NATIVE AMERICAN INDIGENOUS RESEARCH About Southern California Indians Portal

The Kumeyaay Information Village Aboriginal Research Portal's main focus is on the four Native American Indian tribes presently considered indigenous to the U.S.-Mexico border region:

1. Kumeyaay-Diegueño-Ipai-Tipaay-Kumiai
2. Luiseño
3. Cupeño
4. Cahuilla

The Kumeyaay (and Cocopah) tribes are included in the so-called Hokan Delta-California language group.

"Hokan" references an academically categorized group of about a dozen languages spoken mostly by Yuman Native American Indigenous tribes in Arizona, California, and Baja California, Mexico. These include the Cocopah, Kumeyaay, Maricopa, Quechan, Mohave, Pai Pai, Yavapai, Havasupai, and Hualapai peoples.

Please reference The Kumeyaay Information Village KUMEYAAY LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT for more detailed information.

THE KUMEYAAY have occupied the San Diego US-MEXICO BORDER region of Southern California for some 12,000 years, 120 centuries, 600 generations.

ANCESTRAL HOMELANDS: The area above shaded in gray is the territory tribal historians believe the Kumeyaay controlled at Colonial invasion (1760s).

Follow the Kumeyaay Information Village's historic TIMELINE:

• Pre-contact Late Prehistoric Period (10,000 BC);
• First contact (1542); Colonial Invasion -- Ground Zero Kosa'aay (1769);
• Mission Period (1769-1833);
• The Wars (1776-1840);
• California Gold Rush (1848);
• Tribal Sovereignty first recognized in the US Constitution (1787);
• Mission Indian Federation (turn of the 20th century)
• Indian Gaming (1988);
• Turn of the 21st century (through 2026).

SAN DIEGO has the most federally-recognized American Indian reservations of any county in the United States -- currently 17.

CALIFORNIA has the largest Native American population in the United States (currently around 1.2 million), and the most federally-recognized tribal bands (currently 109).

SOCIAL MAPPING PROJECT pinpoints current locations and Colonial history of the Southern California bands (Kosa'aay village) -- the complete index of 13 Kumeyaay Indian reservations in the United States of America, and four Kumiai bands in Mexico; 17 Indian reservations in the County of San Diego; old Indian maps; plus an interactive casino locator map listing all the tribally-owned Indian casinos and resorts in Southern California.

GROUND ZERO for the California tribes (1760s) -- Historic present-day area of Kosa'aay Cosoy pictured in 2026, now known as Old Town San Diego, presently a popular tourist hotspot....

ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY
OF THE KUMEYAAY

by Michael G. Baksh, PhD

An historical academically-researched paper about Southern California indigenous SUBSISTENCE | HOUSING & TECHNOLOGY | SETTLEMENTS & SEASONAL ROUND | KUMEYAAY AGRICULTURE | SOCIAL ORGANIZATION | TRADE | SPIRITUAL LIFE

NATIVE AMERICAN GENEALOGY RESEARCH: Includes tips about how to get started researching your family tree, tribal bloodlines, official BIA resources, DNA testing, (what are the) Dawes Rolls, tribal enrollment, ancestor calculator. HOW MANY ANCESTORS DO I HAVE?

TRIBAL GAMING: Southern California is the "Indian Gaming Capital" of the world! The history of tribal gaming in the United States, an interactive Southern California casino map locator.

Writing this tribal FAQ was (the webmaster's) great learning experience trying to articulate these areas:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FAQ: American Indian or Native American? | Federally Recognized | Enrollment-Rolls-Genealogy | Tribes | Indian Law | Sovereignty | Mission Indian Federation | Sovereign Immunity Tribal Rule | Tribe or Band? | Tribal Councils | 2010 US Census Populations | Trust Land | Indian Country | Reservations & Abject Poverty | Genocide | Indian Schools | Indian Country | Indian Reservations | Origin-Creation | Treaties | Doctrine of Discovery | US Federal Responsibility | Casinos | $40 Billion Year Industry | Indian Preference (jobs) | Federal Agencies | CALIF State Agencies | Military Veterans | Religion | Eagle Feathers | Powwow | Eminent Domain | Tribal TANF

SAN DIEGO COUNTY NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES:

NOTE 2026: I cannot keep these links current, the pages have either been moved or the websites have been deleted -- so I remove the hyper links as they are broken:

ACCORDING TO DOLAN H. EARGLE JR, whose on-line California indigenous research and personal handwritten field notes on tribal subjects cover north from San Diego County, east to the Colorado River, and south to northwest B.C., Mexico. The Dolan Eargle research material includes info and facts about the past and present day California Native American history and traditional first-nation cultures of Southern California:

NEARBY CALIFORNIA INDIAN RESERVATIONS AND THEIR PEOPLE

SOURCE http://personal.linkline.com:
The Indians of San Diego County, by DOLAN H. EARGLE JR. (Native California Guide. Weaving Past & Present. San Francisco: Tree Company Press, 2000.)

