Kumeyaay Specific Resources

Books

Delfina Cuero: Her Autobiography

The memories and thoughts of a Kumeyaay elder remembering the old ways and describing the changes in terms described as “speaking volumes in simple sentences.” One account says that this information can change your entire perspective as to who belongs on which side of the border.

Kumeyaay: A History Textbook Vol 1: Precontact to 1893

This volume provides a concise history of the Kumeyaay people. The book takes the reader from the time prior to contact with Europeans, through the period of Spanish presidios, colonization, and missionization, into the period of Mexican colonization and the vast rancheros, finally culminating with the American period from 1848 to 1873. The Kumeyaay are Native American people whose traditional homelands extended from Escondido to the Laguna Mountains (San Diego County, CA) in the U.S., to Ensenada, and Tecate (Baja California) in Mexico.

Kumeyaay Cosmology

Kumeyaay cosmology was traditionally intertwined with ceremonies, harvest & hunts, burning schedules and the acquisition of spiritual power. Personal conduct was subject to cosmological constraints and rewards. Cosmology was so important that Spanish priests and subsequent U.S. government agents worked hard to repress and expunge the beliefs from Kumeyaay society. This well illustrated monograph provides a partial glimpse of the Kumeyaay cosmology with worldview, observatories, constellations and stories. It includes modern interpretations of the calendar. Maay uuyow is translated as sky knowledge in Kumeyaay.

Kumeyaay Ethnobotany: Shared Heritage of the Californias

For thousands of years, the Kumeyaay people of northern Baja California, Mexico and Southern California made their homes in the diverse landscapes of the region, interacting with native plants and continuously refining their botanical knowledge. Today, many Kumeyaay living in the rural ranches of Baja California carry on the traditional knowledge and skills for transforming native plants into food, medicine, arts, tools, regalia, construction materials, and ceremonial items. Kumeyaay Ethnobotany explores the interdependence between Native peoples and native plants of the Californias through in-depth descriptions of 47 native plants and their uses, narratives, and hundreds of photographs.

Pushed into the Rocks: Southern California Indian Land Tenure

Florence Connolly Shipek offers the results of her thirty years of research and testimony as an expert witness for the Kumeyaay, Luiseño, Cupeño and Cahuilla struggling to regain and maintain control of their land. She traces the history of Southern California Indian land tenure from pre-European period to 1986. Her major concerns are to establish what the "tribal custom" is and to offer a practical guide to tribes and consultants involved in land-use planning or litigation.

Strangers in a Stolen Land: Indians of San Diego County from Prehistory to the New Deal

The story of the native peoples of San Diego County from 1850 through the 1930s - including the Kumeyaay (Ipai/Tipai), Luiseno, Cupeno, and Cahuilla - from their prehistoric origins through the Spanish, Mexican, and American periods. Contains previously unpublished maps and illustrations.