The Inborn Names Of The Morongo Reservation - 1437 Words

Set at the extremity of the striking San Gorgonio and San Jacinto Mountains, the Morongo Indian Reservation extends more than 35,000 acres and overlooks the desert vistas of the Banning Pass. Wild buckwheat, mesquite and chaparral still flourish here, and the ubiquitous breeze ensures that the air is always fresh and clear. One of the inborn names of the Morongo Reservation was Malki, and it was located in what was once called the Wanikik territory. In the mid-19th century, the Serrano people to the north began journeying to the Malki settlement. They brought with them the Morongo name derivative from the Serrano name for their people, Maringayam. Since the late 19th century, the Morongo Reservation has been tenanted by a mix of Cahuilla, Serrano, Luiseno and Cupeno people. Irrepressible and ingenious, the Morongo tribe has overcome many hardships. The Morongo Reservation was one of nine small reservations set aside by President Grant by Executive Order in 1865. The lands taken into trust by the federal government did not include land with access to surface water. Accordingly, tribal members had to travel miles each day just to acquire water and to forage for food. Through their industriousness and capability to survive in an unstable physical and political environment, the Morongo tribe began a small bingo venture in 1983. On February 25, 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that neither the state of California nor Riverside County could control the bingo and card