Pala Indian Reservation

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The Pala Indian Reservation is located in northern San Diego County, California, east of the community of Fallbrook, and has been assigned feature ID 272502. Historic variant names used to describe the area include Mission Indian Reservation and Mission Indian Reserve. Coordinates on the Pala quadrangle are given as 33°21′15″N, 117°00′05″W. The reservation has a land area of 52.163 km² (20.140 sq mi) and reported an official resident population of 1,573 persons in the 2000 census, about 44 percent of whom were of solely Native American heritage.

The reservation occupies parts of four 7.5 minute topographic maps: Boucher Hill, California, Pala, California, Pechanga, California, and Vail Lake, California. The area consists of acreage in and around Pala, California. According to a list of California tribal entities on Senator Barbara Boxer's web site, the Pala tribal areas are home to Cupe o and Luiseo language groups. The Cupe o language is sometimes written with a guttural stop (Cupe'o) or with the space dropped (Cupeo).

The tribe has been in the news lately for providing wireless Internet service to tribal lands. The microwave backbone extends south about 85 miles to Campo Indian Reservation north and east of Campo, California.

Another major tribal group, the Pauma Band of Mission Indians (Luiseo) are to the east and south along State Route 76.