San
Pasqual Culture Day June 2013
By Roy Cook We seem to be closer to Heaven and on our own two feet at the June 15, 2013 Bird song and Peon gathering and overlooking the valleys below. The heat of the sun this afternoon peels off the cares and layers of imposed western society. Once again, in our own company and our own skin we bask in the Native tradition of this land. The Ipai tradition, the Yuman language is at home in the hills and rocks of eons of generations. This is a land of National History and it is a chronicle of our Federal government doing right and very wrong in history. And yet, we survived as a native people.
Singer groups change and we realize directly of the boundary, International blockage that still keeps the flow of culture under imposed restriction and the institutionalized artificiality of colonial languages a quagmire if misunderstanding, separation of relatives and an indecent restriction on traditional burial practices. But today, these southern relations bring their songs and the same language as spoken in these Ipai hills to San Pasqual for this June 15, 13 Bird song and Peon gathering. Singers continue to take their turn into the dusk and night as the fires are lit for the Peon games that might last till dawn. Sometimes after 3am and when the groups are head to head in fierce challenge the best songs come out to encourage the teams of players.
Much betting accompanies the game among the youth, men and the women. The game may be won in a short time, or it may - as frequently happen - through an entire night until the early morning, with several thousand dollars or more changing hands. Finally, with the people gathering, the songs sung and the traditional games played create a resonance with the land that is sustaining and empowering. As we do this Tribal custom and tradition we will continue to survive with and on this Indian land. |