Neighbor News
Paulina Hunter, Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians 1890's Photo
Original Pechanga Reservation Allottee Whose descendants Still Live on the Temecula Rez.
Our family treasures the photograph of our ancestor Paulina Hunter, who is an original allottee of the Temecula Indian Reservation. She received 20 acres (Allotment 62) via decree from President McKinley . (the same year the internal combustion engine was invented) That process began in 1891, see theOriginal Pechanga allottees here
Helen Hunt Jackson wrote about the native women who would weave lace, and as you can see, that tradition carried through the years, Paulina Hunter is on the right, and she's weaving lace.
Our original Pechanga ancestor, passed in 1899, but in the 1890's she made the then arduous trek by wagon (not station wagon, spring WAGON!) from Los Angeles to Temecula to see family. Vaunted Elder Antonio Ashman, living during that period and surviving to the 1970's knew her. How cool is that?
We have snippets of information, oral history, some taken in the Luiseno language in 1915! We've been blessed, to have her history, and I hope most of you are as lucky as the Hunter descendants.
Dr. John Johnson from the Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara, Ca, commissioned by a Pechanga committee to research the ancestry of Paulina Hunter, said in his report to the committee, “The original books of baptisms, marriages, and burials for Mission San Luis Rey have been lost for more than 150 years which hinders many Luiseno families in their search for documentary evidence pertaining to their ancestors.” Yet, he was successful in his search!
Luiseno history goes back since time immemorial, our Hunter family is "memorialized" at least to the late 1700's , half a century before California statehood. In the mid 1900's the family began to grow and develop the property. In fact, a couple of years before I was born, my great grandmother, Mary Ann Miller, Paulina's daughter, got a government surplus home kit, which our family, including my father, Felipe Cuevas, helped put it together.
I hope you enjoy the photos, and a little walk back through history.
