Stonewall Peak
Elizabeth Schalo
April 13, 2021
Kumeyaay History II
Research Paper
At 5,700 feet, Stonewall Peak looms large over Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. One of the most popular hikes in the park, Stonewall Peak offers breathtaking views of Cuyamaca Lake to the north, the Laguna Mountains to the east, and Cuyamaca Peak to the west. Between Stonewall Peak and Lake Cuyamaca lies the Stonewall Mine, formerly Stonewall Jackson Mine, of which Stonewall Peak is named. Stonewall Peak begot its current name after the Confederate general, Stonewall Jackson. Before the mine was constructed, before gold was discovered in San Diego, before the Civil War, and before Europeans sailed to San Diego Bay, Stonewall Peak cut through the sky above the landscape, providing not just breathtaking views, but also valuable natural resources to the people of the land, the Kumeyaay. Thousands of Kumeyaay people continue to live, work, and recreate on the land that is now known as San Diego County. Stonewall Peak is a monument of the Confederacy while much Kumeyaay history and presence has been erased by Settler Colonialism. This mountain, known now as Stonewall Peak, should be re-named to honor the ancestral people of this land, the Kumeyaay people, rather than continue to honor the Confederacy.
Kumeyaay people have lived throughout what is now called San Diego County for thousands of years. According to the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians,
“We [Kumeyaay people] traditionally lived in large semi-permanent villages with one pattern supporting villages on the coast with a second village in the interior mountains. A second pattern included mountain villages and desert settlements. The villages were set up along long established lineal lines with clans or sibs forming the political and social basis for which families inhabited each village and which families claimed first rights to resources in their area (acorns, mesquite, fish, and wild game).”1
The over 24,000 acres now known as Cuyamaca Rancho State Park was once occupied by multiple Kumeyaay villages including Ah-ha’ Kwe-ah-mac’, (“what the rain left behind”), Iguai’ (“the nest”), Wa-Ku-Pin’ (“warm house”), Mitaragui’ (“crooked land”), Pilcha’ (“basket bush”), and Guatay’ (“big house”). Ah-ha’ Kwe-ah-mac was the village located nearest to Stonewall Peak, just north of it, and is the origin of the regional name, the Cuyamacas. Written historical record of the Kumeyaay people in the park boundaries begins in 1782 when the Spanish Lieutenant, Pedro Fages, made note of Kumeyaay villagers on his second visit to the Cuyamacas. 2 The Kumeyaay strongly resisted missionization by the Spanish. In 1775, they conducted the most significant rebellion in Alta California against a mission, the San Diego Mission. The Spanish saw the mountain region as hostile territory due to Kumeyaay resistance, and as Fages put it during his 1782 visit, “Hearing that the Indians in the mountains about San Diego were in a state of semi-insurrection, I thought I might observe their movements and make them feel some respect if I should change my route and pass through their territory on my way.” The lack of Spanish presence and control in the mountains, including the Cuyamacas, is further demonstrated by the many references to deserters who fled the San Diego garrison and sought refuge there.3
The years from 1833 to 1840 brought great conflict between the Kumeyaay and Mexicans in the mountains, including the Cuyamaca Massacre at Ah-ha’ Kwe-ah-mac in 1837
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1 Viejas Band. Kumeyaay Sense of the Land and Landscape. http://viejasbandofkumeyaay.org/viejas/community/kumeyaay-history/kumeyaay-sense-of-the-landcommunity/kumeyaay-history/kumeyaay-sense-of-the-land/ Accessed March 7, 2021. 2 Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Park Brochure. 2016.
