The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Spring 1997, Volume 43, Number 2
Richard W. Crawford, Editor
by Glenn Farris
Illustration: Map of San Diego County in the time of Jose Pedro Panto (Drawn by Tammara Ekness).
With the arrival in 1833 of the Mexican appointee, General Jose Figueroa, as the new governor of California, the final implementation of a plan for the widespread secularization of the missions was completed. The process of emancipation of the Indians and dividing up the land was commenced on July 15, 1833 when Figueroa issued his Prevenciones Provisionales.1
As part of the breakup and secularization of missions San Diego de Alcala and San Luis Rey de Francia in 1833-34, a plan to form Indian pueblos in various areas to re-settle the desafiliados was executed. With great fanfare Governor Figueroa announced on May 1, 1833 that “three new pueblos have been formed, San Diegito, Las Flores, and San Juan Capistrano.”2
Two years later the San Pascual pueblo was established — on November 16, 1835. Eighty-one Indians — all from San Diego Mission — comprised the new pueblo. Judge Benjamin Hayes reported an original census of this community.3 However, it was unfortunately destroyed in the fire following the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, according to a note in the Hayes manuscript, on file at the Bancroft Library. Instead, we have a summary of the demographic distribution of the individuals who formed this new society and their occupational specialties.
A convenient myth of some California historians is their suggestion that the Indian pueblos all failed in the period following secularization due to the laziness of the native inhabitants.4 The story of San Pascual certainly details one that was quite successful, at least during the Mexican period, but that foundered when overwhelmed by free-booters of various nationalities following the American takeover of California. Despite the constant incursions of squatters and traders who profited at the expense of the Indians of San Pascual, the community managed to retain a certain degree of cohesion due to the leadership of its capitan, Jose Pedro Panto. Panto worked hard to protect his people through accommodation with the authorities, though his frustrations were many. His unfortunate death in 1874 presaged the demise of the pueblo and its people who ended up scattered to the remote canons and hills or to other villages such as Mesa Grande.
San Pascual has come to be known principally for the battle fought there between the Americans under Stephen Kearny and the Californio forces under Andres Pico. Even the state park that sits very near the location of the old Indian village is called San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park and serves to commemorate the events of early December 1846. The point of this article is to focus on the remarkable story of the pueblo of San Pascual and its leader. Sadly enough, the portion of the story following the renowned battle is all too familiar in terms of Indian-Anglo relations during the American period. Though there were a number of well-meaning military men, civil servants, and even a visiting parish priest, the day was won by the unscrupulous land-grabbers who used a biased legal system to force their way into the Indian community and upon its ultimate demise parceled out the spoils for themselves.
The valley of San Pasqual5 was certainly inhabited by Indians for probably thousands of years before the initial contact with Europeans.6 Those that lived in the valley in the late eighteenth century were almost certainly gathered into the missions at San Diego and, perhaps, San Luis Rey. An aboriginal name for a village in the San Pasqual Valley has been suggested as being Ahmukatlatl,7 however, no justification for this name has been found. It does not appear in the lists of rancheria names for either San Diego or San Luis Rey missions.8 Jim Quisquis stated the original name was Paskwa.9 Such a village name does appear on the list of San Luis Rey villages, but there is no other firm evidence that San Pascual was under the control of this mission.10
The San Pascual Indian pueblo came into existence subsequent to the secularization of Mission San Diego de Alcala; the Indians were awarded virtually the whole valley of San Pasqual bordering Rancho San Bernardo on the west. A letter accompanying a census (padron) of the “neofitos desafiliados” was addressed to the administration of San Diego from Jose J. Ortega (the administrator of the ex-Mission San Diego) dated November 16, 1835.11 Benjamin Hayes stated that there were 81 neophytes from the ex-mission of San Diego listed in this census.12 In a note on the Pueblo of San Pascual, Hayes gave the following description of what was contained in the “padron”:13
There were thirty-four male adults, all of them married (and living there with their wives), except one “soltero” [single man] and nine viudos (widowers).
