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00:00What a beautiful day that the Creator has given us.
00:07That is one of the things about being a SoCal native that I've always been so grateful for is not everybody gets to be living right by the ocean.
00:18Yes, you're right.
00:19So it's just incredible.
01:00Everyone has a hometown, and San Diego, California is mine.
01:09Adorned with beautiful beaches, not only a paradise for sun seekers, San Diego County is home to the largest community of Native American tribes in the entire United States.
01:20Today we start our journey with a group called Native Like Water.
01:24They are the water keepers, and they're teaching kids and even the adults how to take care of our mother, Ocean.
01:31I'm the founder and director of this program, and I'm descendant of the Nahuatl people, and Nahuatl people are in central Mexico.
01:40And actually the Nahuatl root language spreads all the way up to here.
01:44Okay.
01:45So the human language family is also, that's their root language.
01:49We operate here out of California.
01:50We've been here in San Diego for 22 years when I founded the program, and now we operate in Mexico as well in my ancestral area.
01:59The story of Native Like Water is actually up until recently, I didn't know how deep it was actually my story.
02:08For 20 something years, the goal was to reintroduce the youth and our native San Diego community back to the coastal environment.
02:16To try to like introduce them to a lifestyle, which wasn't always easy because of the separation that we have of the generations.
02:23Sure.
02:24I asked or kind of demanded that we have classrooms that had a view of the ocean, that we had all our classrooms here,
02:31which isn't easy because to get into some of these schools for permission is not an easy task.
02:37Because I wanted to see what happens when our youth are actually all day by the water.
02:41Yes.
02:42What transpires?
02:43We stay at a beach house every summer, so I kind of just started surfing because this is like my favorite place to be.
02:50You know, if you're from Southern California and you don't surf, you know, it's kind of like what happened, right?
02:56Exactly.
02:57Even if we're a little bit inland.
02:58But, you know, do you ever think about, you know, in the surf community, are there any famous native surfers?
03:05The only native surfer that I've seen that is Kursa Moore and she's native Hawaiian.
03:11And I think that's really cool that she's like a world champion in representing, like, native community.
03:17Is that memory that's within our DNA going to return, that scent of the ocean?
03:23Is things going to come back that maybe we haven't seen or felt for a few generations?
03:28How we could start seeing ourselves just surrounded by nature and about this ocean portal
03:34that actually is the portal or the door to our creation stories and to where we came from?
03:41I used to hang out at the beach all the time and I never realized that, wow, this is the land of my ancestors.
03:49This is where our people lived.
03:51When I was younger, I was just so thrilled to be in the ocean.
03:56And now as I get older, I start to understand that connection and make relation with that connection.
04:01I know it empowers my ancestors to know that I'm doing exactly what they were doing, just in a different, similar way.
04:10Native like water, but now it's really, you know, sharing a whole movement.
04:16I mean, I look at it, what you just said is really the land back movement, you know, land back.
04:22And land back doesn't, I mean, we wish that it actually physically meant that we're going to be taking the ownership of the land back.
04:30But as native people, I don't think we've ever lost the ownership.
04:34Very good.
04:35You know, I mean, maybe somebody else has their name on a deed.
04:38Very good.
04:39The truth of the matter is nobody owns it.
04:41Very good.
04:42So you can, you know, I can give you something I don't own, but doesn't mean that you own it now.
04:47Exactly.
04:48Very good.
04:49So we know that we are not an owner.
04:51We are part of this beautiful creation.
04:55And in our role is to enjoy it and take care of it.
05:00Right.
05:01I love this part of San Diego, the MPB, because this is where all the military people would go.
05:11You know, San Diego being a military town.
05:13But you know what's really great is that we have one Native American that's still carrying on the traditions of doing traditional native tattoo.
05:22Can't wait to meet him.
05:24I was born in Hemet, California, which is about an hour and some change north of here.
05:42But I've always been around this beach specifically since I was about 13 years old.
05:47So over 35 years I've been skateboarding these streets.
05:49Did you live on the rez then?
05:51No, I wasn't raised on the rez, but always come back and forth to the rez.
05:56Kind of like that.
05:57Yeah, yeah.
05:58Same thing.
05:59Grandfather's property was up here in the mountains of San Diego, Mesa Grande.
06:02So that's where he's buried and that's where we always went to go visit.
06:05So we would always spend our time there.
06:07So the skate culture, did you compete or did you really get into it?
06:11I did compete.
