Clouds linger over San Jacinto Peak near Morongo Reservation on March 10, 2021 (Pat Murkland Photo)
Elder Ernest Siva: The Rain
Fireside Chat: Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, sings a little of a traditional Cahuilla bird song about the rain as he shares cultural memories about the rain.
Kwan Werng.
Kwan werng. (It rained.) Hakuupvu' yuatu'. (It really snowed.) Stormy night, stormy day in Inland Southern California’s Native American homelands. Off and on. Soft showers, then hard, icy rains and hail came, pelting and drumming more and more loudly, while higher up on the burn-scarred foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, snow fell ever so silently.
San Bernardino Mountains near Morongo Reservation on March 10, 2021. (Pat Murkland Photo)
From time to time, the storm paused, and after sunrise, we walked in the canyon. A female Red-tailed Hawk (Kwaat in Serrano, its call) circled above the snow-coated hilltops, looking for a quick breakfast.
A male California Quail (Kakata', also its call) hopped briefly atop a fence to survey, then disappeared.
“Chey'chit! Chey'chit! Chey'chit!” we heard, and that was the scrub jay, not only shouting its name in Serrano, but also scolding us.
Chey'chit! (Pat Murkland Photo)
No signs of Hwit (Rabbit) or Qerngt (Squirrel). The rain and snow erased the footprints of the hunters, Wahii' (Coyote) and Tukuut (Bobcat). All are waiting for the storm to move onward. We’re also waiting for Spring, Yaamava'.
The rain and snow bring promise. The hills where the Apple Fire burned in summer 2020 are beginning to glow with the green of emerging plants and flowers. Kuuht (Elderberry) is showing off its brand-new baby leaves. Looks like Paanihac (Chia) is growing from the ashes. Even that big yucca plant that burned last year is boasting a new bouquet of leaf-blades, and we think ahead to that first uumut ashru' (yucca blossom) we will enjoy tasting.
And the smells. They may be medicine:
Smelling Greasewood After Rain1
“'Uviht tengek yaacich hukum tengek pavay'pa' weerngow, te-er'c, te-er'cu'ow payika' wahaac xhaypyu' wahaacinu'.
Long ago we would smell the fragrance of greasewood after it would rain, after a thunderstorm, from down there in the desert,” Dorothy Ramon remembered in Serrano.
“Payika' puchuk weerng wahaac. Hakup muurrk 'ahkw 'ayee'.
It would rain hard down in the desert. It would be really fragrant here.
Hakup 'a'ay hukumc tengek. 'Ama' kwenevu' waha' 'a'ay hukumc pana' nyaawnk.
It has a very nice aroma. It has a wonderful aroma.
Taaqtam 'aam hukumaym 'amay. Puchuk kwa'c hukum 'amay.
The Indians would smell it. You could really smell it.
'Ama' mehuuni' puuyu' yarruhkin 'ahuunaf kwan. Puuyu' merkan tum hiiti' mehuunav.
It cleans out your lungs. It disinfects everything in your lungs.
Tum hiiti' memekchi' kwan merkan 'angkwa', keym ki' 'uviht 'anin key.
It kills all the germs, they used to say, and that’s what I say.”
She went on to say that didn’t happen anymore, because so many greasewood or chamise plants had been uprooted, their habitat destroyed.
But there are still some places where you can go after the rain, to smell the medicine. Try it.
Life in the San Gorgonio Pass. Community mural art led by artist Gloria “Toti” Bell, composed and painted by participants at a Dorothy Ramon Learning Center Native Voices Poetry Festival.
Thank you!
Watch for Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s upcoming spring online adventures! Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that saves and shares Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Join us at dorothyramon.org and Dorothy Ramon Learning Center on Facebook. Comments, ideas, contributions? Please EMAIL.
Pat Murkland, Editor. March 10, 2021.
Ramon, Dorothy, and Eric Elliott, 2000, Wayta’ Yawa’: Always Believe. Malki Museum Press, Banning, California, pp. 144-145, reading no. 117, “Smelling Greasewood After Rain.”