Today, Libi and Dad joined two other landmarker dads and their families on a hike through one our state's newest landmarks: Tomo-Kahni (CHL 1054).
Our two docents were each experts in their own fields--one was an expert in plant biology while the other was knowledgeable about Native American culture and artifacts. Together, they made for two great tour guides for our group!
We've seen these grinding stones at other Native American sites we have visited (the largest collection of bedrock mortars in North America is just outside Jackson at the
Chaw'se Roundhouse site).
The kids were curious and wandered all around checking out rocks, lizards, and all manner of things!
The state of California doesn't allow you to go onto the grounds unsupervised. This is probably a good idea, because there are some AMAZING artifacts that you wouldn't want damaged by vandals. Zoom in on the photos below and you'll see petroglyphs (rock carvings) and pictographs (rock paintings) that are hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of years old!
These next pictographs are all inside a shallow enclosure the Kawaiisu called "Medicine Cave." It has the largest collection of pictographs, and they were remarkable!
Members of the Kawaiisu tribe still visit this ancient place to pray and leave offerings.
Toward the end of our tour of the grounds, our volunteers took us to a place down by the creek bed.
Known as Nettle Spring, it is a deep split between two rocks, lined with the spiky nettle bushes that were used for fiber and medicine. It is said that this was a place where women would gather for some ritual purpose. The rock is scored with lines or hash marks, often times covered over with red pigment. Not even our guides knew exactly the purpose of the scoring.
We finally tromped back to the place where we parked our cars and began the hike.
Libi was impressed with our guides! She wanted to make sure she got a photo with them at the end of our tour.
And here is a photo of our whole group: Tike Narry and his son and Matt Klink and his two boys.
Libi and I had an awesome day at Tomo-Kahni!
