Why the San Manuel tribe is going back to its original name ...Middle East

A name has power, San Bernardino tribal members say.

The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, whose federally recognized reservation overlooks Highland and San Bernardino, has formally changed its name to the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation.

The move is a return to the tribe’s “ancestral name,” Yuhaaviatam (pronounced “yu-HAH-vee-ah-tahm”) Clan of the Maara’yam, leaders announced. It reclaims the tribe’s spoken language, Maara’yam (“MAH-ra’-yahm”) or Serrano, and honors its heritage as  “the Indigenous people of the San Bernardino highlands, passes, valleys, mountains, and high deserts.”

It also moves the tribe away from a former name given to them by the U.S. government, leaders said.

The name “San Manuel Band of Mission Indians” was given to the tribe in 1891, reflecting the period of U.S. colonization under the Spanish Mission, which leaders said “yielded a long history of dispossession, trauma, and genocide.” It also confined members to “restricted, isolated, and unproductive lands.”

“A name is more than just a title or label—it is a proud connection to our identity, our history and our traditions,” said Lynn Valbuena, Chairwoman of the Yuhaaviatam Tribal Council, in a news release. “The name Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation is not only how our nation will be known, but a symbol of the enduring legacy passed down through generations. This name is rooted in our spoken language, deeply embedded in our heritage, and carries the wisdom and resilience of our ancestors.”

Yuhaaviatam means “People of the Pines,” a nod to the tribe’s deep connection to the land and natural world, leaders said. The tribe is proud to reclaim its original name known since creation, while honoring history and paying tribute to those who came before.

“It echoed before the arrival of European settlers, before Santos Manuel led his people into the San Bernardino Valley, long before we were called the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. Today, its spirit lives in all of us,” officials said in a video announcing the renaming. “Yuhaaviatam — this name is our home, spoken in our language and rooted in our traditions. It is a namesake we now reclaim for our ancestors and the generations to come, because a name has power.”

According to the tribe’s history, Maara’yam people were taken from their ancestral lands — which include parts of the Inland Empire, Antelope Valley, deep Riverside County, the San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert region — and placed with other Indigenous clans in the San Gabriel Mission. Later in the 1800s, many Maara’yam people were held in an outpost in modern Redlands and used as mission labor. They built a massive irrigation system, the Mill Creek Zanja, which supported agriculture throughout the base of the San Bernardino Mountains.

As anti-Native American sentiment grew, armed militia attempted to kill the entire tribe in Big Bear Valley in the 1860s. Leader Santos Manuel safely moved the small remaining group of Maara’yam away from their mountain homelands and into the San Bernardino Valley. Decades later, after living across the land, the tribe was placed on the San Manuel Reservation in 1891. The group became federally recognized as the “San Manuel Band of Mission Indians” that year.

Though struggles remained with the U.S. government over independence, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1970 eventually allowed all federally recognized tribes to exercise their rights to self-govern as an independent nation. This paved the way for a more secure economy, building and growing opportunities on and off the reservation.

Today, the tribe supports local education, economic development, civil services, philanthropic efforts and more throughout Indian Country and beyond, leaders said. Officials have especially focused on bringing Native American history into the classroom and showcasing cultural traditions to the world.

The tribe also broadly shared its Maara’yam/Serrano language in 2021, with the renaming of its flagship property, the Yaamava’ Resort & Casino at San Manuel. Yaamava’ is the Serrano word for “spring season.”

Both rebrands are seen as a “significant step” in preserving and promoting their people’s traditional language, culture and heritage “for our ancestors and all generations to come,” Yuhaaviatam leaders said.

The Pechanga Band of Indians — formerly “Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians” — in southwest Riverside County also changed its name in 2024, dropping Luiseño as a move away from the “dark and tragic period” of mission slavery in the tribe’s history, officials said.

Apple Valley resident James Fenelon is a professor of sociology and director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples Studies at Cal State San Bernardino, on Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation land. Fenelon, who is Lakota/Dakota from Standing Rock nation, called the tribe’s recent renaming a key to decolonization.

“I would call this an end stage of modern decolonization,” he said. “It’s really significant, it’s deep and it’s powerful, and other people’s so called tribal nations have often done this.”

Fenelon, who wrote a book about the use of racist, stereotypical Indigenous iconography in sports mascots, said the Yuhaaviatam tribe’s return to its ancestral name was “brilliant” and “respectful.”

“They’ve kept San Manuel in recognition of their founder Santos Manuel, but added Yuhaaviatam which is their traditional identity,” he said. “Yet, they still have that legal, important sovereignty that allows them to operate as a San Manuel Nation.”

He reflected on recent legislative and local victories in Indigenous rebranding.  Passed in 2024, the California Racial Mascots Act (AB 3074) prohibits public schools from using any derogatory Native American term as a school or athletic team name, mascot or nickname, unless it is a public school operated by a Native American tribe or tribal organization, beginning July 2026.

In 2022, a similar renaming effort aimed at respecting Indigenous culture was signed into law. AB 2022 requires the removal of a “racist and derogatory” word that has historically been used as an “offensive ethnic, racial, and sexist slur” from all California geographic features and place names, including landmarks, public lands, waters and structures.

By end of 2024, California had at least 42 geographic features and places in the state that needed to be renamed to remove the derogatory term, according to Politico.

Inland area schools in Alta Loma, Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside and Fontana have been making moves toward changing Indigenous mascots and iconography over the last few years.

Assemblymember James Ramos, who authored the bill, is a resident of the San Manuel Indian Reservation and member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe.

Ramos has advanced many such bills that aim to improve the lives of Native people, including AB 923, which requires culturally-sensitive training for state agencies interacting with tribes, and AB 1703, encouraging school districts to engage with tribes’ culture and history.

“Yuhaaviatam, People of the Pines, is a name that was given to our clan as our creator was cremated, and the people turned into tall pine trees. As acceptance in today’s community grows more open, the original name of our people is only right,” stated Ramos, D-San Bernardino.

Renaming the tribe “signifies an acceptance or respect (which) was not given when the voice of our people was not engaged in discussions,” Ramos said, “similar to other areas in the state that have a negative history or contemporary trauma impacting California’s first people. My tribe’s ability to show resilience in driving the retention of our original clan name is truly significant.”

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