Pala Indian Superintendency (California)

Indian Tribes Associated With This Superintendency
Cupeno Indians and Luiseno Band

History
The Pala Superintendency (Agency) was established in 1903 when the Tule River Mission Agency was divided. It had three districts under its supervision. In 1913 it was merged with the Pechanga Agency, but the following year the agency was moved to Pala.

In 1920, the Pala Superintendency, the Soboba Superintendency, and the Campo Superintendency were merged to become the Mission Agency at Riverside, California. Pala then became a subagency which operated in that capacity under the Mission Agency until 1948, when it became a part of the California Agency. At one point, the Pala Subagency had 19 reservations under its charge, among which were the Campo Reservation, the LaJolla Reservation, the Mesa Grande Reservation, the Pala Reservation, the Volcan (Santa Ysabel) Reservation, the LaPosta Reservation, the Manzanita Reservation, the Cuyapaipa Reservation, and the LaLaguna Reservation, as well as several others.

Records
Agencies and subagencies were created as administrative offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors. Their purpose was (and is) to manage Indian affairs with the tribes, to enforce policies, and to assist in maintaining the peace. The names and location of these agencies may have changed, but their purpose remained basically the same. Many of the records of genealogical value (for the tribe and tribal members) were created by and maintained by the agencies.

Some financial and administrative records of the Pala Superintendency (Agency), abt. 1904-1921, are in the Pacific Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) formerly in Laguna Niguel, California, now located in Riverside County at 23123 Cajalco Rd., Perris, California 92570. A separate set of records for the Pala Subagency, 1922-1947, including some education and heirship records, is also in the same archives. The records of the Pala Subagency, operating under the Mission Agency, are included in the records of the Mission Agencyin the Laguna Niguel Archives of NARA.

Microfilm copies of ...Narrative and Statistical Reports... for the Pala Agency, 1907-1920, are included in National Archives Microcopy M1011, Roll 99, available in the National Archives system and in the collections of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, beginning with their.

Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1905-1907, and from 1916 thru 1920. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, Roll 335. Copies of these records are also available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the Family History Library and its family history centers (their ). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.