https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/667/files/CuyamacaRanchoFinalWebLayout060917.pdf Accessed March 30,
2021. 3 Leland Fetzer. The Cuyamacas: The Story of San Diego’s High Country. 2009
Lt. Vincente Romero, a participant in the 1837 Cuyamaca Massacre, described the Cuyamaca Kumeyaay at this time as extremely resistant to conversion, numerous, and fiercely independent.3 The Cuyamaca Kumeyaay were described as fierce again in 1845, when Augustin Olvera obtained the Rancho Cuyamaca grant and intended to harvest timber, however, his contractor, Cesario Walker “being afraid of the Indians, who made a kind of revolution, abandoned the place.”2
In 1848, the Mexican-American War ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo establishing the San Diego region as part of the United States. Over one fifth of San Diego County was promised to the Diegueño Indians in the Treaty of Santa Ysabel 1852 (including the Cuyamacas); however, it was not ratified in Congress and the region began to succumb to Settler Colonialism, defined by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz in An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States as, “The founding of a state based on the ideology of white supremacy, the widespread practice of African slavery, and a policy of genocide and land theft.” By 1857, few Kumeyaay remained in the area.2 James Lassator took up “160 acres of government land” in Green Valley, claiming he bought it from “an old Indian who said he inherited it from his father,” despite neither claim having any legal footing.3 Lassator’s family maintained a home, hay fields, and a way-station there, supplying those using the area’s early overland trails until after his death in 1865.2 A smallpox epidemic in 1863 devastated the Kumeyaay population in the Cuyamacas. Romero, in an 1871 account, reported that the Kumeyaay population in the area had declined to “very few,” only “three old men.”3
In the winter of 1869-1870, Frederick (Fred) Coleman, a formerly enslaved Black rancher, discovered gold in a creek in Julian. Prior to the gold discovery, the area had a significant Black and Indian settlement.4 Fred Coleman had been living in the Julian area with his Kumeyaay wife, Maria Jesus Nejo of the Santa Ysabel Reservation 3, and their children plus a number of adopted children.5 Coleman’s discovery set off the San Diego Gold Rush and hundreds of newcomers began arriving to the area in search of gold. Among the newcomers were many Southerners. Some 2,000 Civil War veterans were documented as relocating to the San Diego area. While only about one percent were identified as ex-Confederates, “They wanted anonymity to some degree,” said historian Frank Lorey III, author of A Guide to the Gold Rush Country of California, “A lot didn’t settle in the big cities. They went to backcountry areas. They tried to keep to themselves, keep to the people they knew.” Historian Leland Fetzer, who chronicles the time in A Good Camp: Gold Mines of Julian and the Cuyamacas, expands on the impact of Southerners settling in Julian, “For some reason, the number of Southerners in early Julian was quite high. I have a strong feeling it was just by word of mouth, that Julian had Southerners...It attracted other Southerners, I suppose.”6
On March 22, 1870, William Skidmore, a Confederate sympathizer, discovered a thick vein on the southern shores of Lake Cuyamaca. Together with Charles Hensley, who set up the mining district in the area of Skidmore’s discovery, staked their claim and called it the Stonewall Jackson Mine, after the Confederate general. The mine quickly changed hands to pro-Union Republican party members, Almon Frary Sr. and Joseph Farley, who dropped “Jackson” from its name, becoming what it is now called, Stonewall Mine.6 While Stonewall Mine closed by 1892, its legacy continues to live on as the name later spread to natural features nearby such as
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4 National Park Service. 2004. A History of Black Americans in California: History Sites, Coleman Creek.
https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/5views/5views2h29.htm . Accessed March 30, 2021. 5 VisitJulian.com. 2020. Fred Coleman and The Discovery of Gold. February 13, 2020. https://visitjulian.com/2020/02/fred-coleman-and-the-discovery-of-gold/#comments . Accessed March 30, 2021. 6 San Diego Union Tribune. 2020. San Diego’s pro-Confederate past lingers in rusty remains of a backcountry mine. June 22, 2020
Stonewall Peak, Stonewall Canyon, Stonewall Creek, Little Stonewall Peak, and Little Stonewall Creek, and eventually park infrastructure such as Stonewall Peak Trail and Stonewall Creek Fire Road (Figure 1)
Stonewall Peak and the surrounding areas were neither uninhabited nor nameless prior to Coleman’s discovery of gold. According to the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians,
“According to a story related by J. P. Harrington a fearsome Kumeyaay monster lived in an overhang on the west side of this prominent peak in the Cuyamacas. Additionally, it has always been known as place of power in part because of the presence of teaxon/teahon a type of soapstone…Stonewall Peak, known to our people also as Cush-Pi meaning “Sharp Peak” is one of the prominent landmarks in the Cuyamaca Mountains. Steatite (soapstone) from Cushi-pi was quarried and used for a variety of purposes by the Kumeyaay. This shared resource became arrow shaft straighteners, pipes, effigies, sucking tubes, and in powder form carried magical power.”1
In 1972, Michael Polk found and mapped the soapstone quarry at two sites. This was the source of raw material for soapstone artifacts all over southwestern California.3 Although there are multiple natural and constructed features named after Stonewall in the Park, in researching this paper, only Stonewall Peak’s Kumeyaay name was readily available.
