Cahuilla Indians of California

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This account of the Cahuilla, one of the largest surviving tribes in southern California, represents the work of Lucile Hooper as University of California research fellow in anthropology in 1918.

The Cahuilla occupy three contiguous but quite different habitats. The Mountain division inhabits Coahuilla reservation and certain near-by tracts, some four thousand feet above the ocean. To the north, in San Gorgonio Pass, are the Pass Cahuilla, at about half that elevation. These are now mostly on Morongo reservation. The Desert Cahuilla are inland from the two preceding groups, about Indio and Coachella in Torres, Martinez, and a number of other small reservations northwest of the Salton Sea. The territory of these people is almost wholly without rainfall, and lies at about sea level, in part below it. Their habitat is thus unusually specialized. Owing to late settlement of the district by Americans, this group of the Cahuilla has also best preserved its ancient customs. Miss Hooper s investigations relate chiefly to the Desert Cahuilla.

There is a considerable body of published literature on the Cahuilla and other Indian tribes of southern California, but no intensive monograph upon any one tribe nor a satisfactory comprehensive treatment of the region. The literature being so scattered, its citation would have resulted in innumerable detailed cross-references in foot notes, which the ethnological specialist in this field would scarcely need, and which would not be of much aid to the novice. The list of the more important works given at the end of this paper will probably meet the requirements of most readers.

The first comparative problem about the Desert Cahuilla has hitherto been this. They speak the same language as the Mountain and Pass divisions, and are rather closely connected in speech with the other Shoshonean groups on the west the Luiseño, Cupeño, Juaneño, Gabrielino, and Serrano. To the east and northeast is the home of the alien Yuman tribes of the lower Colorado River the Coeopa, Yuma, Mohave and others, all agricultural; and of the Chemehuevi or Southern Paiute, nomads of the Great Basin. Do the cultural connections of the Cahuilla run chiefly westward like their speech affiliations, or are they as close with the Yumans and Chemehuevi? Miss Hooper s data, taken in their entirety, settle this question.

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Notes About the Book:

Source: The Cahuilla Indians. By Lucile Hooper, 1920, University Of California Press, Berkeley, California

Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual output.