Birdsong guides a tribe home

The desert-dwelling Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians were uprooted from their ancestral lands. For decades they were cheated of the property rights deeded to them by the U.S. government, and then subject to restrictive deed provisions. Not until the 1980’s were they able to develop their own land in Palm Springs, and only recently have they begun to restore the springs revered by their ancestors. Tribal council member Anthony J. Andreas III battles the severe mental health problems that afflict the traumatized tribe by reviving ancestral practices. Traditional bird songs and pottery help today’s youth draw strength from the tribe’s sources of spiritual resilience.

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