USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 5
USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 5
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& Many of these names are quite interesting, for instance: San Bernardino- Guachama-"A place of plenty to eat"; Cucamonga-Cucamungabit-"Sand place"; Riverside-Jurumpa-"Water place"; San Timoteo (Redlands)-Tolocabit-"Place of the big head"; Homoa-Homhoabit-"Hilly place"; Yucaipa-Yucaipa-"Wet lands"; and Muscupiabe-Muscupiabit-"Pinon place."
ยท Hittell.
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was taken prisoner, robbed and held for ransom. Still a third party of troops was sent, but these themselves revolted, robbed the church of its vestments and ornaments and took to the mountains. No further attempts to hold San Bernardino were made, and for some years the country was left almost to the undisputed possession of the natives. The decree secularizing the missions was already being carried into effect, the church was fast losing ground, and a number of the Indians went back to their old savage state, although others seem to have remained at the old mission and continued in their agricultural activities. According to Daniel Sexton, when he first came into the county in 1842, a number of Indians were still engaged in the work of irrigation and cultivation in the vicinity of Old San Bernardino. In the same year, when the San Bernardino rancho was granted to the Lugos, one of the brothers seems to have lived in the locality of the mission, perhaps in the building itself, and when the Mormons arrived, Bishop Tenny occupied the old structure. The following description was given by Lieutenant Blake, who passed through in November, 1852: "We soon reached the ruins of the old church or rancho, located on slightly elevated ground and overlooking the whole valley towards the east. It is surrounded by a broad area of excellent farming land and a row old old trees (cottonwood row) set thickly together extends in a straight line for three-fourths of a mile along the acequia. The building is made of adobes, but is now in ruins. A part of it, however, is now occupied as a farm house and granary."
THE INDIANS OF SAN BERNARDINO VALLEY. Wide and varied are the descriptions and conceptions of the Indians of California given by the writers among the early explorers prior to the invasion of the interior country. One of the earliest of these writers, Father Venegas, says : "Even in the least frequented corners of the globe there is not a nation so stupid, of such contracted ideas, and weak both in body and mind, as the unhappy Californians. Their characteristics are stupidity and insensibility, want of knowledge and reflection, inconstancy, impetuosity, and blindness to appetite; an excessive sloth and abhorrence of fatigue of every kind, however trifling; in fine, a most wretched want of every- thing which constitutes the real man and renders him rational, inven- tive, tractable, and useful to himself and society." Surely a scathing arraignment, and utterly at variance with the description of Viscaino, who visited the coast in 1603, although Viscaino's report may be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, inasmuch as he probably had the ulte- rior motive of impressing his royal patron with the importance of his discovery. He wrote as follows: "The country is thickly settled with people whom I found to be of gentle disposition, peaceable and docile, and who can be brought readily within the fold of the holy gospel and into subjection to the crown of your majesty. Their food consists of seed which they have in abundance and variety, and of the flesh of game, such as deer larger than cows, and of bear and of neat cattle and of bisons and of many other animals. The people are of good stature and of fair complexion, the women somewhat lesser in size than the men, and of pleasing countenance. The clothing of the people of the coast lands consists of the skin of the otter, abounding here, which they tan and dress better than it is done in Castile; they possess also in great quantity flax, like that of Castile, hemp and cotton, from which they make fishing lines and nets for rabbits. They have vessels, very well made, in which they go to sea with great dexterity, even in stormy weather."
