Before the Dam

Before the Dam. Saint Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial and National Monument. , Tataviam Native Americans , The Tataviam - a name applied to the people occupying this region by other tribal groups, and varying in meaning from "people facing the sun" to "people of the south facing slope" - lived in approximately 20 various-sized villages within the upper reaches of the Santa Clara River drainage east of Piru Creek, with one village situated within San Francisquito Canyon. The Tataviam territory extended over the Sawmill Mountains to the north and included the southwestern fringes of the Antelope Valley. They relied on southern California's abundant natural food supply for sustenance. After the Mission period, they were assimilated into the Fernando Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. Those that survived enslavement at Mission San Fernando formed a Fernandeño coalition. Today, their descendants are known as the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. , , Historical Travel Route , Historically, the San Francisquito Creek and its canyon was a major route for wagons and stagecoaches northward from Los Angeles into the San Joaquin Valley. "El Camino Viejo" was a route in use as early as 1780, and it ran from the Pueblo of Los Angeles through the Santa Clarita Valley all the way to the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay. Later, the route became part of the Butterfield Overland Mail Stagecoach Trail, now designated a National Historic Trail. Ancestors of the Fernandeño Tataviam were forcibly marched on these routes for use as laborers by settling communities. , , Placer Gold-Mining , It is believed that gold was first discovered in Placerita Canyon by Francisco Lopez. Placer gold-mining was primarily conducted by Spanish missionaries in this region prior to the Gold Rush. There is very little physical evidence left of early placer-mining due to the dam collapse. Access to gold and water by settling communities further dispossessed the local Tataviam of their homelands. , , 450 AD · Archaeological research supports presence of Tataviam in Santa Clarita. , 1769 · Arrival of Spanish settlers. , 1797 · Mission San Fernando established. , 1810 · Majority of the Tataviam are baptized at Mission San Fernando and are renamed Fernandeño. , 1842 · Gold discovered near Santa Clarita. , 1848 · California gold rush begins. , 1900 · Only 5 Fernandeño Native American families survived colonization.