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After the establishment of the missions and the Spanish colonization, the Mexican war began April 25th, 1846. This war brought great changes. The war fought under president Polk and continued for 2 years.
There was heavy fighting for 18 months. May 9, 1846: Battle of Resaca de la Palma, South Texas,
Sept. 24, 1846: Monterey, Northern Mexico,
February 23, 1847: Buena Vista.
March 9, 1847: The siege and bombardment of Vera Cruz,
Sept. 13 1847: The taking of Mexico City,
The war was ended February 2, 1848 by the signing of the Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty .
Nicholas Trist signed for the US after his authority was removed by president polk, making it easy for the senate to refuse ratification of articles controlling US gains of land and resource.
President Polk had recalled Trist supposedly believing that a Mexican delegation would come to Washington. Before Trist received Polk's message, Trist heard that the Mexican government had designated a commission to negotiate the treaty in the City of Guadalupe Hidalgo north of Mexico city. Trist, put in the position of being responsible for the continuation of the war, took it upon himself to sign for the US, ending that war. Mexican president Manuel de la Pena y Pena had agreed to the boundaries and his representatives signed for Mexico who was militarily weaker.
Article 8 allowed Mexican citizens who owned property in what became US territory to keep their land. Article 10 guaranteed that they could keep the land but was not ratified, taking advantage of Trists non authorized status.
Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, and which remain for the future within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.
Article 11 placed the US in charge of "policing the border" which became persecution or revenge on Indians who had worked against the colonization. Ultimately Mexico had made Indigenous people the responsibility of US interests in what was Mexican territory when Indians had been considered citizens of Mexico.
Considering that a great part of the territories, which, by the present treaty, are to be comprehended for the future within the limits of the United States, is now occupied by savage tribes, who will hereafter be under the exclusive control of the Government of the United States, and whose incursions within the territory of Mexico would be prejudicial in the extreme, it is solemnly agreed that all such incursions shall be forcibly restrained by the Government of the United States whensoever this may be necessary; and that when they cannot be prevented, they shall be punished by the said Government, and satisfaction for the same shall be exactedall in the same way, and with equal diligence and energy, as if the same incursions were meditated or committed within its own territory, against its own citizens.
The Indigenous were treated as aliens on their own land, in America as the border "crossed them". The later Gadson purchase increased the area involved in this defacto arrangement and further elimination of the Indigenous people.
Meanwhile, before the Mexican war, there had been a marriage. A marriage between Jose Dominguez, a Mexican, and a woman who was the daughter of 2 tribal chieftains of the upper Santa Ynez valley and river. The Los Prietos tribe and the tribe of Najalayegua. Jose Dominguez was granted the traditional land of his wife by the Mexican governor, Juan B. Alvarado in 1841 prior to the Mexican war. The Rancho was named after the tribal names of the woman's ancestry, or, Rancho Los Prietos y Najalayegua and consisted of nearly 49,000 acres.
Jose Dominguez submitted his application to the US government under articles of the treaty, February 19, 1875 to the Government Land Office of the U. S. Surveyor General in San Francisco,. This was land due, under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to remain in the previous owners names, Jose Dominguez.
His submittal was properly re described in chains and acres by township, range and section according to the requirements of the Government Land Office.
Americans could not consider that the US government would not honor and follow the terms of the international treaty with Mexico and so sought to buy land from Jose Dominguez which was not yet finally in his ownership after the reviews of the Board of Land Commissioners. The commissioners were appointed to adjudicate submissions under the treaty by Congress which had passed the Land Act of 1851. Legal costs made it necessary for Jose Dominguez to sell off land which had not yet been confirmed as his own.
Rancho Los Prietos y Najalayegua extended east ward from the Los Prietos tribal area in jagged sectional divisions along the Santa Ynez river. The colonizers considered the land useless in many ways and only filled with wild animals. Dominguez, after filing with the government land office, found a squatter living on the Rancho. Jose Lugo. Dominguez, although the grantee, was not in possession and had to purchase his claim for 20 dollars in silver and 2 kegs of brandy. Later it was learned that within the Rancho Boundaries, was located what is now known as Gibralter lake,
today there is a tunnel through the mountains providing water to Santa Barbara.
Near Gibralter lake, on the north slope of the coastal mountains was a quicksilver mine which gained great value in the times of the California gold rush. In around 1874, the son of Jose Dominguez provided beef to the miners and was called "Old Najalayegua". Mining interests from the "Bank of California" visited the mines, but it was local names that were associated with it. Names such as, Moraga, Alexander Gonzales, Thomas Sprague, Jose Lobero and Charles E. Huse, California's most prominent attorney. A few years prior to that, Edward J. Pringle came into possession of at least a part of the Rancho where upon land speculation began in earnest as he found Jose Lugo had a house four leagues away in Monticito. About 12 miles. Huse tried to legally "move" the rancho over the mountains to the coast, then worked to move it back when quicksilver was discovered. Land speculators Thomas Bard of the Atlantic Richfield oil company and Huse became embroiled in land fraud lawsuits as they resold land purchased from Jose Dominguez. Huse was later committed to an insane asylum.
For the reasons of resource, the land described as the Rancho Los Prietos y Najalayegua was never granted. Instead 5000 acres on the coast north of Santa Barbara, the Dos Pueblos ranch, was granted in 1912 to the great granddaughter of Jose Dominguez after many lawsuits were filed by descendants. This action of "trading land" for land granted is not authorized within written laws.
