Qualla: Capitan Grande Reservation

Capitan Grande Reservation: Introduction

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

President Ulysses S. Grant created the Capitan Grande Reservation by executive order in 1875. In 1931, the state of California flooded its heart. The El Capitan Reservoir, built to supply water to San Diego's growing coastal communities, submerged the most habitable portion of the reservation — the valley bottom, the farmable land, the places where the Barona and Viejas groups of the Kumeyaay Nation had been living. The two groups were offered compensation and used the proceeds to purchase their current separate reservations. The remaining 15,753 acres of Capitan Grande — the dry, mountainous, chaparral-covered terrain that the reservoir didn't touch — remains today as a jointly held, uninhabited trust, the geological remnant of a displacement that California water policy required and executed.

Capitan Grande Reservation: Coapan and the Grant

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The name Capitan Grande derives from the Spanish coapan, a word referring to the area west of the San Diego River. By 1875, when President Grant's executive order created the reservation, the Kumeyaay people who had lived in the region for thousands of years had already experienc...

Capitan Grande Reservation: The Reservoir That Changed Everything

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

El Capitan Reservoir was created by El Capitan Dam, completed in 1934, though the reservoir began filling earlier. The San Diego County Water Authority needed water storage to serve a rapidly growing population, and the San Diego River's upper watershed, including the valley bott...

Capitan Grande Reservation: What the Mountains Hold

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The remaining Capitan Grande Reservation land — the portions the reservoir did not flood — is uninhabited chaparral and mountain terrain in the Cleveland National Forest. The Barona and Viejas tribes hold a joint-trust patent on this land, meaning they share ownership of the remn...

Capitan Grande Reservation: Displacement and Its Aftermath

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Barona and Viejas tribes rebuilt on their new reservations. The Barona Group established the Barona Resort and Casino in Wildcat Canyon, eventually becoming one of San Diego County's major gaming operations and the home of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. The Viejas Band developed...