USA > California > San Bernardino County > Ingersoll's century annals of San Bernadino County, 1769-1904 : prefaced with a brief history of the state of California : supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and portraits of many of its representative people > Part 11
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East of the mountains we find the Chemehuevi, or Paiutes, belonging to the great Shoshone tribe, the Panamints, to the north and the Mojaves, a branch of the Yuma tribe. These desert tribes were much more warlike and aggressive than their coast neighbors.
CHEMEHUEVIS.
Father Garces, who made an entrada (journey) from the Colorado river to San Gabriel in 1776, thus describes his experience with the Chemehuevis in the southeastern part of what is now San Bernardino county: "February 26, 1776, I passed through a gap in a sierra that runs northwest and at its base made a halt at some springs of water that I called. Ojito del Santo Angel (little angel eyes), where I met some forty persons of the Chemehuevi na- tion. Six Indians that were on a hill came down as soon as I called them, with the speed of a deer and regaled us with some good mezcal. The garb of these Indians is Apache moccasins, 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 friendship with the Apaches-they have a language distinct from all the nations of the river- they are friends of the Jamadabs (Mojave). They also make coritas (bas- kets). They conducted themselves with me most beautifully. By no means were they thievish or molestful, but rather quite contrary."
MOJAVES.
"The Mojaves were the most populous tribe of the Yumas and formerly the most warlike. In historic times they occupied the valley of the Colorado, but mainly the eastern part between Black Rock and Needles. Their name signifies 'big rock' or 'mountain.' "
Father Garces followed on up the Colorado river on the California side and on February 28th, he reached the vicinity of the Needles. He was the first
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European to visit the country of the Mojaves. He thus describes them: "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. I showed them the picture of the Virgin ; it pleased them much but they did not like to look at the picture of the lost soul. As I am the first Espanol that has been within their land they celebrated it beyond bounds by their great desire to become acquainted with the Espanoles; and considering them to be very valiant they manifested extraordinary joy at being now friends of a people so valor- ous.
"February 29, 1776. I tarried here because there came successively many people and among them three captains, of whom one said that he was the head chief of the nation, against whose will was naught determined; that he had come in order that I should tell that which was for him to do; that I should know him for what he was when I should see him do out of goodness of his heart all that which I might propose-and finally he said that he would be baptized and married to a woman, adding other good things of like tenor. This is the captain general of them all and he lives in the center of the nation. The female sex is the most comely on the river, the male very healthy and robust. These say that they are very strong ; and so I found them to be es- pecially in enduring hunger and thirst. There came to visit me about twenty hundred souls. Their language is different, but through con- stant communication they understand well enough the Yuma, They talk rapidly and with great arrogance. I have not heard any A Mojava Buck Indian who talked more or with less embar- rassment than their captain general."
INDIANS UNDER MISSION RULE. SAN GABRIEL.
On September 8, 1771, El Mission del Glorisimo Principe San Gabriel, San Gabriel Arcangel, or San Gabriel de los Temblores (of the earthquakes) as the mission was variously known, was formally dedicated. This was the
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fourth in order of the cordon of missions planned for Alta California. Its founders, Padres Cambon and Somero, had been sent out from San Diego with a party of fourteen soldiers, a supply train of mules and four muleteers. Reid says that the site chosen was a complete forest of oak with consid- erable undergrowth-a lagoon near by and a spring. The first build- ings were rude and the growth of the mission for the first two or three years, very slow, owing prin- cipally to the brutality of the soldiers
with the natives. The first site of the mission was abandoned some years after its founding and a new one selected a few miles distant in a more eligible location. In 1776, Constance Farris Chiming Bells of San Gabriel. when Font and Garces visited the mission considerable progress had been made. Father Font accompanied Anza on his second expedition from Sonora and he has left a description of what he saw at San Gabriel, which is such a graphic picture of the life of all the Indians at the missions, that we copy it here from Elliott Coues "On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer."
FONT'S DIARY, JANUARY 5, 1776.
