The Palas as Farmers.
To many white people an Indian is always what they conceive all
Indians ever have been--wild, uncultivated, useless savages. Never was
idea more mistaken and cruelly ignorant. At Pala there is not an
Indian on the free ration list. The putting of water upon their lands
has transformed them from the crushed, disheartened, half-starved and
almost despondent people they were thirteen years ago, after their
removal from their beloved Palatingua, into an industrious, energetic,
independent, self-supporting and self-respecting tribe.
The olive trees planted by Padre Peyri are tenderly cared for and are
again in full bearing. As one now approaches Pala from either
Oceanside or Agua Tibia he gazes upon a valley smiling in its dress of
living green. Fields of alfalfa, corn, wheat, barley, beans, and
chilis stretch out on every hand, relieved by fine orchards of
apricots, peaches and olives.
For years the Indians did not take kindly to government farmers. Most
of these men were too theoretical. For the past two years, however,
Mr. A. T. Hammock, government farmer at Pala, has shown by example and
sympathetic work the benefits of intensive farming. His practical
lessons have brought many dollars into the pockets not only of the
Palatinguas, but also of the other Mission Indians close to the border
of the Pala reservation.
Recently the raising of late tomatoes for the Eastern market was tried
with much success.
Added production enables the Indians to build better homes. Some of
them have done this, as is shown in one of the illustrations, and by
the time the drainage system contemplated by the government is in
place many of the forlorn gift houses, erected when they first came to
Pala, will be replaced by small but neat cottages.
The Palas are also successful stock raisers and have many head of
cattle grazing on the wild lands of their reservation. They are also
proud of their horses.
As a further evidence of progress they have now substituted for their
old fiesta a modern agricultural fair.
In October, of 1915, they held their annual gathering and, after they
had erected their square of ramadas, or houses of tree branches, they
built one of finished lumber to contain an agricultural exhibit which
consisted not only of farm products, but also preserved fruit, pastry,
basketry, art lace and pottery.
Over a thousand dollars' worth of baskets and nearly a thousand
dollars' worth of fine hand lace were on exhibition. Farmers from a
distant county were chosen as judges and with pleased astonishment
remarked that the exhibition as a whole would have taken a prize at
any county fair.
Thus living with congenial administrators in a climate softer even
than the city of San Diego, for the breezes of the Palomar mountains
mingle with those of the Pacific in the trees which shade their
humble homes; having at the end of the principal street of the village
a hedged plaza, filled with blooming flowers all the year, making a
frame for the old Mission chapel, which stands restored as the best
preserved of the Mission chapels, a picture place of San Diego county
and their place of worship; not wealthy, but having sufficient for the
necessities and some of the comforts of life; it is little wonder that
the Indian of Pala pursues the even tenor of his way, happy and
without a care for the future.