2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2022 WHA Caughey Western History Prize for the most distinguished book on the American West Can a sea be a settler? What if it is a sea that exists only in the form of incongruous, head-scratching contradictions: a wetland in a desert, a wildlife refuge that poisons birds, a body of water in which fish suffocate? Traci Brynne Voyles's history of the Salton Sea examines how settler colonialism restructures physical environments in ways that further Indigenous dispossession, racial capitalism, and degradation of the natural world. In other words, The Settler Sea asks how settler colonialism entraps nature to do settlers' work for them. The Salton Sea, Southern California's largest inland body of water, occupies the space between the lush agricultural farmland of the Imperial Valley and the austere desert called "America's Sahara." The sea sits near the boundary between the United States and Mexico and lies at the often-contested intersections of the sovereign lands of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla and the state of California. Created in 1905, when overflow from the Colorado River combined with a poorly constructed irrigation system to cause the whole river to flow into the desert, this human-maintained body of water has been considered a looming environmental disaster. The Salton Sea's very precariousness--the way it sits uncomfortably between worlds, existing always in the interstices of human and natural influences, between desert and wetland, between the skyward pull of the sun and the constant inflow of polluted water--is both a symptom and symbol of the larger precariousness of settler relationships to the environment, in the West and beyond. Voyles provides an innovative exploration of the Salton Sea, looking to the ways the sea, its origins, and its role in human life have been vital to the people who call this region home.

This monograph provides a glimpse of the Kumeyaay cosmology with worldview, observatories, constellations and stories, including modern interpretations of the calendar. Kumeyaay cosmology was traditionally intertwined with ceremonies, harvest & hunts, burning schedules and the acquisition of spiritual power. Personal conduct was subject to cosmological constraints and rewards. Cosmology was so important that Spanish priests and subsequent U.S. government agents worked hard to repress and expunge the beliefs from Kumeyaay society.

The story of Indians in San Diego County from 1850 through the 1930s. This analysis provides a glimpse into the cultural history of the native peoples of the region, including the Kumeyaay (Ipai/Tipai), Luiseno, Cupeno, and Cahuilla.

Debrahmanising History Is A Sweeping And Radical Survey Of The Major Dalit-Bahujan Intellectuals And Movements Over 2500 Years Of Indian History, From Buddha To Ambedkar.

Archeological findings verify the occupation of San Diego County by Native Americans going back over 10,000 years, though little is recorded of their history before 1542, when Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay and claimed the local territory for Spain. The native population at that time is estimated to have been 20,000, just as it is today. There are 18 reservations in the San Diego County area (17 of which are currently functioning), more than in any other county in the United States. The four primary tribal groups making up the Native Americans of the San Diego County area are the Kumeyaay (also known as Diegueño), Luiseño, Cupeño, and Cahuilla. Each of these groups has faced many hardships and setbacks while attempting to rebuild their nations to the proud peoples they once were, still are, and always shall be.

Museum exhibitions focusing on Native American history have long been curator controlled. However, a shift is occurring, giving Indigenous people a larger role in determining exhibition content. In Decolonizing Museums, Amy Lonetree examines the co

For thousands of years, the Kumeyaay people of northern Baja California and southern California made their homes in the diverse landscapes of the region, interacting with native plants and continuously refining their botanical knowledge. Today, many Kumeyaay Indians in the far-flung ranches of Baja California carry on the traditional knowledge and skills for transforming native plants into food, medicine, arts, tools, regalia, construction materials, and ceremonial items. Kumeyaay Ethnobotany explores the remarkable interdependence between native peoples and native plants of the Californias through in-depth descriptions of 47 native plants and their uses, lively narratives, and hundreds of vivid photographs. It connects the archaeological and historical record with living cultures and native plant specialists who share their ever-relevant wisdom for future generations. Book jacket.