"After breakfast I went with Padre Sanchez to see the spring of water whence they bring the acequia for this mission. by means of which are con- ferred 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 acequia renders all the flats of the immediate 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 muttons 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 every- thing else; somewhat apart from this there is another square hovel which serves as church; and near this another which is the guardhouse, or quarters of the soldiers of the escort, who are eight; and close by some little huts of
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tule which are the little houses of the Indians, between which and the house of the padres runs the acequia. In the spring of water grows 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 needinesses and travails, because beginnings are always difficult and more so in those lands where there was nothing. The 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 in gentiledom for the men to go entirely naked, and the women wear some kind of deer skin 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 volun- tarily offer themselves and this they do in this fashion. As these Indians are accustomed to live in the plains and hills 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 neces- sary, 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 regu- larly . 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 them- selves 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 liis relatives, or to gather acorns, he is given permission for a specified number of days, and regularly they do not fail to return and sometimes they come with a gentile relative who stays to catechism, either through the example of the others, or attracted by the soup which suits them better than their herbs and eatables of the woods, and thus these Indians are wont to be gathered in by the mouth. The doctrine which is 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
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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 method which the padres employ in these missions seemed to me very good, and that which is done in one is done in all."
This is the clearest picture we have of life at the missions in early days and though Font was himself a Franciscan, it bears every mark of truthful- ness.
A later visitor, who was certainly not prejudiced in favor of the mis- sions was Alfred Robinson, an American who visited San Gabriel about 1830. He says: "In the morning at six o'clock we went to the church, where the priest had already commenced the service of the mass. The imposing cere- mony, glittering ornaments and illuminated walls were well adapted to capti- vate the simple mind of the Indian, and I could not but admire the apparent devotion of the multitude, who seemed absorbed, heart and soul, in the scene before them. The solemn music of the mass was well selected and the Indian voices ascended harmoniously with the flutes and violins that ac- companied them. . There are several extensive gardens attached to the mission, where may be found oranges, citrons, limes, apples, pears, peaches, pomegranates, figs and grapes in abundance. The storehouses and granaries are kept well supplied and the corridor in the square is usually heaped up with piles of hides and tallow. Besides the resources of the vine- yard the mission derives a considerable income from the sale of grain and the weekly slaughter of cattle produces a sufficient sum for clothing and sup- porting the Indians."
In 1806 Father Zalvidea was appointed to San Gabriel and for twenty years he ruled the Indians and administered the affairs of the mission with a vigor and a severity that fully entitles him to the phrase "clerical Napoleon," applied to him by Professor Guinn in his late history of Los Angeles county.
At the zenith of its power San Gabriel possessed some twenty-four ranchos, including a million and a half acres of land and extending from the ocean to the San Bernardino mountains. Among its possessions were Chino, Cucamonga, San Bernardino, San Gorgonio, and San Jacinto ranchos. It had small outstations at all of these points.
In 1817 there was a population of 1701 gathered about the mission and its dependencies. This was the highest figure attained. In 1828, its cattle were numbered at 26,300 head. In 1830 over 40,000 head of stock, including
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cattle, horses, mules, sheep and goats, is reported. Large yields of wheat, barley, beans and grapes were annually produced.
The breaking up of the missions began about 1832 and so rapid was the destruction that in less than ten years the population, the flocks and the wealth of San Gabriel had all disappeared. Its lands were granted by the Mexican government to various grantees, its stations were abandoned, and the mission itself fell into ruins.
MISSION SETTLEMENTS IN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY. EL CAMINO REAL.
In the year 1773 the viceroy of Mexico commissioned Juan Bautista de Anza, Captain of the Presidio of Tubac, to open a road between Sonora in Mexico and Monterey in California. The expedition consisted of thirty- four men, 140 horses and sixty-five cattle. Two priests, Fathers Garces and Diaz, accompanied the party. Three of the soldiers and some of the stock was left at the Colorado river, which was crossed at Yuma and the rest fol- lowing very nearly the route of the Southern Pacific, reached "El Puerto de San Carlos" (San Gorgonio Pass) March 14, 1774. On the 18th they passed through "El Valle de San Jose" (San Bernardino Valley). On the 20th they reached "Rio Sta Ana," which they crossed on a bridge of boughs and on the 21st they encamped at "Arroyo de Osos or Alisos" (Cucamonga). This was the first party of Europeans to look upon the beautiful valley of San Bernardino. In a few weeks Anza returned to Sonora by the same route and in 1775 he again came from Mexico, this time with a large number of soldiers and colonists, who were intended to settle San Francisco, and also 695 horses and mules and 355 cattle. They again camped in the San Bernardino valley. Father Font, who accompanied this party has left a diary giving a full account of the journey and Anza's official diaries and reports of both of these expedi- tions are extant.
