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November 16, 2018
AIANTA has signed an agreement with the National Park Service to develop an educational guide chronicling the stories of the tribes—historic and current—located along the Anza Trail. The Anza expedition history very much belongs to the tribes and Native people the colonists met and interacted with along the way. Not just the story of Juan Bautista de Anza, the Anza Trail is also the story of Salvador Palma, a chieftain of Arizona’s Quechan (Yuma) Tribe, who helped guide the expedition, including leading the settlers to safety during a particularly difficult crossing of a raging Colorado River. It is the story of Salvador Linares, born on Christmas Eve 1775, during an unexpectedly harsh snowstorm in the California desert area now known as Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Although Linares has been reported as one of the first non-Native children born in present-day California, like one third of the expedition party, he was actually of mixed race, born to an Indio (converted native) father and a Spanish mother. The Anza Trail also tells the stories of dozens of Arizona and California Tribes, including that of the Chumash, a coastal people who make their home near the Pacific Ocean in what is now Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. A seafaring people, the Chumash impressed the Spanish settlers with their Temescals (sweathouses), Tomols (sturdy coastal boats) and their advanced commerce system. For the Ohlone people, the seasonal village of Chutchui is an integral site for the Anza expedition, as this is where the colonists made their San Francisco camp. Chutchui would become the site of San Francisco’s famed Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores), which was first established in June 1776, five days before Eastern colonists signed the Declaration of Independence. Built largely using Native labor, the Mission continues to house San Francisco’s oldest surviving building. In partnership with the National Park Service, the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association will produce a printed guidebook interpreting the trail through the stories of the tribes along the way. https://www.aianta.org/aianta-to-develop-tribal-travel-guide-interpreting-the-anza-trail/
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Last updated: August 6, 2024