User:Asiaticus/sandbox/History of San Bernardino County, California

Earliest inhabitants

The earliest known inhabitants of San Bernardino County were a people that lived along the Mojave River, and buried their dead sitting upright in pit graves facing the river.

The peoples on the land when the Spanish explorers first came among them were:

Chemehuevi The Yuman name for this tribe and for the Paiute; significance unknown. Also called:

• Ah’alakåt, Pima name, meaning “small bows.”
• Mat-hat-e-vátch, Yuma name, meaning “northerners.”
• Tä’n-ta’wats, own name, meaning “southern men.”

Connections. The Chemehuevi were a part of the true Paiute and were associated with them and the Ute in one linguistic subdivision of the Shoshonean division of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic stock.

Location. Anciently in the eastern half of the Mohave Desert. At a later date the Chemehuevi settled on Cottonwood Island, in Chemehuevi Valley, and at other points on the west bank of the Colorado River.

Subdivisions (So far as known):

• Hokwaits, in Ivanpah Valley.
• Kauyaichits, location unknown.
• Mokwats, at the Kingston Mountains.
• Moviats, on Cottonwood Island.
• Shivawach or Shivawats, in the Chemehuevi Valley, perhaps only the name of a locality.
• Tumpisagavatsits or Timpashauwagotsits, in the Providence Mountains.
• Yagats, at Amargosa.

Population. Kroeber (1925) estimates between 500 and 800 Chemehuevi in ancient times. In 1910, 355 were returned of whom 260 were in California.

Halchidhoma. On the middle Colorado, driven out of the Colorado River valley in the early 19th century, by the Quechan and Mohave.

Halchidhoma Trail,

Cocomaricopa Trail,

Mohave people

Mohave Trail,

Serrano Indians (Spanish for "people of the mountains") spent their winters in the valleys surrounding the San Bernardino Mountains, and their summers in the cooler mountains. They were known as the "Yuhaviatam" or People of the Pines. They lived in the vallies from approximately 1000 B.C. They lived in small brush covered structures. At the time the Spanish first visited the valley, approximately 1500 Serranos inhabited the area. They lived in villages of ten to thirty structures that the Spanish named rancherías.

Serrano Connections. The Serrano belonged to the Shoshonean Division of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic stock.

Serrano Location. In the San Bernardino Range; a tract of unknown extent northward; the San Gabriel Mountains or Sierra Madre west to Mount San Antonio; and probably a tract of fertile lowland south of the Sierra Madre, from about Cucamonga east to above Mentone and as far as San Gorgonio Pass.

Serrano Villages

The following place names have been recorded and many of these probably were names of villages:

• Acha-va-t, east of Bear Lake.
• Aka-va-t, west of Banning.
• Arhangk, near Colton.
• Atan-pa-t, northeast of Acha-va-t.
• Hikavanu-t, west of Colton.
• Hisaku-pa, on the outlet of Bear Lake.
• Hunga-va-t, in San Timoteo Canyon.
• Kayah-pia-t, at Bear Lake.
• Kotaina-t, on Santa Ana River east of San Bernardino.
• Malki, northeast of Banning.
• Maronga, on Morongo Creek.
• Musku-pia-bit, northwest of San Bernardino.
• Nilengli, near San Bernardino Peak.
• Nanamu-vya-t, at the head of Mohave River.
• Padjiidjii-t, at the head of Mohave River.
• Puwipuwi, near San Gorgonio Mountain.
• Toloka-bi, in San Timoteo Canyon.
• Wacha-vak, where San Timoteo Canyon comes out on Santa Ana River.
• Wahinu-t, in Cajon Canyon.
• Yamiwu, perhaps Cahuilla, north of San Jacinto Peak.

Serrano Population. Kroeber gives 1,500 Serrano as an ample allowance in aboriginal times; the census of 1910 returned 118. (See Alliklik.)

Tongva

Vanyume. Name applied by the Mohave; significance unknown, though it is probably related to the term Panamint given to the Koso. Connections. The Vanyume belonged to the Shoshonean Division of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic stock, their closest connections being probably with the Kitanemuk, and secondly with the Serrano.

Location. On Mohave River.

Population. The Vanyume together with the Alliklik, Serrano and Kitanemuk, numbered 3,500 in 1770 and 150 in 1910. The census of 1930 returned 361 southern California Shoshoneans. They are now extinct as a tribe.?

Spanish Era

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino Father Francisco Garcés

Captain Juan Bautista de Anza

Spanish Missionaries from Mission San Gabriel Arcángel established a church at the village of Politania in 1810. Father Francisco Dumetz named the church San Bernardino on May 20, 1810, after the feast day of St. Bernardino of Siena. The Franciscans also gave the name San Bernardino to the snowcapped peak in Southern California, in honor of the saint and it is from him that the county derives its name. In 1819, they established the San Bernardino de Sena Estancia, a mission farm in what is now Redlands.