In 1775. Father Garces, who had been left by Anza to visit among the Indians of the Colorado with a view to establish missions in that vicinity, went up the Colorado river to a point near Needles. Accompanied only by two or three Indians, he struck across the desert, camping on the site of Camp Cady, exploring the Mojave river, of which he was the discoverer, and entering the San Bernardino valley, Bancroft says by way of Cajon Pass, but Elliott Coues, who carefully went over the ground, following the daily itinerary, states, by way of Holcomb and Bear Valleys, which he reached by following up the watercourse from the Mojave, and then came down into the valley through the Santa Ana Canon. He reached the valley March 21st, 1776, find- ing here a rancheria of Indians, the Gauchamas, who greeted him "joyfully."
To Garces belongs the honor of first exploring a considerable part of this county, as well as first entering the Tulare country.
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POLITANA.
The overland route from Mexico by way of the Colorado river and San Bernardino valley proved more practicable than the sea route. But the revolt of the Colorado Indians in 1781 and the destruction of the two mis- sions that had been established along the river, with good Father Garces, his fellow priests, the soldiers and their families-fifty souls in all-gave travel over this "camino real" a set back. This route continued to be used, however. San Gabriel was the first stopping place after reaching California. But as travel increased it was arranged to establish another station on the route be- tween this mission and the Colorado river. Father Caballeria in his history of San Bernardino valley says: "With this object in view a party of mission- aries, neophytes and soldiers of the San Gabriel Mission, under the leader- ship of Padre Dumetz, were sent out to select a location and on the 20th of May, 1810, they came into the valley 'Valle de San Jose.' This, according to the Roman calendar, was the feast day of San Bernardino of Sienna and they renamed the valley in his honor. The supply station was planted at the Guachama rancheria, which was near the place now known as Bunker Hill, between Urbita Springs and Colton. This location was chosen on account of the abundance of water in this vicinity. Here a 'capilla' was built and dedicated to the patron saint of the valley-San Bernardino. After completing the building of the station, the fathers returned to San Gabriel, leaving the chapel, station, and a large quantity of supplies in the care of neophyte (Indian) soldiers, under the command of a trusty Indian-Hipolito. The settlement took its name from this man and became known as 'Politana.' During the next two years the padres made frequent visits to the capilla, the Gauchama Indians were friendly, grain was planted and the settlement seemed in a fair way to permanent prosperity." The same author adds that in 1812, the "year of earthquakes," the Gauchamas were so alarmed by the frequent shakings that they believed the mission must be the cause of this manifestation of the evil spirits and consequently massacred the mission Indians and the converts and destroyed the buildings. Later these were re- built and occupied for many years.
Within the memory of the first settlers in the valley there was still a considerable settlement of Indians in the neighborhood of Politana, or "Ran- cheria," as it was familiarly known. An old graveyard here was used by the Indians for many years, but has now entirely disappeared.
SAN BERNARDINO CHAPEL
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SAN BERNARDINO MISSION.
About 1821 the Gauchama ranchita of Indians, according to the records, asked the padres of San Gabriel to assist them in establishing agriculture and stock raising in their valley. The fathers were only too glad to accede to this request for they were in constant fear of attacks from the desert Indians who made their entry into the coast districts through the San Bernardino passes. In 1822 a priest was sent out and with the aid of the Indians an adobe chapel was erected, probably on, or near, the site of the present ruins of the old "mission" of San Bernardino. A mayor-domo, said by Father Caballerïa to have been Casius Garcia, was appointed, a zanja was con- structed, fields were cultivated and large herds of stock soon accumulated. The zanja, now known as Mill Creek zanja, has been in continuous use ever since it was constructed. It now resembles a natural water course and with its fringe of willows and alders is one of the most interesting and picturesque bits of scenery in the county.
