Cupeno is Spanish for "a person who comes from Kupa."
Location The Cupeno traditionally lived in a mountainous area at the headwaters of the San Luis Rey River and the San Jose de Valle Valley. Today most Cupenos live on Pala Reservation in San Diego County.
Population Fewer than 750 Cupenos lived in their region in the mid-eighteenth century. In 1990, 563 Indians lived on the Pala Reservation, some of whom were Cupeno.
Language Cupeno belongs to the Cupan subgroup of the Takic family of Uto-Aztecan languages.
Historical Information
History Specific Cupeno customs and identity were derived from neighboring Cahuilla, Luiseno, Ipai, and other groups in a process that began at least 800 years ago. Non-natives entered the area in 1795. In the early nineteenth century, the Spanish took over Cupeno lands, building a chapel, a health spa, and a meeting place and grazing their cattle. During this period, Indians worked as virtual serfs for Spanish masters.
Juan Antonio Garra, a clan leader, attempted but failed around 1850 to organize a general revolt of all southern California Indians meant to drive out or kill all non-natives. He was captured by Cahuilla Indians and later shot by a paramilitary court. His village, Kupa, was also burned. Between 1875 and 1877, the U.S. government created thirteen separate reservations for former "Mission Indians." Around the turn of the century, despite widespread local and even national protest, the California Supreme Court ordered all 250 or so Cupenos to move from their homes at Warner’s Hot Springs to the Pala Reservation (Luiseno), awarding title to the former land to a man who was once governor of California. An influential group of non-natives pressured the government in 1903 to purchase a 3,438-acre ranch for the Cupeno at Pala Valley, now known as New Pala. By 1973 fewer than 150 people claimed Cupeno descent.
Religion Death ceremonies were perhaps the Cupenos’ most important. Corpses were burned almost immediately, possessions were burned several weeks or months later, and images of the dead were burned every year or two as part of an eight-day festival. Also, an annual eagle-killing ritual was held in honor of the dead.
Government Kupa and Wilakalpa were the two permanent villages prior to 1902. Each was politically independent. Decisions concerning the entire village were taken by consensus of the clan leaders.
Customs Cupenos recognized two divisions, Coyote and Wildcat, and within them a number of patrilineal clans. Each clan owned productive food-gathering sites. Each had a leader, usually hereditary in the male line, as well as an assistant leader.
Sometimes leaders were also shamans. Shamans were powerful, feared, and respected. They cured, witched, and divined through supernatural powers acquired in trances and dreams. Parents arranged most marriages, with the boy’s parents taking the lead in mate selection, gift-giving, and feasting. Girls around age 10 underwent a puberty ceremony. The male initiation ceremony occurred between 10 and 18 years of age and probably involved the use of toloache.
Around the turn of the century, despite widespread local and even national protest, the California Supreme Court ordered all roughly 250 Cupenos to move from their homes at Warner’s Hot Springs to the Pala Reservation (Luiseno). Here, the small Cupeno tribe of southern California is shown en route to the Pala Reservation in 1903.
Dwellings Family houses were conical in shape, built partly underground, and covered with reeds, brush, or bark. Earth sweat houses were also semisubterranean. People used ramadas for ceremonies and domestic chores. Other structures included acorn granaries, mens’ sweat houses, and ceremonial lodges.
Diet Acorns, small seeds, berries, cactus fruit, deer, quail, rabbits, and other small mammals constituted the basic Cupeno diet.
Key Technology The Cupeno used a variety of natural materials for their technological needs, including willow or mesquite wood (bows and arrows), grasses (cooking, storage, and carrying baskets), stone (mortars, pestles, manos and metates, arrow straighteners), wood (mortars), clay (pottery for cooking, storage, eating, and pipes), pine pitch (to seal storage bins for food preservation), and mescal (fibers for rope). Other technological innovations included hunting and carrying nets, snares and traps, baking ovens or pits, and musical instruments such as elder flutes, whistles, panpipes, and rattles.
Trade The Cupeno were part of an elaborate southern California network that dealt in economic and ritual items and activities. The Cocopah-Maricopa Trail, a major trade route, as well as the Santa Fe and the Yuman Trails passed close by. The people traded food products, furs, hides, obsidian, and salt for shell beads, minerals such as turquoise and tourmaline, Joshua tree blossoms, axes, and other crafts. Rituals and songs were also exchanged.
Notable Arts Rock paintings were used in the girls’ puberty ceremony. Fine arts also included pottery, coiled baskets, and sandpaintings.
Transportation Baskets were used to transport goods.
Dress Women wore basket hats as well as skirts of mescal bark, tule, or skins. Men donned breechclouts of the same material when they wore anything at all. Both wore sandals of mescal fibers soaked in mud and tied with mescal fibers or buckskin. Babies wore mesquite-bark diapers. Blankets or woven rabbit-skin robes were used for warmth.
War and Weapons Cupeno groups generally feuded over women, trespass, and sorcery. Murder also required retribution. Tactics included ambush or simply chasing away an enemy. Weapons included the bow and arrow (possibly with a poisoned tip), poniard, thrusting sticks, and war club. Forced to resist the missions and Mexican imperialism, the people became more aggressive during the early nineteenth century.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations An elected tribal council governs the Cupeno at Pala Reservation (New Pala, which is divided from Old Pala [Luiseno] by the San Luis Rey River). Many Cupenos also live on the Morongo and the Los Coyotes Reservations (Cahuilla) and are intermarried with those people.
Economy There is income from agricultural land and mineral resources, especially sand and gravel.
Legal Status The Cupeno are a federally recognized tribal entity.
Daily Life The Cupa Cultural Center was dedicated in 1974. Some people still speak the language (there are language instruction programs) and practice several traditions, including some games, funeral rituals, social songs (such as birdsongs), and dances. The people still live in a traditional central village. Major political issues include economic development, sovereignty, health, housing, water availability, protection of sacred sites, gaming, and toxic waste pollution.