We have traveled clockwise from the fires on Camino cielo to the Los Prietos Tribal territory then east to Najalayegua, then south to the Carpinteria area where the tomol canoes were built.
Now we travel north and west along the coast to just above Santa Barbara and the years of perhaps 1843 at a place called Hope Ranch
The village of "Kaswa'a" of the Samala people. Referred to today as the Cieneguitas village was near the eastern base of HWY 154 in the foothills North and west of Hope Ranch. The Justo Family was amongst those native people who used the traditional territory of the Hope ranch area for seasonal hunting and its associated temporary village sites. With the Spanish colonization came Spanish or Mexican soldiers who married Indian women and were then granted the traditional territory of their wives people. One such soldier was Nariciso Fabrigat, a Spanish soldier who was decommissioned in Santa Barbara in 1822 after Mexico declared independence from Spain. In 1843 he was given more than 3,000 acres for his military service. It was named the La Calera Rancho, for a limestone kiln that was built there. In 1846 Fabrigat was granted another parcel, The Las Positas Rancho. His land extended west of Las Positas Road to the airport which included the lands of today's Hope Ranch and was named "Las Positas y Calera Rancho".
Oral histories of the Samala people would logically connect to Hope ranch; if it was known Fabrigat's wife was of the people from the village of Kaswa'a and of the Justo family, as she would have logically secured the tribal hunting grounds for her people. Such is speculation, but doing so brings true continuity to the rest of story. Told now for the first time.
It is known that Fabrigat sold out to Thomas Robbins, a sea captain. Which must have happened as the marriage failed. If, Fabrigat had removed the portion of Hope ranch from the sale to Robbins that was the hunting grounds
of the village of Kaswa'a, granted to them through his wife's family, agreement with Samala oral histories is found that show an elder of the Justo family operated a sheep ranch in the more rugged hills of the Hope ranch area.
It would be logical that Robbins would utilize the flatter, more desirable ground.
After Robbins death in 1860, his wife was unable to tend the large tract of land Fabrigat had originally sold. A written history says she sold the land to Thomas W. Hope in 1861, whereupon he settled into Santa Barbara with his wife Delia and set up sheep ranching.
But that history does not accommodate the legal treachery the Samala oral histories recorded as a theft of land. That history is supported by deficiencies in the documents that are public record. What follows is the Samala oral history of the deal between a Justo family member and Thomas Hope.
The elder, Juan Justo, as a large land owner, had many things. Horses, sheep and Cows or maybe a bull and other possessions. It was against tribal law for an Indian to sell land to a white man. But everything else could be sold. Justo's english wasn't good so making deals was difficult, but many people wanted to buy those things he had. Justo had come to know Thomas Hope who had purchased the Robbins ranch adjacent to the Kaswa'a hunting ground,
which was speculatively secured by Fabrigats wife. Thomas Hope had been an Indian agent and was an accomplished salesman. He made a point of helping Juan Justo to make deals for some time so that Justo would know how well and quickly he could do business. Justo had become used to relying on Hope for this service. One day when Justo was approached to sell a horse, he referred the buyer to Hope who inadvertently had difficulty getting information of value from Justo during negotiations, and the deal fell through. Hope upset, then proposed that he should act as the permanent, formal agent for Justo. Justo agreed as he had come to trust Hope. Hope then explained he would need a document to present to buyers to verify his authority. The document was brought to Justo who could not read or write, but instead depended on witnesses. Hope then showed him where to place an "X" as a signature. Which Justo did. The next time Justo was approached to sell some animals he went to Hope as usual and asked him to handle the deal. Hope informed Juan Justo that Justo had given everything he owned to Hope with the "X" on the document. Justos legal suit met with success until the weight of the signed document was found as justification by the court to not consider the artifice and fraud Justo's witnesses had testified to, by which Hope had gained the signature. The times of Justo and other tribal people hunting their land, had ended. They found fences and rifles keeping them out.
Hope, To please Delia, his social climbing wife, hired Peter Barber Santa Barbaras architect and mayor, to build a $10,000 dollar, 13 room, Italian style home.
After Thomas hope died, Delia Hopes parcel came to the attention of Southern Pacific Rail executives who formed a partnership that was called the "Pacific Improvement Company " which had speculated and built several exclusive resort hotels in California. That partnership purchased the land of Delia Hope in 1887 for $200,000 dollars. In 1902 the 600-room, luxury, Potter Hotel opened and put and end to the partnerships plans for a hotel.
Instead the land was subdivided and sold as estates to the wealthy.
Here is the opening language of that deed recorded April 7th 1887. Notice, the granting of the land does not refer to an earlier deed showing how Thomas Hope, whom Delia succeeded in title by default under law, originally gained title. If such deed exists it is nearly always cited in later deeds. Delia Hope to Pacific improvement Company.
The indenture made this forth day of April in the year of our lord, one thousand, eight hundred and eighty seven, between Delia Hope, a widow of the County of Santa barbara, State of California, the party of the first part, and the Pacific improvement company, a corporation duly incorporated and organized under the laws of the State of California, party of the second part, then so saeth that the party of the first part, for, and in consideration of of the sum of 200,000 dollars gold coin of the United States of America, to her in hand paid by the said party of the second part.
Deed From Delia Hope To Pacific Improvement Company (high res)
Written history also puts Hope and Justo together in that period because it is known that Thomas Hope employed an Indian named Justo as the head of his sheep ranching operations. Does written history really show that Hope gave Justo a job after defrauding him of everything he owned and the hunting grounds of the Kaswa'a village of the Samala people?
.
.