There was one widow (Manuela) and her daughter (Lorenza). Male — those marked married (24 in number) had living with them there eight male children and ten female children. Three widowers had two boys and one girl: in all 21 children in the pueblo. The ages of none of the parties are given. Their trades or pursuits were as follows: alcalde (Juan Cuerpo, vaquero), 6 vaqueros, 10 arrieros [muleteers], 2 carpinteros [carpenters], 1 herrero [blacksmith], 2 tejedores [weavers], 1 carbonero [charcoal-maker], 2 molenderos [millers], 1 cardador [carder of wool], 5 labradores [farmer/plowman], 2 gamuseros [leather workers], and 1 quesero [cheesemaker], for a total of 34.
This diversity of skills supports Bancroft’s statement that San Pasqual pueblo was “composed of Indians selected from the…missions for their intelligence, good behavior, industry, and fitness in all respects for earning their own living and managing their own affairs.”14
Although the village was initially organized as a civil pueblo with an Indian alcalde named Juan Cuerpo, at some point prior to September 1837 the man who came to be known as the Capitan of San Pascual Pueblo and who retained the title until his death on April 27, 1874 arrived on the scene.15 His name was Panto. He was baptized as Pedro Jose Panto Escarcar on January 11, 1817 at the age of fourteen with a group of Indians from the place known as Santa Isabel, but it is uncertain whether he spent any time at the mission of San Diego.16 Panto was listed as being from the village of Matamo which was also known as the rancheria of San Juan Capistrano de Matamo. This place name is found on a map of the ex-Mission lands of San Diego prepared by County Surveyor James Pascoe in 1870.17 The approximate location of the village is presumably between the land grants of El Cajon and Jamacha (note map on p. 116). This village was mentioned as early as 1775 when it was visited on a trip from San Diego north to found the Mission at San Juan Capistrano in that year. As they passed through villages on the way, the priests baptized a number of the Indians. One of these villages was said to be the rancheria of San Juan Capistrano or Matano [Matamo]. The Indians from this village were actually baptized at the rancheria of San Luis or Coapan.18 In a description of mission lands of San Diego dated December 18, 1827, Fathers Fernando Martin and Vicente Pasqual Oliva reported: “On the way to Santa Monica or El Cajon are the territories called San Jacome de la Marcha and San Capistrano [sic] de Matamo. In these districts pasture the horses and mules and the sheep of this Mission. They extend about two leagues and a half. Adjoining them are the pagans of said rancherias.”19
Mention of the pueblo of San Pascual appears only sporadically in the records following its establishment. In an official report dated September 1, 1837, concerning the Indian attacks in San Diego County in that year it was stated that Indians from San Pascual Pueblo attacked a group of “heathen” Indians led by a non-Christian Indian called Claudio. Claudio had previously attacked a rancho of the Mission of San Diego and killed two whites and a number of Christian Indians. Nine of the enemy Indians were killed and Claudio was captured. He was then turned over to the Mexican authorities, but with a request that he be returned to them for execution. The document suggests that the request be granted “because there is no security in keeping him [Claudio] in prison”.20
Juan Bautista Alvarado provides more specifics of the attack on the Jamul Rancho and the Californio response. He seriously questions a version of the incident by Juan Bandini that emphasizes Bandini’s own valor, rather he gives major credit to “Panto, chief of the Indians at San Pascual” who pursued Claudio, the head of the raiding party on the Jamul Rancho, and succeeded in killing a large number of his warriors.21
Under the date of April 7, 1841, is a report of the appointment of two alcaldes at San Pascual under the orders of Pio Pico. They were Juan Flojo and Antonio Solano.22 In 1842 the local Mexican Juez de Paz visited San Pascual pueblo and appointed three new alcaldes.23
For most of the decade following secularization, the San Pascual Pueblo had enjoyed a certain degree of quietude. However, on September 10, 1845, Bonifacio Lopez of San Diego initiated a petition to Governor Pio Pico to be granted the lands of the San Pascual pueblo, claiming that the Indians there were disreputable and had allowed the pueblo to go into decay. In response Pico sent the subprefect of the district [partido] of San Diego (possibly Santiago Arguello) to investigate conditions there. He reported on his visit of September 23, 1845, saying,
This settlement comprises sixty-one Christian souls, and forty-four unconverted Indians, with dwellings after their manner, huts of tule forming a kind of irregular Plazuela [a small square], the police thereof is under the care of an alcalde of the Christian residents appointed by the First Alcalde’s Court of this place, and of the unconverted Capitan Panto.24