Dolan H. Eargle's linked field research notes on Native California American Indians includes detailed facts and information, including personal first-hand accounts about:

BARONA Indian Reservation

SYCUAN Indian Reservation

CAPITAN GRANDE Indian Reservation

VIEJAS Indian Reservation

JAMUL Indian Village

EWIIAAPAAYP Indian Reservation

CAMPO Indian Reservation

MANZANITA Indian Reservation

INAJA-COSMIT Indian Reservations

SAN PASCUAL Indian Reservation

SANTA YSABEL Indian Reservation

MESA GRANDE Indian Reservation

AJACHEMEM NATION, JUANENO Indians

LUISENO Indians

PALA Indian Reservation

LA JOLLA Indian Reservation

RINCON Indian Reservation

PAUMA-YUIMA Indian Reservation

PECHANGA Indian Reservation

SOBOBA Indian Reservation

SAN LUIS REY BAND OF MISSION INDIANS

PEOPLE OF THE MOJAVE DESERT and COACHELLA VALLEY and COLORADO RIVER

CHEMEHUEVI (Southern Paiute) CHEMEHUEVI Indian Reservation

29 TWENTY-NINE PALMS Indian Reservation

KITANEMUK TRIBE OF TEJON INDIANS

SERRANO and VANYUME

SAN MANUEL Indian Reservation

CAHUILLA Indian Reservation

RAMONA Indian Reservation

SANTA ROSA Indian Reservation

LOS COYOTES Indian Reservation

TORRES-MARTINEZ Indian Reservation,

AUGUSTINE Indian Reservation

CABAZON Indian Reservation

AGUA CALIENTE Indian Reservation

MORONGO Indian Reservation

CUPENO Indians

Native California Guide 2000: Weaving Past and Present by Dolan H. Eargle Jr., Tree Company Press (available on Amazon)
Download PDF research by Dolan H. Eargle, Jr.

CALIFORNIA INDIANS:

Another great California Indian research site for extensive facts, statistical, population and tribal information about the southwestern Native American indigenous Indians of California provides in-depth sections on California Native Languages, Cultures, Histories and Demographics of the California Indian:

NOTE 2025: www.fourdir.org site disappeared -- too bad so sad.

FOUR DIRECTIONS INSTITUTE www.fourdir.org:

SOURCE: "The data provided herein is extracted from the Native American Historical Data Base by Larry T. B. Sunderland. Similar presentations for the entire United States and Canada have been published in The Native American Handbook by Four Directions Press ISBN 0-9712666.1.1 who will begin filling orders November 1, 2001. No representation as to accuracy are made regarding the links that are not a part of this web site."

California Indian history article:

"The ancestors of the Hokan or possibly the Yukians may have been the first inhabitants of California. The Encinitas Culture appeared 5500 BC in the San Diego area. The Campbell Culture appeared around Santa Barbara 3000 BC. The Hotchkiss culture in Central California began about 500 BC. The Takic Uto-Aztecans arrived in their aboriginal southern California territories and the Penutians arrived in the central valley in the century before the time of Christ. The Athapaskans were the last to arrive, sometime around AD 900...".

- Four Directions Institute www.fourdir.com

The FOUR DIRECTIONS INSTITUTE provided a listing of Native American tribes including detailed information and extensive web links to the following California Indian tribes and historical rancherias, including language, family, stock, phylum, macro culture, speakers, aboriginal lands, present locations, populations and links to related sites on most Indian tribes noted:

Achomawi
Atsugewi
Cahto
Cahuilla
Chemehuevi
Chilula
Chimariko
Chumash
Coast Yuki
Costanoans
Cupeno
Diegueno
Eel River Tribes
Esselen
Gabrielino
Halchidhoma
Huchnom
Hupa
Juaneno
Kamia
Karuk
Kawaiisu
Kitanemuk
Kohuana
Koso
Luiseno
Maidu
Mattole
Miwok
Modoc
Mojave
Northern Paiute
Pomo
Salinan
Serrano
Shasta
Southern Paiute
Tolowa
Tubatulabal
Vanyume
Wailaki
Wappo
Washoe
Western Shoshoni
Whilkut
Wintu
Wiyot
Yanan Tribes
Yokuts
Yuki
Yuma
Yurok

John R. Swanton, Indian Tribes of North America; California, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of Ethnology Bulletin145 (Washington Government Printing Office 1952).

