Story tellers
"In the beginning there was no earth or land. There was nothing except salt water. This covered everything like a big sea. Two brothers lived under this water. The oldest one was Teaipakomat.
When the elder brother saw that there was nothing, he made first of all little red ants. They filled the water up thick with their bodies and so made land. Then Teaipakomat caused certain black birds with flat bills to come into being. There was no sun or light when he made these birds. So they were lost and could not find their roost. So Teaipakomat took three kinds of clay, red, yellow, and black, and made a round, flat object. This he took in his hand and threw up against the sky. It stuck there. It began to give a dim light. We call it the moon now.
The light was so poor that they could not see very far. So Teaipakomat was not satisfied, for he had it in mind to make people. He took some more clay and made another round, flat object and tossed that up against the other side of the sky. It also stuck there. It made everything light. It is the Sun. Then he took a light-colored piece of clay, and split it up part way. He made a man of it. That is the way he made man. Then he took a rib from the man and made a woman, the first Woman. The children of this man and this woman were people, Ipai.
They lived in the east at a great mountain called Wikami. If you go there now you will hear all kinds of singing in all languages. If you put your ear to the ground you will hear the sound of dancing. This is caused by the spirits of all the dead people, who go back there when they die and dance just as they do here. That is the place where everything was created first."
"It began to give a dim light. We call it the moon now." -Kumeyaay creation story
Native turtle shell rattle, excavated from the former village of Meti, now Spring Valley. The native people of San Diego County, like other humans who roamed about the Earth, were story tellers. Language allowed early humans to pass on information, such as old tales, down from generation to generation. These tales turned to myths, and the myths turned to legend. They believed their actions determined their fate, and would tell great stories over a number of days with lessons in them, sometimes about an afterlife. Some of their stories have little seeds of Christian mythology like the creation story told above, for instance. In this one, the man sacrifices a rib to make a woman out of nowhere. It also tells of the creation of the sun and moon, but nothing about the land other than it was made up from the bodies of lots of little red ants. One of these stories are actually similar to the biblical flood story. It’s likely the biblical references were added later on by the Spanish in an attempt to convert the natives or the natives could have combined stories. Remembering these legends became important to the future culture of the people who inhabited San Diego, for the lessons derived from these legends would become the basis of their culture and of how they behaved. These people in particular put their stories to the tune of music -- rather than telling stories, they sang them to each other.
There is, unfortunately, very little information on the stories they used to pass down. A lot of their past and culture have disappeared with time, with real interest in preserving it only occurring within the last fifty years. Only recently have the natives, themselves, been able to preserve and archive the important aspects of their past. For the last 200 years, much of what was known of them was passed down through the lens of those who intended to change, or to eradicate them.
That may sound harsh, but it's true that for many generations, the San Diego natives were seen as less than human. For instance, if you read William E. Smythe's otherwise wonderful 1914 History of San Diego, the third chapter of the first part is titled "The taming of the Indian". Shaving just a bit off the top, this is how Mr. Smythe described the native San Diegans back then:
"The Indians who swarmed about the bay of San Diego were, apparently, as poor material as ever came to the social mill. All the early observers, except the missionaries, spoke of them with contempt."
Wow! Notice how he used the word “swarmed” as if they were annoying little flies. Remember, the natives had inhabited the land for many thousands of years before surviving through three different governments that were imposed on them by the time Smythe wrote this. They had even survived an attempted genocide by the United States government by then. He continues:
"No one ever called the San Diego Indian 'the noble red man', for he was neither noble nor red, but a covetous, thievish, and sneaking creature, of a brownish complexion, something like the soil. There were no orators among them and, it is to be feared, very few brave men, for when they fought they acted like a pack of cowards."
Double wow! It obviously wasn't seen as racist to speak this way of the natives back in the early 1900s, but today I think it's safe to flat out say that that was pretty racist and disgusting. This isn't relevant to our history, but there is an elementary school in San Ysidro named after this man. Why the hell would anyone allow that? Because history is usually written by the victors and sometimes, it results in biased or ignorant assessments of the defeated. Mr. Smythe therefore left out a lot of potentially useful historical information about them that would have been invaluable to those who would later study them, like me. His racism has deprived me of relevant information regarding the natives and even though the rest of his history is fine, I kind of resent the lack of relevant information in that third chapter.
It was hard to find the information I wanted to find about how the natives lived before the Spanish took over. The only real place to find this kind of detailed information was on a reservation, or through the records of an expedition, and even that information is limited. I would like to thank the Viejas and Barona bands of Kumeyaay Indians for their generosity in sharing some of their history and stories with me, as well as their resource library. I also was able to seep lots of information from a KPBS documentary by the Sycuan band.
First half of a wall mural depicting how San Diego may have looked during the Native Era. Notice Point Loma and Mount Soledad in the background. Can Be found at the McCoy House at the former village of Cosoy, now Old Town and Presidio Park. Scene depicts an angle of San Diego from near the border, but the intention appears to be where Downtown San Diego is today. The males usually went naked.
