Mariano Saubel, who also speaks a form of ‘Mountain’ Cahuilla.  It appears that the historical statements made here will also hold for the Desert form of Cahuilla which has been described by Seiler (1957, 1958)” (Bright 1965:241).

 

      1965b  A Field Guide to Southern California Indian Languages. University of California, Archaeological Survey Annual Report, 1965:389-407.

“This is a non-technical survey of the sound systems of Cahuilla, Cupeño, Luiseño and Diegueño, languages spoken by surviving Indian tribes of Southern California.  The aim of the paper is to assist archaeological and ethnological field workers to transcribe Indian terms relevant to their research.” [Author’s abstract]

 

      1977    The Origin of the Name "Cahuilla". Journal of California Anthropology 4:116-118.

In this brief article, Bright examines various sources for the origination of the name “Cahuilla” for the Takic speaking Indians living in the eastern desert and mountain regions of southern California.  His final conclusion is that it is an Indian word used in Baja California to signify non-missionized Indians, borrowed by the Spaniards when they came to Alta California, and used to label these Indians, who were not heavily influenced by the mission system.

 

Bright, W., and M. Bright

      1976    Archaeology and Linguistics in Prehistoric Southern California. In Variation and Change in Language:  Essays by William Bright. A.S. Dil, ed. Pp. 189-205. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

“At the time of historic contact, the coastal area of Southern California was occupied by three language families:  Chumash, represented by Ventureño, Barbareño, Island Chumash, etc.; Uto-Aztecan, represented by Fernandeño, Gabrielino, Luiseño, and Juaneño; and Yuman, represented by Diegueño.  Chumash and Yuman are further related in that they both belong to the Hokan stock.  The present paper deals with the prehistoric movements of these peoples, as inferred from both archaeological and linguistic evidence, which led to the distribution seen at contact.  The discussion is divided into the following parts:  (1) Kroeber’s outline of the pre-historic movements, (2) Presentation of the archaeological evidence, (3) Presentation of the linguistic evidence, and (4) Interpretation” (Bright and Bright 1976:189).

 

Fuchs, Anna

      1970    Morphologie des Verbs im Cahuilla. The Hague: Mouton.

 

Jacobs, Roderick A.

      1972    Syntactic Change: A Cupan (Uto-Aztecan) Case Study. Dissertation, University of California, San Diego.

 

Saubel, Katherine Siva

      1977    I'isniyatam Designs, a Cahuilla Word Book. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

 

Sauvel, K. S., and P. Munro

      1981    Chem'ivillu' (Let's Speak Cahuilla). Los Angeles: American Indian Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles.

“Chem’ivillu’ is the first textbook developed for those who want to learn Cahuilla as a second language.  It is also the first book devoted entirely to the Mountain dialect of Cahuilla, which is spoken by Katherine Siva Saubel and others on the Morongo Indian Reservation in Banning, California.

      The present version of the book is revised from Cahuilla lessons prepared by a group of graduate students at the University of California, Los Angeles, during the fall of 1977, under the direction of Pamela Munro and Katherine Siva Sauvel” (Sauvel and Munro 1981:v).

 

Seiler, Hansjakob

      1965    Accent and Morphophonemics in Cahuilla and in Uto-Aztecan. International Journal of American Linguistics 31:50-59.

“The immediate aim of this paper is thus to first describe in detail for one language, i.e. Cahuilla, the phenomenon of alternating stress and one particular morphophonemic process, viz. glottalization.  Their structural interrelation will then be studied.  Some attempts at internal reconstruction and at historical comparison between several Uto-Aztecan languages will furnish outlooks for further work” (Seiler 1965:51).

 

      1967    Structure and Reconstruction in Some Uto-Aztecan Languages. International Journal of American Linguistics 33:135-147.

“This paper intends to show what can be done toward elucidating the linguistic history of a language and of a language group by considering and comparing whole networks of structure rather than isolated items of an inventory” (Seiler 1967:135).  In order to accomplish this task, Seiler focuses on the Cahuilla language.  He makes comparisons with Cupeño and Luiseño, as well.  Seiler sees his approach examining structure as more apt to tell the researcher in what direction language changes occurred, and how change came about.

 

      1970    Cahuilla Texts with an Introduction. Bloomington: Indiana University.

      1977    Cahuilla Grammar. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

“This work is intended to be a scientific grammar of the Cahuilla language.  At least certain parts of the grammar should be accessible to the interested non-linguist:  in particular the ‘Introduction’ and the introductions to the main chapters and subchapters.  It should also be possible without too much difficulty to compile a pedagogical grammar of Cahuilla on the basis of this grammar . . .. The reader should bear in mid that Cahuilla is a dying language.  The material presented and described in this grammar is bound to be inhomogeneous, although I do conceive of it as of an ‘orderly heterogeneity.’ . . . Another objective of data-collecting and grammar-writing was to describe the language as it was actually used by the speakers in the years between 1955 and 1975.” (Seiler 1977:3-8).

 

Seiler, Hansjakob, and Kojiro Hioki

      1979    Cahuilla Dictionary. Banning: Malki Museum Press.

“This work is intended to complete the description of the Cahuilla language and to facilitate access both to the Cahuilla Texts (Seiler 1970) and to the Cahuilla Grammar (Seiler 1977).  The non-linguist interested in learning something about the ‘words’ of this language and about their use will find rich information concerning the ways of thinking, religious beliefs, social structure, medicinal knowledge, and the everyday life of these people.  The linguist will hopefully find in this Dictionary a means for better understanding the Texts and a help for the illustration of many points discussed in the Grammar” (Seiler and Hioki 1979:1).