Chapter X: The Old and New Acqueducts

In Southern California water is an essential element in nearly all agricultural and horticultural development. In their own primitive fashion the Indians irrigated the lands long prior to the coming of the Spaniards. When Padre Peyri, however, came to Pala, his far-seeing eye at once noted its possibilities, and he set about bringing water from the headwaters of the river. He laid a line for a ditch from the mountains to the mission lands so accurately and with such consummate skill that it is as much the marvel of modern irrigation engineers as is the architecture of the Missions of the modern architect.

Where necessary a ditch was built, and on the other hand where the natural course was in the proper line this was followed, to be replaced again with ditches when necessary. So long as Peyri remained the ditch was in constant use, but after he left in 1832 it began to decline, and when his successor, Zalvidea, died, in 1846, it fell into disuse and soon became choked up, ruined, and useless.

When the Palatinguas came, some work in the bringing of water was done on their behalf, but it was not adequate. While it supplied the necessary water for their lands on the south side of the river, they also needed it on the north side. So the Indian Department was again appealed to, the appropriation made, and, in due time, the work begun. The government engineers found that the line of old ditch could not be improved upon, so the Indians were engaged to do the major part of the work, as they had been in the days of Peyri, and on the occasion of its completion the event was deemed of such importance that the Indians decided to hold a great fiesta.

After the decline of the Mission establishments the annual fiestas of the Indians became mere pretexts for debauchery, gambling, and the performance of their ancient dances. But of late years strenuous efforts have been made to prohibit the sale of liquor to the Indians, and the government also has abolished gambling. The influence of Father Doyle and Agent Runke have been great in changing the character of the fiesta, and on this occasion the event was one of decorum, dignity, and reverent worship, as well as dancing, playing of games, and pleasure.

Not only was the securing of a permanent supply of water a cause of rejoicing. The Indians were made happy by the announcement that, at last, the government had recognized their claims to the land which they had been tilling the past ten years and granted them their patent. The announcement was made by Walter Runke, superintendent of the reservation, just after the water was turned into the new ditch.

Granting them their patent means that each Indian, whether babe, child, man or woman is given title to one and three-quarters acres of irrigated land and six acres of dry land. Much of this dry land has been put under irrigation since the first allotment. In addition, the head of each family is given two lots, one for his house and one for his stable. There is, however, a stipulation in the grant which forbids an Indian's deeding his newly acquired property away for the next twenty-five years.

I have explained already how bitter the Palatinguas were when removed from Warner's Ranch. They felt that, as they had had no security in the possession of their homes and lands at Warner's Ranch, so would it be at Pala. They could be moved about, they said, at the whim of Washington, without a guarantee of a final competency for themselves or their children. But now they have been rewarded for their labor and patience with land in one of the most fertile and beautiful valleys of Southern California and under the shadow of the cross their beloved padre raised one hundred years ago.

The fiesta was held in due time. Eight members of the Franciscan Order from San Luis Rey were invited to take an important part in the ceremonies.

A writer in the _San Diego Union_ shows how tenaciously the Indians cling to the ceremonies of the past. He says:

The opening of the government's new irrigation ditch was
preceded the night before by the same ceremony of praise and
thanksgiving that the Indians used to hold before ever a
padre raised a cross among them. In a rectangular enclosure
made of green willows they assembled about a log fire. They
seated themselves in a circle just beyond the line of fading
light, their swarthy faces being discernible only as a dim
streak in the dark; but before the fire, his rough and seamed
face illuminated by the unsteady flames which leaped, as now
and then he picked at a brand, and revealed his audience as
motionless as though chiseled out of lava, stood the aged
Cecelio Chuprosa. His hands were clasped behind his back and
his head bowed. At long intervals, he spoke briefly in his
native tongue, his soft gutterals coming so slowly that one
could count the vowels. A drawn-out low, weird monotone was
the only response from that rock-like circle just beyond the
light. Now and then some old woman emerged from the darkness
and danced beside the burning logs while she chanted some
wild incantation and was lost again in that stoic, stolid,
silent circle.

Finally two padres appeared on the scene. They said nothing,
but the Indians soon slunk away. The padres do not approve of
the rites of pagan days, and they love their padres.

Still amid the weird savagery of that scene, there were many
evidences of civilization. The old men and women wore cowhide
boots and shoes which covered their feet with corns. Instead
of the peace-pipe, the glow of the cigarette dawned and died
everywhere through the stoic night. Oil-filled lanterns took
the place of the starlight the Indians formerly used to find
their way home by, and one old wabbling woman wheeled her
grand-papoose to the meeting in the latest style of
perambulator.

Chuprosa is 96 years old and has not a gray hair on his head.
He has worn his war paint, been on the warpath, and fought in
all the tribe's battles from his youth up. He is particularly
proud of the valor he displayed in the battle of Alamitos,
which occurred sixty-six years ago.

Now Chuprosa is a baseball fan. He roots at all the games
between the teams of his and neighboring reservations.
Recently he rode forty miles on horseback to Warner's Ranch
to see a game and when he returned he was so stiff that he
had to be lifted out of the saddle, but he rubbed his aching
legs a little and laughed, for he had rooted his favorite
team to victory.

Among the Franciscan monks who came from San Luis Rey to
attend the Pala fiesta was another old battler who had fought
through two wars and won two medals for valor from his
country. One of them is the far-famed and much coveted
iron-cross which German royalty and the Kaiser himself salute
whenever it is seen on the breast of a veteran. But Father
Damian,--and that is his only name in the cloister where he
has lived now for thirty-eight years,--threw these honors
into the sea and with head bowed he appeared one day at the
door of a monastery and asked that he might henceforth follow
only the standard of the cross.

He was given a brown robe with a cowl and a pair of sandals
for his feet, and the hero of wars which Germany waged
against Austria and France, lost even his name and, becoming
a carpenter, gave his life in building schools and churches.

Father Damian and Chuprosa met for the first time at the Pala
fiesta. The monk could speak no Spanish and the Indian no
German, but they soon became interested in each other when,
through an interpreter, each told of the battles the other
had fought. Although seventy-two years old, the father is
still rugged except that he feels the effect of cholera which
attacked his regiment in the war with Austria. "One morning,"
he said, "one hundred in my regiment alone remained on the
ground when the bugle called us. They had died overnight of
cholera."

The morning of the fiesta dawned bright and clear. Every member of the tribe was there in his or her best. The ceremonies opened by a solemn high mass conducted by Father Doyle, and assisted by the Franciscan Fathers from San Luis Rey.

Then a grand parade was held, everyone marching happily to the head of the ditch. There Father Peter Wallischeck, Superior of the San Luis Rey house, blessed the water which poured itself for the first time over the Indians' lands since the old ditch crumbled away, and as he did so he stood on the very spot where Padre Peyri stood when, with his Indians, they said a prayer of thanksgiving over the successful completion of their labors, a century previously.

The rest of the day was then spent in the pleasures of the table mainly provided by an old-fashioned barbecue, a baseball game and the inevitable game of peon.