Rancho Little Temecula was a 2,233-acre (9.04 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Riverside County, California given in 1845 by Governor Pío Pico to Pablo Apis.
[4] Pablo Apis (1792–1854) was born a Luiseño and at age six was among the first indigenous people baptized at the Mission San Luis Rey.
[2] Apis learned to read and write in Spanish and eventually rose to a position of leadership in which he was the principal spokesman for the local Luiseños.
[2][5] In 1843, Apis was given the Temecula area, including the established village center, by Father José María de Zalvidea, a priest briefly in control of the former mission and its lands.
[7] With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican–American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored.
[2] Two years later, the San Diego County Sheriff forced the indigenous people from their homes in Temecula and led them to what is now known as the Pechanga Indian Reservation.
In 1964, the Vails sold the ranch to the Kaiser Steel Company, which master-planned the community of Rancho California, which now comprises the cities of Temecula and Murrieta.