06:12I competed when I was really young.
06:14Oceanside, I think it was 1985, there was a competition there that I competed in and up in San Bernardino as well.
06:21So we went to the big half pipes and stuff and then onto Venice Beach.
06:25Your age, about that era, there were also some other people that were coming up besides those legends.
06:32Of course, of course, yeah.
06:34You know, like Tony Hawk.
06:36Tony Alva, Alva was, he was a legend.
06:39He's a legend now and he was one of the first guys to like develop professional championship skateboarding.
06:47So like he was the first champion.
06:50Was there any native people?
06:52There were a couple.
06:53There was actually one that was on the team named Murph.
06:56So Murph was, he was the generation ahead of me just really getting after it as far as competitions go.
07:02So they were just pushing the limits.
07:03That is cool.
07:04It was super cool to be like looking up to those guys at age 12 and then skateboarding with those guys at age 16 and then becoming a professional skateboarder at 17.
07:14It's really cool that in your industry there were some role models and now you are a role model for native kids whether you see it or not.
07:23I had the opportunity to sit down at an actual session with James and watch his artistry illuminate on a different type of canvas.
07:32So James, tell me a little bit about how this all started with, you know, creating body art.
07:38Pretty much always been around it.
07:40I see my brother doing tattoos on his friends in the neighborhood as a little kid.
07:44I was about eight or nine years old when I first seen my brother doing tattoos.
07:47Wasn't a professional or anything and it was small time stuff like a, like a dot or a little cross, you know, little, little tiny things.
07:55And I think just watching them do that and then me already being involved in art pretty much my whole life.
08:02Then I just picked up on that as well.
08:04And so what tribe are you from?
08:06I am right here in Southern California.
08:09Okay.
08:10So both sides of your parents.
08:11One is my dad.
08:14I am.
08:15I'm half.
08:16So yeah, my dad's full and then my mom was Irish German.
08:20That's really cool that I think you're bringing native design now into what you're doing here in your tattoo shop.
08:29You know, and this is Kumi Island that we're on right here.
08:32Yes, definitely.
08:33So I think that's really great.
08:34You know, especially too, you go down the street and I noticed a lot of tattoo shops these days are doing native design.
08:42Yes.
08:43But they don't know what they're doing because they have no connection with the culture.
08:48They have no idea what symbols they're putting on to people.
08:53And some of that's kind of dangerous.
08:56Definitely.
08:57Definitely.
08:58I don't think people realize that that's powerful medicine.
09:00It's medicine.
09:01So yeah, even as simple as like a dream catcher, they still get the interpretation wrong and they're still putting something on their body that really shouldn't be there.
09:11Right.
09:12How do you feel, I guess, as an artist?
09:14Because I come from an art background and this is kind of a cool medium.
09:17Oh yeah.
09:18I'm looking at this going, wow.
09:19It's like nothing else.
09:20This culture that's been hidden away by so many people.
09:23So for me, to show these tattoos and the work of James, I'm honored.
09:28And I try to show that every day.
09:30Welcome to the Wild Wild West, where Hollywood has romanticized the cowboy and Indian story one arrow at a time.
09:41While at the Pacific Beach tattoo parlor, I met Nico, a Cherokee transplant who agreed to be my guide on the journey into ancient archery.
09:51So let's see if I can tap into my ancestral DNA and unleash my indigenous badassery.
09:57Join me as I attempt to learn the art of shooting arrows and perhaps catch dinner the old school way.
10:06Yeah, look at that.
10:09So archery lesson number one.
10:12When you knock an arrow, here's an arrow.
10:15Ta-da!
10:16Not like the traditional ones.
10:17There are different ones out here.
10:18You want to knock it right here.
10:21See right below?
10:22Right.
10:23I see.
10:24Just have it like that.
10:25See how it looks 90 degrees?
10:26Mm-hmm.
10:27You actually go to an actual shop to get this set for you.
10:30Now, arrows normally have three fletchings on it.
10:33You want to make sure that this one does not be knocked to where it's going to hit right here.
10:39Understand?
10:40Got it.
10:41Yeah, I do.
10:42Because if you hit it, it's going to make your arrow go out.
10:43Yeah, right.
10:44So you've got to have it so it's clean.
10:45Yeah.
10:46So you knock it.
10:47Clear.
10:48So that way when you shoot, there's less of any kind of thing touching it.
10:51Okay.
10:52Got it.