He goes on to describe the excellent condition of the lands in terms of their agricultural and pastoral production, taking particular note of the cooperative stock-raising agreements in effect between Panto and his Californio neighbors. Likewise, he takes note of the great bonds of trust that exist between Panto and his neighbors, Maria Antonia Alvarado [Mrs. Joseph Snook] of Rancho Rincon del Diablo [where Escondido now lies], the wife of Jose Maria Alvarado of the Rancho Los Vallecitos de San Marcos, and Don Eduardo Stokes, owner of the Santa Maria Rancho to the east. He even noted that the San Pascual Indians were at that time engaged in building a dam for Lorenzo Soto, some four hundred varas (1100 feet) long and five varas (13.5 feet) wide.25
Lorenzo Soto was then the only non-Indian squatter in the valley. It would be interesting to determine where he had directed the people of San Pascual to build this sizable dam, possibly on one of the side canyons of the valley.26 However, Soto later purchased the rancho of Los Vallecitos de San Marcos from the heirs of Jose Maria Alvarado, possibly with the riches he gained in the gold fields of the Sierra Nevada.27 In his memoirs Antonio Coronel claimed that Lorenzo Soto had deserted the Californio side to go over to the Americans and tell General Kearny that the force under Andres Pico was quartered at San Pascual.28
A year later, on December 6, 1846, the village of San Pasqual was a focal point of the initial skirmish between the U.S. and Californio troops at the Battle of San Pasqual. Capitan Panto, as chief of the San Pasqual band, is said to have aided General Kearny against the Mexican force commanded by Andres Pico. His daughter, Felicita, credited him with an important role in supporting the Americans in the battle:
Early one rainy morning we saw soldiers that were not Mexicans come riding down the mountain side. They looked like ghosts coming through the mist and then the fighting began.
The Indians fled in fear to the mountains on the north side of the Valley from where they looked down and watched the battle. All day long they fought. We saw some Americans killed and knew they were in a bad way.
That afternoon Pontho, my father, called his men together and asked them if they wished to help the Americanos in their trouble. The men said they did. When darkness was near Pontho sent a messenger to the Mexican chief telling him to trouble the Americans no more that night else the Indians would help the Americans. And the Mexican chief heeded the message and the Americans were left to bury their dead and to rest because of my father’s message. The Americanos do not know of this but my people know of it.29
In an eye-witness account of one of the participants in the battle it is stated that the troops under Kearny were in desperate straits surrounded by the Californio forces on Mule Hill when “an Indian from San Pascual reached the hill” and guided Lt. Beale and Kit Carson to San Diego.30 Panto has been credited as the person who performed this heroic deed.31 Whether it was indeed him or someone sent by him, it supports Felicita’s assertion of the aid offered by the San Pasqual Indians to the American forces. These statements help clear up the identity of the mysterious unidentified Indian mentioned in many accounts of the battle of San Pasqual, some asserting that he was a Delaware Indian accompanying Kit Carson. The story told by Private Dunne and Felicita is far more credible in that it would take a local resident, familiar with the rough land leading to San Diego, to have successfully led the way.
The following year (1847), Panto lent Commodore Stockton a number of oxen and horses to aid in the assault on Los Angeles. The U.S. government never remunerated him for these animals.32
On January 7, 1852, Panto was one of a number of chiefs who signed a “treaty of peace and friendship between the United States…and the captains and headmen of the nation of Dieguino [sic] Indians”.33 Panto, captain of San Pascual, headed the list of twenty-two “headmen” of the Diegueno Indians (now known as the Kumeyaay).34
In 1854 there was a period of power manipulation on the part of the whites in which Panto was to replace Tomas, nominally captain general of the Dieguenos. On March 18, 1854, the San Diego Herald suggested that Cave Couts, the Indian Agent, replace Tomas with Panto but Tomas refused to acquiesce to this arrangement.35
On May 7, 1854, he is again mentioned in a letter from Cave J. Couts to B. D. Wilson, “I only sought the appt. of the San Luis Indians, and never meddled with the Dieguinos [sic] until the most prominent Rancherros [sic] in their midst Call [sic] twice, requesting the removal of Tomas and appt. of Panto.”36
Another aspect of the new American era in California was the increase in squatters who took advantage of the Indians, especially in providing them with alcohol and exploiting their fascination with games of chance to further impoverish the citizens of San Pascual.37 On January 17, 1856, Panto met with U.S. Army Captain H. S. Burton, commander of the Mission San Diego garrison at Rancho San Bernardo. As recalled by Burton,
during a long conversation with him he urged most forcibly the right to protection from our government against the encroachments of squatters upon the lands legally granted to his people.
