History of California and Native Indian Lore

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While taking California Literature class in Los Medanos College, the first literature we studied were the poems and lore of First Native Californians. Much of the California Indian lore has been lost, but thanks to the few people, such as Pablo Tac, Sarah Winnemucca and Uncle Henry Rodrigues, we have first hand accounts of what the life of the California Indian people was like before others arrived, and began destroying the harmony that was a way of life for the Native People. I was lucky to be able to have access to my friend's website, where he interviewed Uncle Henry. There, I found out the real name of his band: "Pay-o-mac - the Western People." Palomar Mountain was sacred to all the bands of Pay-o-mac and each band had acorn grounds on it. The mountain, with its temperate climate(it has snow in the winter) provided the bands with the sanctuary from the scorching sun in the summer. The streams, still full of trout in the early 20th Century, provided food and a source of mineral and iron-rich pure water. I myself visited the acorn grounds at the Palomar, in the Spring, where the indentations left in the smooth rock by centuries of grinding, were filled with water, like small mirrors. It may sound corny, but I thought I heard the voices of people singing as they worked. Maybe it was the wind....