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Whichever of these two descriptions is the more accurate, the fact remains that, however unknowingly, the Indians proved a mighty factor in the development of the country, and that without their assistance civilization and settlement would have been held back for many years. For while theirs were not the directing minds, they furnished the manual labor so necessary in the progress of any new country. Perhaps one of the most accurate word pictures in describing the early Indians is found in the diary of Father Crespi, a member of the overland expe- dition of Gaspar de Portala, in 1769. At various places in his diary, Father Crespi makes mention of the Indians, in fact this decidedly inter- esting and valuable little volume is prolific in notes and descriptions of the natives, some excerpts from which are as follows: "They came without weapons, but with a gentleness that has no name, bringing as gifts to us their poor seeds, and we in turn gave them ribbons and gew-
gaws. * * I made the gentiles say the acts of Faith, Hope and * Charity, which, without understanding one word, they repeated after me with such tenderness and fervor that it found, in my heart, at least, an echo. *
* * Fifty Indians, with their captain, invited us by signs which we understood perfectly to come and live with them; that they would build us houses and give us grain and the meat of antelopes and hares. They insisted on their offer, telling us that all the land in sight, and it was much, was theirs and they would divide it with us. * * * *
Toward evening we received the visits of the chiefs of each town, one after the other, who came in all their finery of paint and overloaded with feather ornaments, holding in their hands split reeds, the motion and the noise of which they used as a measure to their chants and dances, and this they did so well and so uniform that the effect was harmonious. The dances lasted all evening and we had hard work sending our guests home. We dismissed the gentiles, begging them by signs not to come back and trouble us during the night. But it was in vain ; as soon as night had set in they returned, blowing horns, whose infernal noise was enough to tear our ears in pieces." * * "These natives (about San Diego) are of good figure, well built and agile. They go naked without more clothing than a girdle. Their quivers, which they bind between the girdle and the body, and of wild cat, coyote, wolf, or buck skins, and their bows are of two varas (66 inches) long. Besides these, they have a species of war club, whose form is that of a short and curved cutlass, which they fling edgewise and it cleaves the air with much violence. They hurl it a greater distance than a stone; without it they never go forth in the fields; and if they see a viper they throw the club at it and commonly sever it half from half. According to later experience, they are of haughty temper, daring, covetous, great jesters and braggarts; although of little valor, they make great boasts and hold the most vigorous the most valiant." Thus Constanzo, the civil engineer of the same party, evidencing the truth that men's opinions, even under precisely the same conditions, will vary.
Father Caballeria, before quoted, remarks: "But it cannot be denied that the native Indians were low in the scale of humanity. They were wholly unlike the Eastern Indians. They lacked the social organization of the Pueblos. There were no powerful tribes among them like the Sioux of the North and the Apache of the Southwest. Their settlements or rancherias were independent of each other. Each rancheria had a name of its own, and a different language was spoken, the inhabitants of one rancheria many times being unable to understand the language of another. *
* Their dwellings were circular in form. They were built from poles stuck in the earth and bending over at the top
.
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to form the roof. This was covered with brush, tules and mud, leaving at the top an aperture to allow the smoke to escape. They were similar in construction and appearance to the Navajo 'tehogane' of the present day. The early Indians did not cultivate the soil. They subsisted upon wild roots, herbs, nuts, field mice, worms, lizards, grasshoppers and other insects, birds fish, geese, ducks and small game. The flesh foods were consumed raw or only slightly cooked. They were very fond of acorns which, during their season, were gathered in large quantities. These were often prepared by grinding in mortars or on stone slabs similar to the Mexican 'metate.' They were sometimes placed in woven baskets of reeds and boiled in water heated with hot stones, then kneaded into a dough and baked on hot stones in front of a fire. A small, round seed, called 'chia,' was also used. This was prepared by drying and making into a flour called 'atole.' Their subsistence was often very pre- carious and their habits somewhat migratory, going from place to place in search of their food supply, which varied with the season of the year. In personal appearance the California Indians were not prepossessing. There was little physical beauty among them. They were undersized, broad-nosed, with high cheek bones, wide mouths and coarse black hair. Their personal habits were uncleanly. Their clothing extremely scanty; that of the men 'in naturalibus,' but the women partially covered them- selves with skirts of woven grass reaching from the waist to the knees. They were fond of ornaments of various kinds and decorated their faces and bodies with paint, often in a most grotesque manner. Upon the coming of the Americans they were classed without distinction under the term 'Digger.'"
