A Kumeyaay comic book rewrites California's history and inspires a hopeful future

The Kumeyaay have long told stories through rock art, vivid images carved into stone that preserved culture, memory and meaning. Today, that tradition continues in a new comic book created by Kumeyaay educators and historians to challenge the erasure of Indigenous history in California classrooms. Co-written by SDSU professor Ethan Banegas, a member of the Barona Band of Mission Indians, the book brings Kumeyaay life — from ancestral knowledge to colonization and resistance — into a format designed for students and teachers.

Photos: Peek inside the comic book, plus a handful of images from Ethan Banegas

" Oftentimes history is written as: We are victims, we are passive. And what I like about this page, in general, is this is us creating and fighting for our own future. So I think that's why this comic is a real game changer for people like me growing up in today's world," Banegas said. "You just know these things are true, but you don't have any way or material to support it. They have this comic now to go to bat for 'em."

Blending community memory, academic research and lived experience, the comic is both a resource and a tool of reclamation. It replaces silence with story, and invisibility with truth.

Download the comic book ↗

Guest:

Ethan Banegas:

• Co-author of "Our Past, Present, and Future / Beyond Gaming" along with Michael Connolly Miskwish, Lorraine Orosco and Stanley Rodriguez, and illustrated by John Swogger
• Historian at the San Diego History Center
• Professor at San Diego State University

Mentioned in this episode:

• Barona Band of Mission Indians | A federally recognized Kumeyaay tribe located in San Diego County, known for preserving language, culture and history while running one of the region's most well-established tribal casinos
• Fisherman's Wharf | San Francisco waterfront near Alcatraz, where Native activists staged part of the 1969 occupation to demand Indigenous rights and recognition
• Tom-tom | A type of hand drum used across many Native American tribes in ceremonies, storytelling and music

Event: 'Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project Exhibition'

Sources:

• "​​First Catholic mission in California dedicated" (History.com, 2010)
• A History of American Indians in California: 1769-1848 (National Park Service)
• California Indians (Benjamin L. Madley, Oxford University Press, 2021)
• California's Long "War of Extermination" (John Briscoe, California State Library)
• California Indian History (Edward D. Castillo, California Native American Heritage Commission)
• "California's Little-Known Genocide" (Erin Blakemore, History.com, 2017)
• Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (National Park Service)
• Kumeyaay Look to the Sky (Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians)
• "History and Memory: The Mission Indian Federation's Tools of Resistance" (Chris McCormack, California State University, Fullerton, 2019)
• "1969 Occupation of Alcatraz: How Native Americans took over former prison and ignited a movement" (Ken Miguel and Cornell Barnard, ABC7 News, 2021)

Watch: The story of the 1969 Native occupation told through rare footage in "Escape to Alcatraz"

• "The radical history of the Red Power movement's fight for Native American sovereignty" (Erin Blakemore, National Geographic, 2020)
• "Preserving Kumeyaay culture through higher education" (Jade Hindmon, Julianna Domingo and Brooke Ruth, KPBS, 2023)
• "Junípero Serra's brutal story in spotlight as pope prepares for canonisation" (Andrew Gumbel, The Guardian, 2015)
• Pope: Junipero Serra, a witness of the "Church which goes forth" (The Vatican Archive via YouTube, 2015)
• Pope Francis praises Junipero Serra during Mass in Washington (CNN via YouTube, 2016)
• The Jesuits and Native Communities (Alan Ziajka, Pierless Bridges, 2022)
• Eusebio Francisco Kino 1645-1711 (Kino Historical Society)
• "The conflict between the California Indian and white civilization" (Sherburne Friend Cook, University of California Press, 1976)
• "Native Americans Call For Rethink of Bering Strait Theory" (Cecily Hilleary, Voice of America, 2017)
• "Did humans cross the Bering Strait after the land bridge disappeared?" (Amanda Heidt, Live Science, 2023)
• "The 1st Americans were not who we thought they were" (Laura Geggel, Live Science, 2023)"Remarkable New Evidence for Human Activity in North America 130,000 Years Ago" (Brigit Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, 2017)
• FACT SHEET: President Biden Designates Avi Kwa Ame National Monument (National Archives, 2023)
• Gaming and Peon (Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians)
• "After council vote, Navajo is now the official language of the Navajo Nation" (Arlyssa D. Becenti Arizona Republic, 2025)
• "Kumeyaay community in Baja California seeks to preserve their language" (Natalie Gonzalez Rodriguez, KPBS, 2024)
• "As part of cultural revitalization, Kumeyaay community celebrates launch of 50 tule boats" (Lauren J. Mapp, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 2023)
• Donovan Nation Singing Kumeyaay Bird Songs (Birdy Escalanti via YouTube, 2024)
• Saints Tekakwitha and Serra Hall (USD Student Media, 2019)
• St. Kateri Tekakwitha (Britannica)