Pictographs, Clark Valley
ANZA-BORREGO NORTH :
NATIVE AMERICAN SITES
Historically, most of Anza-Borrego North was the territory of the Mountain
Cahuilla. The Cupeño inhabited the area around what is now Warner
When the Mountain Cahuilla left the Santa Rosas, they unfortunately left
little or no evidence of their village sites. While anthropologists have
been able to conduct interviews and write several good books on Mountain
Cahuilla life, the visitor to their territory can for the most part only
imagine what it took to survive here.
The trails would have been trade routes. We know that the village of Natcuta
stood somewhere near where White Wash joins Horse
Canyon. The village of Ataki was about 10 tough miles up White Wash,
over the mountains, and down to Hidden Spring in Jackass Flat near Rockhouse
Canyon. On his expeditions to Monterey and San Francisco, Anza passed
through what was then the village of Pauki.
Schad identifies Alcoholic Pass as
an original Indian route. Hikers who walk up Palo
Verde Wash past the Moly mine to the Natural Sheep Tanks cross the old
Cahuilla trail to Wonderstone Wash
which leads to further Cahuilla trails.
It goes without saying that trails connected the villages of Natcuta in
Horse Canyon, Pauki near Anza, Wiliya and Nauhanavitcem in Fig Tree Valley,
Tcia near Alder Canyon, Pat-cha-wal or San Ignacio, Hokwitka on the Middle
Fork of Borrego Palm Canyon, and Ho-la-kal or San Ysidro on San Ysidro Creek
on the west slope of San Ysidro Mountain.