Native American Tribal Information
Native American Information
Cahuilla Band of Mission Indians of the Cahuilla Reservation California
Cahuilla Band of Mission Indians of the Cahuilla Reservation California
| Cahuilla |
|---|
| Total population |
1,600 mission indians |
| Regions with significant populations |
| United States (California) |
| Languages |
| English, Spanish, Cahuilla (near extinct) |
| Religion |
| Christianity (mostly Catholic, some Protestant) |
| Related ethnic groups |
| In various degrees with other Southern California Indians |
The Cahuilla are a tribe of Native Americans that have inhabited the U.S. state of California for more than 2,000 years, originally covering an area of about 2,400 square miles (6,200 km²). The traditional Cahuilla territory was near the geographic center of Southern California. It was bounded to the north by the San Bernardino Mountains, to the south by Borrego Springs and the Chocolate Mountains, to the east by the Colorado Desert, and to the west by the San Jacinto Plain and the eastern slopes of the Palomar Mountains.
Oral legends suggest that when the Cahuilla first moved into the Coachella Valley, a large body of water now called Lake Cahuilla was in existence. Fed by the Colorado River, it dried up sometime before 1700, following one of the repeated shifts in the river's changed course. In 1905 a break in a levee created the much smaller Salton Sea in the same location.
The Cahuilla have been historically divided into "Mountain," "Desert," and "Pass" groups by anthropologists. Today there are nine Southern California reservations that are acknowledged homes to bands of Cahuilla people located in Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties: Agua Caliente, Augustine (the smallest federally recognized Native American tribe of 6 persons in the 2000s), Cabazon, Cahuilla, Los Coyotes, Morongo, Ramona, Santa Rosa, and Torres-Martinez.
Their language is of the Uto-Aztecan family. A 1990 census revealed 35 speakers in an ethnic population of 800. It is nearly extinct, since most speakers are middle-aged or older.
Even more about Cahuilla Band of Mission Indians of the Cahuilla Reservation California
Cahuilla Band of Mission Indians of the Cahuilla Reservation California
Official website of this California band, with tribal council information, history, and a legend.
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians
Welcome to the home of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians ... Tribe as the management authority over its reservation ... Casino • Resort • Spa in Rancho Mirage, California.
