By Pat Murkland
Our unique and beautiful Inland Southern California landscapes always offer mystery and wonder. Our hearts learned a new Native American word this week: walangax, “a Cahuilla concept meaning, from the beginning, the place of strength and interconnectedness.” 1
So let’s jump right into three tales about people’s relationships with the natural world, and ways you can join them.
1. “The Inland Sea”
Elder Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez (Chumash/O’odham (Tohono and Akimal) shares her memory of walking on Coachella Valley desert lands that in ancient times lay underwater, at the bottom of a lake believed to have been about 100 miles long, 34 miles wide, and 300 feet deep:
“The desert was in bloom,” she writes.2
“Blue verbenas and white desert primrose spread out across the sand dunes that followed the windy highway north of Indio, California. Red flowers, as small as a tip of a newborn’s finger, bloomed next to seashells in wind-cleared patches of speckled earth. My mother and I were kneeling, marveling at the flowers and seashells, while my father stood speaking into the wind about the markings on the distant blue mountains that traced the ancient sea and how fish fossils had been embedded in rock.
“Wind whistled through the flowers and sand swirled and rose like sea-mist. My father knelt beside us, cradling the seashells and flowers, and the song of wind on water blew across the desert like a prayer.”
I called her to talk about this more. She said that this memory from years ago is so vivid, she still can see the flowers and the shells, and still feel the incredible magic.
While the desert flowers bloom, you, too, can see a panoramic view of the lake site from the Ancient Lake Cahuilla Overlook, a trail in La Quinta.
And, you can visit with acclaimed poet Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez and hear more of her poems, stories, and cultural memoirs, including stories from her childhood around Banning and Morongo Reservation. Save the date: May 15, 2023, starting at 6 p.m. at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. Co-sponsored by the Native American Arts Center at Idyllwild Arts!
Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez (Carlos Puma Photo)
(We originally scheduled this visit last November and are elated we were finally able to reschedule. Read more about Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez here.)
2. Yucca Updates
Panu'ul (Cahuilla) and Uumuc (Serrano) continues to grow on a hillside that burned in summer 2020. Some basket weavers use fibers from the heart of young yucca to start their baskets. (Pat Murkland photo)
We look forward every spring to seeing the spears of our resident Panu'ul (Cahuilla) and Uumuc (Serrano), or chaparral yucca plants (formerly yucca whipplei, now scientifically named hesperoyucca whipplei), rocket suddenly from the brush.
“'Ama' 'umuch qwê'ac waha'. That 'umuch (young stalk of yucca plant with fresh buds which are not blooming yet) is also food,” the late Elder Dorothy Ramon said in Serrano in her cultural memoir, Wayta' Yawa': Always Believe.3
“'Uvihtim qwa'i' Taaqtam. The Indians ate it long ago. Kwan hakup 'a'ay. It is very good (for rheumatism). Kwan hakup 'a'ay. It is very good.
“Taaqt 'amempki' qacew kwa' hiik. If a person was sick he would get better. Puuyu' 'attattqci' peyika' 'a'ay. It is good for one’s entire body.
“Keym ki' 'anin key. That’s what they said, and that’s what I say. 'A'ayec rraaqwc waha'. It is also good food.
“ 'Asheehim parherq, pata' qay' puchuk shee'ow. They would boil its flowers when they were just barely blooming. 'Umuch 'asheehim parherq. They would boil the 'umuch buds. 'Amaynu' qwahqwa' waha' ne'. I used to eat it, too. Hakup 'a'ay. It’s very good.
“ 'Amaymu' hunukich tenge' kin 'amay. They would also strain it. Chapkinaym waha', mitkin. It seems that they would leach it, as well. 'Amaym 'ayee' qwa'i' pana' nyaawnk Taaqtam 'uviht. Long ago the Indians would eat it just like that.
“ 'A 'ayec xhit terr'rant pernafc 'umuch 'ashee'. It is beneficial, the 'umuch blossoms are medicinal. 'Ama' 'ayee'. That’s all.”