The letter from Don Jose J. Orteja [sic], accompanying my previous report, and the letter I now send you from Don Santiago Arguello…will give the reasons why Panto is so urgent in his wishes for protection against some five or six squatters, who are taking possession of the best lands granted to his people. It appears to me, that this is a very just and proper occasion for the personal interference of the superintendent of Indian affairs.38
The Indians of San Pascual are friendly and are anxious to remain so, but if their lands are taken from them without scruple, they must retire to the mountains, naturally discontented, and ready to join in any depredations upon the whites.
Don Santiago Arguello’s letter appears in the same Congressional publication and acts to corroborate the view of the Indians.39
In the 1860 U.S. Census Panto is still listed as captain of the San Pasqual Indians and his age is given as fifty. Also listed in his household are Maria, 50, female; Juan 30, male, alcalde; and Maria de Jesus, 28, female. Whether these latter three are actually related to Panto is uncertain. In this same census there is a special section concerned with “Production of Agriculture” in the state of California. Jose Panto is listed as captain of both the San Pascual village and the Mesa Grande village. The San Pascual village of the time is shown to have a population of 134;100 acres of improved land; a cash value of $1000; $200 worth of farm tools; 50 horses, 14 milch cows, 15 working oxen, 50 “other cattle,” and 160 sheep for a livestock value of $2,000. In addition, there were 10 acres (?) in peas and beans. At Mesa Grande the population was 122. There were 50 acres of improved land worth $500; $100 worth of tools; 30 horses, 4 milch cows, 10 other cattle, 1 sheep and six swine valued at $400; 150 (?) wheat, and 100 (?) barley. The link with Mesa Grande is important because when the people of San Pascual were forced out of their homes, many of them apparently migrated to Mesa Grande.40
In a letter dated August 27, 1869, from Major General J. B. McIntosh, Superintendent of Indian Affairs to E. S. Parker, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, we find another confirmation of Panto’s claim of his people’s right to the pueblo of San Pascual based on a translation of a paper shown him by Panto which had been written by Santiago Arguello. McIntosh then explains why the paper did not accompany his official report. “I should have sent this paper on with my report of San Pasqual, made on the 25th instant, but in the hurry of business it was overlooked. I think the paper is important, as showing the government will take measures to have the valley reserved for the Indians, and have all the white settlers removed.”41
This whole latter-day exchange seems to point up fundamental bureaucratic confusion since the letter of support in question had been known to the Indian Bureau in Washington and had even been published in the Executive Documents in 1857. Though McIntosh seemed unaware of the earlier correspondence, he was proposing the same view as late as 1869; that the Indians of San Pasqual had legal right to their land.
In the 1870 U.S. Census Panto’s age is given as 65, which ages him by five years and actually places him closer to his age as stated in the baptismal document. The only other person shown in his household at the time is a woman named “Dolores,” aged 40, who “keeps house.” His real estate is shown to be valued at $250 at the time and his personal property at $200. Both he and Dolores are marked under the column “can’t read, can’t write.”
On July 15, 1873, Luther E. Sleigh, clerk of the San Luis Rey Indian Agency visited San Pascual and reported that he had requested the captain of the village, “Panto Lion,”42 to call his people for a conference the following morning. Sleigh simultaneously explained to Panto “that we had been sent by the Government at Washington to inquire into their condition and to ascertain if anything could be done by the Government to aid them.” The villagers duly assembled and Panto addressed them eloquently in their own language. Complaints were voiced of the “encroachments of their American neighbors upon their land, and pointed to a house near by, built by one of the more adventurous of his class, who claimed to have pre-empted the land upon which the larger part of the village lies.” When Sleigh subsequently questioned the American, “I found that such was really the case, and that he had actually paid the price of the land to the register [sic, Registrar] of the land-office of this district, and was daily expecting the patent from Washington.” The man admitted it “was hard to wrest from these well-disposed and industrious creatures the homes they had built up. ‘But’, said he, ‘if I had not done it somebody else would, for all agree that the Indian has no right to public lands’.”
