Indians were forced to practice a variety of Christian religions from the time of their first encounter with Europeans until 1934. Their own religion and religious ceremonies were forbidden by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In fact, at one of the last religious ceremonies in 1920, participants were shot. The early natives roamed from the seashore through the valleys, the mountains, and to the desert. The Environmental Protection Act of 1969 and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 enabled Indians to attempt to protect their sacred places outside of reservation boundaries.
Ancestral cemeteries are still a matter of contention.
The history of San Diego Indians has been ignored. San Diego Indians did not fit the Hollywood image of horseback riding, wagon train raiding warriors. The did not wear colorful beads and buckskin clothes. They did not hunt bison or live in tipis. The Indians were considered Stone Age people as they had no metals.