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Temal Wakhish: A Desert Cahuilla Village
Richard Lando, University of California, Riverside
Ruby E. Modesto, Torres-Martinez Indian Reservation, Thermal
ABSTRACT:
An environmental impact survey of
property on the Riverside County Airport
at Thermal, California, has recently revealed
the remains of a major Desert Cahuilla
village. Instead of the ethnographic summary
drawn from published sources which usually
accompanies environmental impact reports, it
was decided to undertake an ethnohistorical
investigation of the site. This paper represents
a collaboration between the authors aimed at
providing a brief ethnography of the village of
Temal Wakhish on the Thermal Airport
property. (For an explanation of English and
Cahuilla placenames in the Coachella Valley,
see Table 1.) The data presented here were
obtained from a review of ethnographic
sources, the junior author's extensive knowledge
of oral history of the village and the
surrounding area, and as the result of a
walkover survey of the site.
We hope this paper will demonstrate the
value of collaboration between Native Americans
and anthropologists. Archaeologists
sometimes pass up a potentially valuable
source of data in interpreting the archaeological
record by ignoring living Native Americans.
Ethnohistorical investigations of the sort
presented here not only permit more detailed
inferences in interpreting archaeological remains,
but also preserve important ethnographic
data that might otherwise be lost. Such
a collaboration may also reduce the mistrust
many Native Americans have for the motives
behind archaeological research and environmental
impact surveys. As Mrs. Modesto puts
it:
Archaeologists dig things up and don't tell
people anything and carry them away
sometimes. This is the reason people don't
want archaeologists to come to the reservations.
They don't want them because
they don't tell the people anything. They
just come and dig. I think they could get
along much better. Probably there are still
many people yet that know the old history
and they could talk to the archaeologists.
That way the archaeologists could get to
know the Indian better. I have myself seen
desecrated graves, bones scattered everywhere,
and this is terrible; a sacrilege. If the
archaeologists would only come and speak
to the people it would be better.
KEYWORDS:
ethnology, archaeology, ethnohistory, native peoples
SUGGESTED CITATION:
Richard Lando and Ruby E. Modesto
(1977)
"Temal Wakhish: A Desert Cahuilla Village",
The Journal of California Anthropology:
Vol. 4:
No. 1,
Article 13.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/ucmercedlibrary/jca/vol4/iss1/art13
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