The San Pascual people went on to complain of how the settlers took advantage of them in every way possible which thoroughly discouraged them from caring for their land or working hard. “Among the little homes included in the pre-emption claim above referred to are those adorned with trees and vines. Instead of feeling secure and happy in the possession of what little is left to them, they are continually filled with anxiety. They claim that they ought to be allowed to remain where their forefathers have lived for so long, and that they should be protected by law in the peaceful possession of the homes that have been handed down to them.” Sleigh also asked if the Indians would like their children to go to school or if they would wish to be relocated to a more secure place, but the reply was that, ‘Our fathers lived and died here, and we would rather live here than at any other place’.” Sleigh spoke of the vehemence of the white settlers in their deprecatory descriptions of their Indian neighbors, but stated that he himself had seen little to confirm this opinion. “The sentiments entertained by very many white men in Southern California toward the Indians are well illustrated in the conclusion to which the proprietor of a small ranch near Temecula came in presenting the subject to me from his stand-point. It is well to mention that a family of Indians has occupied one corner of his ranch ‘from time immemorial.’ His wise and humane conclusion was that the owners of large ranches should not drive ‘their Indians’ away, but should keep them to work for them, and set apart certain portions of the ranch for them. ‘There is worthless land enough upon every ranch,’ he said, ‘for Indians to live on.'”43
Panto was actively involved in the activities of that time (late 1860s and early 1870s) to get the U.S. government to recognize the rights of Indians.44 He also prepared to go to Washington to plead his case.45 Before he could accomplish this, Panto died April 27, 1874 at San Pasqual. His obituary read:
On Monday last, at San Pascual, Panto, the venerable chief of that village, was thrown from a horse and died instantly. The old settlers of Southern California will remember him for his polite manners and good character. Under the Mexican rule he always had the confidence of the authorities, and was often called upon to aid them in pursuit of malefactors. He commanded at San Pascual at the time of the battle of Gen. Kearney with the native Californians. He then had considerable property in cattle and horses, and loaned Commodore Stockton a number of oxen and horses, when the latter started his march to Los Angeles. Panto was never remunerated for these animals by our government. His land at San Pascual had always been respected — and in fact did constitute a regularly organized pueblo — until within the past year or so. Now that Panto, who governed his people so well, is gone, it is believed that they will not linger long upon their old planting ground.46
Following the death of Capitan Panto it appears that the Indian community at San Pascual continued its decline at the hands of the white squatters.47 In 1878 the Indians of San Pasqual were summarily forced off their land by a deputy sheriff from San Diego and scattered to the hills or to other rancherias such as Mesa Grande. The final expulsion was described by S. F. Wood.
In 1878 the Superior [sic] court of San Diego County after hearing the testimony relative to the Indians’ claim to said land issued a writ of ejectment in favor of Bevington48 and Deputy Sheriff Ward demolished the Indian huts and moved them off of the land, which land was afterward patented to Perry Bevington. San Pasqual Indians…moved into the little mountain valleys on the north side of San Pasqual Valley.49
Despite the mention of a map or diseno having been drawn to accompany the 1845 petition for land by Bonifacio Lopez, the earliest extant map available dates from 1867. It was submitted by Billington C. Whiting, then superintendent of Indian Affairs, California shows San Pasqual Valley and the Indian village (p. 126).50 In this same year is found the first mention of a chapel at San Pascual.51
Fr. Anthony Ubach, the well-known priest of San Diego,52 wrote a letter to Antonio Coronel in response to a query concerning the Indians.53 It was dated January 8, 1883 and is found in the papers of Helen Hunt Jackson. In it Fr. Ubach, a regular visitor to San Pasqual in its latter days, gives his eulogy of the pueblo.
