Rugged Desert (1961)

Summary: 
History and culture of the Cahuilla, reenactment of typical days in the lives of the Cahuilla narrator's grandparents, hunting and gathering, also her family's diet, initiation rituals, games.
Description: 

Opens with San Jacinto Mountain and surrounding landscape; a young Cahuilla boy (Jim) runs onto and down Belardo Road and passes the Desert Museum in Palm Springs, CA; he walks through the lobby, joins and stands very close to the narrator (Katherine Siva Saubel) an older woman (ñícił) and they inspect a a black smooth stone (arrow straightener) with their hands and she takes it into her own hand, close-up of Jim’s face as he watches, she places an arrow (húyal) in a groove in the rock where it can slide back/forth to smooth the raw arrow’s shaft (hul), and speaks as she demonstrates how it works; fade to a flashback to a desert canyon landscape where between large boulders a man (náxanish/náxaniš) shows three boys how to carve an arrow from a branch; close-ups of a boy watching and then of the man’s hands as he smoothes the shaft by sliding it back and forth in the groove in a stone like Jim has discovered;  back to a wider shot of the man and a boy watching intently and he then hands the objects to the boy who tries it out; various shots of the boy working on it; the man and boys walking through a canyon between brush, the boy carrying a bow (hul/chúki^napish) and arrow, walking around they look, and then he aims the weapon and releases; close-up of the man throwing what looks like a long boomerang-shaped stick and a group of three boys watches where it goes; a boy carries the “rabbit stick” (vukiva’al) as he walks across a rocky ledge and he throws it; a older woman (“grandmother” played by Saubel) and girl sit at the mouth of a cave next to a fire pit; then closer view of the pair as the woman stirs a clay bowl on the fire as the girl looks on; the girl places a shallow clay plate in her lap and runs her hands through what’s in it; close-up of grandmother/Saubel stirring a substance in the pot; the girl at the water’s edge dipping a large clay spoon (the bowl is large) into the water and filling up a large clay jug (olla) with a narrow neck, she then gets up and carries the jug on her shoulder as she walks; grandmother/Saubel and the girl concentrate on a task sitting outside of a teepee-shaped structure (kish) made of long strips of cedar bark and with an opening, large trees beyond; various shots of the pair as the girl rolls clay into coils and grandmother/Saubel builds the walls of a pot with them; shots of the woman using a small rounded white stone to smooth the inside of the pot, blending the edges of the coils; eventually the pot is fully formed and she applies water to the exterior and picks up a flat wooden, paddle-shaped tool to smooth; two finished pots of different shapes rest on a piece of flat wood; three pots partially exposed under coal ashes in a fire pit; she, followed by the girl, walks to the fire holding a stick which she then uses to lift the pots out of the fire onto the ground; sitting against a rock face doing something with her hands, a large basket, pot and girl nearby; then close-ups of the grandmother/Saubel and her hands weaving a small basket (nčat/né^at), then back to the wider shot and various close-ups; this woman walking in a grassy area with a basket hanging from her head pointing to the ground as the girl uses a hand-made broom sweeps chia seeds (pásal) into a flat basket, then grandmother/Saubel takes the basket and sweeper to demonstrate; close-up of the contents of the basket; then the pair at a honey mesquite tree (ily) gathering bean pods into a basket; close-up of the beans and of grandmother/Saubel tasting one; the girl holding the basket as the woman and girl throw beans in; the woman, girl, the three boys and the man walking into a forest of possibly black oak trees (wi'at/kwínyil); different shots of the man knocking the tree branches with a long stick while the others gather acorns from the ground into baskets; the group of gatherers in a circle hurriedly picking up acorns; close-up of a hand removing the top from an acorn (kwíñill); back to the group gathering; grandmother/Saubel walks over and picks up the basket from a net of rope that gathers into a handle and she attaches it to her head at the forehead; she and the group walk off; the woman and girl sit on a rocky ledge, trees beyond, where they remove the tops from the acorns and the woman raps an acorn with a round stone to crack it; close-up of her hands pulling the shell apart; various shots of the girl and grandmother/Saubel ramming round elongated stones or pestles (pául) into similarly-shaped holes or mortars (pa^píveva^al) carved into a flat bedrock hole to grind the acorn into flour; close-ups of same; the woman pours a bit of water from a jug into a small bowl and then over a pile of pulverized acorns in an indentation in a pile of sand, leaves twigs, etc.; she repeats; the boys and man walk back to the cave entrance where they hand the woman a rabbit (if a brush rabbit - tévit) they killed; shots of boys playing in a body of water beneath a waterfall (Tahquitz Canyon); the woman walks around the bend next to a rock face with petroglyphs in red; the girl runs up the path to the rock; close-up of the red glyphs; with a long stem of yucca leaf grandmother/Saubel stirs paint in a small bowl she holds in her hands as the girl watches, and then she gives it to the girl who reaches towards the rock face; close-up of grandmother/Saubel smiling and speaking; then grandmother/Saubel guides the girl’s hand as the girl paints a glyph onto the rock face; close-up of the girl’s hand as she adds to an existing design; and back to the pair; grandmother/Saubel gently shaking a flat basket with the dark chia seeds back and forth in her hands; overhead shots of grandmother/Saubel kneeling near a small campfire protected by a circle of larger rocks, removes small heated stones and places them onto the seeds, and stirs the rocks through them with a stick; at the cave entrance, various shots of grandmother/Saubel using a larger basket to flip and sift honey mesquite beans (menyikish/menyakish), then chooses a couple to put into a hollowed out tree trunk-type barrel, and begins to grind them with a large smooth wooden pestle; wider view of the girl watching same; closer view of grandmother/Saubel grinding and a close-up of the ground seeds and pestle working; grandmother/Saubel back next to the fire pit drips a bit of water from a bowl into one in which she is mixing the ground seeds, now flour; closer shot of her mixing it and patting it into little round cakes; the man and three boys sit in a clearing as the various shots of the man creating different shapes with a rope between his two hands (cat’s cradle); the man, boys, grandmother/Saubel and the girl sitting around the campfire as the woman gives out bits of meat from the roasting rabbit on a bbq spit; closer shot of the same, and then of her knife work slicing the roast, and then handing a piece to the girl and a boy; an elder medicine man wearing a headdress and a sash adorned with eagle feathers moves a bundle of herbs and/or feathers and then bends over to move some campfire coals around with a stick before picking some up with his bare hands; he then blows on them briefly and puts them into his mouth; close up of the fire and embers; back to the group looking as he puts the edge of the bundle into his mouth and bends over to perhaps release something from his mouth into the fire; close up of the fire; back in the museum Jim stands next to a man who is looking at hunting artifacts and grandmother/Saubel walks up and they inspect the arrow straightening stone from the beginning of the film; close up of its museum label as a hand replaces the stone next to it; close up of Jim smiling; wide view of the local desert landscape. End credits over an image of San Jacinto Mountain and surrounding landscape: “Educational Horizons Films”; then over a plain background: “A film by Cynthia Chapman, Arthur Evans, Richard Harber, Harry James; Consultants: C.E. Smith, PH.D., Lowell Bean, M.A.”


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