Part 4 on the Cupeno Removal by Jeff Smith at the San Diego Reader is out.
Here is a link to the article:
At a certain point, the Cupeño stopped looking back. 10 This land is mine: The Cupeño removal of 1903, part four of four by Jeff Smith
Here is an excerpt:
During the meal, Inspector Jenkins’s head count totaled 97. Manuella Sibimoat was missing. When a Union reporter asked why the old woman would flee, Isabella Owlinguish said that when she and Manuella were young, they were held prisoners at Pala. “It was a revolting story,” wrote the reporter, “like a tale out of the middle ages.”
After she spoke, Isabella “threw off her shawl and shouted ‘see!’ and showed great calloused marks on her thin shoulders. ‘These we had to keep fresh our memories of Pala mission! What we suffered there how many years ago I cannot say, fifty, sixty, maybe more. Bearfoot could not forget. She would not look again upon that place… Does the white man think it strange that we did not want to come?’”
Full Article:
At a certain point, the Cupeño stopped looking back. 10 This land is mine: The Cupeño removal of 1903, part four of four by Jeff Smith
In 1903 the Agua Caleinte Cupeno were removed from their ancestral tribal home, the Village of Kupa also known as Warner's Hot Springs. The Cupeno were forced onto the Pala Indian Reservation. This is known as the Cupeno Trail of Tears. On June 1st, 2011 and February 1st, 2012 162 Warner Ranch Evictee Agua Caliente Cupeno were removed from the PBMI Association by the Pala Enrollment Committee. This is our Second Trail of Tears.