In the summer of 1875, under orders from the District Court of San Francisco, the sheriff of San Diego County and about 20 armed men evicted the Temecula Indians from their traditional village.

It was located along what is now known as Temecula Parkway/Highway 79 South and the northern section of the Redhawk Housing development.

After earlier attempts to evict the Indians, in 1869 a group of Temecula Valley ranchers was successful in obtaining a Decree of Ejection because the Indians could not prove clear title to the land.

The writ of removal used by the sheriff contained the names of 52 heads of household, totaling about 200 persons.

The posse, which included the owners of the ranch – Juan Murrieta, Domingo Pujol and Francisco Zanjuro – as well as local landowners Louis Wolf and José Gonzales, drove wagons to the Indians’ homes and loaded their belongings.

A firsthand account as told by Josefa Yuhaq describes the events in detail.

She said the men arrived in the village with wagons and threw their belongings into them while the people watched. They were then forced to leave the village following behind the wagons. They had to leave most of their livestock.

The posse shouted insults and threw stones at them to get them to move along. Once they were off the rancho, the men threw all their possessions onto the ground, smashing pottery that contained food and belongings.

The people were dumped near what is now known as the intersection of Pechanga Parkway and Rainbow Canyon Road.

Temecula’s first postmaster, John Magee, who once lived near Temecula Village and was married to a Temecula Indian woman, had a store in this vicinity and allowed the Indians to live nearby.

The Temecula Indians settled along the foothills near two springs called Táavishpa (TAH-vish-pa) and Túuchaana (TOO-cha-nah). Eventually, the people moved to Pechanga Canyon, where they sunk a well and planted crops.

Under the Ejection Decree, the confiscation of the Indians’ property was permitted to pay the costs incurred in the suit.

As recounted in a letter written by the Pechanga people to the local Indian agent, the livestock they took with them at the time of the eviction wandered back to the ranch. Juan Murrieta would corral them and request pay for the animals.

If the Indians did not have the funds to reclaim their livestock, which was in most cases, the animals were then sold for profit.

The famous author Helen Hunt Jackson visited the Temecula Indians shortly after the eviction and heard the firsthand accounts of the event.

At the time, Jackson was a hired agent for the US Government and sent to southern California to investigate the conditions of the Mission Indians.

She was so appalled at the treatment of the southern California Indians that she chose this location for the setting of her famous novel, “Ramona,” and incorporated the Temecula eviction into the story.

On June 27, 1882, under Executive Order by President Chester A. Arthur, the Pechanga Reservation was established.

The name is derived from a spring at the foot of the mountain named Péchaq (PEH-chaq) meaning, “water is dripping” with the ending -anga added, which indicates it is a place.

This photo, taken about a decade after the establishment of the reservation, is of a family living at Pechanga in a Western-style home made with traditional techniques and materials such as willow branches and dogbane cordage.

The Temecula Valley Historical Society (TVHS) meets the second Monday of each month from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Pujol schoolhouse on Santiago St. in Temecula. The public is invited to attend.

The July 13 speaker will be Mimi Milholland on Tucalota and Sage history.

TVHS board member and longtime Temecula resident Lisa Woodward, PhD is the archivist for the Pechanga Cultural Resources Department.

Her degree is in Native American studies from UC Davis.