San Diego is California's First City and the first San Diegans
(and the first women) were Indians. It was their land and it remained
theirs f or more than 200 years after the white man first set foot upon it.
During the years of Spanish greatness, Indians were drawn—and
sometimes pulled—to the lonely string of missions which ran up the California coast
from Baja California. Contact with these Europeans, however, brought
diseases which drastically reduced their population.
In 1865 Diegueño and Luiseño Indians lived around the
hamlet of San Diego, which numbered about 200 whites.
Indian women and their families became the sum of the work force. The
burden carrier (above) tied under the woman's knit cap is made from
fibers of mescal cactus. The Luiseño Indian women below were
photographed about 1890 at Third and A Streets in downtown San Diego; the woman at
the far left claimed to be 128 years old. Indian complexions, like that of the old
woman opposite, were hardened, dried and cracked from constant exposure to the elements.
As new settlers arrived, and the population of San Diego began to grow, the
Indians retreated to the back country. After secularization of the missions in
1834 the condition of the California natives grew worse. With the later
discovery of gold their numbers were diminished even more dramatically as
Americans introduced further disease and destroyed established food sources.
The "First Americans" had come out last. New settlers in San Diego were shaky as to their ultimate nationality. The
town was Southern California's only important port and both Mexico and the
United States wanted it. As the center of the hide trade in California it had
been under American influence for several decades. San Diego was taken, lost and
finally taken again by American troops before the new flag went up to stay.