Of the tribes located in what is now San Bernardino County, one of the principal ones were the Coahuillas, "masters" or "ruling people." These people, who lived in the mountain ridges and vallevs east of San Bernardino Mountains and in the San Jacinto Range, and along the eastern border of these mountains, had little commerce with the Spanish and definite history of them does not commence until a later period. In the vicinity of the San Bernardino Valley lived the Serranos10, a more peaceable and weaker tribe than either the Coahuillas or the desert people. The Gauchamas, of San Bernardino Valley, and probably the Cucamon- gas, belonged to this division. The Chemehuevi, or Paiutes, belonging to the great Shoshone tribe, were locted east of the mountains; the Pana- mints to the North; and the Mojaves, the most populous tribe of the Yumas, and formerly the most warlike, first in the valley of the Colo- rado, but mainly in the eastern part between Black Rock and Needles.
Of the Chemehuevi, Father Garces had the following to say: "The garb of these Indians is Apache mocassins, shirt of antelope skin, white head dress like a cap with a bunch of those feathers which certain birds have in their crest. These Indians gave me the impression of being the most swift-footed that I have seen yet-they sow grain-they keep friend- ship with the Apaches-they have a language distinct from all the nations of the river-they are friends of the Jamadabs.11 They also make coritas.12 They conducted themselves with me most beautifully. By no means were they thievish or molestful, but rather quite contrary." Of the Mojaves, Father Garces says: "I can say with entire truth that these Indians have great advantages over the Yumas and the rest of the nations of the Colorado; they are less molestful and none are thieves ; they seem valiant and nowhere have I been better served.
10 "Mountain Indians."
11 Mojave. 12 Baskets.
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The female sex is the most comely on the river, the male very healthy and robust. They say that they are very strong; and so I found them to be especially in enduring hunger and thirst. There came to visit me about twenty hundred souls. Their language is different, but through constant communication they understand well enough the Yuma. They talk rapidly and with great arrogance. I have not heard any Indian who talked more or with less embarrassment than their captain general."
As an example of the work performed by the padres among the Indians, as well as a specimen of the language of the Guachamas of San Ber- nardino Valley, the Lord's Prayer in Indian is herewith quoted :13 "Dios Janna penyanash Tucupac santificado ut cha et en pennacash toco jahi cocan najanis Tubuc aix. Guacha pan meta tamepic penaixjan chem- yanaix ut cha panajanucan quihi elecui suyu Amen." Having no word in Indian to express God, the Spanish "Dios" is used. The same applies to the word pan (bread). The staple article of food among the Indians was acorns. Not wishing to ask for acorns the Spanish word is substituted to give the idea of the article asked for.
THE MISSION INDIANS. The mission of San Gabriel, variously known as El Mission del Glorisino Principe San Gabriel, San Gabriel Arcangel and San Gabriel de los Temblores14, was formally dedicated September 8, 1771, being the fourth in order of the cordon of missions planned for Alta-California. According to Reid, the site chosen was a complete forest of oak with considerable undergrowth, near which were a lagoon and a spring. Padres Cambon and Somero were sent out from San Diego with fourteen soldiers and four muleteers, but owing prin- cipally to the brutality of the soldiers with the natives, the growth of the mission was slow, and after a few years the rude buildings that com- posed the first mission were deserted and a new site chosen. By 1776, however, considerable progress had been made, and Father Font, who accompanied Anza on his second expedition from Sonora, has left a graphic description of what he saw at San Gabriel, which, because of its picture of the life of Indians at all the missions, is worthy of presen- tation :15
"After breakfast I went with Padre Sanchez to see the spring of water whence they bring the aqua for this mission by means of which are conferred the greatest conveniences ; for, besides being sufficient and passing in front of the house of the padres and of the little huts of the Christian Indians who compose this new mission, who will be some fifty souls of recent converts, this aqua renders all the flats of the imme- diate site apt for sowing, so that the fields are close to the pueblo; and it is a mission that has such good adaptabilities to crops and is of such good pasture for cattle and horses, that no better could be desired. The cows that it has are very fat and give rich milk, with which they make many cheeses and very good butter ; there is a litter of pigs and a small flock of sheep, of which, on our coming, they killed four or five mut- tons that they had, and I do not remind myself of having eaten mutton more fat or beautiful; and they also have some chickens. It has enough of wood and other logs for building. * * At present the whole building is reduced to one very large hovel, all in one piece with three divisions, and this serves as the habitation of the padres, granary, and everything else; somewhat apart from this there is another square hovel which serves as church; and near this is another which is the guard-
13 History of San Bernardino Valley, by Father Juan Caballeria. 14 San Gabriel of the Earthquakes. 15 On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, by Elliott Coues.
