Stone Sacred : Native Americans Get Rare Look at Cave Painting on Rocketdyne Site

Deep in the heart of Rocketdyne property in the Santa Susana Mountains, the Native American cave painting is so closely guarded that even the aerospace company’s employees are not allowed to view it without special permission.

Manny Tessier, a quality assurance manager for the firm, said the last time he saw the ancient, abstract drawings was in 1969, when he and a fellow worker visited the scooped-out rock formation on a whim.

Moments after they arrived, they were ordered out by security guards.

“One thing I do a lot in my job is to look through maps” of the 2,700-acre Rocketdyne property, Tessier said. “I have yet to see a map with this cave on it.”

On Saturday, Tessier, wearing his other hat as community liaison for the corporation, accompanied a group of about 30 Native Americans and state parks officials on a rare tour of the cave painting, one of only three of its kind in the state.

The main reason for the visit was that the aerospace giant is soliciting public comments on plans by the U. S. Department of Energy--one of Rocketdyne’s tenants--to convert its nuclear power research facilities to other uses.

Although the cave itself is not on the affected DOE property, the Native Americans used the occasion to visit a sacred and rarely accessible site that was once part of their Chumash, Fernandeno and Gabrielino ancestors’ territory.

“It’s very touching,” said Jim Garcia of the Chumash tribe, who wore a buckskin pouch decorated with the face of a real coyote. “It’s a chance to get a flashback of what my ancestors were like, and who they were.”

The Native Americans peered into the cave--really a small, hollowed-out portion of a long, low rock set into a grassy slope. In the back of the hollow were a jumble of red, black and white markings, several of which looked like stick-figure animals with four fingers. Some pictures were symbolic, such as a circle with a star inside, while others were more figurative, such as a plant resembling a cornstalk.

But the drawing that makes the site so unusual, according to archeologist Frank McDowell, is one resembling a target in the upper left-hand corner of the painting. When the sun comes up on the morning of the winter solstice, which falls around Dec. 21, a shaft of light angles into the cave and hits the second ring of the bull’s-eye.

Some experts believe the convergence of light with the drawing was a way of marking the seasons for the ancient tribes as they looked forward to spring, while others speculate that there may have been a greater, though unknown, religious significance.

Either way, Angie Behrns’s eyes teared up as she took in the scene Saturday.

“I cry because there is very little left of our culture,” said the Gabrielino tribe member, whose long, black hair was braided and tied with leather strips. “We have to have more respect for Mother Earth.”

McDowell, who did not go with Saturday’s group but who has studied the cave twice, said he believed the drawings were a cooperative effort by the Chumash and Gabrielino about 600 years ago to celebrate the solstice and the friendship between their two tribes. A replica is exhibited at the Southwest Museum in Mount Washington.

Saturday, it appeared clear that the friendship between the two tribes--most anthropologists and archeologists consider the Fernandeno tribe a Gabrielino sect--had endured across the centuries. All 10 Native Americans on the tour participated in a ceremony led by a Chumash medicine man to show their reverence for the earth.

The holy man, Mati Waiya of Newbury Park, held a fan of eagle feathers in his left hand over his right hand, from which he sprinkled dried tobacco leaves around his body. Then he lightly tapped around the body of Chief Eagle Eye, a Chumash leader, with a bundle of sage, and did the same with the other participants standing near the mouth of the cave.

Finally, he stood before the painting, shook a wooden rattle and led a chant.

“ Hey hey hey hey um uh wa, “ he intoned in a sing-song voice.

Chief Eagle Eye said he would like Rocketdyne, which is a division of Rockwell International Corp., to give the rock-art site back to the Native Americans--or at least to the state parks department for better security and public access.

William Mungary, chairman of the state Native American Heritage Commission, said he does not necessarily believe that private landowners should be required to turn over Native American sites to the government. The commission investigates claims that Native American cultural sites are being endangered.

In some cases, Mungary said, private property owners do a better job of securing such sites than do governmental agencies.

Chief Eagle Eye agreed that the aerospace company has done a good job of preserving the cave painting, and said gaining access to the site has not been a problem for him.

Still, Mati Waiya, the medicine man, said he would feel better if his people could once again own the legacy of their ancestors.

“It’s not OK that we don’t have it,” he said. “It hurts.”