The FOUR DIRECTIONS INSTITUTE contained a gold mine of academecially-researched information and links to quality research articles about Native American Indians across North America.

Please visit the Four Directions Institute's new home page www.fourdir.org for more complete information about the California tribes. SITE WAS REMOVED FROM THE INTERNET.

www.accessgenealogy.com offers Indigenous researchers a well organized library of Native American records and researched information online, including a specialized section "Indian Tribes of California":

"The territory of the present State of California was discovered in 1542 by a Portuguese navigator in the Spanish service, J. R. Cabrillo. In 1578 Sir Francis Drake landed at Drake's Bay, opened communication with the natives, and took possession of the country in the name of England, calling it New Albion. It was explored by the Spaniard S. Viscayno in 1602, but no attempt was made at colonization until the Franciscan Fathers established a mission at San Diego in 1769. Within the next 50 years they founded 21 missions and gathered 20,000 Indians about them...".

"Additional California Indian Resources:

California Missions Indians
Benjamin D. Wilson, Report on CA Indians 1852
California Indian Missions
Charles Painter, Report on Indian Territory & CA
Native Burials in Mendocino County, California
Digger Indians of California
Old Mission Stories of California"

- www.accessgenealogy.com
This is one very deep Native link of highly-detailed and organized information on the California Indian tribes of North America.

CALIFORNIA NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES:

Please visit : www.native-languages.org for their complete information.

This extensive on-line American Indian language research site contains detailed tribal facts and linguistical information about the California Indian languages of North America, including:

Alphabetical master list of Native American languages with links to specific information about each language and its native speakers.

Setting the Record Straight
(Infrequently Asked Questions) Ya gotta see this...(another great site disappeared 2025).

Linguistic family groupings showing the relationships between American Indian languages.

Vocabulary word lists in various American Indian languages.

List of Native American peoples featured on our site.

Kids Menu of Native American information presented for younger readers.

List of Native American books and other resources by and about American Indians.

Links to general American Indian language resources available online.

CALIFORNIA INDIAN HERITAGE:

http://boxer.senate.gov/nah/tribe_listing.cfm (link broken)

U.S. SENATOR BARBARA BOXER offers extensive organized government information, including:

DIRECTORY OF CALIFORNIA TRIBES notes which tribes are federally recognized by the U.S. Government, and tribal language group(s) currently represented in each tribe. Detailed contact information directory on each band or tribal office is also provided with names, addresses, telephone numbers and individual cultural and history notes on each tribe.

CALIFORNIA INDIAN TRIBAL GROUPS BY LANGUAGE

HISTORICAL TIMELINE

WEALTH OF CALIFORNIA INDIAN LINKS

Achomawi/Achumawi
Cahto
Cahuilla
Chemehuevi
Chumash
Costanoan/Ohlone
Cupeño
Gabrielino/Tongva
Hupa/Hoopa
Karuk
Kumeyaay
Luiseño
Maidu
Miwok
Mojave
Ohlone
Paiute
Pomo
Quechan
Serrano
Shoshone
Tolowa
Wappo
Washoe
Western Mono
Wintun
Wiyot
Yokuts
Yuki
Yurok

CALIFORNIA INDIAN BOOK LIST:

BOOKS NATIVE AMERICAN CALIFORNIA INDIAN LIBRARY

KUMEYAAY.INFO provides an extensive book list online about the aboriginal Native American Indians indigenous to the Southern California, southwestern Arizona, and northwest Baja California, Mexico indigenous tribes of North America. Includes a treasure chest of literature, fiction and nonfiction, including ethnographic arts and crafts, basket weaving, clay pottery, storytelling, music, dances, tribal genealogy, research, survival methods, primitive weaponry....

Top 10 Native American web sites

Thank you for visiting The Kumeyaay Information Village website and learning about the San Diego California Indigenous peoples, their ageless aboriginal cultures and lifestyles.

Simply put, www.kumeyaay.info hyper-links you to the top California Indian publishers and writers, California Indian museums, southwest Native American photos pictures photographs historical archives, California Indian creative artists crafts, California Native anthropologists, Yuman and Shoshonean linguists, California Indian historians, early California ethnography,ethnographers - the California Native American Indigenous People - for information and answers about their personal insights into the Indigenous languages, California traditional cultures, ethnographic traditional arts crafts.

Here at the Kumeyaay Information Village Website and Resource Links Center, San Diego County, El Cajon, Alpine, California, we have researched the internet for the very best relevant California Native American information available on the web.

And we have designed a modern, dynamic, easy-to-use graphical interface to make surfing the web easy and fun by hyper linking you and your classrooms students to the very best Indian experts on California, the very best Native web sites, and the very best creative resources on the web - all from one site: Kumeyaay.Info (KI).