Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians

A nation today

Monzogranite walls and Joshua trees ringing the Hidden Valley loop in Joshua Tree National Park.
Photo by Joshua Tree National Park / NPS · public domain · Public Domain

Background

In December 1906 the Department of the Interior authorized funding for a new reservation school building, and it was finished in August 1907, which ended an eight-mile walk to the school at Thermal. Ground on the reservation ranges from fine sand at the north end to rock at the southern end, in an arid climate with very little rain, where the average high sits between 80 and 90 degrees and can reach 120 in summer. Preserving cultural traditions comes first among the Tribe's stated goals, including learning and teaching the Cahuilla language, and culture is carried on as individuals learn songs, language and practice. The Tribal Council has eight members elected every two years by the general membership, which meets on the second Saturday of each month, and business can only be conducted at a duly called meeting with a quorum of at least 21 members. A shallow wetland pilot of 85 acres with seven water quality cells and four habitat ponds has been built since a 2003 Bureau of Reclamation grant.

source
source

Where they were, and where they were put

From
Martinez Canyon, which "the Cahuilla people have inhabited... since the early 1800's".
To
The Torres and Martinez reservations.
Year
1876

The Tribe's own site dates the reservation to 1876. It does not describe how the move happened, who was moved, or whether people were moved at all, and this entry does not guess. The Tribe's people remain on the land; what changed in 1876 was its status, not its possession of it.

Source: Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, The History of Torres Martinez Reservation (read 2026-10-03)

Visit and learn

Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Monzogranite walls and Joshua trees ringing the Hidden Valley loop in Joshua Tree National Park.Joshua Tree National Park

The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla say the Cahuilla have lived in Martinez Canyon since the early 1800s, and an executive order by President Ulysses S. Grant created the Torres and Martinez reservations in May 1876. The two were joined under the Relief of Mission Indians Act of 1891. Source

Programs

  • Natural Resources Department

    The Tribe's largest private landholding is in and around the Salton Sea, which the Tribe calls its aboriginal homeland. In 2002 the Tribal Council decided to act on the transfer of water away from the Salton Sea under the Quantification Settlement Agreement between California and four water agencies, because receding water volatilizes sediments in the sea bed. The first Bureau of Reclamation grant was written in 2003 for the engineering of the wetlands and the first US EPA grant later the same year for the build, with grants written every year since through various agencies.

    https://torresmartinez.org/environmental/·land

  • Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance (TERO) Commission

    The Commission's office in Thermal, California handles the Tribe's TERO ordinance, bylaws, applications, grievances and release-of-information process, and the Tribe's site links a TERO career center and job postings from it.

    https://torresmartinez.org/tero/·other

Sources

Checked September 2026.

Found an error? Tell us.