…San Pascual 17 years ago [1866] had a population of 300 souls with more than 600 acres of very good agricultural lands; is now occupied by more than 20 squatters that with the riffle [sic] in hand scare away the Indians, not leaving one. Whisky [sic] and brutal force; nothing but the cemetery and chapel left. The few Indians that were left, two years ago had to go away and live among rocky mountains like wild beasts; there are no lands in this vicinity for the Indian.54
1. Zephyrin Engelhardt, The Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. III, Upper California, Part II. General History (San Francisco: The James H. Barry Company, 1913), 473.
2. Ibid., 503.
3. Brian Frederick Smith, “The San Diego of Judge Benjamin I. Hayes: Excerpts from ‘The Emigrant Notes, 1850-75’ (M.A. thesis, History, University of San Diego, 1982), 346.
4. For instance, Daniel Garr, “Planning, Politics and Plunder: The Missions and Indian Pueblos of Hispanic California,” Southern California Quarterly 54 (Winter 1972): 291-307. Garr’s discussion of the Indian pueblos offers only a brief section on San Pascual (p. 305): “At the San Pascual pueblo, the government at first was inclined to protect the grazing rights of Indian livestock and allowed the ex-neophytes to live quietly in their mud and grass shacks (sic!). But since no written titles were conceded, the arrangement did not last for long.”
5. There are two spellings used commonly, San Pascual, the Spanish version, and San Pasqual, the English gloss. Both spellings will be used in this article in their appropriate contexts.
6. Archaeological excavations by the author in 1984 at the site of the new visitor’s center showed it to have been used prehistorically at least since A.D. 1500. Glenn J. Farris, 1984, Archeological Excavations at the San Pasqual Battlefield SHP Visitor’s Center, sites CA-SDi-9864 and CA-SDi-6922, San Diego County. Ms. on file at California Department of Parks and Recreation Archeology Lab, West Sacramento, CA.
7. Alfred L. Kroeber, Handbook of the Indians of California (Washington, DC: Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 78, 1925), endmap.
8. C. Hart Merriam, “Village Names in Twelve California Mission Records, University of California Archaeological Survey Reports 74, assembled and edited by Robert F. Heizer, (Berkeley: UC Archaeological Research Facility, 1968), 141-175.
9. Jim Quisquis, a Kumeyaay resident of San Pasqual Valley, personal communication, 1985).
10. Merriam, “Village Names in Twelve California Missions,” 145.
11. Benjamin I. Hayes, “Emigrant Notes of Benjamin Hayes, 1850-1875 (Berkeley: Bancroft Library, n.d.), No. 39.
12. Benjamin I. Hayes, “Documentos para la Historia de California (Berkeley, Bancroft Library, 1874), 497.
13. Benjamin I. Hayes, “Pueblo of San Pascual, Missions of Alta California. Extracts and Copies from Archives, Volume 1, part 2,” (Berkeley: Bancroft Library, 1873), 230.
14. Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft Vol. XX. California, Vol. III, 1825-1840, (San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft & Co., Publishers, 1885), 628.
15. San Diego Union, 3 May 1874.
16. San Diego Mission Baptismal Record #4341. San Diego Mission Archives. I only found this information on Panto in 1995, after I had previously published an article suggesting that Panto was a gentile Indian (see Glenn Farris, “Jose Panto, Capitan of the Indian Pueblo of San Pascual,” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 16(2):149-161).
17. Neal Harlow, Maps of the Pueblo Lands of San Diego, 1602-1874, (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1987), 169.
18. R. Clinton Griffin, “Mission San Diego de Alcala, Baptisms for the Mission and vicinity, 1769-1850.” (Self-published by author, 1994), H-1.
19. Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Diego Mission, (San Francisco: James H. Barry Co., 1920), 222.
20. Hayes, “Documentos para la Historia de California,” No. 76.
21. Juan Bautista Alvarado, “Historia de California, Vol. IV, 1838-1842.” Translated by Earl R. Hewitt (Bancroft Library, Berkeley, 1876), 1-3.
22. Hayes, “Documentos pare la Historia de California,” No. 149.
23. Engelhardt, San Diego Mission, 254.
24. In the Spanish, evida de su policia un alcalde de los cristianos nombrado pr el juzgado 1o (primero) de este lugar, y de los gentiles el Capitan Panto. This suggestion that Panto was a non-Christian runs counter to his apparent baptismal record mentioned earlier. Conceivably he was only a nominal Christian and remained truer to his tribal traditions. There is no indication that he ever was in residence at Mission San Diego, but more likely at the asistencia of Santa Ysabel.