Amidst heightened calls for removal and renaming of Confederate monuments and America’s reckoning with racial justice following the murder of George Floyd, the San Diego Union = Tribune inquired as to the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park’s plans to change place names,
“State parks officials said there are no immediate plans to change the place names associated with Stonewall, but that a project is under way to update information panels at the mine site that “will include a more expanded historical context based on more recent scholarship and public engagement.” The agency is also open to continuing the conversation to “with scholars, visitors, activists and families to understand perspectives and gain a wider understanding of the name’s usage and how it may impact the visitor experience and those who come in contact with the name,” officials said in a statement Friday.”6
There are existing efforts and calls to rename Stonewall Peak. In August 2020, the California Chaparral Institute called on the California State Park to, in part, “Rename Stonewall Peak to reflect Kumeyaay values, not those of the Confederacy. In addition, collaborate with local Indigenous Peoples to replace all place names that dishonor civil rights, equality, and people of color with names that honor the legacies of the Indigenous cultures have enriched the land with their presence.” The California Chaparral’s Change.org petition with this demand has 984 signatures of its 1,000 signature goal as of the date of this writing (April 13, 2021).7
There is precedent for renaming of natural landmarks from Confederate names to Indigenous names. In July 2020, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) announced that Jeff Davis Peak, a mountain in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest of California, will cut its ties with its namesake and be called the Da-ek Dow Go-et Mountain. The new name comes from the Washoe language (“saddle between points”) and was provided to the BGN by the Woodfords Community of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California.8 Similarly, the Nevada Board of Geographic Names voted unanimously in 2019 to recommend to the BGN that the name of Jeff Davis Peak in eastern Nevada’s Great Basin National Park be changed to the Shoshone name Doso Doyabi (“White Mountain”) following a formal proposal from tribal elders. 9
The process of renaming a natural feature can be complex. The BGN is the authority on the names of natural features — located on public or private land — that appear on federal maps. The BGN explains the process for renaming a natural feature on its website in detail. The National Parks Conservation Association summarizes the process with the Jeff Davis Peak/Doso Doyabi example in their 2019 article, Naming Matters
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7 California Chaparral Institute Change.org Petition. 2020. https://www.change.org/p/governor-gavin-newsom-castate-parks-must-honor-and-respect-indigenous-people-and-nature-rename-diversify-heal?redirect=false . Accessed March 31, 2021.
8 Sacramento Bee. 2020. Jeff Davis Peak ditches Confederate namesake, officials say. Here’s what it will be called.
July 9, 2020. https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article244129642.html . Accessed March 31, 2021. 9 Deseret News. 2019. Nevada panel backs new tribal name for Jeff Davis Peak near Utah border. January 12, 2019. https://www.deseret.com/2019/1/12/20663167/nevada-panel-backs-new-tribal-name-for-jeff-davis-peak-nearutah-border Accessed. March 31, 2021.
“Anyone can send a request to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which is the authority on the names of natural features — located on public or private land — that appear on federal maps. The board, which is composed of members of various government agencies including the Park Service, conducts extensive research into both the existing and proposed new names, solicits input from various stakeholders including tribes, state bodies and federal agencies, and considers public comment before voting. It can take years to decide on controversial proposals, partly because however improper a name might be to some, locals and visitors often have an emotional attachment to it and resist a change. Opponents cite the cost of replacing signs, brochures and other promotional materials. The more popular the name, the broader the ramifications of a name change become. If Mount Rainier is dropped, what happens to the names of Rainier Beer, Rainier cherries and the Tacoma Rainiers minor league baseball team? Many of these proposed changes will take years to resolve, but in the meantime the effort to rename Jeff Davis Peak has picked up speed. After the initial brouhaha, the Nevada board decided to reach out to local tribes and seek their nput. When Warren Graham of the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe received the board’s letter, he decided to consult the tribe’s historian, who directed him to two elderly sisters, members of the Ely Shoshone Tribe of Nevada. The women told Graham their late mother knew the Shoshone name of Jeff Davis Peak — it was called Doso Doyabi, or “white mountain” in Shoshoni. Graham reported back to his tribe’s elders. After discussing the matter, they wrote to the Nevada board, which in January voted unanimously to support renaming Jeff Davis Peak to Doso Doyabi — a decision that still needs to be approved by the national board. (Editor’s note: On June 13, 2019, after National Parks magazine went to press, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially changed the name of the peak from Jeff Davis Peak to Doso Doyabi.)
Graham did not initiate the renaming process, but once he got involved, he realized how important it was for his tribe to weigh in. He heard the rationale of those opposing the name change, but he said his effort is not so much about wiping out Davis’ name as it is about restoring a part of his tribe’s heritage. “These places had names before the names they have today,” he said. “What they did to my people was erasing the history that was there before.””10
Despite existing efforts to change Stonewall Peak’s name, there is not an Active Domestic Name Proposal with the BGN, according to their active filing list at the time of this writing (April 13, 2021). Of the multiple natural and constructed features in the park bearing the
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10 National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). 2019. Naming Matters. https://www.npca.org/articles/2189- naming-matters . Accessed March 31, 2021
Stonewall name, the BGN features Stonewall Peak, Stonewall Creek, Stonewall Mine, Little Stonewall Peak, and Little Stonewall Creek. This excludes Stonewall Peak Trail, Stonewall Canyon, and Stonewall Creek Fire Road, whose names likely fall under the authority of another jurisdiction.
As documented by the Viejas Band, Stonewall Peak already has had and maintained a Kumeyaay name: Cushi-Pi. Its Kumeyaay name that reflects the natural resource it has provided to the Kumeyaay people, soapstone; however, its publicly-recognized name is based on a Confederate general. This peak and its nearby natural and constructed features that share its name, should be recognized by the State of California and BGN by a name of the Kumeyaay people’s choosing. Perhaps that name will be Cushi-Pi. As Warren Graham of the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe said of Doso Doyabi, “These places had names before the names they have today…What they did to my people was erasing the history that was there before.'