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house, or quarters of the soldiers of the escort, who are eight; and close by some little huts of tule which are the little houses of the Indians, between which and the house of the padres runs the aqua. In the spring of water grow herbs which appear to be lettuces and some roots like parsnips; and near the old site of the mission, which is southward from this one about a league, grow great abundance of water cresses, of which I ate enough; and, finally is the land, as Padre Paterna says, like the Land of Promise, though indeed the padres have suffered in it many needlinesses and travails, because beginnings are always difficult *
* The and more so in those lands where there was nothing.
converted Indians of this mission seem tame and of middling good heart : they are of medium stature and the women somewhat smaller, round faced, flat nosed and rather ugly; their custom is gentiledom, for the men go entirely naked and the women wear some kind of deerskin with which they cover themselves, and also some small coat of skins of otter or hare; though the padres try to make the converts dress as well as they can. The method which the padres observe in the reduction is not to force anybody to make himself Christian, and they only admit those who voluntarily offer themselves and this they do in this fashion. As these Indians are accustomed to live in the hills and plains like beasts, so if they wish to be Christians they must not take to the woods, but they must live in the mission and if they leave the rancheria, they will be gone in search of and punished. Whereupon the padres begin to catechise the gentiles who voluntarily come, showing them how to make the sign of the cross and the rest that is necessary, and if the Indians persevere in the catechism for two or three months, with the same mind, being instructed therein, they pass on to baptism. The discipline of every
day is this: In the morning at sunrise mass is said regularly
*
*
and the padre recites with all the Christian doctrines, which is finished by singing the Alabado, which is sung in all the missions in one way and in the same tone, and the padres sing it even though they may not have good voices, inasmuch as uniformity is best. Then they go to breakfast on mush, which is made for all, and before partaking of it they cross themselves and sing the Bendito; then they go to work at whatever can be done, the padres inclining them and applying them to work by setting an example themselves; at noon they eat their soup (Pozole), which is made for all alike; then they work another stint and at sunset they return to recite doctrines and end by singing the Alabado. *
* * If any Indian wishes to go to the woods to see his relatives, or to gather acorns, he is given permission for a specified nun- ber of days, and regularly they do not fail to return and sometimes they come with a gentle relative who stays to catechism, either through the example of others, or attracted by the soup which suits them better than their herbs and eatables of the woods, and thus these Indians are * * The doctrine which is wont to be gathered in by the month.
recited at the mission is the brief of Padre Castani, with total uniformity, without being able to add a single thing or vary it by a word, and this is recited in Castilian, even though the padre may understand the Indian tongue. *
* * In the missions it is arranged that the grown-up girls sleep apart in some place of retirement and in the mission of San Luis Obispo I saw that a married soldier acted as mayor-domo and his wife
took care of the girls * * * and she by day kept them with her, teaching them to sew and other things, and at night locked them in a room where she kept them safe from every insult, and for this they were called nuns, which seemed to be a very good thing. Finally the
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method which the padres employ in these missions seemed to me. very good, and that which is done in one is done in all."
For twenty years from 1806 Father Zalvidea was the padre at San Gabriel, the affairs of which he ruled with such energy and discipline as to warrant the title of "clerical Napoleon" which was applied to him by Professor Gunn in his history of Los Angeles County. At one time the mission controlled 1,500,000 acres of land, extending from the ocean to the San Bernardino Mountains, and among its twenty-four ranchos were those of Chino, Cucamonga, San Bernardino, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto. Its largest population was 1,701, a figure attained in 1817, and in 1830 it had over 40,000 head of stock, including cattle, horses, mules, sheep and goats. Two years later the breaking up the missions began, and in less than ten years, so rapid was the destruction, the population and wealth of San Gabriel had disappeared, its lands were held by grantees of the Mexican Government, the mission itself had fallen into ruins through neglect and its various stations were deserted.
