HABITAT OF THE COAHUILLAS 33 



were driven from the San Timoteo canon in the forties by the ravages 

 of small-pox, and the first reservation to be met now, as one rides east- 

 ward through the pass where they once held sway, is below Banning, 

 at Potrero, a fertile spot, irrigated by the water from a canon of Mount 

 San Gorgonio. Here live several hundred Coahuillas and Serranos 

 who have considerably intermarried the ancient antipathy having 

 broken down. A few miles into the desert from the White Water, 

 sheltered on the west by the lofty summit of the San Jacinto and on 

 the east by a friendly spur of the same range, is Palm Valley. About 

 a famous thermal spring there is a little oasis in the sand where has 

 long been located a rancheria of the Coahuillas, known as Agua Caliente. 

 Pushing around the spur that forms the eastern wall of this nook and 

 following the line of the mountains along the old stage road through 

 Indio to Yuma, one comes to "Indian Wells." Fifty years ago, when 

 the Pacific Railroad Survey passed through this valley, this site was a 

 notable village. Mr. Blake in his report comments especially on the 

 wells and the villages here, where the expedition camped. 1 Now the 

 site has long been abandoned. The burned stumps of the framework 

 of houses stick up above the sand in the openings between the mesquite 

 clumps. Everywhere there are quantities of broken bits of pottery, as 

 tough as when first baked. There are many flat grinding stones for 

 milling seeds and an occasional fine stone pestle, seventeen or eighteen 

 inches long, that was used for pounding mesquite beans. But the 

 Indian occupants have fled. 



There is a small village at Indio and a few miles east, the very 

 interesting rancheria of Cabeson, furtherest of any across the valley 

 and not far from the slopes of the San Bernadino mountains, into which 

 the women of this village range for the plants they need. Southward 

 and in the very center of the plain is La Mesa, hidden in the mesquite 

 and with splendid, typically dug, wells. Further on and close under 

 the shadows of the eastern ranges of San Jacinto are Torres and 

 Martinez, while still further on are Alamo and Agua Dulce. These 

 names, it will be noticed, are Spanish and have obtained universal 

 currency among Indians and whites, but the old Coahuilla place-names 

 are still treasured by some of the Indians. Potrero is Mal-ki; Agua 

 Caliente, Se-chi; Indio, Pal te-wat (" water and pine tree") ; Cabeson, 

 Pal se-ta (" alkali water ") ; La Mesa, Temal-wa-hish (" the dry ground " 

 a name often used by the mountain Indians for the desert in general) ; 

 Martinez, So-kut Men-yil ("deer, moon" so-called, as explained to me 



i-Pacific Railroad Survey, Vol. V. 



