0495R Capitan Grande Reservation Locator Map

The Capitan Grande Reservation is a

Kumeyaay The Kumeyaay, also known as 'Iipai-Tiipai or by the historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Uni ...

Indian reservation An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county (United States), county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its Mexico-United States border, border with Mexico. As of the 2020 United States Cen ...

, jointly controlled by the

Barona Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians The Barona Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians of the Barona Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of Kumeyaay Indians, who are sometimes known as Mission Indians. Reservations In 1875, the tribe, along with the Viejas Group ...

and the

Viejas Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians The Viejas (Baron Long) Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians of the Viejas Reservation, also called the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, is a federally recognized tribe of Kumeyaay Indians. Reservations In 1875, the Viejas Band share ...

. The reservation is uninhabited and is large, located in the

Cuyamaca Mountains The Cuyamaca Mountains (Kumeyaay language, Kumeyaay: ''‘Ekwiiyemak''), locally the Cuyamacas, are a mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges in San Diego County, California. The mountain range runs roughly northwest to southeast. The Laguna Mount ...

and middle of

Cleveland National Forest Cleveland National Forest is a National forest (United States), U.S. national forest in Southern California that encompasses 460,000 acres/ of inland Montane ecosystems, montane regions. It is approximately 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean, withi ...

and west of Cuyamaca Peak. The closest town is

Alpine, California Alpine is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Cuyamaca Mountains of San Diego County, California, United States. Alpine had a population of 14,696 at the 2020 census, up from 14,236 at the 2010 census. The town is largely surrounded by Cleve ...

History

Communal Ceremonial Shelter at Capitan Grande - Diegueno LACMA AC1997

The reservation was created by President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

, via executive order in 1875 for local Kumeyaay people. Its name comes from the Spanish ''Coapan'', which was what the area west of the San Diego River was called in the 19th century. The dry, mountainous and

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

lands proved inhospitable. In 1931, the state flooded the heart of the reservation, creating

El Capitan Reservoir El Capitan Reservoir is a reservoir (water), reservoir in central San Diego County, California. It is in the Cuyamaca Mountains, about northeast of the city of San Diego, California, San Diego and two miles northwest of the town of Alpine, Califo ...

. Many Kumeyaay families had homes in the flood zone, and they petitioned Congress to prevent the loss of their land; however, Congress gave San Diego the right to buy the land without the local Kumeyaays' knowledge or consent. The two tribes, Barona and Viejas, were forced to sell the land and with their proceeds they purchased their current reservations, the Barona Reservation and Viejas Reservation, respectively. In 1973, seven people lived on the reservation.

Today

Today, the two tribes have a joint-trust patent of the remaining reservation. It is undeveloped but serves as an ecological preserve.

Demographics

2020 census

Bibliography

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References

External links

Barona Band of Mission Indians
official website
Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians
official website {{authority control American Indian reservations in California Cuyamaca Mountains East County (San Diego County) 1875 establishments in California Kumeyaay populated places Former Native American populated places in California Barona Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians Viejas Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians