[6][2] They lived in two autonomous villages, Wilákalpa and Kúpa (or Cupa),[3] located north of present-day Warner Springs, California.

Their homelands extended to Agua Caliente, located east of Lake Henshaw in an area now crossed by State Highway 79 near Warner Springs.

After Mexico achieved independence, its government granted Juan José Warner, a naturalized American-Mexican citizen, nearly 45,000 acres (180 km2) of the land on November 28, 1844.

The Cupeño continued to reside at what the Spanish called Agua Caliente after the American occupation of California in 1847 to 1848, during the Mexican–American War.

[8] According to Julio Ortega, one of the oldest members of the Cupeño tribe, Warner set aside about 16 miles (26 km) of land surrounding the hot springs as the private domain of the Indians.

[citation needed] Following European contact but prior to the time of their eviction, the Cupeños sold milk, fodder, and craftwork to travelers on the Southern Immigrant Trail and passengers on the stagecoaches of the Butterfield Overland Mail, that stopped at Warner's Ranch and passed through the valley.

In 1880, after numerous suits and countersuits, European-American John G. Downey acquired all titles to the main portion of Warner's Ranch.

"[13] On May 13, 1903, the Cupa Indians were forced to move 75 miles (121 km) away, to Pala, California on the San Luis Rey River[12] It has been referred to by the Los Angeles Times, academics, and the Pala Band of Mission Indians as the Cupeño trail of tears given the traumatic nature of the event.

It was described by historian Phil Brigandi as "the last of Indian 'removals' in the United States, ending a federal policy of forced relocations that had begun 75 years earlier.

They have been moving on ever since.”[12] An article for the Los Angeles Daily Times featured the headline: "Indians Bundled Away Like Cattle To Pala.

[17] In 1922, the Henshaw Dam was built, which significantly worsened the flow of the San Luis Rey River that ran through the relocation site.

[17] Indians at the present-day reservations of Los Coyotes, San Ygnacio, Santa Ysabel, and Mesa Grande are among descendants of the Warner Springs Cupeño.

The Cupa site serves as a rallying point for the land claims movement of contemporary Indian people, particularly their effort to regain cultural and religious areas.

[3] Traditional foods included acorns, cactus fruit, seeds, berries, deer, quail, rabbits, and other small game.