The Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians is one of the smallest tribes in the United States, with only seven current adult members—but it has made a significant impact on the Coachella Valley.
The Augustine band, one of the nine Cahuilla tribes, was among the early inhabitants of the Coachella Valley. In the mid-1800s, 22 Desert Cahuilla villages were recorded on the valley floor, with an estimated population of 15,000 people. During the 1800s, the Augustine tribe and its fellow Cahuilla bands were decimated by disease, especially a smallpox outbreak in 1863 that killed more than 80 percent of the population.
In 1856, United States Land Office surveyors noted on their maps that the Cahuilla village in what is now the city of Coachella was inhabited by the Augustine Band. The band’s name came from Chief/Captain Vee-Vee Augustine, born in 1820. He and his wife, Maria Levi Augustine, their children and others were living in what is now Coachella.
On Dec. 29, 1891, the 540-acre Augustine Reservation was formalized by an executive order of Congress. The reservation was later extended to 600 acres, or almost one square mile.
The Augustine band struggled, with many leaving the area—and by the mid-1900s, the band was down to only 11 members. On April 13, 1956, those 11 surviving descendants of Vee Vee Augustine were approved by the Commission of Indian Affairs to claim the Augustine Reservation.
In the 1970s, the tribe consisted of only one adult member, Roberta Ann Augustine. Born in 1937, Roberta Ann was the great-granddaughter of Captain Vee-Vee. She had left the desert for the Los Angeles area, where she and Herman Grady John Martin had three children: Mary Ann, Gregory and Herbert.
Roberta Ann passed away in 1987. Mary Ann—born in 1964 and raised by her non-Cahuilla grandmother—and her siblings was unaware of their heritage. In 1988, armed with knowledge and verification of their genealogy, the Martin siblings set about to re-establish the tribe. The three signed a resolution setting up the General Council of the Augustine Band of Mission Indians in 1988; Mary Ann became tribal chairperson.
Tragedy struck a few years later: In 1994, Gregory and Herbert were killed in a gang-related shooting, leaving Mary Ann Green (née Martin) as the sole adult member of the band. However, she was determined to continue the Augustine legacy.
Under Mary Ann Green, the band resettled their reservation. Left vacant for decades, the land had become an environmental eyesore and was used as a trash heap. After a monumental cleanup, the reservation was finally resettled in 1996. Mary Ann had been granted custody of her four nephews and nieces, who, with her own children, became the nucleus of the Augustine Band. With the guidance of relatives in other tribes, Martin began reconnecting with Augustine history, and its customs and traditions. She established rules, regulations, policies and other procedures. She also developed plans for education, health care and housing.
She also led the way in getting a casino built on the reservation. She teamed with a Las Vegas management company, Paragon Gaming, and they established the $16 million, 34,000-square-foot Augustine Casino, which opened on July 18, 2002. Today, it primarily remains a locals’ casino, featuring 730 slot machines and a popular restaurant called Seven Feathers.
In 2008, the tribe established the Augustine Solar Energy Park, an operation which sustainably generates enough energy for the equivalent of 500 homes and provides most of the power for tribal businesses.
The Augustine Band later established the Temalpakh Farms, an organic vegetable farm on the tribal reservation, just south of the Augustine Casino. Temalpakh Farms got its name from the Cahuilla word “temalpakh,” which means “from the earth.” Work on farm was started in 2012, and today, goods produced at the farm are sold around the valley. Upon entering the farm, visitors encounter Seven Feathers Hill, which features seven eight-foot feather sculptures made from recycled tires. The feathers represent the tribe’s seven generations as well as the seven adult tribal members.
Green became ill with cancer in 2016, and her daughter, Amanda Augustine Vance, who had been vice chair, became the tribal chairperson. Vance later said in an interview with The Desert Sun, “The final months were grueling. I was not only running the government, and making sure my mom was going to her appointments—I was pregnant with my third child and still going to school.”
Mary Ann Green died on Jan. 8, 2017; she was buried at the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians’ Tribal Cemetery.
Vance is also the CEO of Synergy Blue, a slot-machine company based in Las Vegas that is mostly owned by the tribe. Vance, her husband and their six children also oversee Temalpakh Farms.
The presence of the Augustine Band is both historic and economically important: The presence of the Augustine Casino has increased property values and sparked a more robust economy in the eastern Coachella Valley. Nearly all of the Augustine Band’s 400 employees reside in and around the city of Coachella. Since its opening, Augustine Casino has paid nearly $200 million in total salaries and wages, which have gone back into the local economy. The tribe says it has made about $2 million in charitable donations, in addition to a $2 million contribution to the 2015 Avenue 54 roadway-improvement project.
That’s a lot of impact from a band that nearly faded from existence.
Sources for this article include The Cahuilla Indians, by Harry James (Malki Museum Press, 1960); “How one of America’s smallest Indian tribes bounced back from the brink of dying out,” by Ricardo Lopez, The Desert Sun, May 2, 2019; “How One of the Smallest Tribal Nations in the U.S. Is Redefining Sustainable Living,” by Karthika Gupta, Vogue, Sept. 28, 2023; the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians website; and aaregistry.org/story/mary-ann-green-born.