25. Land Grant Register, Spanish Archives, Unclassified Expediente 224, Vol. 8, pp.50ff. (original Spanish); Vol. 8, pp. 49-51 (English translation, (Sacramento: California State Archives, n.d.), 50.
26. Marjorie M. Rustvold, “San Pasqual Valley, Rancheria to Greenbelt,” (San Diego: M.A. thesis in Social Science, San Diego State College 1968), 88.
27. Antonio Coronel, Tales of Mexican California, Cosas de California, by Senor Don Antonio Franco Coronel, Ancient Resident of the City of Los Angeles, translated by Diane de Avalle-Arce, edited by Doyce Nunis, Jr. (Santa Barbara: Bellerophon Books, 1994), 55. Cecil C. Moyer, Historic Ranchos of San Diego, (San Diego: Union-Tribune Publishing Company, 1969), 24.
28. Ibid., 47.
29. Elizabeth Judson Roberts, “Indian History,” in San Pasqual, A Crack in the Hills, by Mary Rockwood Peet (Culver City, CA: The Highland Press, 1949), 90.
30. William B. Dunne, “Notes on the Battle of San Pascual,” (Berkeley: Bancroft Library, n.d.), 60-68.
31. William E. Smythe, History of San Diego, 1542-1907: An Account of the Rise and Progress of the Pioneer Settlement on the Pacific Coast of the United States, (San Diego: The History Company, 1907), 220.
32. “Death of a Noted Indian Chief,” San Diego Union, 3 May 1874, 3.
33. Oliver M. Wozencraft, “A Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Made and Concluded at the Village of Santa Isabel, California, Between the United States Indian Agent, O.M. Wozencraft, of the One Part, and the Captains and Headmen of the Nation of Dieguino Indians, January 7, 1852.” In: U.S. Congress, House of Representatives Document No. 76, 34th Congress, 3rd Session, Indian Affairs of the Pacific (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress, 1857), pp. 130-133.
34. There seems to be a discrepancy in the order of signators to the treaty based on a volume by Robert F. Heizer, The Eighteen Unratified Treaties of t1851-1852 between the California Indians and the United States Government, 1972, Archaeological Research Facility, University of California Berkeley, pp. 63-64. Heizer shows Santiago to be first on the list and “Pantho of San Pascual” to be thirteenth on the list. I am going by the 1857 House of Representatives document cited above.
35. George Harwood Phillips, Chiefs and Challengers: Indian Resistance and Cooperation in Southern California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 138.
36. John Walton Caughey (ed.), The Indians of Southern California in 1852: The B.D. Wilson Report and a Selection of Contemporary Comment (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1952), 132.
37. The debauchery of the Indians, particularly the women, at San Pasqual is put in a curiously romantic light in an article on Judge Oliver S. Witherby. See Leland G. Stanford, “Devil’s Corner and Oliver S. Witherby,” Journal of San Diego History 24 (Spring 1978): 245-247.
38. H.S. Burton, “Letter from Captain H.S. Burton to Major E.D. Townsend, January 27, 1856,” in: U.S. Congress, House of Representatives Document No. 76, 34th Congress, 3rd Session, Indian Affairs of the Pacific (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress, 1857), pp. 114-117. A certain confusion over who was chief at the time, Panto or Tomas, is found in Richard A. Carrico, Strangers in a Stolen Land: American Indians in San Diego, 1850-1880 (Newcastle, CA: Sierra Oaks Publishing, 1987), 54. Carrico stated, “In June 1856, Burton met with Chief Tomas of San Pasqual…” whereas in the referenced document Chief Tomas is identified as the “chief of the San Diego Indians.”
39. Santiago Arguello, “Untitled letter in support of the San Pascual Indians, January 2, 1856,” in: U.S. Congress, House of Representatives Document No. 76, 34th Congress, 3rd Session, Indian Affairs of the Pacific (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress, 1857), 117.
