Overview

Since time immemorial, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians inhabited and governed some 2,000 square miles of ancestral land in the Palm Springs area.  The members of the Tribe lived in several well-established communities in the canyons and surrounding mountains and desert floor.

The coming of the railroad had a dramatic impact on the lives of tribal members, especially when the Federal Government gave all the odd-numbered sections of land in the Coachella Valley to the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1860s.

When President U.S. Grant established the present Agua Caliente Indian Reservation by Executive Order in 1876, only the even-numbered sections were still available, thus creating the present Reservation in a checkerboard pattern.

To encourage economic development, the Federal Government allocated the bulk of the Reservation land to the individual members of the Tribe in a process called “allotment” that lasted until 1959.  In the same year, and for the same purpose, Congress authorized only this Tribe and its members to lease their land for up to 99 years.

Much of Palm Springs and adjacent Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage and unincorporated Riverside County is built on such land allotted to individual Tribal members and leased to developers in this way.  However, under the Tribe’s Constitution, adopted in 1955, and federal law, the Tribe maintains primary control over the use and development of all land on its reservation, including those parcels included in cities located on the Reservation.

The activities of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians have multiple economic impacts on the Coachella Valley, stemming not only from the last 10 years of its casino operations, but also the extensive holdings remaining in the Tribe’s historic land base, underlying much of what is now the Cities of Palm Springs and Cathedral City, and portions of the City of Rancho Mirage and Riverside County.