Kumeyaay

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The Kumeyaay, also known as the Diegueño and sometimes confused with the Luiseño, are a Native American people of the extreme southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. They live in the states of California and Baja California. In Spanish the name is spelled kumiai.

There are thirteen Kumeyaay reservations in southern San Diego County and four kumiai ejidos in Baja California.

They are divided into three historic groups. Along the coast two groups were separated by the San Diego River: The northern Ipai (extending from Escondido to Lake Henshaw) and the southern Tipai (including the Laguna Mountains, Ensenada, and Tecate). The Kamia group lives the Mexican state of Sonora.

Nomenclature and tribal distinctions are not well-settled. It is safe to say that the Kuymeyaay speak a Yuman tongue of the Yuman-Cochimí family and from the migration out of Yuma, Arizona, several linguistically distinct but mutually-intelligible groups developed: the Cucapah, the Kumeyaay, the Paipai, and the Kiliwa. The population of the last of these groups, located on the outskirts of Ensenada, has dwindled to three or four speakers.

The Kumeyaay live on 13 reservations in San Diego County, California (Barona, Campo, Capitan Grande, Cuyapaipe, Inaja, Jamul, La Posta, Manzanita, Mesa Grande, San Pasqual, Santa Ysabel, Sycuan, and Viejas), and on four reservations in Baja California (La Huerte, Neji, San Antonio Neidus, and San Jose La Zozza). The group living on a particular reservation is referred to as a "band," such as the "Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians."

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