Based on several years of research, Glimpses of History, focuses on the story of the Cahuilla people of Southern California’s San Gorgonio Pass. It was originally intended as a resource for students in the Beaumont and Banning communities, but in the course of the research, the authors realized that Cahuilla history encompassed a much larger area and would have significance for the residents of Southern California from the Pacific Coast to the Colorado River. The authors have tried to make Glimpses of History readable and appealing both to students and to adults with a general interest in the history of Southern California’s native people. That is why it is organized into five brief chapters that highlight Cahuilla leaders and their interaction with the newcomers to the region in the 19th century. This work sheds light on three periods that profoundly affected the fate of the Cahuilla people: the short period of Spanish rule from 1819 to 1821, the Mexican period from 1821 to 1848—an era of grand ranchos; and the American period from 1848 to 1892. The authors, Betty Meltzer and Louis Doody, invite you now to explore these important periods in our local history in this work and its soon-to- be-released companion volume, Losing Ground.