Ancestors of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians settled in the Palm Springs area centuries ago and developed complex communities in the Palm, Murray, Andreas, Tahquitz, Snow Creek and Chino Canyons. Mirroring the migration stories of the Cahuilla, archaeological research has proven that humans have occupied the Tahquitz Canyon area for at least 2,000 years.
The Cahuilla and most other Tribes of the area belong to the Shoshonean division of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic family. Tribes in this group range from the Aztecs of Mexico to the Hopi, Papago and Pima of Arizona, the Ute of Colorado and other nearby regional Tribes, including the Serrano, Cupeño and Gabrielino. The Cahuilla people lived in villages, and several villages together made up a larger political and territorial unit called a tribelet, or sib. Each sib was divided into lineages, which consisted of both nuclear and extended families. Cahuilla society was also divided into two groups, or moieties, known as Wildcat and Coyote.
The Cahuilla Indian name for the Palm Springs area was Sec-he (boiling water); the Spanish in turn named it Agua Caliente (hot water). Later came the name "Palm Springs" in reference to both the native Washingtonia filifera palm tree and the Agua Caliente Hot Spring. The hot spring waters provided the Cahuilla with clean water, a place for bathing, and a connection point with a spiritual underworld populated by nukatem, or ancient sacred beings. The hot spring's waters were also utilized for healing purposes, as they are even today.
The ceremonial life of the Cahuilla was a rich and varied one. Elaborate ceremonies marked every important milestone of the individual's life and embellished the life of the group. Today, remnants of traditional Cahuilla society like rock art, house-pits and foundations, irrigation ditches, dams, reservoirs, trails, and food preparation areas still exist in the canyons. Villages were occupied all year, with one or more people leaving when necessary to hunt, gather plants, visit or trade. The most extensive absences from the villages were associated with harvesting or collecting basic food staples. At those times, one-half to two-thirds of a village moved to a collecting area and camped for one to several weeks.
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is comprised of smaller groups that were living in the Palm Springs area at the time the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation was established in the nineteenth century. This area, and the area surrounding the nearby hot spring, was the home of the Kauisik clan. The Panik clan lived in Andreas and Murray Canyons, and the Wanikik clan lived in Snow Creek and Whitewater Canyons. In ancient times, lower Palm Canyon was occupied by the Ahchechem clan. That area was eventually gifted to the Kauisik clan when the Ahchechem people moved to the Indian Wells area.
Crops in the Agua Caliente area were irrigated by water from nearby streams. Remnants of these rock-lined irrigation ditches from Tahquitz, Andreas, and Chino Creeks are still visible in areas untouched by development. Archival documentation from the mid-1880s tells of elderly Indians' remembrance of their parents working on these ditches when they were very young. Women of the band were responsible for gathering all of the plants that were used for food. Some of the basic food plants were acorns, mesquite beans, seeds of all kinds, wild fruit, agave and yucca. In addition, the Cahuilla had an extensive trade system with neighboring Tribes. Food, shells, animal and mineral products were traded with the Tribes of the surrounding areas.
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