Politana, California

Its most prominent landmark today is the St. Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church on Colton Avenue, just southwest of the Inland Center Mall, in San Bernardino, California.

To appease this spirit and avert further displeasure, they attacked the Politana rancheria, massacred most of the Mission Indians, and destroyed the buildings.

Several years later, the Serrano and Mountain Cahuilla rebuilt the Politana rancheria, and in 1819 invited the missionaries to return to the valley.

Serrano and Cahuilla people inhabited Politana until long after the 1830s decree of secularization and the 1842 inclusion into the Rancho San Bernardino land grant.

Don Lorenzo Trujillo brought the first colony of settlers from New Mexico to settle on land provided by the Lugos about one half mile south of the Indian village of La Politana.

These colonists included William Workman, John A. Rowland (later owners of Rancho La Puente) and Benjamin Davis Wilson.

In 1845, the Salazar colonists too moved to the Santa Ana River, one mile northeast of La Placita and there founded the village known as Agua Mansa.

To replace the New Mexicans as guardians of their herds, the Lugos brought Mountain Cahuilla tribesmen under their leader, Juan Antonio, to settle in Politana.

Due to the ill feeling among the American population resulting from this incident, shortly afterward the Cahuilla moved east to a new rancheria at Saahatpa in the San Gorgonio Pass near Banning, California.

Its cemetery became an orange grove in the late 19th century and now the site is an open lot west of the St. Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church on Colton Avenue, just southwest of the Inland Center Mall.