The Temecula and Pauma Massacres of Eighteen Forty Six

In the final months of eighteen forty six, in the chaos of the Mexican-American War, a series of violent events in the hills near Temecula left dozens of Luiseño people dead. The sequence began at a place called Pauma, where a group of Luiseño men killed eleven Californio lancers. The Luiseño had grievances: the lancers had treated indigenous people in the area with violence and contempt, and the killings at Pauma were an act of retaliation in a region where Luiseño people had been abused for years.

The reprisal was swift and catastrophic. A force of Californio soldiers traveled to the Temecula Ranchería, the indigenous village in the valley, and killed a large number of Luiseño people. The exact toll has never been firmly established.

Contemporary accounts and later investigations have suggested figures ranging from roughly forty to more than one hundred people killed. The violence was directed at a community, not combatants. Women and older men were among the dead.

These events are sometimes called the Pauma and Temecula Massacre. They occurred as the old order of Mexican California was collapsing under American military pressure, and as Luiseño communities were caught between powers whose conflict had nothing to do with them. The Luiseño community endured.

The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, whose ancestors lived through this period, holds the memory of what happened in eighteen forty six as part of its history of a people who survived circumstances designed to destroy them.