By Pat Murkland
When Dorothy Ramon Learning Center President Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano) was growing up on Morongo Reservation more than 80 years ago, he remembers eating peaches, apricots, and grapes planted by his grandfather, Pete Ramon, who also was a Maarrenga'yam Muhatnayam (Serrano) paxa' or ceremonial assistant.
But another vast garden also grew there. And this garden may have been invisible to a non-Native eye.
The family home on Morongo was on the land of Pete’s father, who also was Ernest Siva’s great-grandfather, Juan Ramon (also a Serrano paxa'). Juan Ramon had transplanted wild mesquite trees, cacti, agave, elderberry, and many other native plants to his Morongo land. And all were thriving there.
These plants, shrubs, and trees offered important foods and medicines and other uses, just as they have throughout time on Native American homelands.
As these plants continue to grow all around us in 2023 on our beautiful and unique landscapes, the plants’ traditional Native uses may still be invisible to some.
So, let’s take a closer look at a couple of Juan Ramon’s important summer crops:
ELDERBERRY
After all that winter rain and snow, the elderberries (Kuuht (Serrano), Hunqwat (Cahuilla), and Kutpat (Luiseño), also known as Blue Elderberry (and the Latin, Sambucus nigra L. ssp. caerulea (Raf.) Bolli)) are having a great summer of 2023 in our Inland Southern California canyon and other places among the foothills not far from Ernest Siva’s childhood home.
The blossoms, when they are fresh and new in springtime, are gathered for medicinal teas, and Ernest Siva remembers growing up drinking this tea. (Note: A little elderberry goes a very long way; like all alkaloid shrubs, the blossoms and other parts of the blue elderberry can make you very ill. Know-how is key!)
Berries growing in June 2023 on Kuuht, Hunqwat, Kutpat (elderberry). (Pat Murkland Photo)
Right now the berries are making their summertime debut with their healthy Vitamin C. Those pictured here are still not yet ripe. Usually the birds beat us to the elderberries as the berries ripen into their characteristic bluish color, but this year there are so many berries, we may get our chance. (And please don’t gather native plants or from them anywhere, on private or pubic lands, without permission.)
About 123 years ago, David Prescott Barrows noted that July and August were the months for Cahuilla people to gather vast quantities of the berries to eat fresh, make into syrups, and more.1
Cahuilla people in older times stored the dried berries in clay ollas for use throughout the year, according to Lowell Bean and Katherine Saubel.2
Now we can buy and enjoy elderberry jams, syrups, and even find medicinal elderberry cough drops and cough syrups in a supermarket or pharmacy.
If you’ve enjoyed elderberry jam on your favorite muffins, you’ll know why Juan Ramon grew his own crops.
Speaking of muffins, the pods of mesquite are a traditional food that can be ground into a delicious and nutritious flour. Summer is an important time for harvesting the pods.
Honey mesquite pods grow at the sacred Serrano site, Oasis of Mara, in Twentynine Palms, California (Photo by Robb Hannawacker, courtesy of Wikimedia)
Once you taste honey mesquite, 'eertt in Serrano and ily in Cahuilla (scientific name Prosopis glandulosa Torr), or screwbean mesquite, qwinyal in Cahuilla (and Prosopis pubescens Benth.), you’ll know why Juan Ramon planted mesquite.
Mesquite is well-documented as offering many health benefits as a traditional food staple for the First Nations, especially for the Cahuilla in the Colorado Desert.3
Instead of laboring to harvest mesquite pods in the hot sun and then processing and preparing the results, we fortunately can find mesquite flour these days in health-food stores and in supermarkets.
Yum!
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center Summer Events:
Creative Workshops start July 8, 2023.
Participants will be inspired by traditional Indigenous storytelling arts as they create their own art in songwriting, poetry, and playwriting workshops.
To sign up for the free workshops, click here: PLEASE EMAIL ISABELLA MADRIGAL.
Save your spot at the Dragonfly Gala, August 12, 2023.
Ernest and June Siva with 2022 Dragonfly Award winner Gerald Clarke (Carlos Puma Photo).
And taste some native foods at our banquet, including yucca bread and acorn dish! Don’t miss any of the excitement as the 501c3 nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center celebrates 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 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.
Please consider supporting our programs so we can continue to support you!
AND THANK YOU. News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is always FREE. We love to hear from you. PLEASE EMAIL. Thanks as always from Center leaders Ernest and June Siva and Editor Pat Murkland. June 29, 2023.
David Prescott Barrows, The Ethno-Botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California, [2d printing 1977] © 1967 Malki Museum Inc., Malki Museum Press, pp 63-64.
Lowell John Bean and Katherine Siva Saubel, Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants, 1972, Malki-Ballena Press, pp. 138.
Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants, pp. 107-119.