Burro Flats Painted Cave

Infobox_nrhp | name =Burro Flats Painted Cave
nrhp_type =


caption =
nearest_city= Simi Valley, California
locmapin = California
area =
architect=
architecture=
added = May 05, 1976
governing_body = Boeing-Rocketdyne (private)
refnum=76000539cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Burro Flats Painted Cave is a cave in a mountainous area located between Simi Valley, California and Chatsworth, California, containing Chumash Indian pictographs. The cave is located on private land owned by Boeing-Rocketdyne (formerly operated at Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory used to test rocket engines) and is not accessible to the public.

Pictographs

Among the pictographs at Burro Flats are two human stick figures wearing headdresses with lines radiating from the heads. There are also stick-figure animals with four fingers, a circle with a star inside, a plant resembling a cornstalk, and more abstract groupings of circles and lines with a tail. The cave is a small, hollowed-out portion of a long, low rock set into a grassy slope. The Burro Flats pictographs have been termed "the best preserved Indian pictograph in Southern California." Archaeologists estimate the drawings are several hundred years old.cite news|title=Tribe Opens Petition Drive for Monument|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1971-02-18] There is a replica of the pictographs at the Southwest Museum.

In 1971, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that some have suggested "that the cave's drawings were made by Indian maidens who slept here and drew what they saw in their dreams, perhaps as part of puberty rites." Others have suggested that it was used as an astronomical observatory and to celebrate the winter solstice. The Chumash celebrated the "return of the sun" as their civilization depended on the sun for life. [cite news|author=Ira Gribin|title=Simi Valley: Chumash Indians among settlers|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1981-07-12] Anthropologist Al Knight has said described the importance of the winter solstice to the local Chumash as follows: "The entire local Native American Indian religious ritual cycle is centered on the moment of winter solstice. It's like rolling together our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's celebration in one event." [cite news|author=Edward M. Yoon|title=Chatsworth; Group to Discuss Winter Solstice|publisher=Los Angeles Times (Valley Edition)|date=1997-12-13] Another theory is that the drawings were a cooperative effort between the Chumash and Gabrielino tribes in the 1400s to celebrate the solstice and friendship between the two tribes. One anthropology professor has opined that the Burro Flats pictographs were painted between 500 A.D. and the arrival of the Spanish settlers. He noted, "They've had very little vandalism, one of the least molested sites I know of."cite news|author=Kermit Pattison|title=Rocketdyne Cuts Could Affect Chumash Caves|publisher=Daily News (Los Angeles)|date=1995-07-21]

Preservation

The cave is located near the historic Chumash settlement of Huwam, along Bell Creek. In 1971, Chumash Indians asked Rocketdyne to safeguard the cave drawings. At the time, tribe leader Rudy Ortega said, "We really know very little of our heritage. ... The paintings are one of the few physical links to our heritage. We hope one day to interpret their stories for our people."cite news|author=Kenneth Lubas|title=Indians Trying To Safeguard Cave Paintings of Ancestors: Mission Tribe Will Ask Rocketdyne To Enclose Historic Works in Glass for Protection Against Any Vandalism|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1971-01-31] Tribal leaders expressed concern about damage that could result from vandals or weather and asked Rocketdyne to enclose the drawings in glass. Rocketdyne officials fenced off the area, which was still being used to test rocket engines, and tribal leaders next petitioned to have the site declared a state or national historic monument. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In 1978, the pictographs were the subject of the documentary film, "Cave Paintings of the Chumash Indians." [cite news|title=Film on Indian Cave Paintings|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1978-11-12]

Rocketdyne has occasionally allowed Chumash ancestors to visit the site. In 1995, a Chumash holy man, Mati Waiya of Newbury Park, visited the site along with a group that included a "Los Angeles Times" reporter. Waiya performed a ceremony involving eagle feathers, dried tobacco leaves, shaking a wooden rattle in front of the paintings, and chanting. At the time, the Chumash tribe renewed its request for Rocketdyne to return the site back to the tribe or grant access to the state parks department for better security and public access.

In order to guard the pictographs, the exact location of the cave is kept secret, its location is not marked even on Rocketdyne company maps, and Rocketdyne employees are not allowed to view it without special permission.cite news|author=Kay Hwangbo|title=Stone Sacred Native Americans Get Rare Look at Cave Painting on Rocketdyne Site|publisher=Los Angeles Times (Valley Edition)|date=1995-03-26] After concerns were raised again in the 1990s about the security of the cave paintings, Rocketdyne officials declined to discuss its specific security and surveillance measures, but noted that the location was restricted to prevent trespassers and vandals. A company official noted, "Those are probably the most protected of any pictographs in Southern California, and the fact they're the only ones that haven't been desecrated I think is proof of that." Rocketdyne allows visit to the caves only with a guide approved by the Griffith Observatory, the Southwest Museum or the Chumash tribe.

ee also

* List of Registered Historic Places in Ventura County, California

References

External links

* [http://www.americassuburb.com/burroflats.html America's Suburb - Article and photographs on Burro Flats]
* [http://www.simihistory.com/Chumash.htm History of Simi Valley - Chumash Period]
* [http://www.le.ac.uk/cgi-bin/tab_int/server/docs/ar/image_collection/images.tab?operation=psearch&max=200&s1=Burro+Flats Slides of Burro Flats by Clive Ruggles, University of Leicester]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=7rMAJ87WTF0C&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=%22burro+flats%22+and+chumash&source=web&ots=5qAAtxjZwR&sig=SWZ1s0TY-2RZhnIIVfYh67bWahc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA131,M1 "Echoes of the Ancient Skies," By Edwin C. Krupp (Courier Dover Publications, 2003), pp. 130-131]