SDSU Press Brings You Three Publications Documenting of the Kumeyaay and Other Native American Nations!!

In 2014 the documentary First People-Kumeyaay was produced by Industrial Strength Television, Inc. Drawn from over 70 hours of oral interviews with culture bearers from the Kumeyaay Nation and focused on the importances of sharing and maintaining cultural heritage and passing it on to future generations, the documentary quickly won numerous awards, including the 2014 Borrego Springs Film Festival "People's Choice" award for best documentary, and has been nominated in 2015 for a National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Pacific Southwest region Emmy award in the documentary category.


"To the beginning of time" takes on a different meaning when referring to San Diego county and Northern Baja, California. In this case, it comes from the first true San Diegans, otherwise known as the Kumeyaay (also known as the Tipai-Ipai, Kamia, or Diegueño).  KPBS' Emmy-nominated film First People - Kumeyaay  explores Kumeyaay culture with probing insight into their nation(s), located throughout the county of San Diego and in the north of Baja, California. There has been substantial interest in this native community, whose legacy and cultural identity cannot be neglected when thinking about the people and history that constitute modern San Diego/Baja culture.  Here is a teaser from the new documentary:

SDSU Press has been committed to documenting the myriad complexities of the Kumeyaay and other Native American nations for decades.  Three publications, still in print, and now on sale via our Amazon.com virtual bookstore are particularly salient:

A Teacher's Guide to Historical and Contemporary Kumeyaay Culture (A Supplemental Resource for Third and Fourth Grade Teachers) written by Geralyn Hoffman and Lynn Gamble, invites the reader to become one with the Kumeyaay Nation and delve into their modern culture. Gamble's interest and publications on a wide variety of topics from the Chumash Indians to the origin of the plank canoe allows for an insightful and in depth approach to the Kumeyaay culture.

Additionally, William D. Hohenthal, Jr. takes the reader back into history in Tipai Ethnographic Notes: A Baja California Indian Community at Mid-Century. This dynamic and enlightening book recreates the past through their ancient traditions, ethnographic info, and Tipai accounts of material culture, complete with a map that reveals elusive and dormant trails for the reader to explore.

Mii Anmak Nyamak Kweyiwpo: Jwanya Kumiai Kuwak / Footsteps From the Past into the Future Kumeyaay Stories of Baja California:

This wonderful trilingual collection of Kumeyaay Texts /Kumiai Textos is a delight for all concerned with Indigenous oral literature. In a rapidly transforming world, it is especially important to document and preserve these fascinating stories about Coyote, Frog, Wildcat and others, so that they can continue to serve as resources for community identity and nation-building for these groups, and as subjects of scholarly research