By Pat Murkland
Moon arrives today (July 13) at her closest point to Earth in 2022. As we discovered during June’s “supermoon,” Cahuilla people call full Moon Yelamenyil when her spots show clearly.
Before the “nearly full” supermoon rose on Tuesday, we remembered how the late Lisa B. Adams said: “Find a bit of beauty in the world today. Share it. If you can’t find it, create it. Some days this may be hard to do. Persevere.”
We set out to find a bit of beauty in our hot, dry inland Southern California canyon.
Our scratchy, scrub-covered lands are not at the top of the list of California scenic gems like Yosemite, the old Redwoods, or Monterey. The Beach Boys never sang here. Yet, there, immediately in front of us was Hulaqal (Cahuilla), Hunaaqac (Serrano), or California Buckwheat (in Latin, Eriogonum fasciculatum).
Hulaqal, Hunaaqac, Buckwheat in a summer sunset (Pat Murkland Photo)
This important food and medicine plant especially glows under the summer moons. Already the flowers are starting to turn brown in the summer heat, when buckwheat will show its power as a backbone of the natural world that keeps others going in the harsh heat.
Nearby, growing in starburst patterns were enough berries for birds, animals, and people, too, on Kuuht (Serrano), Hunqwat (Cahuilla), and Kutpat (Luiseño), also known as Blue Elderberry (in Latin, Sambucus nigra L. ssp. caerulea (Raf.) Bolli).
Elderberry shrub that burned to the ground in a 2020 wildfire has regrown with gusto. (Pat Murkland Photo)
Another medicine plant growing like a bright green starburst was Hantut (Serrano), Tanwivel (Cahuilla), also called Yerba Santa, (in Latin, Eriodictyon sp. Benth.).
Tanwivel, Hantut, Yerba Santa (Pat Murkland Photo)
Nearby, the seed stalks of Qas'ily (Cahuilla), Qáṣil (Luiseño), Qaarqc (Serrano), White Sage, (Salvia apiana) reached toward the arriving sunset. (Sage that no one has stolen.)
Not only are these plants of Native American homelands beautiful, they also are important food and medicine plants. For centuries people have had a special relationship with them. These plants are family.
Gerald Clarke discussed in his July 11 Dragonfly Lecture at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center how a relationship with the land is an essential part of Native American art. For example, when depicting the night bloom of the sacred native plant Pivat (Coyote’s tobacco), below, it’s not just the image that becomes the art …
… It’s also knowing the places where the basket plants grow, the tending of the plants, and it’s the gathering of the plants at the most appropriate time for the plant, the processing, the intuition and the math of weaving and design — all that is part of the basketweaver’s art, he said.
(This basket by an unknown artist was donated to Banning Library District many years ago.)
This basket with a six-petaled flower by the late artist Donna Largo is part of the Siva Family Collection.
Also looking for plants are the rabbits and other animals. As the summer heat continues we’ll start seeing more of Sukat (Cahuilla), Hukhat (Serrano), Deer. For now, we saw the telltale hoof prints in the dirt.
And always all around us are the reminders that these have been the homelands of Native American people for untold years:
Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, briefly holds a found sherd before returning it to where it was resting (Pat Murkland Photo).
“Find a bit of beauty in the world today. Share it. If you can’t find it, create it. Some days this may be hard to do. Persevere.”
Thank you
Come celebrate the beauty of Native American art and cultures with Dorothy Ramon Learning Center at our Aug. 13, 2022, Dragonfly Gala, when artist Gerald Clarke of Cahuilla Reservation is scheduled to receive the Dragonfly Award for soaring achievements in saving and sharing Native American cultures.
.Please RSVP, and reserve your seat or table, space is limited!
The Center, a 501c3 nonprofit led by Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), saves and shares Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and arts. Thank you for your support in subscribing, reading, and sharing News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. Editor Pat Murkland, July 13, 2022.