The native name Kupangaxwicham means 'people from the sleeping place', referring to their traditional homeland, prior to 1902, of Ktipa (at the base of Warner's Hot Springs).

[4] After many years of public protests, the California Supreme Court decided to relocate the Cupeño people to the Pala Reservation.[4][5][when?]

[4] The language was originally spoken in Cupa, Wilaqalpa, and Paluqla, located in San Diego County, California, and later around the Pala Indian Reservation.

[3] Nouns, as well as demonstratives, determiners, quantifiers, and adjectives, in Cupeño are marked for case and number and agree with each other in complex nominal constructions.

Evidentiality in Cupeño is expressed with clitics, typically appearing near the beginning of the sentence: =kuʼut 'reportative' (mu=kuʼut 'and it is said that...') =am 'mirative' =$he 'dubitative' There are two inflected moods, realis =pe and irrealis =eʼp.