The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. (Courtesy of Bureau of Land Management, Photo by Bob Wick)
Summer Solstice Story
High in the Santa Rosa Mountains, sunlight beamed between two boulders at the Cahuilla ancestral home of the Sivas, Īsilsīveyaiutcem.1 For hundreds of years, on the longest day and shortest night of the year, the sun shines through the crevice and exactly onto another rock that catches the ray.2
Sacred Timing
All around us are ancient observatories and special places marking the summer and winter solstices.
“For most of native California, there can be little doubt that the inhabitants considered the sun, moon, stars, and visibly bright planets with more than passing interest. Everywhere celestial objects were mentioned in myths and songs, and at least in the southern portions of the state they were accorded additional meaning in ritual and art. Indeed, astronomical knowledge was expressed in many ways, such as in the origins and exploits of various First (Sky) People, or in calendar form to regulate sacred timing of ceremonial, legal, economic, political, or social affairs (Hudson and Underhay 1978; Hudson 1978).3
Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park just south of San Marcos Pass is one of the few public places where one can see celestial images and other beautiful prehistoric rock art. The art is protected by an iron fence at the cave entrance. For a virtual closer look, visit https://www.cyark.org/projects/chumash-painted-cave/3D-Explorer. (Photo by Brian Baer)
Cahuilla Story: Sun-Enlightened
Santa Rosa Mountains as seen from Bighorn Overlook in Rancho Mirage, CA.
(Photo by Ranchomirageca courtesy of Wikimedia)
“The Santa Rosa range runs down east in a point where there is a spring — To Ba,” Cahuilla leader Francisco Patencio said in 1939.4 “Here the Indian people lived for many, many years. Not the first created people, but the tribe of Cow nuk kal kik tem. They did not live right at the spring but about ten miles beyond it. This name means a small tree that has an oily seed, much like a coffee bean. This tree grows there.
“In this tribe were some older people who put up signs to gauge how the sun shone. They found that they had to keep moving the stick to the right for a long time, and then to the left, and so by this means they discovered where the birds had their nests, and what times the animals had their young, also what time the plants grew, and the times the seeds were ripe. This they did year after year as they studied the signs of the sun. …
“When the sun swung to the north and the moon showed quartered by day overhead, or west, they knew by the signs of the sun and the moon when the seeds of certain plants were ripe, and they got ready to go away and gather the harvest. Every plant that grew, the nesting time of all the birds, the time for the young of all the animals, the time of the young eagles, everything they learned by the signs of the sun and the moon.
“… In those days all of the people walked and carried what they needed with them. Many herbs and seeds which they used for food were long distances away, so instead of arriving at the harvest fields of trees and plants too soon or too late, they studied the signs of the stars, the sun, and the moon, and gathered their fruit and seeds and nuts at the right time.”
Sun as an Indigenous Artist
Throughout California, painted and carved prehistoric rock art has been documented seemingly interacting with the arrival of solstice light, especially as the solstice light strikes art inside rock shelters or caves. At one place in Tübatulabal homelands near the Kern River, for example, prehistoric rock art apparently maps the winter and summer solstice sunrises at the site, according to a study by Robert Schiffman.5
Explore Native Art: You’re Invited
In Agua Caliente Casino Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, a mural by Cahuilla artist Gerald Clarke and his daughter Lily honors Cahuilla tribal history with a diamond pattern representative of a repeating prehistoric rock-art pattern painted or carved in the surrounding mountain ranges, and an interplay with light and images of native landscapes and cultural traditions. (Photo courtesy of the artists)
Centuries later, powerful symbols still are evoked in art. Explore how traditional cultural practices are woven into contemporary Native American art from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday, July 11, 2022, at an in-person cultural gathering and Dragonfly Lecture, “Exploring Native American Art with Gerald Clarke,” at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, 127 N. San Gorgonio Avenue, Banning. Suggested donation $10. Join us for a creative journey with Cahuilla artist Gerald Clarke, who will be recognized at the Dragonfly Gala on Aug. 13, 2022, as our Dragonfly Award winner.
Come early (5 pm) for the Dragonfly Gala pre-sale, including Native American jewelry and art.
And Save Your Seat at the Aug. 13 Dragonfly Gala
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is a 501c3 nonprofit led by Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano) that saves and shares Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts.
Your $50 ticket, $1,000; $2,000; $3,000 tables; or Gala sponsorship on Aug. 13, 2022, Morongo Community Center, Morongo Reservation, all support the 501c3 Dorothy Ramon Learning Center.
Please RSVP, and reserve your seat or table, space is limited!
Thank you! News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center welcomes your EMAIL. Thank you from Editor Pat Murkland, June 22, 2022.
Lowell John Bean, Sylvia Brakke Vane, Jackson Young, The Cahuilla and the Santa Rosa Mountain Region: Places and Their Native American Association, Prepared by Cultural Systems research, Inc., for U.S. Interior Department, Bureau of Land Management, California Desert District, October 1981, Russell L. Kaldenburg, Cultural Resources Publications series editor. p. 3-11
Archaeologist Daniel McCarthy, personal communication at the site, September 1999.
Travis Hudson, Georgia Lee, Ken Hedges, Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, Malki Museum Press, December 1979, “Solstice Observers and Observatories in Native California,” pp. 38-63.
Chief Francisco Patencio, as told to Margaret Boynton, Stories And Legends of the Palm Springs Indians, © 1943 Caroline S. Snyder, Times-Mirror, Los Angeles, pp 113-114.
As cited in December 1979 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology article, “Solstice Observers and Observatories in Native California,” “Rock Art of the Tubatulabal: Perspectives on Astronomy, Calendrics and Menstruation.” Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the Society for California Archaeology, San Diego, 1977