A new Moon is in the sky tonight, starting a path to the biggest full Moon of 2021, when a full Moon will be closest to Earth this year. So, we are talking today about how many Native American people always feel close to the Moon.
“Coyote,” painting by Terrance Guardipee at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, Siva Family Collection.
Moon shines as she has through the ages, with the cultural identity and history of Southern California’s Native American people and their homelands.
Her journey through the night sky tells us our own story through time, our human journey of life, death, and new life.
Sīva Menyil
We’re exploring the local names in First Nation languages for all the Moon phases, so we can share them with you sometime in the future here in News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center.
Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano) found a new favorite in a Cahuilla name for the young crescent moon: Sīva Menyil.1
The Serrano name for New Moon, Muac Amait, reminded Ernest Siva of when he was a child, when they’d eagerly search the night skies for the appearance of that first sliver of the Moon’s return.
In older times the arrival of the sliver was a time for celebration, special games, dancing and singing.
Exercising at Every New Moon
By Dorothy Ramon (Selection from Wayta' Yawa')2
'Uviht Taaqtam kwenemu' hawayt waqa' kwana' hiwnk 'amayti' mëaaci'.
Long ago the Indians used to hold a ceremony when they saw a new moon.
Peehun hitihiti'nka'. Kwenemu' hihii (pavay'pa') mëaac 'amayt qacew.
They were happy. They could see when there was a new moon.
Pana' 'uviht qac 'ateerhiv mëaac peenyiktti' Taaqtam.
That is what the moon told the Indians to do.
Kwana' waqa' pana' chaacu' hiwnk 'amayti' mëaaci'.
They would hold a ceremony and sing when they saw the new moon.
Kwana' chaacu' wichitam. Kwana' tuhtu' mëaaci' 'amayti' hiwnk.
They would sing bird songs. They would dance when they saw a new moon.
M. Monguia painting at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, Siva Family Collection
Hamukpim kwana' nahnami'n. Tum hiit huwac qac. Kwana' nyihnyi'.
Or they would race. There were other things. They would do these things.
Mit hiit huwa'ci' kwana' tehtu'. Nahnami'naym.
And they would play them (these games). They would hold races.
Teepëi'naym hamukpi' tum haminim nyihnyi' huwa'ci', kwenemu'.
They would play peon, they would apparently do things like that.
Peon players, bronze sculpture by Gerald Clarke Jr., Siva Family Collection
'Ani' kwenemu' nahnami'n waha'. 'Ama' kwan 'a'ay peetattqc peyika'.
And they would apparently also race. This was good for their bodies.
'Anim pana' nyihay kwenemu'. 'Amay' 'Amêrrikaanu'yam key kwan exercise.
This is what they would do. Today the Americans call it exercise.
Pana' kwenemu' nyihay hawayt 'atahtamerav. 'Ani' mëaav 'amayv waha' pavay'pa' mëaac 'amayt nyaaw 'apya'm pana' kwana' nyihay kwana' exercisetu, keymu' 'uviht tengek. That is what they would always do, year in, year out. And so with the advent of every new moon they would do this long ago, they would ‘exercise,’ as they say.
'Ama' 'ayee'; ne'enaniv. This was long ago, and that’s all I know.
The Moon’s Daughters
The Cahuilla Creation Story tells how Menyil, Moon, left the people and went up into the sky. She gave the people many rules for living a good life, including rules of marriage (the moieties), rules for hygiene, protocol for teaching children, the arts, colors, games, and much more. 3
Still essential in 2021:
The strong love for Moon and her nurturing role in Cahuilla culture, Lowell Bean writes, “is consistent with the extraordinary strength of character one sees in Cahuilla women. These are women of strong personality, who can and have taken charge when necessary — ritually, economically, and socially — as their peoples were damaged by diseases from Europeans; their children were despoiled by foreign educational systems; and there were losses of land and subsistence with consequent travails of poverty, political powerlessness, and a dependency status which has only barely improved in recent years. All of these factors and more have impacted their culture over the past two hundred years.
“Moon is the mother of all Cahuilla people. She was the first woman and remains a great culture heroine, a reference point for Cahuillaness.”4
Ernest Siva: Moon and Star Memories
In the Night Sky
The Full Moon (Ihkwp Muac in Serrano, Takchul Menil, given as one Cahuilla version5) on May 26, 2021, is going to be the largest we’ll see in 2021, astronomers say, because that’s the closest a full moon will be to Earth in 2021.
A total lunar eclipse during the big full supermoon is one of May’s big sky events. See a video about watching the eclipse and all the other celestial happenings HERE.
Read about the April and May 2021 “supermoons” and their importance to cultures around the world HERE.
Save and Share
We welcome your ideas and contributions to News from Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. Please EMAIL. Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, saves and shares Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and music and other traditional arts. Join us at dorothyramon.org and Dorothy Ramon Learning Center on Facebook. Thank you! Pat Murkland, Editor. May 12, 2021.
Ernest Siva found this name in a version of the Creation Story shared in Lowell John Bean’s new book published by Agua Caliente Band, From Time Immemorial: The Traditional Ways and History of the Members of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, “Palm Springs Creation Traditions,” p. 52.
Ramon, Dorothy, and Eric Elliott, 2000, Wayta’ Yawa’: Always Believe. Malki Museum Press, Banning, California, pp. 78-79, reading 61.
Bean, Lowell John, “Menil (Moon): Symbolic Representation of Cahuilla Woman,” 1992, in Earth and Sky: Visions of the Cosmos in Native American Folklore, edited by Ray A. Williamson and Claire R. Farrer, © University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp. 162-183.
Ibid, p. 166
Ibid, p. 175