Lowell John Bean PhD on the Contemporary Use of a Sacred site for a Medicinal purpose

Legal Challenge Six Utility Scale Desert Solar Projects Get Holiday Surprise

UCLA Graduate Lowell John Bean PhD, came to live and work among the Cahuillas in 1958. He is a noted ethnographer and author.

Filmmaker Robert Lundahl interviews.

palmspringslife.com/Palm-Springs-Life/May-2008/Rearview-Learning-Firsthand/

The four sections of the interview with Dr. Bean are quite lierally, but not perjoratively outtakes, from the film, “Who Are My People?” available in the form of a Press Screener at https://www.robertlundahl.com/feature-documentaries

I had approached Dr. Bean ostensibly for commentary on the threat to sacred intaglios from large scale solar development in the Mojave Desert. It’s “holy stuff” he intoned. and proceeded to offer the story above.

This short clip lacks no profundity as it artfully captures the essence of a way of life and a necessity of existence for Native peoples.

On film, Philip Smith (Chemehuevi) recounts a similar tale as protestors are confronted by construction workers on the site of the destruction of two sacred geoglyphs.

This Bean clip (above) is the emotional, spiritual heart of the film, ‘Who Are My People?’ Substack readers are invited to watch the full Press Screener, while also are invited to watch and read about the other three clips with Lowell Bean in the prestigious collection.

California Anthropology 101, with Lowell John Bean, PhD, Part One.

From "Termination" to Casinos, with Lowell John Bean, PhD, Part Two. and

Why the Native Nations have been so successful. With Lowell John Bean PhD. Part Three.

The Contemporary Use of a Sacred Site for a Medical Purpose. Part Four. With Lowell John Bean PhD.

Above, the deposition from Chemehuevi Elder Philip Smith (Massacre in the Rocks) corroborates Bean’s treatise on “The Contemporary Use of a Sacred Site for Medicinal Purposes,” in this preamble short to “Who Are My People?” a feature documentary by Robert Lundahl.

Four such short films, plus Dr. Bean’s four distinct testimonies were created to support the legal challenge, La Cuna de Aztlan v. Departments of Interior, Energy, and Six Utility Scale Desert Solar Projects. The several such depositional videos were then created, corralled later into the final Documentary film.

The motion picture thus provides a record and a visual portrayal of the courtroom drama, as it played out in the 9th Circuit, the plaintiffs involved, and the reasons and circumstances for it. Presented are the landscapes, cultural resources and environmental and cultural values/histories at stake, across Southern California and the West.

Sr. Alfredo Figueroa (Yaqui, Chemehuevi)

We’re the Guardians of Mother Earth

"Isn't it great that the big environmental groups and the utilities can lock arms on strategy..." From “Who Are My People?” (Clip)