Indian History in the Pala Valley can get complicated. There were Pala Luiseno living in the Pala area prior to The Agua Caliente Cupeno Removal of 1903.
After the Agua Caliente Cupeno Removal in May of 1903 a separate lawsuit against the San Felipe Indians worked its way through the courts. In October of 1903 the San Felipe Indians were also moved to Pala.
As the allotment process began some other Indians not associated with either the Pala Luiseno, Warner Ranch Evictee Agua Caliente Cupeno, or the San Felipe Diegueno began to show up and got allotments..
There has always been tension between these groups particularly when it came to land use, allotments, and later on, membership.
The official name of Pala on the Federally Recognized list of Indian Tribes was Pala Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pala Reservation. That name got changed illegally to Pala Band of Mission Indians (PBMI).
So what is the PBMI? Luiseno? Cahuilla? San Felipe? Yaqui? Cupeno?
What are the People at Pala now? Is it just one group? Have all the other tribes been terminated?