THE INDIANS UNDER MEXICAN RULE. The downfall of the missions really commenced in 1823, when Mexico assumed power in California, and when the Secularization Act was passed. It was estimated that in 1833 no less than 30,000 Indians were connected with the various missions ; ten years later the majority of these had been dispersed. A few, to be sure, remained on lands that they had developed and culti- vated under the guidance of the Fathers, and some few more settled wherever they could find unoccupied land with water; but for the most part those who remained in the locality of the pueblos lapsed again in their morals and were easily made the slaves and instruments of the greedy and unscrupulous whites. During the Spanish regime, it had always been the intention of the Government to furnish the natives with lands and allow them a share of the profits accruing through their labors. This policy, had the laws of the Mexican Government been observed, would have been followed out, but the disruption of the mission system was succeeded by a period of greed and criminal avarice which left the Indians with nothing save the opportunity to live upon and work the lands held by the Mexicans under land grants. While the Indians car- ried on all the work on the great stock ranges, they had no rights to land or property.
UNDER AMERICAN RULE. There seems to be sufficient cause for criticism of the manner in which the rights of the original squatters, the Indians, have been disregarded under the rule of the United States. It is true that when the Government took possession of the territory of California it found the titles in a chaotic state that seemed incapable of being straightened out to the satisfaction of all. So that there is some excuse for the confusion that followed. There are few mitigating circumstances, however, to excuse the fact that the rights of the Indians, the original owners, have been entirely overlooked. In the endless liti- gations between squatters, grant owners and the Government the just dues of the Indians have been a non-existent quantity, simply because in their ignorance they were unable to cope with the schemes of the white men, and that they had no legal title, approved by the Government of Mexico, or by the United States. "Possession and occupation and bona fide improvements," says Ingersoll, "counted for nothing in the case of the Indian, and when a white man wanted the land whole villages were evicted and their houses, orchards and other improvements 'appropri- ated.' "
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Just what effect this had in driving the Indians from the lands which were really theirs is shown in the following figures: Benito D. Wilson, who had been appointed Indian agent, reported in 1852 the presence of about 15,000 Indians; the United States census report of 1860 placed the number of Indians in San Bernardino County at 3,028; in 1880 the census showed the Serranos 381, the Coahuillas 675, and the entire nun- ber in Southern California 2,907. In her report of 1884, Helen Hunt Jackson says: "This estimate falls considerably short of the real num- bers, as there are no doubt in hiding, so to speak, in remote and inac- cessible spots, many individuals, families, or even villages; some on reservations set apart for them by executive order some on Government land not reserved, and some upon lands included within the boundaries of confirmed Mexican grants. Considerable numbers of these Indians are also to be found on the outskirts of the white settlements, as at San Bernardino, Riverside and Redlands, and the colonies of the San Gabriel Valley, where they live like gypsies in brush huts, here today, gone tomorrow, eking out a miserable existence by a day's work. the wages of which are too often spent for whiskey."
It is to be stated in extenuation of the policy of the Government that in later years there has been an attempt made to right the wrongs of the Indians and to save those left from extinction. Education has been a feature, and several good schools have been conducted for a number of years, these including the Perris Industrial School, erected in 1892. and Sherman Institute, at Riverside, opened in 1902.
In 1852 the Government began setting aside reservations for the Indians, and work in this direction has been carried forward steadily, but many of the Indians, after a trial, have left the reservations, finding it impossible to make a living on the lands allotted them. The various outcasts of the tribes and villages, worthless, shiftless, lazy beings, should not be taken as representative of the Southern California Indian. As early as 1852, in his report, B. D. Wilson stated : "These Indians have built all of the houses in the country, planted all the fields and vineyards. Under the missions they were masons, carpenters, plasterers, soapmakers. tanners, shoemakers, blacksmiths, millers, bakers, cooks, brickmakers. carters and cartmakers, weavers and spinners, saddlers, shepherds, agri- culturists, horticulturists, vineros, vaqueros-in a word, they filled all of the laborious occupations of civilization." That the Mojave proved an acceptable employe was evidenced by Doctor Booth, who, in his report of 1902, said: "Much of the hard labor done on the railroad is per- formed by these Indians and more industrious or more faithful workers were never in the employ of a corporation. They lay and line up track, heave coal, wipe engines, etc., better than the ordinary white man."
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