A reconnaissance mission in our hills to see how our yucca are coming along showed that no stalks have appeared yet, but several have matured enough for this to be a possibility. It takes about five years for the Panu'ul (Cahuilla) and Uumuc (Serrano) to mature. Then they grow their stalks; the blossoms are fertilized by a specific moth species, form into seed pods, and the mature plant dies. The seed pods scatter and soon new yucca grow. So gathering blossoms means leaving many behind, to assure continuation. Our yucca with a couple exceptions all survived our 2020 wildfire. We’ve watched the 2020 babies growing for nearly three years, now.
The most difficult and steep terrain always seems to offer the most mature yucca plants that may soon grow stalks and blossom. You also can see here how the surrounding plants are recovering from the 2020 fire. (Pat Murkland Photo)
Our Elders will appreciate and enjoy eating the blossoms when they do appear! Meanwhile, you can taste the roasted spears of amul (Cahuilla), or agave, and other delicious Native plant foods at Malki Museum’s traditional agave roast on Saturday, April 8, 2023, starting at 10 am at the museum, 11-795 Malki Road, on Morongo Reservation.
3. Te Wheke (Octopus)
I’ve always wanted to write about the beautiful and magical octopus — in context — in News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. That moment arrived with a phone call from Cahuilla Bird Singer Michael Madrigal, between his classes at UC Riverside. He wants to let everyone know that a visiting Māori dance group from New Zealand (Aotearoa), Atamira Dance Company, is performing at 7 p.m. today, Friday, April 7, 2023, at the Culver Center in Riverside.
According to the dancers: “Atamira Dance Company creates works shaped by the cultural identity of their land to uplift Indigenous world views through dance. … Inspired by a Māori model of hauora (well-being) which frames the choreographic structure of solo and ensemble work, eight dancers and eight choreographic practitioners, tuakana (senior) and teina (emerging), journey into the esoteric and universal dimensions of humanity ...
“The whakapapa (lineage) of Atamira Dance Company’s illustrious choreographic continuum is represented through this large full-length work inspired by Te Wheke — The Octopus — a powerful tohu (symbol) for Māori and many Oceanic peoples, appearing in different mythologies.”
More information and tickets here.
More 3. Walangax
Connecting: On Saturday, April 8, 2023, starting at 6 p.m. the Māori dancers’ hosts, the Indigenous Choreographers at Riverside Gathering Project, are also hosting a gathering at Sherman High School, 9010 Magnolia Ave. Riverside (enter on Jackson Street), with students, Cultural Director Lorene Sisquoc, the Mountain Cahuilla Bird Singers, community members, and guests from Atamira Dance Company.
“Guided by local community vision, we are gathering here in Pachappa to gently activate transformative, reparative, and healing ways of being, here, now and in the future. By sitting, breathing, and connecting around a fire, we honor walangax, a Cahuilla concept meaning from the beginning, the place of strength and interconnectedness,” according to the group.
Also starting at 1 p.m. at Sherman: Opening of “Away from Home: American Boarding School Stories,” a joint exhibition presented by Sherman Indian Museum and The Autry Museum of the American West, open from April 8-May 13. We look forward to sharing more about this!
Thank you!
Tell us about your own relationships with the natural world around us: EMAIL.
And thanks for supporting our nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, led by Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), now in its 20th year of saving and sharing Southern California’s cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. As always, thanks from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva and Editor Pat Murkland for reading, liking, subscribing, and sharing News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, your FREE online weekly newsletter. April 7, 2023.
Thanks to Michael Madrigal for sharing information from the Indigenous Choreographers at Riverside Gathering Project, which is supported by the University of California, Irvine, Humanities Research Project, the UC Riverside Center for Ideas and Society, the UC Riverside California Center for Native Nations, and UC Riverside Native American Student Programs.
Shared with permission, Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez, A Light to do Shellwork By: Poems, © 2022 by Georgiana Valoyce-Sanchez, published by Scarlet Tanager Books, Oakland, CA, p. 21
Written with Eric Elliott and published by Malki Museum Press, 2002, “Uses of Yucca Buds,” pp. 99-100.