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Desert and Mountain Life

Archeaologists have found evidence of different housing styles, clothing, and food sources in the different Cahuilla regions. In the desert, the houses were brush lashed together to form windbreaks and huts. In the mountains, the housing was built from larger logs for the roof structure, and the slanted brush walls were covered with earth for warmth in the winter.

Desert dwellers wore sandals made from yucca plant fibers; mountain dwellers made a moccasin boot from deer skin that protected their lower leg from cuts and scrapes on the rocks and brush as they hunted.

Mountain dwellers located their villages near streams with plants and animals to hunt and gather. The desert dwellers located their villages near the palm lined oasis and springs, and developed the earliest farming techniques in California.

For comparison, a study of tribal territories in the book The Natural World of the California Indians shows 91 living in the lower and upper desert valleys, with only 8 living in the foothills and higher mountains. This diversity of environments provided access to food and materials resources from below sea level to several thousand feet in elevation - all between one related tribal group. As with other California tribes - like the Miwok and Maidu, the majority lived in the flat valleys and plains, and only a few chose the most remote backcountry in the mountains.