Research Catalog

We are not savages : Native Americans in Southern California and the Pala Reservation, 1840-1920

Title: We are not savages : Native Americans in Southern California and the Pala Reservation, 1840-1920 / Joel R. Hyer.
Author: Hyer, Joel R.
Publication: East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, ©2001.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Not available - Please for assistance.	Text	Use in library	E78.C15 H94 2001	Off-site

Details

Description

v, 268 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

"On a cool, autumn day in October 1902, a group of Indians, known as Cupenos, noticed a white man approaching their village of Agua Caliente, located in a beautiful mountain valley in southern California. The unexpected guest was a farmer, a federal employee assigned to teach Native Americans how to raise crops. The stranger had come to assist the Cupenos and other local Indians in preparation to leave their homelands and remove to the Pala Reservation, more than fifty miles away. On the following day, Cupenos, along with their Luiseno and Kumeyaay neighbors, gathered together to discuss the stranger's demands. One person stood up and declared with firm resolve, "We do not need a farmer to help us, we are not savages." Others agreed. The assembly of Indians then invited the white man to depart." "In "We Are Not Savages," Joel R. Hyer traces the history of the Cupenos, Luisenos, and Kumeyaays, recounting how the federal government ultimately forced more than one hundred of their numbers onto the Pala Reservation. He also considers the diverse and complex methods the U.S. government used to Americanize these Indians. Yet, this is much more than a study in federal Indian policy. Hyer places local Indians in the center of his work. Basing his research on reservation records, government documents, interviews, and other sources, he demonstrates the strategies the Cupenos used to respond to pressures and problems created by outsiders. Hyer's sympathetic account offers new insight into such issues as Indian health and education, acculturation, and cultural persistence. "We Are Not Savages" is a tale of survival, resistance, and accommodation."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Native American series

Uniform Title

Native American series.

Alternative Title

Native Americans in Southern California and the Pala Reservation, 1840-1920

Subject

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-262) and index.

Contents

The Cupeños, Luiseños, and Kumeyaays: oral traditions and culture -- Invasion from the south -- Invasion from the east -- Manipulative laws and the anatomy of resistance: the 1850s -- "To give them permanent homes": the birth of the Pala Reservation, 1860-1880 -- A cultural "cold war" in southern California: 1880-1901 -- A California trail of tears: removal of native Americans from Warner's Ranch to Pala -- A new life on the Pala Reservation -- Education and the Pala Indian School: 1903-1920 -- Americanizing forces and the continuation of Cupeño culture: 1903-1920.

ISBN

0870135759
9780870135750

LCCN

2001002864

OCLC

ocm48862286
48862286
SCSB-1244011

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library