On a cool, autumn day in October 1902, a group of Indians, known as Cupe os, noticed a white man approaching their village of Agua Caliente, located in a beautiful mountain valley in southern California. The unexpected guest was a farmer, a federal employee assigned to teach Native Americans how to raise crops. The stranger apparently came to assist the Cupe os and other local Indians in preparing to leave their homelands and remove to the Pala Reservation,...