| Rincon Reservation Ethnology-Language: Luiseņo Established: 1875 County: San Diego Acreage: 4,275 Population: 1,478 Location: Off highway 76 along the San Luis Rey River and near the community of Valley Center Rincon is a fast developing reservation with a new casino. Rincon was the first North San Diego County tribe to open its casino, in January of 2001. New buildings have sprouted up over the last few years for Health Services, security (Indian Action Team), a fire department and an Indian Education Center, including Head Start. Rincon has spectacular views of Mt. Palomar and is sprinkled with citrus and avocado orchards that, at one time, served as the main source of economic development. Library: The library space is situated inside the Tribal Hall, used alternatively as a museum, gathering place and library. The library was established in 1987 under the Indian Library Services Project, administered by the San Diego County Library Outreach Division. The collection is around 3,000 with an emphasis on children's books, reference materials and American Indians. The Luiseņo Culture Bank, established in the mid-1970's, is housed here. This collection of non-book materials, relating to Luiseņo culture, was gathered under a NEH grant by a group of concerned elders. The collection, housed in locked museum cases, cries out for a digitized formatting project, something discussed with the tribe in the early 1990s. Some computers exist but are old and appear to be unused. At one time, interns from the Tribal Library Intern Project out of the San Jose State University/Fullerton Program set up an automated catalog for the collection. Sadly, no one seems to know where the hard drive and disk ended up. The library has had a number of tribal library staff, the most recent one left in April of 2000. Currently, the library is open to those who are given permission to enter, but it is not staffed. An active and dedicated Culture Committee at Rincon has long had an interest in supporting and growing the library and continues to advocate for staffing, collection growth and preservation of culture and language. |
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