Includes bibliographical references (pages 107-109) and index.

Precontact -- The Spanish incursion (1769-1822) -- The Mexican period (1822-1846) -- The American entry (1846-1893) -- Appendix A : Kumeyaay lands map -- Appendix B : Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo -- Appendix C : Treaty of Santa Ysabel -- Appendix D : An Act for the Relief of the Mission Indians in the state of California. Provides a concise history of the Kumeyaay people. The book takes the reader from the time prior to contact with Europeans, through the period of Spanish presidios, colonization, and missionization, into the period of Mexican colonization and the vast rancheros, finally culminating with the American period from 1848 to 1873. The Kumeyaay are Native American people whose traditional homelands extended from Escondido to the Laguna Mountains (San Diego County, CA) in the U.S., to Ensenada, and Tecate (Baja California) in Mexico.