Land area
Reservation of the Mission Indians (San Pasqual and Pala Valley) in California (area 527)
- 1870
Set aside as a reservation
The 1899 record: “President sets .apart a reserve for these Indians as follows : Ts. 12 and 13 S.. R. 1 E., and 1 W., and T. 9 S., R. 1 and 2”
In the record
Set apart for the San Pasqual and Pala Valley Mission Indians by executive order in January 1870; not a cession. Trouble with settlers led to its abandonment in 1871. The area covers about 51 thousand acres in what is now California.
The 1899 record names Kumeyaay (Diegueno) as the people of this land.
This area was not ceded. The 1899 record shows it as a reservation the nation kept, at least until the record ends in 1894.
Today, Campo Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Campo Indian Reservation, California, Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, California, Inaja Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Inaja and Cosmit Reservation, California, Jamul Indian Village of California, La Posta Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the La Posta Indian Reservation, California and 4 more carry the history of the people named here.
Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources.
Shapes come from C. C. Royce’s 1899 maps as georeferenced by the US Forest Service. They are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land. Royce recorded land the United States treated as ceded; the shape does not show a nation’s territory.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
- Campo Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Campo Indian Reservation, California
- Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians
- Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, California
- Inaja Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Inaja and Cosmit Reservation, California
- Jamul Indian Village of California
- La Posta Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the La Posta Indian Reservation, California
- Manzanita Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Manzanita Reservation, California
- Mesa Grande Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Mesa Grande Reservation, California
Working with these nations
- Kumeyaay Diegueno Land Conservancy (KDLC) Nation government Acquiring and preserving sacred and culturally sensitive lands in Kumeyaay aboriginal territory Give on their site Website
Land return and Native-led work nearby
- InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council Nation government Land conservation and return of coastal Sinkyone lands to tribal stewardship (nearly 5,000 acres protected) Give on their site Website
- Koy'o Land Conservancy (Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe) Nation government Restoring traditional homelands to tribal members Website
- Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria Nation government 450 acres (2026), first ancestral land return in the Big Chico Creek watershed
- Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation Nation government About 900 acres returned Dec 2025
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
Links marked “suggested” were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Nations named for this land 3
- Kumeyaay (Diegueno)as named in the 1899 recordsuggested
- Luisenomatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- San Pasqual Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of Californiamatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
Located in 1
Sources
The record’s fields
- Area number in the 1899 record
- 527
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1870-01-31
- Kind of instrument
- Executive order
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Mission Indians (San Pasqual and Pala Valley)
- States
- CA
- Counties
- San Diego
- Map sheets in the 1899 record
- California 2
- Geometry
- Approximate shape from Royce’s 1899 maps
Research notes
geometry_role is 'cession' for every USFS feature: no field in the source distinguishes cessions from reservations.
- Kind
- Land area
- Confidence
- Medium