Tribe: The Kumeyaay, which includes the Ipai, the Tipai and the Kamia tribes. They were formerly known as the Diegueno, the name given to them by the Spanish missionaries.
Meaning of Name: "Kumeyaay" means "Those who face the water from the cliff," which is probably a reference to the cliffs of La Jolla, Del Mar and Point Loma. "Ipai" and "Tipai" mean "People." I don't know what "Kamia" means.
Location: San Diego coastline on the west, north to Oceanside, east of the Salton Sea, to south of Ensenada, Mexico. They have lived in the area since 10,000 BC. In about 7000 BC, after the Pleistocene Era, the cultures of the Chumash, Kumeyaay and the desert Patayan (Quechan) tribes merged and openly traded with each other.
Original Language: Yuman, of the Hokan linguistic family.
Tribal Affiliations: Seemed to be friendly with all neighboring tribes.
Traditional Enemies: The Spanish, the Mexicans and the Americans.
Traditional Style of Housing: Dome-like houses made of willow branches, like the Chumash' houses, either with or without ribs from beached whales, since the Kumeyaay didn't have seaworthy boats for harpooning whales in the open ocean like the Chumash did.
Traditional Attire: Even thousands of years ago, the people of what was later San Diego County were imitating the people of what was later Los Angeles. Like the Chumash, the men went naked except for a woven agave belt for holding hunting tools. The women wore willow-bark skirts, bangs, and woven hats. Body art was common, as were wearing sandals or going barefoot.
Traditional Foods: Those Kumeyaay who lived on the coast fished for bass, bonefish, halibut, seal, oysters, clams, grunion, squid, mussels, abalone, crab, and gathered seaweed and whatever edible greenery and process-able acorns that they could find on the coast. Those Kumeyaay who lived inland or in the mountains caught and ate snakes, possum, ducks, deer, rat, kangaroo mice, gophers, voles, bats, ground squirrel, chipmunk, grasshoppers (which, roasted, taste like asparagus or green beans), cactus, pinyon nuts, cactus fruit, sagebrush (for seasoning), wild peppers, prickly pears, and acorn mush. Acorn mush, by the way, reportedly tastes nutty and can be eaten hot as a porridge or cold as a cross between pudding and bread. Probably best when sweetened with wild honey or milkweed nectar. The women grew squash, beans, and corn. They were probably herbalists, as well, considering their access to manzanita, sagebrush and laurel sumac which could be used for medicinal herbal teas, and cacti, the slime of which soothed sunburn, which you can get in San Diego, even on a cloudy day.
Position of Women: Descent is patrilineal and the main power base was male, but women could also be the shaman, doctors, scientists and secondary leaders. They also did the childcare, gathering, food-preparation, clothing production, basket-weaving, minor hunting and medicinal cures preparation.
Kumeyaay Courtship: Like the Chumash, the Kumeyaay don't seem to advertise their courtship patterns.
Interesting Tidbits: The Kumeyaay did their fishing from light canoes made of tule, a sort of bulrush that was used for making just about everything from baskets to boats to skirts to hats.... Like the Chumash, they used Olivella shells as currency.
Traditional Religion: traditional tribal religion and (reluctantly) Catholicism.
Slavery and the Kumeyaay: The Kumeyaay were too far south to be tapped for the slave-trade by the Mojave, the Chumash and the other slave-trading nations. However, the Kumeyaay were enslaved by the Spanish missionaries to work on their buildings and farms, and by the Mexicans to work on their ranches and fields and homes as unpaid domestic servants, and by the Americans, who were probably just as brutal, if not more-so, than the Spanish and the Mexicans.
Current Population: There are more than 3,000 registered Kumeyaay.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: Casinos.
Famous Kumeyaay: None.
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