Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation

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

The reservation sits in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains just north of Highland, on the San Andreas Fault to the south with the San Manuel Fault running through the middle and the "N" Fault to the north, which shapes the cost of building roads, water, sewer and homes on the slope. A statement the Band's chairman gave to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on June 28, 2005 is where that comes from, and it records that the Act for Relief for Mission Indians of 1891 established the reservation. A 2010 Bureau of Indian Affairs notice on California's CEQAnet portal records a 24-acre, two-parcel acquisition contiguous to the reservation's western boundary for tribal government offices and home sites.

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Where they were, and where they were put

From
Big Bear Valley. The Nation's own words: "Our Clan, the Yuhaaviatam, or 'People of the Pines', of Maara'yam or Serrano people who had remained on our homelands across the Big Bear Valley."
To
The San Bernardino Valley.
Year
1866

The Nation's accounts differ on the length of the removal and on what triggered it, and both are given here rather than one being preferred. One account describes a "32-day campaign in 1866" by a California state government-sanctioned militia in Big Bear Valley. The other describes a skirmish between settlers and non-Maara'yam Native Americans in Summit Valley that "triggered a month-long killing spree". The people who fled did not go far: many moved to the San Bernardino Valley, some to Torres Martinez, and some to San Manuel.

Source: Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, Tribal History (read 2026-10-03)

Visit and learn

Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation'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 Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation say they are the Yuhaaviatam Clan of Maara'yam, the Serrano people, and the people of the pines. Source

Affiliations

  • Joshua Tree National Park associated tribal governments

    Joshua Tree National Park names the Band among the 15 federally recognized tribal governments whose peoples the park lists as associated with the lands it manages. The park gives its own names for four of those peoples: Maara'yam for Serrano, Nüwü for Chemehuevi, Kawiya for Cahuilla and Aha Macave for Mohave.

    https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/historyculture/native-americans.htm

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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