Sunrise over Banning Water Canyon, site of a Native ancestral village recorded as pihatapa and pisatañavitcem (Strong 1929), Pihatcap (Gifford, 1918), Pihaqtüpayam (Benedict, 1924), Pisata Wanakik (Bean, 1960). Slide photo by the late Lewis Robertson, Banning, CA, dated 1952 (Pat Murkland Collection).
By Pat Murkland
All over Southern California Native American homelands, in some forgotten and obscure places, the sun today, June 21, 2023, has been shining at certain times through special notches in rocks or onto other sacred places in our landscapes. These places once saw years and years and years of annual Native American rituals and ceremonies marking the summer solstice.
For example, at Burro Flats (now a toxic waste-polluted site) outside Simi Valley in Ventura County, ancient sites mark both winter and summer solstices. According to William McCawley in his 1996 classic, The First Angelinos: The Gabrielino Indians of Los Angeles, one boulder features a line of cupules, or small, artificial depressions, pointing toward a naturally formed notch in a faraway cliff. During the time of the summer solstice, as the sun rises, the sun “enters” the notch and seems to fit inside.
Close to the boulder with the cupules is another stone at ground-level with mortar holes arranged in the pattern of a bear paw. And as the solstice sun rises above the cliff, McCawley said, the boulder with the cupules casts a shadow across the “bear paw”stone.
Summer sun sets on buckwheat in the San Gorgonio Pass. (Pat Murkland Photo)
Some years ago, the late Cahuilla Elder Alvino Siva and late archaeologist Daniel McCarthy showed a similar Cahuilla wonder near the Siva ancestral home high in the wilderness of the Santa Rosa Mountains. A rock formation there marks the longest days of the year. Only on two or three days this time of year, around the summer solstice, the sun shines through a crevice and onto another rock that catches the ray.
In Chumash homelands, anthropologist J.P. Harrington learned from his Chumash consultant Fernando Librado about a summertime rite in which shamans inserted a sunstick in the earth and prayed for favorable outcomes, such as plentiful native food plants.
According to William McCawley (see pp 160-161 of The First Angelinos), “It consisted of a wooden shaft approximately 15 inches in length, topped with a sandstone disc held in place with cord wrappings and asphaltum. The stone disc, six inches in diameter and painted green or blue, was set on the shaft at an angle. A pattern of lines radiating outward from the wooden shaft was painted on the top of the disc; a red or black crescent representing the moon was painted on the side.
“According to Harrington’s Chumash consultant Fernando Librado,” McCawley writes, “the shaft of the sunstick was a physical representation of the earth’s axis and the sandstone disc represented the sun.”
We’ve received four hours more of sunlight today than we saw on the shortest day of 2022, the December winter solstice. Hope you’ve enjoyed the sun. And the time. In the Serrano language, “time” and “sun” are the same word, tamit.
Looking toward the San Jacinto Mountains, summer sunset (Pat Murkland Photo)
Great Cultural Ways to Spend Your Tamit
Summer Storytelling Workshops: Artists and writers 16 years and older are invited to free summer creative workshops at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in Banning starting Saturday, July 8, 2023, and running weekly every Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. through Aug. 5, 2023. Participants will be inspired by traditional Indigenous storytelling arts as they create their own art in songwriting, poetry, and playwriting workshops.
The workshops are offered as a collaboration among the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, which saves and shares Southern California Native American cultures; the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit, which shares and uplifts Native voices through culture; and Pre-Texts, an organization dedicated to improving literacy, public health, violence prevention, and more in marginalized communities by using literature or stories to create art — that is, texts.
Read more about this exciting program HERE and to sign up for the workshops, PLEASE EMAIL ISABELLA MADRIGAL.
Center Leader Ernest Siva and at left, James Ramos, now a California state Assembly member, dance at the 2014 Dragonfly Gala to traditional bird songs. In 2014, James Ramos and longtime Morongo Tribal Council member Mary Ann Andreas received Dragonfly Awards for their leadership. (Carlos Puma Photo)
Dragonfly Gala: We’re already seeing sign-ups for the limited numbers of tables as the 501c3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center readies to celebrate our 20th anniversary of saving and sharing Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts on Aug. 12, 2023, at Morongo Community Center, Morongo Reservation. This year is extra-special because we are honoring our powerhouse leaders Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano) and his wife, June Siva. Eat traditional and delicious foods, enjoy traditional singing and dancing, and cultural exhibits, and shop in our epic silent auction. TABLES: $1,000, $2,000, $3,000; SPONSORSHIPS ALSO AVAILABLE.
Individual tickets, $60. PLEASE RSVP HERE.
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AND THANK YOU. News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center and its archives are FREE. We love to hear from you. PLEASE EMAIL US. Thanks as always from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva and Editor Pat Murkland. June 21, 2023.