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Indians 101: Juan Antonio, California Cahuilla leader [1]

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Date: 2023-01-05

Shown above is a bow and a rabbit stick, displayed in the Riverside Metropolitan Museum.

While many of the coastal California Indian tribes were incorporated into the Spanish mission system, the Cahuillas, as an inland tribe with a reputation of hostility toward Europeans, were not mission Indians. However, with the incorporation of California into the United States, the Cahuilla homelands were invaded by American settlers and miners.

With regard to government and political organization, as with most American Indian tribes, the Cahuilla had no overall tribal government. The Cahuilla patrilineal clans (each person was born into the father’s clan) was the primary governmental entity and clan leadership was determined by inheritance.

Juan Antonio became a Cahuilla leader—nét in the Cahuilla but often given the title chief in English—during the post-mission era and gold rush era in nineteenth-century California. He was probably born about 1783 and little is known about his early life. He was the leader of the Mountain Cahuilla (after the San Jacinto Mountains).

Juan Antonio first enters into the written American histories in 1842 when he meets American mountain-man Daniel Sexton at San Gregorio Pass. Sexton promised Juan Antonio to show the Cahuillas how American holidays were celebrated. In their book The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California, Lowell Bean and Harry Lawton report:

“On July 4, Sexton invited all of the surrounding Cahuilla to a fiesta. He climaxed the barbecue by raising the American flag—making the Cahuilla the first Indians to witness the raising of the American flag on California soil.”

Juan Antonio gave Daniel Sexton permission to explore Cahuilla lands.

In 1847 Juan Antonio and his Cahuilla warriors, together with Mexican troops, attacked the Luiseño under the leadership of Manuelita Cota and Pablo Apis. The poorly armed Luiseños were drawn into an ambush where they were slaughtered in the crossfire. Although Cota escaped, the incident was recorded as one of the bloodiest of the Mexican War in California. According to anthropologist Edward Castillo, in his chapter on Euro-American exploration and settlement in the Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 8: California:

“More lives were lost in this one engagement than the total of all casualties of the Mexican War in the entire state. Indians in California committed the tragic error of all Indians, in allying themselves against their own people.”

The United States acquired California in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the U.S. war with Mexico. The Indian people of Southern California did not respond joyously to the American acquisition of California and the denial of civil rights which they had enjoyed under the earlier Spanish and Mexican authorities. While the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had agreed to recognize Indian land holdings, and to allow Indian people to continue their customs and languages, in California these rights were ignored.

In 1850, California became a U.S. state. The American system, unlike the Spanish and Mexican systems, viewed Indians not as an economic asset but as an impediment to civilization, to the ability to acquire individual wealth. Sherburne Cook, in a 1943 essay reprinted in The California Indians: A Source Book, reports:

“The Anglo-American system, on the other hand, had no place for the Indian.”

In 1851, ignoring the fact that Indian tribes are sovereign nations according to the Constitution, a state tax was imposed on Indian property. Cupeo leader Antonio Garra put together a confederacy of several bands, including some Cahuilla, Quechan, and Cocopa bands, and led a revolt against the American federal, state, and local governments in San Diego County. Antonio Garra, who was known as a powerful medicine man, told his followers that he could turn the enemies’ bullets into water.

Juan Antonio’s Cahuilla band did not join the confederacy. Instead, Juan Antonio led his warriors against the rebels, captured Antonio Garra, and turned him over to American authorities. Antonio Garra was tried in a paramilitary court, found guilty, and shot.

Later that same year, some Americans were discovered robbing the rancho of San Bernardino. In response, Cahuilla warriors, under the leadership of Juan Antonio, killed eleven of them. Writing in 1852, B. D. Wilson, in his book The Indians of Southern California in 1852, reports:

“A perfect uproar ensued in the country, and the Indians fled to the mountains, not, however, without offering battle to the company of fifty volunteers then stationed at the scene, who were equally anxious to punish the massacre of their countrymen in this unauthorized manner.”

Juan Antonio claimed that the deaths were justified by order of a Justice of the Peace who was one of the proprietors of the rancho and whose house was being ransacked by the Americans. Under the earlier Mexican rule, Indians had been authorized to carry out such actions, but the Americans felt that Indians should never be allowed to meddle in the punishment of non-Indians for criminal offences. To settle the matter, local authorities provided Juan Antonio with a hundred dollars’ worth of cloth, hats, and handkerchiefs.

In 1851, the United States negotiated 18 treaties with California Indian nations which were intended to secure legal title to public land, and which would guarantee reserved lands for Indians. The U.S. Senate, however, refused to ratify the treaties. Anthropologist Omer Stewart, in his chapter on litigation in the Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 8: California. writes:

“The failure to ratify the treaties left the federal government without explicit legal obligation toward the Indians of California.”

In defending Cahuilla control over their own lands, Juan Antonio led attacks against American settlers during 1854-1855. He attempted to create alliances with the Mojaves and the Quechans, but these efforts failed.

Juan Antonio died of smallpox in 1863. In 1956, his grave was uncovered during an archaeological dig and his remains were reburied with tribal honors.

Indian Biographies

Too often in American histories, American Indians are simply a faceless, nameless mass. In my public lectures, I would often ask the audience to name historic American Indians and most people could name only 4 or 5. Biographies of American Indians are important in overcoming the lack of knowledge of American Indian history that contributes to discrimination today. Here are a few short biographical sketches:

Indians 101: Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, Writer, Musician, and Activist

Indians 101: Susette La Flesche, Indian Activist

Indians 201: Natawista, a Trader's Wife

Indians 201: Sarah (Sally) Ainse, Oneida trader

Indians 101: Little Turtle, Miami war leader

Indians 101: Cornplanter, Seneca leader

Indians 201: Frank White, Pawnee Prophet

Indians 201: William Weatherford, Red Stick Leader

Of the 8 names listed above, how many did you know?

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