In 1831 the desert Indians made a raid upon the mission, destroyed tlie buildings and stole and scattered most of the stock. The church was rebuilt in 1834 in a more substantial manner, having been 250 feet in length, 125 in width, with walls three feet thick-corrals and enclosures intended to resist the attacks of savage neighbors were also put up. A large granary of adobe was built at some little distance from the main structures. The remains of this were evident upon the old Curtis place for many years after the Ameri- cans came in but were finally leveled. A large burying ground was located at a point just opposite the Anson Van Leuven place, where now stands a walnut grove.
In 1834 there was much dissatisfaction and uneasiness among the mis- sion Indians all through Southern California, stirred up by Hijar's colonists, a party from Mexico, says Hittell. The Indians in the vicinity of San Ber- nardino finally revolted and a battle was fought between 200 Indians and a body of troops sent from San Gabriel to subdue them. Later Father Este- naga, with a military officer and troops, was sent to try and pacify the In- dians, but the rebels took the father prisoner, robbed him and would only give him up when a ransom was paid. More troops were sent against San Bernardino, but they themselves revolted, robbed the church of the vest- ments and ornaments and, after committing other crimes, took to the mountains.
The decree secularizing the missions was already being carried into effect ; the church was fast losing ground and no further attempts to hold San Bernardino were made. For some years the country was left to the al- most undisputed possession of the Indians. Some of them went back to their old savage condition, but some of them seem to have remained at the old mission and continued to cultivate land and raise stock. Daniel Sexton states that when he first came into the country in 1842, the Indians were ir-
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HISTORY OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
rigating and cultivating a considerable area around Old San Bernardino, raising beans, wheat, grapes, etc.
When the San Bernardino Rancho was granted to the Lugos in 1842, one of the brothers seems to have lived in the vicinity of the mission-proh- ably in the building itself. When the Mormons came in Bishop Tenny settled here and occupied the mission building.
Lieutenant Blake, who passed through here in November, 1852, de- scribes the vicinity thus: "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 of old trees (cottonwood row) set thickly together extends in a straight line for three-fourth 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."
LATER HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. MEXICAN RULE.
With the passage of the Secularization Act in 1823, when Mexico came into power in California, began the downfall of the Missions. In 1833, it was estimated that 30,000 Indians were connected with the various Mission es- tablishments. By 1843 the greater part of these Indians had been dispersed. A few remained on lands that they had cultivated under direction of the Padres ; others settled wherever they could find unoccupied land with water. Those who remained in the vicinity of the pueblos rapidly yielded to the vices, and became the slaves of white men.
It had always been the intention of the Spanish government to provide the Indians with lands and divide a share of the riches accumulated by the Missions among them. The Mexican government passed laws, which, if they had been carried out, would have protected the Indian in his rights and given him a chance to become self-supporting. But in the era of greed and utter disregard of law or of justice, which followed the breaking up of the Mission establishments, the Indian received nothing.
Still the Mexican holders of land grants left the Indians on their lands undisturbed ; the Indians were, in fact, the only laborers and carried on nearly all of the work connected with the great stock ranges of the period. As re- tainers of the great Ranchos, the Indians seem to have been treated with fairness and to have been comfortably situated-except that they had no rights to land or property.
OUR SHAME.
The history of the Indians of Southern California, under the United States, is a chapter that every American must read with shame. Our gov-
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ernment found land titles in a state of chaos when it took possession of the territory of California. And in the scramble for possession that followed and the endless litigations between grant owners, squatters, and the United States government, the rights of the Indians-the first owners of the entire state-seem to have been entirely overlooked. From 1849 down to this year of grace, 1904, the Indians have been driven from the lands cultivated and improved by them and their ancestors for generations, because they had no legal title, approved by the government of Mexico, or by the United States. Possession and occupation and bona fide improvements 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 improve- ments "appropriated." It is true that as early as 1852 the government began setting aside "reservations" for the Indians. There are now thirty-three reservations in Southern California, containing some 210,000 acres. But the greater part of the lands thus reserved are absolutely worthless for agri- cultural purposes and a very small area of the entire amount is suitable for grazing. On some of these reservations allotments have been made ; but the greater part of the land is still undivided and these Indians, who are primarily home lovers, and whose strongest feeling is for their own homes, their own places and their own traditions, are most of them practically homeless.
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