Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Pala, CA

Pala is a small, mostly Native American community and census-designated place located within the Pala Indian Reservation in northern San Diego County, California.

Pala first appeared as a census-designated place in the 2020 census, which counted 1,490 residents.

For centuries Pala was a traditional gathering place of Native peoples, and about half of its 2020 population identified as American Indian — one of the highest shares of any place in California.

Pala is home to the Pala Band of Mission Indians, a people of Cupeño and Luiseño heritage, whose reservation covers about 12,273 acres along the San Luis Rey River.

In May 1903 the Cupeño were forcibly evicted from their ancestral homeland at Cupa and marched 40 miles over three days to Pala — a journey the tribe calls its "Trail of Tears" — in the first instance in U.S. history of two distinct tribes being placed on a single reservation.

Pala is home to the Mission San Antonio de Pala, founded on June 13, 1816, as an asistencia, or sub-mission, of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia.

The Pala Mission — California Historical Landmark No. 243 — is the only historic mission facility in California still serving a Mission Indian tribe, and it remains an active parish church and museum.

Pala is a young community: its median age at the 2020 census was just 30.3 years, and more than 36% of its residents were under the age of 18.