KVCR program looks at Southern California Indian history
10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, April 1, 2010
Long before the arrival of the Europeans, the nomadic Serrano people lived throughout huge swaths of mountains and desert in what is now known as San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Then came the Spanish explorers, who pushed them off most of their land, kidnapped their children and brought diseases that killed many. The Mexican and later U.S. takeover of Serrano lands led to more abuses and deaths, including killing sprees in the 1860s carried out by settler militias from San Bernardino.
One of the tribes of Serrano people, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, wants to ensure their devastating history, and that of other California Indians, is not lost.
The tribe is sponsoring a four-part television series, starting Monday on KVCR, that examines Native American history in the state.
The murders, land grabs, broken treaties and forced assimilation that California's native people suffered are unknown by many, said Edward Castillo, a professor of