Kumeyaay , << KOO mee eye, >> are a Native American people of what is now southern California and northeastern Mexico. Their ancestors have lived in the region, as far east as the Colorado River Valley, for thousands of years. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo became the first European explorer to encounter Kumeyaay people in 1542. Cabrillo was leading the first European expedition to explore the coast of what is now California. His expedition met the Kumeyaay near what is now San Diego. Spanish settlers often called the Indians the Diegueño. This name comes from Mission San Diego de Alcalá, a Christian religious center established in the area in 1769.
Traditionally, Kumeyaay lived by hunting animals, fishing, and gathering wild plant foods. Families were organized into several clans. The clans maintained complex family, religious, and military relationships among Kumeyaay settlements.
Kumeyaay resisted Spanish missionaries and settlers for many years. On Nov. 4, 1775, local Kumeyaay warriors attacked Mission San Diego , burning it to the ground. Following the Mexican War (1846-1848), the border between Mexico and the United States was drawn through Kumeyaay lands. Many Kumeyaay died as a result of disease and of massacres by American settlers. Kumeyaay lands in the United States were later broken up into reservations. Today, about 4,000 Kumeyaay live in the United States, mostly on reservations spread throughout San Diego County.
In 2006, members of the Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee sued the University of California to recover the skeletal remains of two individuals excavated at La Jolla in 1976. The remains are dated to about 9,500 years ago. Many Native Americans believe that the excavatiion of burials and analysis of remains is disrespectful and disturbs the spirits of the dead. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) requires institutions receiving federal money to repatriate (return) human remains and grave items to Native American tribes if the tribes can prove that the remains are affiliated with their culture. In 2008, a university committee determined that cultural affiliation with the Kumeyaay could not be established for the ancient skeletons and so they would not be repatriated. However, in 2011, the university abruptly announced that the skeletons would be given to representatives of the La Posta Band of the Kumeyaay for reburial. Anthropologists with the university filed a lawsuit to prevent the transfer, claiming further study was needed. In 2016, the United States Supreme Court refused to grant an appeal on the matter, leaving the skeletons to be returned to the Kumeyaay.
See also Mission San Diego de Alcalá .
