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Shoshonean residents of the Antelope Valley were encountered by the Spanish
intruders who began exploring Antelope Valley about four hundred years ago.
The first fully documented contact came in 1776 when a Franciscan priest, Father
Francisco Garces, came through the Mojave Desert on his way to Monterey.
Garces's diary of his trip, one of the few such written accounts in existence,
has been used extensively by researchers to help identify the cultural and
linguistic origins of the people living in the Antelope Valley at that time.
Initially, contact with the Spaniards was seemingly limited and benign. Increasingly,
however, the people of the valley were being "resettled" to the San
Fernando Mission. In 1808, a Spanish military expedition was dispatched to
the valley. By 1811, according to Mission records, "resettlement " of
at least two entire villages had been accomplished. Disease, forced labor,
Spanish occupation of tribal lands, and the Europeans' ruthless disregard of
indigenous cultural practices and traditions were all contributors to the dramatic
decline of Native American populations and their societal structures, not only in the
Antelope Valley, but throughout all of California. By the time California became
a U.S. territory in 1848, few Antelope Valley Native American settlers remained.
Antelope Valley Native American Peoples
The Late Prehistoric Period << Previous |
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