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Jose Panto, Captian of the Indian Pueblo of San Pascual (15 pages)
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Page: of 15
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158 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY
many cases unable to redeem it. They have
therefore litthke encouragement to work or to
raise stock. Nor do they care to plant fruit-trees
or grape-vines as long as land thus improved
may be taken from them, as has been the case in
very many instances. Among the little homes
included in the pre-emption claim above referred
to are those adorned with trees and vines. Instead of feeling secure and happy in the possession of what little is left to them, they are
continually filled with anxiety. They claim that
they ought to be allowed to remain where their
forefathers have lived for so long, and that they
should be protected by law in the peaceful
possession of the homes that have been handed
down to them.
I asked them how they would like for their
children to go to school, learn to speak the
English language, and to live more like white
people. It would be very nice, they replied, but
it would do them little good if they could not
have their homes protected.
I asked them how they would like to be
moved to some place where they could be better
protected, have ground of their own secured to
them, and more comfortable homes. The answer was, ‘‘Our fathers lived and died here, and
we would rather live here than at any other
place.”’
In conclusion I assured them that I should
report what I had learned about them, and that
I had little doubt but that the Government at
Washington would be able to do something to
better their condition, charging them at the same
time to strive, as I felt they had been doing, to
keep the peace among themselves and with the
whites.
At San Pasqual and Agua Caliente I was
called upon by white settlers, the majority of
whom had no good word for their dusky neighbors. ‘‘They are thieves; they are treacherous;
they are vagabonds.’’ It was urged that they
should be taken to some one of the Territories
and surrounded by soldiers to keep them at
home, or to some island in the sea. I found,
however, little in my journey to confirm such
opinions, but was glad to note many indications
of thrift. I could but wonder, indeed, that they
are as reliable, honest, and peaceable as I found
them to be. The sentiments entertained by very
many white men in Southern California toward
the Indians are well illustrated in the conclusion
to which the proprietor of a small ranch near
Temecula came in presenting the subject to me
from his stand-point. It is well to mention that
a family of Indians has occupied one corner of
his ranch ‘‘from time immemorial.’’ His wise
and humane conclusion was that the owners of
large ranches should not drive “‘their Indians’’
away, but should keep them to work for them,
and set apart certain portions of the ranch for
them. ‘‘There is worthless land enough upon
every ranch,’’ he said, ‘‘for Indians to live on’”’
[Heizer 1976:54-56].
Panto was actively involved in the activities
of that time (late 1860s and early 1870s) to persuade the U. S. government to recognize the
rights of Indians (Carrico 1980), and was
preparing to go to Washington to plead his case:
The old man [Panto] had important papers
from the Mexican government showing that San
Pasqual was intended for an Indian reservation.
He was preparing to make a trip to Washington,
D.C., to present these papers and try to have
our government set aside San Pasqual as an
Indian reservation when he was suddenly killed
by a kick of a vicious horse [Peet 1949:90-91].
Panto died at San Pasqual on April 27,
1874. His obituary (San Diego Union 1874:3)
read:?
Death of a Noted Indian Chief
On Monday last, at San Pascual, Panto, the
venerable chief of that village, was thrown from
a horse and died instantly. The old settlers of
Southern California will remember him for his
polite manners and good character. Under the
Mexican rule he always had the confidence of
the authorities, and was often called upon to aid
them in pursuit of malefactors. He commanded
at San Pascual at the time of the battle of Gen.
Kearney with the native Californians. He then
had considerable property in cattle and horses,
and loaned Commodore Stockton a number of
oxen and horses, when the latter started his
march to Los Angeles. Panto was never remunerated for these animals by our government.
His land at San Pascual had always been respected--and in fact did constitute a regularly
organized pueblo--until within the past year or
so. Now that Panto, who governed his people
so well, is gone, it is believed that they will not
linger long upon their old planting ground.
The final expulsion of the Indians from San
Pasqual was described by S. F. Wood:
In 1878 the Superior court of San Diego