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Man shares tale of ancient ritual's demise, resurrection
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| Phil Klasky, teacher at San Francisco State University's American Indian Studies Department, addresses a full-house audience at the Hi-Desert Nature Museum's January Coffee Break lecture. |
By Mark Wheeler / Hi-Desert Star
YUCCA VALLEY - Hi-Desert Nature Museum's Thursday Coffee Break Lecture brought Phil Klasky to the podium to speak on the history of the Mojave Desert Indians, and especially on a tradition in that history known as the Salt Song Trail.
Klasky is a project director for the Cultural Conservancy, which has its office at the Presidio in San Francisco. He is also a teacher with San Francisco State University's American Indian Studies Department. In both of his professional capacities, Klasky has focused on the Indians of the Southwest with special emphasis on the Southern Paiute.
This nation consisted in 13 bands, according to Klasky, which were connected by language origins and some traditional observances. The salt song cycle was one of these traditions, and it united the different groups in a common metaphysic which helped explain their connection to the Earth and to the spirit world.
Salt songs were sung on occasion of a death or the memorial of one. The full collection of them totaled 142 and they were performed in their entirety at a ceremony. It was believed that not until the songs were sung could a departed person's spirit proceed with its journey into the next life.
The different bands, which included the Chemehuevi, often participated in one another's memorial ceremonies. Since their collective territory stretched from the Colorado Plateau to the Pacific Ocean, significant travel was involved at times.
Either as a result of this travel or perhaps as an inducement to it, the song cycle included not only a sacred appeal to the spirit world, but also a catalogue of information about traveling between regions and communities. People who knew the songs would know which landmarks to watch for on the trail, and know, too, about the natural resources they would find in various places along the way for use in ceremonial, medicinal or food purposes. Salt was one of these items.
In this way, Klasky explained, the songs were both for the living and the dead. They codified the spiritual belief of the people who sung them and also archived much of the geographical and ethnobiological knowledge people used in those days to navigate in their world.
Attempts by the U.S. government and culture to change the American Indian way of life after frontier hostilities ended, Klasky explained, involved stringent efforts to discourage native practices, including language use. Salt songs were prohibited.
Nowhere was this policy of cultural obliteration more vigorously pursued than at the boarding schools where Indian children were sent and held for cultural conditioning.
Sherman Indian School in Riverside was one of these facilities and during its years of operation, the children who died there of illness and various causes were buried on the property without benefit of a salt song ceremony.
In their movement to revive old spiritual traditions and recover as many of the old languages as possible, some modern Southern Paiutes recently went to the Sherman School's burial ground and performed the salt song ceremony. This would, according to the beliefs, release the children's spirits from their earthly bounds.
Klasky and his group were on-hand to film and record the event. Due to tradition, only the last four of the salt songs were performed for public recording.
Esther Figueroa directed the film, called “The Salt Song Trail: Bringing Creation Back Together.” The 20-minute film won first prize in the documentary short category at the 30th annual American Indian Film Festival held in San Francisco last November.
For historic and linguistic purposes, retaining memory of the salt songs is vital, Klasky emphasized in his discussion. He spoke of his own work on the salt song project as an invaluable study opportunity and as a rare honor.
As for the American Indians he met on the project, revival of the salt songs is a step toward redeeming their spiritual connection with the world. There is a balance, one of them said, between the people, the land, the song and the language.
Klasky is a project director for the Cultural Conservancy, which has its office at the Presidio in San Francisco. He is also a teacher with San Francisco State University's American Indian Studies Department. In both of his professional capacities, Klasky has focused on the Indians of the Southwest with special emphasis on the Southern Paiute.
This nation consisted in 13 bands, according to Klasky, which were connected by language origins and some traditional observances. The salt song cycle was one of these traditions, and it united the different groups in a common metaphysic which helped explain their connection to the Earth and to the spirit world.
Salt songs were sung on occasion of a death or the memorial of one. The full collection of them totaled 142 and they were performed in their entirety at a ceremony. It was believed that not until the songs were sung could a departed person's spirit proceed with its journey into the next life.
The different bands, which included the Chemehuevi, often participated in one another's memorial ceremonies. Since their collective territory stretched from the Colorado Plateau to the Pacific Ocean, significant travel was involved at times.
Either as a result of this travel or perhaps as an inducement to it, the song cycle included not only a sacred appeal to the spirit world, but also a catalogue of information about traveling between regions and communities. People who knew the songs would know which landmarks to watch for on the trail, and know, too, about the natural resources they would find in various places along the way for use in ceremonial, medicinal or food purposes. Salt was one of these items.
In this way, Klasky explained, the songs were both for the living and the dead. They codified the spiritual belief of the people who sung them and also archived much of the geographical and ethnobiological knowledge people used in those days to navigate in their world.
Attempts by the U.S. government and culture to change the American Indian way of life after frontier hostilities ended, Klasky explained, involved stringent efforts to discourage native practices, including language use. Salt songs were prohibited.
Nowhere was this policy of cultural obliteration more vigorously pursued than at the boarding schools where Indian children were sent and held for cultural conditioning.
Sherman Indian School in Riverside was one of these facilities and during its years of operation, the children who died there of illness and various causes were buried on the property without benefit of a salt song ceremony.
In their movement to revive old spiritual traditions and recover as many of the old languages as possible, some modern Southern Paiutes recently went to the Sherman School's burial ground and performed the salt song ceremony. This would, according to the beliefs, release the children's spirits from their earthly bounds.
Klasky and his group were on-hand to film and record the event. Due to tradition, only the last four of the salt songs were performed for public recording.
Esther Figueroa directed the film, called “The Salt Song Trail: Bringing Creation Back Together.” The 20-minute film won first prize in the documentary short category at the 30th annual American Indian Film Festival held in San Francisco last November.
For historic and linguistic purposes, retaining memory of the salt songs is vital, Klasky emphasized in his discussion. He spoke of his own work on the salt song project as an invaluable study opportunity and as a rare honor.
As for the American Indians he met on the project, revival of the salt songs is a step toward redeeming their spiritual connection with the world. There is a balance, one of them said, between the people, the land, the song and the language.
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