Editor’s note:  This is the second in a series of articles about the prehistoric people who occupied the Ramona Valley for thousands of years. The author, Richard L. Carrico, is a Ramona resident and a well-known archaeologist/historian. For more information on local tribal prehistory and history, see Carrico’s  book “Strangers in a Stolen Land,” published by Sunbelt Publications.

After thousands of years of prehistoric tribal life, it is hard to imagine the impact that Spanish colonialization had on our local tribes. Exactly when the Ipai and Tipai Indians of Ramona Valley first saw a Spanish soldier or missionary is uncertain. It is clear that the hundreds of villagers had heard of bearded men in the eastern deserts from their relatives and trading partners near the Colorado River well before they were contacted by the explorers.  
Historians believe that some of the devastating diseases brought to California by the Spaniards began to affect local Indians decades before Mission San Diego was established in 1769. These diseases, smallpox and measles, were carried by native people to the east who had contact with the Spaniards in Arizona and Sonora.
Pa’mu, the largest village in the Ramona area, first appeared in military records on March 22, 1776, when Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada marched through the Santa Maria Valley and recorded a field of wheat. This wheat crop, the first in Ramona, most likely came from contact with the Colorado River Quechan and not from the meager seed crop at the mission. The Ipai had probably added wheat to the native food supply that included acorns, buckwheat, chia, chokecherry, and other nuts and seeds.
The Indians of Ramona, like many Ipai and Tipai people, resisted Spanish colonization and initially refused to acknowledge Spanish claims to the area.  At first, the Ipai and Tipai also rejected the attempts to convert them to Catholicism, preferring their ancient traditional religious beliefs and practices.  Most of the Ipai and Tipai creation stories, deities and rituals were strongly opposed by Spanish missionaries, including Father Junipero Serra.  From their outpost in Mission Valley, Spanish priests sent soldiers to deface and destroy the rock paintings used by Indians in their rituals.
In 1778, the Santa María Valley was the scene of one of the few Spanish military expeditions launched against local tribes. In April 1778, a small squad of soldiers under the command of Mariano Carrillo attacked Pa’mu, also called Pamo, which was then located east of the airport within what is now the Ramona Grasslands. The pair of springs known as ‘Aquaaqawk (twin springs) were perceived by the Ipai to be a male and female spring and the waters form the springs were reportedly used to affect the sex of an unborn child.
More than 25 adjacent villages or place names were listed as associated with Pa’mu.  This indicates that Pa’mu was a leader amongst these villages.
During a brief skirmish, at least two Indians were killed outright and Carrillo, as one historian dryly reported, they “burned a few who refused to come out of the hut in which they had taken refuge.”  Carrillo’s forces reportedly captured 80 bows, 1,500 arrows and an unspecified number of macanas (clubs), hardly a threatening arms cache for a village of over 200 that depended in large part on hunting for subsistence.  
In spite of their denials of plotting an insurrection, five Indian leaders were summarily flogged on the spot and four alleged rebels, Jaran, sometimes written as Aaron; Jachil, sometimes glossed as Achil; Jalcurin, sometimes spelled as Aalcurin, and Taguagui were shackled and marched to the presidio in Mission Valley for further interrogation.  The fourth leader, known as Taguagui, or Tabaco, received his Catholic baptism as last rites on May 16, 1778, while being held prisoner.  
From that first baptism in 1778 to the last in 1835, with most taking place in 1779-1785, Pa’mu gradually came under Spanish influence. Over a period of 60 years, 149 villagers were baptized and duly recorded in the mission records.  Family or clan names included Cuiur, Llachap (LaChappa), Cuchil and Metehuir (Duro). Some children were taken to the far off mission to be raised, but most Pa’mu villagers stayed in the Santa María Valley.
The Mexican-American War of 1846-48 was a time of change for local tribes; it was clear to many Ipai and Tipai that the Americans would soon vanquish the Mexicans. In 1846, the people of Pa’mu and other nearby Ipai villages witnessed the march of Stephen W. Kearny and his Army troops through the Santa María Valley on their way to defeat at the Battle of San Pasqual. In spite of that ill-fated battle, California slipped from the grip of the Mexico and a new era began for the Ipai and Tipai.
With increased settlement in Santa María Valley in the 1860s, Indian lands were not recognized by the federal government and the Indians of Ramona either married into Mexican or American families or resettled further northeast at Mesa Grande or Santa Ysabel.  Many Indian worked on local ranches as vaqueros or as laborers.  With the establishment of the Mesa Grande Reservation in 1875, most of Pa’mu and surrounding villages, including San Pasqual, relocated there.
The final segment of this three-part series will focus on the backcountry reservations and the cultural persistence of the Ipai and Tipai people.