Mission Statement

The Cultural Resources Department is committed to protecting the interests of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians by identifying and providing solutions through collaboration with other entities that preserve the culture, ancestral history, and tribal identity of the Rincon Band.

The Cultural Resources Department serves the interests of the Rincon Band by providing environmental services, cultural & natural resource monitoring, Geographic Information (GIS) mapping, museum services, and tribal historic preservation.

Cultural Resources advances that tribal sovereignty be upheld, and that proper government-to-government consultation be made with Rincon and all the Luiseño Bands by outside agencies and government entities.

Working in collaboration with the Rincon Culture Committee, Cultural Resources identifies and provides solutions to cultural resource issues, environmental problems, and natural resource concerns having significant impacts to the Rincon Indian Reservation.

Overview of Department

The Rincon Environmental office works to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the Rincon community by protecting Tribal Resources. The Rincon Environmental office is dedicated to providing services that improve the environmental quality of the reservation, and as a result, the lives of the Rincon Luiseño Indians.  Through the protection of Rincon’s natural resources, the Rincon Indians are able to keep traditions alive, such as basket making.  The office collaborates with the Rincon Education Center and the All Tribes American Indian Charter School to teach and encourage the youth to think, be, and stay earth-friendly through outreach activities.  The staff works to ensure that Rincon’s resources are enhanced and protected for today’s and tomorrow’s generations.

The Wa$xayam Pomki Museum preserves and interprets Luiseño heritage and culture through research, documentation, preservation, and education. The Museum is committed to collecting and preserving culturally relevant items such as documents, photographs, art, basketry, pottery, oral histories, cultural media, and traditional knowledge for future generations of the Luiseño People.

Rincon’s Natural Resources office is involved with water sampling, invasive species removal, Gold Spotted Oak Bore monitoring, river habitat monitoring, tribal stream team networking, and native plant identification. The GIS (Geospatial Information Systems) office develops and creates maps for Rincon, including culturally sensitive areas, planned areas for housing, tribal facilities locations, roads identification, emergency response mapping, structure locations, fire hydrants, critical response for residential homes, and 911 mapping.