Mexican Era

Following Mexican independence from Spain in 1821, interest in reopening land communications with Alta California was revived with the arrival of a Dominican missionary, Father Félix Caballero, in Tucson in 1823. He and three companions walked from Misión Santa Catarina Virgen y Mártir in Baja California, crossing the Colorado River among the Cocopah. A military expedition under Brevet Captain José Romero, commander of the Tucson presidio, was organized to return the priest to his mission and pioneer a route to the Californias. The expedition record of Captain Romero, says they traveled up to the Gila River and passed through the Pima Villages and then through the Maricopa villages on their way downstream to the Colorado River. Arriving in June at the height of the rivers flood crossing among the freindly Yuma was not possible at the time. Romero was forced to move down river to the delta to find a place to make a crossing the Colorado. Aided by apparently friendly tribesmen to build rafts, Romero began to cross with his men but with his horses and baggage on rafts crewed by the natives. When the Mexicans were in mid stream fighting the strong current pulling the down river, the tribesmen absconded with their horses, baggage and most of their clothing, leaving them with little but their weapons and accoutrements to continue with. Romero with the aide of friendly tribesmen on the other shore obtained enough food and water along the way to made his way to a mission in northern Baja California.

Captain José Romero reopened Anza’s historic overland route to California. A regular mail service was implemented. Like Juan Bautista de Anza before him, Romero also received his lieutenant-colonelcy upon reaching California. His exploits, like Anza’s, enjoyed wide publicity in Sonora, California, and as faraway as Mexico City.

• The First Letter From Palm Springs The José Romero Story. JUSTIN G. TURNER, Southern California Quarterly , Vol. 56, No. 2 (SUMMER 1974), pp.123-134
• Crossing Arizona, edited by Leland J. Hanchett, The Romero Expedition
• Travelers on the California Leg of the Southern Route 1849 - 1852

Soon after achieving independence from Spain, the Mexican government sought to reopen the route. As early as 1822, Indians were carrying messages between the Missions San Gabriel in Alta California and San Xavier del Bac. In 1823, Captain Jose Romero led an expedition west from Tucson, but difficulties with the Quechan beginning at the Yuma Crossing and continuing into the desert forced the Mexicans to turn south into Baja California. Romero's attempt to return to Tucson from San Gabriel in late 1823 also failed when the party ran short of water and forage. Disagreements between Romero and government officials delayed a second try until 1825. This time he was escorted across the Colorado Desert by Lieutenant of Engineers Romulado Pacheco. Lt. Pacheco then built and garrisoned a small adobe and stone fort at Laguna Chapala in the heart of the desert about 6 miles west of the present city of Imperial[on the E bank of the New River]. An attack by the Kumeyaay in April 1826, however, forced the abandonment of the post and official closure of the Colorado Desert route once again. (6) Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California, Vol. II, 1801-1824 (San Francisco: The History Company, 1886), pp. 507-509; Keld J. Reynolds, "Principal Actions of the California Junta de Fomento, 1825-1827," California Historical Quarterly 25 (December 1946): 364n; California Historical Landmarks (Sacramento: California Department of Parks and Recreation, 1982), p. 32; and "A History of the Imperial Valley -- Part I," at //www.Imperial.cc.ca.us/Pioneers/history/htm.

• Kieran McCarty, editor, A Frontier Documentary: Sonora and Tucson, 1821–1848, University of Arizona Press, 2016, pp.3-4, New Information about Captain Jose Romero, Opata Company at Bacoachi, December 31, 1817 Letter from Lt. Romero, Born in Oposura Valley of Sonora,of Spanish decent, 47 years old. [b.1770]. Lt. in the Spanish Army commanding Opata Company. Began his service at as a cadet at Horcasitas Presidio near where he was born. At the date of letter he had served 27 years and ten months, [1789- ]. June 6, 1800 Promoted ensign at Tucson Presidio. Jun2 5, 1809, promoted Lieutenant, and commander of Presidio Santa Gertrudis de Altar. "During my three years at Altar I was able to make peace with the numerous Yuma nation of the Colorado River, which divides this province of Sonora from that of California, and secured the friendship of their leaders."

July 1, 1812 was given command of the Opata Indian Company at Bacoachi. Spent a year and seven months repelling insurgents from the south of Sonora. War record to that point was, that he had served in 18 campaigns and 12 skirmishes, killing 67 enemhy, and wounded seriously. [In 1823 he is a 53 year old captain.]

• Steve Lech, Pioneers of Riverside County: The Spanish, Mexican, and Early American Periods, Arcadia Publishing, Nov 20, 2012 Mexican Era, Mission Period and Land Grants, Sonora Road

Alta California long isolated from Mexico by land became connected again by the Sonora Road in 1828, and in 1829, Antonio Armijo pioneered what is known as the Old Spanish Trail trading woolen goods from Nuevo México for horses and mules in California.

After 1833, Mexican citizens were granted land grants from confiscated Mission lands to establish ranchos in the area of the county. Rancho Jurupa in 1838, Rancho Cucamonga and El Rincon in 1839, Rancho Santa Ana del Chino in 1841, Rancho San Bernardino in 1842 and Rancho Muscupiabe in 1844.

The Old Spanish Trail was also followed by immigrants from New Mexico and the United States to California. The towns of San Salvador and Aqua Mansa were established by these immigrants. Agua Mansa was the first town in what became San Bernardino County, settled by immigrants from New Mexico on land donated from the Rancho Jurupa in 1841. San Salvador was established to the southeast across the Santa Ana River from Agua Mansa.

The American Era

When the state of California was organized in 1850 most of the territory that became San Bernardino County had been in San Diego County from 1850 to 1851. Then it was reassigned to Los Angeles County from 1851 to 1853.

Mormon Colony of San Bernardino

Following the purchase of Rancho San Bernardino, and the establishment of the town of San Bernardino in 1851 by Mormon colonists, San Bernardino County was formed in 1853 from the eastern part of Los Angeles County.

From the Mormon Exodus to 1900

Some of the southern parts of the county's territory were given up to form Riverside County in 1893.