According to interviews with Augustine Elders in the winter of 1924–1925, the tribe is of the
Nanxaiyem clan of Pass
Cahuilla. Francisco Nombre, a Desert Cahuilla ceremonial leader and keeper of traditional clan genealogy, stated that the
Nanxaiyem migrated to the
Coachella Valley around 1860 and their survivors settled at
La Mesa, the flat land east of
La Quinta, California. There, according to Nombre, they became known as
Augustin [sic]. There are over a dozen Pass
Cahuilla clans, traditionally following patrilineal descent, and are divided into the Wildcat and Coyote
moieties, inhabiting the San Gorgonio Pass eastward to Indian Wells and westward to San Timoteo Canyon. The Nanxaiyem Clan of Augustine Reservation is Coyote moiety. On April 13, 1956, the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs approved a census roll of the tribe, documenting 11 living members. The reservation of the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians is a tract of land, located in
Riverside County, California, at .
Thermal, California, and the
Cabazon Band of Mission Indians are both nearby. The land was left vacant for half a century, until Chairman Green moved there in 1996.
Mary Ann Green, née Martin, born in 1964, decided to rebuild the tribe and resettle the reservation. On December 29, 1981, the August Band of Mission Indians was established by an Executive Order. Under Green, the tribal government, which currently employs eight people, was established in 1994 and their reservation was resettled in 1996. Green's daughter, Amanda Vance, became tribal chair in 2016 after Green became ill. Traditional Cahuilla singer, Tony Andreas, grew up on the Augustine Reservation in the 1930s and 1940s. ==Current projects==