Kumeyaay people

The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai - Ipai, Kamia, or formerly Diegueño, are composed of several tribes of Native North American people in the extreme southwest of California and Baja California in northwestern Mexico. In Spanish, the name is usually written Kumiai. They lived historically predominantly in an area stretching from the Warner Springs Valley in the north, the Imperial Valley in the east to about 90 kilometers south of the Mexican border. They are the first known inhabitants of the San Diego County, where the people lived for more than 10,000 years.

Language

The Kumeyaay include the California Delta Yuman branch of Cochimí - Yuma - language family. Were these formerly attributed to the Hokan languages ​​, this is controversial today. Generally, there are three separate but inter closely related languages ​​today:

• Ipai or ' Iipay (also Northern Diegueño )
• Kumeyaay or Kumiai (also Central Diegueño, Kamia or Campo)
• Tipai or Tiipay (also Southern Diegueño )

The meaning of the term Kumeyaay is unknown, but hot Ipai or Tipai both each "people". Some southern Kumeyaay refer to themselves but also as MuttTipi - " People of Earth ".

History

When the first white men arrived in 1542 with the expedition Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in the region, the nation of hunters, gatherers and horticulturalists was the only one in the region colonizing people. Food source was meat, such as hares and deer, fish, and crops. They cultivated the surrounding land use slash and burn and talked systems for water supply and erosion control.

With the Spanish invasion in 1769, the expulsion of people from their original area of ​​settlement began. Their habitat was limited to a few reservations in California. The 12 still existing tribes are the Barona, Campo, Ewiiaapaayp, Inaja - Cosmit, Jamul, LaPosta, Manzanita, Mesa Grande, San Pasqual, Santa Ysabel, Sycuan and Viejas. They live in the region around San Diego, including the Capitan Grande Indian Reservation.