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Backcountry Survival

The Cahuilla were not impacted upon as early as coastal and mission tribes had been during the arrival of European explorers and settlers due two factors - their world was considered a remote backcountry by early European explorers and settlers and it was also considered a waterless, harsh, wasteland to the eyes who did not know of the desert's underground secret - the plentiful natural aquifer.

Living so far inland, Cahuillas had little contact with Spanish soldiers or European civilians and Priests, many of who saw the desert as having little or no value and rather as a place to avoid. They learned of Mission life from Indians living close to Missions in San Gabriel and San Diego.

The first encounter with Europeans was in 1774 when Juan Bautista de Anza was looking for a trade route between Sonora, Mexico and Monterey, CA. There may have been as many as 10,000 Cahuillas before contact with the Europeans who in 1862 brought a small pox epidemic. Only about 2,500 survived.

The Cahuilla were partially spared the wars and some of the atrocities which befell most other surrounding early California communities. But only because for so long the areas the Cahuilla considered home were of little or no value to the new white "squatters". This changed of course by the late 1800's and by the 1900's the area was being hailed by white promoters as a veritable Oasis with clean healthy air and a wonderful winter climate.. Many of the more mountainous areas however are still largely devoid of people and it is here that some remaining small bands of Cahuilla carry on with relative quietness compared to the highly populated areas of the valley.