The local Luiseño Indians were known as hunters and gatherers. They hunted for such animals as black bear, snakes, rodents, coyote, rabbits, birds and fish. They made straw baskets from wild grasses, constructed clay containers and gathered acorns, seeds, wild berries and roots for food. These Native Americans were very clean, and used the hot waters in the Temescal Canyon to bathe on a daily basis and as part of their religious ceremonies. (Current residents and visitors still enjoy the rejuvenating mud baths and hot springs at the Glen Ivy resort.) Luiseño religious ceremonies were strictly followed and remnants of some of their artistic pictographs and petroglyphs can still be found on some of the rocks in the undeveloped areas.
These Indian tribes came under the influence of the Spanish settlers at the Mission San Luis Rey, and they were given the name Luiseño. As Spanish settlement progressed inland, the land soon was taken over by Spanish ranchos. Sheep and cattle dotted the hills from ranchos run by the Serrano, Cot, Sepulveda and Botiller families. Remnants of the Serrano tanning vats are still found on Old Temescal Canyon Road. This is also the route that was taken by the Butterfield Stage Route that brought many Americans to California along the southern route between 1858 and 1861. Plaques marking the sites of Indian petroglyphs, the Butterfield Stage stops and the Serrano adobes are still found along this road.
**The above information was written by by Gloria Scott Freel, Former Heritage Room Supervisor, Corona Public Library
The southernmost Shoshonean division in California, which received its name from San Luis Rey, the most important Spanish mission in the territory of these people. They form one linguistic group with the Aguas Calientes, Juaneños, and Kawia. They extended along the coast from between San Onofre and Las Animas creeks, far enough south to include Aguas Hedionda, San Marcos, Escondido, and Valley Center. Inland they extended north beyond San Jacinto river, and into Temescal creek; but they were cut off from the San Jacinto divide by the Diegueños, Aguas Calientes, Kawia, and Serranos. The former inhabitants of San Clemente island also are said to have been Luiseños, and the same was possibly the case with those of San Nicolas island. Their population was given in 1856 (Ind. Aff. Rep., 243) as between 2,500 and 2,800; in 1870, as 1,299; in 1885, as 1,142. Most of them were subsequently placed on small reservations included under the Mission Tule River agency, and no separate tribal count has been made. Their villages, past and present, are Ahuanga, Apeche, Bruno's Village, La Joya, Las Flores, Pala, Pauma, Pedro's Village, (?) Potrero, Rincon, Saboba, San Luis Rey (mission), Santa Margarita (?), Temecula, and Wahoma. Taylor (Cal. Farmer, May 11, 1860) gives the following list of villages in the neighborhood of San Luis Rey mission, some of which may be identical with t:hose here recorded: Cenyowpreskel, Ehutewa, Enekelkawa, Hamechuwa, Hatawa, Hepowwoo, Itaywiy, Itukemuk, Milkwanen, Mokaskel, and Mootaevuhew.
