Morongo Cultural Heritage Department just hosted the reservation’s 8th annual open ranch rodeo, with prizes for roping, branding, barrel racing, and other competitions. The rodeo reminds us that the first cowboys in Southern California were Indians.
The area’s roping, branding, and management of cattle began in the 1700s when herds started grazing in the Native American homelands of San Gorgonio Pass, the home of present-day Morongo Reservation. The Pass held one of the 24 principal cattle ranchos or rancherías of the Roman Catholic Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, which lay just east of current downtown Los Angeles.
Morongo Cattlemen’s Association members in 2003 (Pat Murkland Photo)
Native American ancestors then gave their skills of horse-riding, training, and equine and cattle management, along with roping, branding, and roundups, to their descendants through the generations, including to members of the modern-day Morongo Cattlemen’s Association.
News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s Horses: A Ride to Resiliency last year shared how Native American cowboys were so good at what they did, they became important to the first ranches springing up after the mission era ended. Area Native Americans then parlayed their knowledge into their own major cattle industry. Although the huge Morongo Roundups ended in the 1970s, Morongo and other Native American cowboys still run cattle. And they enjoy rodeos, such as Morongo’s Oct. 9, 2021, event.
When Dorothy Ramon Learning Center celebrated Native American cowboys at our 2009 Dragonfly Gala, a few Morongo cowboys assembled this display for us, branding their historic local brands into wood:
A Few Morongo Brands
From left, going down first column:
James Sanchez Jr., John Linton, James Sanchez Sr., James Sanchez III, John Ryan Martin, Joseph Waters.
2nd column: Louie Martin, Robert Martin, Ryan Martin, Nicholas Martin, John Taylor, Art Taylor, Joe Casteneda.
3rd column: Joe Saubel, Moonie Miguel, JoJo Martin, Jack & Viola Mathews, John & Louise Aguilar, Unknown.
4th column: Anthony Necochea Jr., Anthony Necochea, Brian Lugo, Doug Necochea, Lyle Necochea, Necochea.
5th column: Maggie Cline, Hank A., Margaret Mathews, Rodney Mathews (Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s 2009 Dragonfly Award winner), Ed Soza, Fred Nelson, John Andreas.
Artist Gerald Clarke Jr. of Cahuilla Reservation, himself a cowboy, then added these brands to an illustration he donated in 2009 to Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. (This is a black and white version of his full-color artwork.)
See if you can spot a couple brands that the artist added to the illustration, including his own C3, and the brand of the late Cahuilla Elder, Alvino Siva of Los Coyotes Reservation.
Pat Siva trapping feral cattle in Los Coyotes Reservation with Alvino Siva (Siva Family Collection).
The late Alvino Siva and his late wife, retired professional trick rider Pat Siva, were longtime rodeo participants and members of many cowboy-related organizations, including Desert Riders, Pro Rodeo Historical Society, and the World Champion Cattle Penning Association. In the 1970s and 1980s the duo were admired for roping and trapping feral cattle on Los Coyotes Reservation.1
A cowboy’s work was never done, they’d say.
And as Alvino Siva recalled in 1999, when he was a kid and played “cowboys and Indians,” “I’d always be the cowboy,” he said.2
Thank You
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s 501(c)3 nonprofit mission to save and share Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. We love to hear from our community: EMAIL. Subscribe, share! Thank you! Pat Murkland, Editor. October 13, 2021.
Pat Murkland, oral histories with Pat Siva, 2003-2006
Alvino Siva, oral history with Pat Murkland, 1999.