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Jose Panto, Captian of the Indian Pueblo of San Pascual (15 pages)
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Page: of 15
JOSE PANTO 153
an account related in the notes of Judge Benjamin Hayes (Woodward 1934:150) and attributed to Panto himself:
On one occasion a sheepherder was murdered
by Indians in the vicinity of Panto’s village.
The capitan raised a posse of his men and
trailed the murderers to their hiding place, a
patch of brush and weeds on the heights of San
Alejo. Panto set fire to the brush and burned
the culprits alive. Thereafter he was sometimes
known as ‘‘el quemador de los Indios’’ (the
Indian burner).
It is certainly possible that these various
descriptions are of the same event. If so, this
provides a definite date for the occurrence. Alvarado’s comment is also important because it
places Panto in the position of ‘‘chief’’ (jefe) of
the San Pascual Indians as early as 1837.
In April 1841, some Mexican officials,
under the direction of Pio Pico, visited various
Indian pueblos near San Diego to appoint alcaldes. At San Pascual, they appointed Juan Flojo
and Antonio Solano (Hayes 1874:No. 149).
These civil appointments by the Mexican authorities apparently did not affect the position of
capitan held by Panto.° On September 10,
1845, a Mexican named Bonifacio Lopez initiated a petition to Governor Pio Pico to be
granted the lands of the San Pascual Pueblo:
that it being a notorious fact, that the Indians of
San Diego who joined themselves to make a settlement and for which purpose a tract of land
was granted to them known by the name of San
Pascual, have made no progress, but on the contrary daily go into decay, and instead of organizing themselves to form a pueblo and in some
measure improve the same, it appears from their
conduct that the only thing they do is to receive
the thefts that are committed in those regions.
In this manner they intend to support themselves, and with the tolerance of some of their
class who are wont to join them, some evils are
regularly experienced; on the other hand as they
are wicked from their birth and do not desire to
live in any other way I am persuaded that they
could never make any progress nor improve the
land whereon they live. For this reason, and
with the assurance that your Excellency desires
the advancement of the country and its inhabitants, never omitting a step to obtain it even to
the removal of all impediments, I request that
considering the necessity I am in for a place
whereon to establish myself and improve my
limited means which by dint of hard labor I have
obtained for the support of my family, you will
be pleased to grant me the tract of San Pascual
herein mentioned, giving assurances that I shall
not molest the few Indians who with their families are established there, but on the contrary
they will be protected by me as far as I am able
{Spanish Archives n.d.:8:50].
In response, Pico sent the subprefect of the
district (partido) of San Diego to investigate
conditions there. Following is the illuminating
report of his visit on September 23, 1845:
This settlement comprises sixty-one Christian souls, and forty-four unconverted Indians,
with dwellings after their manner, huts of tule
forming a kind of irregular Plazuela [a small
square], the police thereof is under the care of
an alcalde of the Christian residents appointed by
the First Alcalde’s Court of this place, and of
the unconverted Capitan Panto.® All the plain
formed by the arroyo is occupied by their summer gardens, agreeably to the partition of lands
made to them upon the foundation thereof, and
the remaining portion of the Cafiada is sowed in
those years that the arroyo [Santa Ysabel Creek]
runs, with wheat; this is observed by the signs
of the water marks in the ditches; Also the
space that remains as far as the boundary of San
Bernardo where they sow corn and beans. They
brought before me 42 head of meat cattle, 52
horses, without including those that have been
taken further up to work, ten head of smaller
animals, 25 cows bearing their young, on halves
during five years and 120 sheep on halves
during those years, in charge of the Capitan
Panto.
By the emendations on the map Your Excellency will perceive that they have no other land
for cultivation than the Cafiada formed by the
arroyo as far as the boundary of San Bernardo
which may contain so far as El Cajon E. to W.
one league more or less and one thousand varas
in width considering the irregularity of the
Cajiada and the table land of Pamo where they
keep their stock, and cultivate the soil during the
years when there is an abundance of water. All
the rest is composed of quite rough land, and as
the petitioner himself says that he will not molest