The following story was written by Joyce Lawrence and originally published in the Downey Historical Society newsletter of June 1999:

Jose, a Native American dubbed “Indian Joe” by Downey pioneers, was a unique and memorable part of our community until his death in 1895. 

Until recently, secondary sources such as newspaper clippings, pioneer reminiscences, one photograph containing Indian Joe and a snapshot of his original grave marker at Downey Cemetery were the sole proof of Joe’s existence. Persistent diving into newly-acquired primary documents (court and census records), as well as other library resources, has finally paid off. 

Bit by bit we have been able to add to Indian Joe’s story, though it is far from complete and may never be. 

It is appropriate to share our updated research this month as we honor the 100th anniversary of Indian Joe’s burial, respectfully conducted by his fellow townspeople at Downey Cemetery in November 1895. 

Jose was of the Cahuilla band, though his grave marker spells it “Kaweah.” Cahuillas lived in the deserts, mountains and passes now part of Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Imperial counties. Today’s Morongo Indian Reservation, near Cabazon and Banning, is home to the Malki Museum where Cahuilla culture is preserved and studied. 

In the early 19th century, many Cahuillas may have come under the influence of the missions at San Bernardino, San Luis Rey or Pala. Numbers of them learned Spanish, joined the Roman Catholic Church and became skilled laborers in a variety of mission occupations such as tanning, boot making, cooking, etc. Others lived in their own villages and supported mission economy as day laborers - only so long as it did not interfere with their native activities and ceremonials. 

When the missions were secularized in the 1830s, many of the church holdings were divided into ranches and granted to settlers of Spanish and Mexican descent. Some Cahuillas who had depended upon the numerous mission tasks for their livelihood migrated into the San Gabriel/Los Nietos Valley and other parts of today’s Los Angeles County and city, where they became important workers in the local agricultural economy, particularly vineyards. Their own industriousness were later romanticized in California literature and architecture. 

Indian Joe’s parents are thought to have been among the Cahuillas who located in the San Gabriel Mission area. In the 1880s, Jose told pioneer Downey farmer James Bangle that he was born in San Gabriel and that the priest would not allow him to marry because he would not join the church. (This is according to Easter Bangle Morrison’s unpublished 1930 manuscript on Downey history, which is considered to be remarkably accurate.) 

Indian Joe “appeared in our settlement with the first houses,” wrote Easter Morrison, placing Jose in our midst sometime between when the first land deed from John Downey to Joseph Burke was recorded (1865), when the villages of Gallatin and College Settlement were formed (late 1860s), and when today’s downtown was first mapped (1873). 

Because of the Morrison manuscript, we can be fairly certain that federal census taker and Downey constable Benjamin W. Tarwater meant our Indian Joe when he listed one lone Indian in the Los Nietos Township, Silver Road District on June 11, 1880: “Jose, age 40, single, occupation: does nothing, unemployed 12 months a year, born California, parents born California.” 

On the day Jose was officially counted, he was in the southeastern part of town near today’s Downey Cemetery. The area around the cemetery would be a weedy corner on someone’s farm, with upright wooden boards as markers and not much else. 

1897 in the United States

Republican William McKinley, born in 1841 in Ohio and killed by an assassin in 1901, was inaugurated as President.

“Katzenjammer Kids,” begun this year by Rudolph Dirks, was the first American comic strip.

In Southern California, San Pedro was decided upon as the port of Los Angeles but it took two years for construction to begin because of the opposition of Collis P. Huntington and others who favored Santa Monica.

The Los Angeles County Pioneers of Southern California Society was formed in September for those who had resided in the county for at least 25 years.

Meredith P. Snyder served as mayor of Los Angeles from 1896-98, 1900-04 and 1919-21. He was active in the harbor project.

The first seven-story building in Los Angeles was built this year at 3rd and Spring by Colonel J.R. Lankershim. The Los Angeles Symphony was also established.

The Eastern Star was organized in Downey on June 10, 1897. Among those laid to rest in Downey Cemetery were Caroline Skidmore, Capt. Jonathan Reddick, John W. Buster and Charles H. Hammerton.

While turmoil swirled in many parts of the world, things were relatively uneventful in the United States. But coming up in 1898: the Spanish American War and the Alaskan Gold Rush.

An interesting invention, patented by Clarence M. Kemp of Baltimore in 1891, found its ideal application in Southern California. The Climax became the nation’s first commercial solar water heater. Installation spread from Pasadena to much of California and Arizona. By 1900 they topped the 1,600 mark in Southern California alone.

Frank Walker, a Los Angeles contractor and realtor, was among over a dozen inventors who filed patents for improvement on the Climax. His first design was developed in 1897 and patented in the spring of 1898.

Interest waned in the use of these innovation appliances by 1927, when cheap natural gas became readily available. Only in recent times has solar energy regained popularity.

Bobbi Bruce is a docent with the Downey Historical Society.