The way they lived
Native homes were mainly grass huts. This one can be found at the former Village of Nipaguay, now the site of the San Diego Mission. Once these early humans settled onto the land, about 12,000 years ago, they began to diversify throughout the area. Figuring out the seasonal patterns, they would migrate out on the coast, during the hotter times of the year and would move back inland, over the peninsular mountains, during the cooler times, so they didn’t really have a central living location. They set up temporary villages of grass huts and fire pits across the open territory. They learned to build canoes out of certain plants and would voyage out into the waters, toward one of a number of islands visible islands, or around the bay, fishing or searching for oysters and mollusks , which used to be abundant in this region.
The agave and yucca plants, were some of the more important plants that native people used to live on. When the season was right, they could dry, using a rock, they could harvest the plant and shave yucca or agave plants down to strips of fiber. They would then tie them into ropes, fishing nets and string to make bowls. During the springtime, agave plants could harvested using oak sticks with wedged tips hardened in fire and heated in pits for about a day to be barbecued , making a treat that tasted sweet. Sticks made of oak would be used to dig out whole agave plants. A pit would be dug into the ground and lined with river stones, which would then be heated. Once heated, about fifteen to twenty agave plants, their leave cut off, were placed in the pit with the leaves and buried for a day where they would cook. Each agave pit represented a family.
An illustration of Native Americans in San Diego. - cdlib.org Using spears and bows with stone arrow heads, they would hunt and gather their food. Over time, they found smarter and more sophisticated ways of hunting. One method of hunting was to burn a small area of brush and wait to catch and kill the animals that ran out of the burning brush and of course, this would fill the skies with smoke and in warmer seasons, would prevent larger brush fires. They usually caught small animals, but were not afraid to hunt larger ones. They used fire for ceremonies, for heat and to cook meat from what they killed. They would use the skin of killed animals as blankets, or as clothing, though the males usually went around naked if it wasn’t too cold. The women usually wore something. Besides agave and yucca plants, the natives were also very fond of oak trees. They liked it so much that they began to purposely plant oak trees down one particular valley. Not only did Oak have sturdy wood for things like bows, but its acorns could be picked during the fall.
Old Mortar bowls in the former village of Nipaguay.
Worn out mortar bowl and manos excavated from the former village of Meti.
Mortar bowls dug into large rocks where San Pasqual Valley is today.
Pottery, mortar bowl and manos on display at the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma.
They would usually pick more food than was needed for the day. They stored the excess grains in large baskets made of yucca fibers, raised from the ground to protect them from being eaten by bugs and other critters. To give thanks for the abundance of food, they often held festivals of endless storytelling, feasts, dancing, and sometimes even magic tricks. Some of these festivals lasted for many days. Every night, they could look up into the sky and from the mountains to the coast; they could clearly see a thick milky white band of stars hanging above their heads in majestic wonder. They called this band of stars, “Hatotkeur”. The elders would draw the patterns of the sky into the dirt and use the picture to explain to children and young adults where they fit in the universe and what was expected of them from their village.
Second half of a wall mural depicting how San Diego may have looked during the Native Era. Can Be found at the McCoy House at the former village of Cosoy.
They used hand held rocks called “manos” to dig holes into larger rocks called "mortars", originally to catch rainwater until about 7000BCE, when people north of the Drying Out Place learned that they can also grind and mix food with the same rocks. They would collect sea shells of various sizes, and use large ones for bowls and smaller ones as spoons. One type of food they learned to make was named “sha-wee”. To make this, the women would go and collect acorns from the oak trees that grew around the area during the fall. If they managed to pick a lot of acorns that day, the men would help with heavy lifting, but otherwise, the women did much of the gathering. Using a manos and mortar, they would grind the acorns into a fine dust, and after washing it in warm or sometimes boiling water, they would let it dry on leaves, and either eat it like so, or make a variety of other foods with it, including bread.
Sources:
Smythe's chapter on the Natives (Warning: It's racist):
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/books/smythe/1-3.htm
Kumeyaay Creation Story in full:
http://www.kumeyaay.com/kumeyaay-history.html?id=80:kumeyaay-creation-story&catid=1
Kumeyaay History:
http://www.kumeyaay.info/history/
http://viejasbandofkumeyaay.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ViejasHistoryBooklet.pdf
http://www.kumeyaay.com/kumeyaay-history/1-timeline.html
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365254548/
You can also visit:
Barona Cultural Center and Museum in the Barona Reservation
San Diego Museum of Man in Balboa Park
McCoy House in Old Town
Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma
San Diego Mission in Mission Valley
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/books/smythe/1-3.htm
Kumeyaay Creation Story in full:
http://www.kumeyaay.com/kumeyaay-history.html?id=80:kumeyaay-creation-story&catid=1
Kumeyaay History:
http://www.kumeyaay.info/history/
http://viejasbandofkumeyaay.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ViejasHistoryBooklet.pdf
http://www.kumeyaay.com/kumeyaay-history/1-timeline.html
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365254548/
You can also visit:
Barona Cultural Center and Museum in the Barona Reservation
San Diego Museum of Man in Balboa Park
McCoy House in Old Town
Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma
San Diego Mission in Mission Valley
Note: Because there is very little information on the Natives pre-1542, it is HIGHLY recommended that you visit the resource library at the Barona Cultural Center and Museum for in-depth information. It's free and I could not have completed this chapter without going there.
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