40. 1860 U.S. Census, San Diego County, California. Information on Panto at San Pascual is found under the San Diego Township section (pp.17-20), whereas he also appears under the Agua Caliente Township records for Mesa Grande (pg. 87). “Jose Panto” is shown as “Capt. tribe” in each case, but his age differs by 10 years for which I can offer no explanation since it appears to be the same individual, George W. Barnes, doing the recording. The informatin concerning Panto’s holdings in each location appears on page 2 (line 33) of Schedule 4, “Production of Agriculture in San Diego Township,” for San Pascual and page 6 (line 30), “Production of Agriculture in Agua Caliente Township,” for Mesa Grande. The dates attributed to the information reported in these two census entries are over a month apart, i.e., June 27, 1860 for San Pascual and July 31, 1860 for Mesa Grande.
41. Robert F. Heizer (ed.), Some Last Century Accounts of the Indians of Southern California (Ramona, CA: Ballena Press, 1976), 71-73.
42. This is the only case I know of in which this form is given.
43. Heizer, Some Last Century Accounts…, 54-56.
44. Richard L. Carrico, “The Struggle for Native American Self Determination in San Diego County,” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 299-213.
45. Mary Rockwood Peet, San Pasqual: A Crack in the Hills (Culver City, CA: The Highland Press, 1949), 90-91.
46. San Diego Union, 3 May 1874. Although Hayes (Documentos pare la Historia de California) correctly gave April 27, 1874 as the date of Panto’s death, some confusion crept into the record due to a published statement by Arthur Woodward (“Notes on the Indians of San Diego County, From the Manuscripts of Judge Benjamin Hayes,” The Masterkey, 1934, Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 140-150) that the article about Panto’s death said it occurred on May 4, 1874. What actually happened was that the daily version of the San Diego Times published the article on Sunday, May 3. The “Monday last” would therefore be April 27. However, there was a weekly version of the Times published on Thursdays. The following Thursday edition, May 7, 1874, printed exactly the same article without clarifying what was meant by “Monday last” and this led to Woodward’s assumption that May 4 was the date of death.
47. Glenn J. Farris, “Jose Panto, Capitan of the Indian Pueblo of San Pascual, Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 1994, Vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 149-161. This article lacked certain crucial information since obtained by the author and included in the current article.
48. Reading the actual court case, there were three Indian males, Isidore, Isidro, and Pedro Juan, identified as having illegally occupied a 40 acre parcel of land (the NE 1/4 of the SW1/4, section 34, T12S, R1W, San Bernardino Base and Meridian) since January 1876. This land was claimed by W.P. Bevington. In the court records, it appears that the Indians were denied the opportunity to speak for themselves by the simple act of the attorney for the plaintiff (Bevington) moving to “strike out the answer of defendants. Judgment, 18th District court, County of San Diego, W.P. Bevington, Plaintiff v. Isadore, an Indian et al., Defendants, Filed February 4, 1878 (San Diego: San Diego History Center). Richard Crawford, San Diego History Center, kindly supplied me with a copy of this record.
49. Marjorie M. Rustvold, “San Pasqual Valley, Rancheria to Greenbelt” 134.
50. This map is found in the master’s thesis, “San Pasqual Valley…” by Marjorie Rustvold. The original was said to have come from a report by Billington Crum Whiting, “Annual Report: California for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1869,” (San Francisco: Frances and Valentine Commercial Printing House).
51. D. & J. Sadlier, Sadlier’s Catholic Directory, Almanac and Ordo, (New York: D.& J. Sadlier & Co., 1867), 242.
52. For more on Fr. Ubach, see Edgar W. Hebert, “Last of the Padres,” San Diego Historical Society Quarterly 10 (April 1964): 15-23.
53. See the recently published Tales of Mexican California, by Antonio Coronel, edited by Doyce B. Nunis, Jr. (Santa Barbara: Bellerophon Books, 1994), for more of Coronel’s observations.
54. Fr. Ubach to A. F. Coronel, 8 January 1883. Helen Hunt Jackson papers, Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO.
Glenn Farris is an historical archaeologist with the California Department of Parks and Recreation based in Sacramento. He received a doctorate in Anthropology from the University of California, Davis in 1982. His job has involved him in projects in many parts of the state. His work on Jose Panto was awarded first prize for the Copley Library Award in the 1993 San Diego Historical Society Institute of History. His main areas of interest are ethnohistory, the history and archaeology of the California missions, and the Russian-American Company.