Historical Tribal Connections to the Barstow area
Recently, two tribes opposing proposed tribal-state gaming compacts that would allow for a dual-tribe gaming project in the City of Barstow, the San Manual Band of Serrano Mission Indians and the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, have separately claimed that the compacts should not be approved because Barstow is their “aboriginal territory.” (The Chemeheuvi Tribe wants its own project in Barstow.) The claims of these tribes are not supported by historical scholarship.

For more than a century the Indians of southern California have been thoroughly researched by renowned historians and anthropologists. Professionals with the well-respected historical research firm Historical Research Associates have reviewed historical and anthropological studies written before Indian gaming even existed. The pre-gaming scholarship confirms the following facts:

• According to a 1925 map published by pre-eminent California
  anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, Barstow is squarely within the aboriginal territory of the Vanyume Indians.
• The Vanyume Indians’ numbers began to dwindle in the 1820s until the
  Vanyume effectively became extinct by 1900. There is no modern tribe that can legitimately claim the Barstow area as its aboriginal territory.
• The Vanyume Indians were “a linguistic sub-group” of the Serrano Indians,
  but they were considered to be a separate and distinct group from the main Serrano Indians (i.e., were a different group than the ancestors of the modern San Manuel Band).
• There are several tribes that have survived into the modern era whose
  aboriginal territories existed around the perimeter of the Vanyume territory:
  • The aboriginal territories of the Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians (of which the membership of the modern Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians is composed) were located just to the south of the Vanyume’s territory. (In fact, Los Coyotes is nearly 50 miles closer to Barstow than the Chemehuevi Tribe.)
  • The aboriginal territory of the Chemehuevi Indians (of which the membership of the modern Chemehuevi Tribe is composed) was located to the west of the Vanyume’s territory.
  • The aboriginal territory of the Serrano proper Indians (of which the membership of the modern San Manual Rancheria is composed) also was located to the south of the Vanyume’s territory.

In short, the City of Barstow is not located within the aboriginal territory of any modern tribe. Several tribes that have survived into the modern era, however, were neighbors of the Vanyume, including Los Coyotes, Chemehuevi, and San Manual.