10:53And just like a range on a gun, you always say clear or hot.
10:58Okay.
10:59Clear means that people can walk down the range, get the arrows that they missed that went over
11:03in the back.
11:04Hot means live action.
11:05You're shooting, you're using your arrows and everything else.
11:08So when you're ready to pull, okay, you're going to look at this notch and the arrow.
11:17Okay?
11:18See how it is on this riser?
11:19When you pull back, some people use three fingers, two fingers.
11:24Some people actually do a split.
11:25There's even that.
11:26You're going to keep your elbow high and you're going to pull back.
11:30Yes.
11:31Pull back to your chin.
11:33We've been starving for three weeks.
11:35We need some rabbits.
11:36We need some rabbits.
11:37Survival.
11:38And this is the day right now.
11:39And if not, then we starve.
11:41Okay.
11:45Yes!
11:46Here in the Palma Valley, it's primarily Luseno tribes.
12:05As you can see on the sign, we've got reservations surrounding us.
12:09One of our neighbors is Kumeyai and there's an amazing sculptor.
12:12We're going to go visit his studio right now.
12:14Johnny Bear Contreras.
12:16I'd love to hear how this happened because you are highly respected in the art world.
12:46And I heard your name more than one time, not just amongst native people, cousins here in the valley, but also just within the art world.
12:55So how'd you get into the artwork?
12:57So it started by going to powwows, taking the kids to powwows.
13:01I did.
13:02I was doing a lot of custom woodwork and I was always sculpting a little bit and I did some custom boxes for some dancers.
13:09In my first initial commissions, it was knowledge and some kind of power.
13:14My understanding of our world, of our different levels of engagement increases as well, along with my artwork.
13:22Sure.
13:23You know, obviously you're from San Pasquale, we're here and you're Kumeyai, but where'd you grow up?
13:29Were you here on the res or let's hear your backstory?
13:32For the most part, Escondido, you know, just right down the road.
13:36Where I grew up was on Felicita and 17th.
13:39That's where I first heard voices behind my right ear that would talk about the different mountains and things around me.
13:47But as a, as a youngster growing up, as far as I knew, you know, I was Mexican, which is, which I still am.
13:53But I mean, nobody ever talked about being a Bay at the Bay, Kumeyai or, you know, Digenyo.
14:00I've been going to, I think, tribal hall meetings since I was probably 14 years old.
14:05We've seen a lot of changes in the valley and also with our tribes.
14:09But I think one of the things that has really shifted the view on who we are as Native people is what you're doing is creativity.
14:18First of all, the face that you captured.
14:22Wow.
14:23Oh, you like him?
14:24I do.
14:25This piece is so important because talk about coming out of the closet, this whole residential school.
14:32We've only scraped the tip of the iceberg on this because we haven't even dug in the residential schools here in, you know, what we call America.
14:42Our relatives, my great grandfather, whose land I reside on now, was pulled out of the reservation.
14:48And the whole idea was to make a young Native child never want to associate themselves as a Native person.
14:58This is coming out of the closet.
15:00Absolutely.
15:01This is saying this is true.
15:03This really happened.
15:04And now how's the public going to deal with it?
15:07Exactly.
15:08You know, and you're finding that there are articles on it.
15:11People are making reference.
15:13And in this particular piece, as I was doing this, this is called I'm no Tonto.
15:18Stupid.
15:19You know, and the Lone Ranger in Tonto, growing up, people used to talk and say, oh, yeah, it's that dumb Indian.
15:25And while I was doing it, I was also listening to all the reports of the children that were found and buried and, you know, in unmarked graves.
15:38So that's part of the reason, like, one of the questions you ask is, you know, how I got started in this.
15:43I can't, as an artist, I can't help but include it in the different levels of my art.
15:48It's our time to come out and tell the truth.
15:50And I think that you're doing it so powerfully through your art.
15:54But the other thing that I really love is that the flip side of what you're doing with your art, this is a really powerful, really in your face kind of piece that we need.
16:04But then some of your other pieces I've seen have shown just the beauty of the culture.
16:10You know, there's always all these misnomers about us being these, you know, the stoic native, you know, looking off into the distance.
16:17It's, you know, we're grounded, we're connected, you know.
16:21On a daily basis, I sit and observe the birds every morning.
16:26And that's just, you know, part of my daily.
16:29Your meditation.
16:30Yeah, part of my daily exercise.
16:31Love it.
16:32What would you like to be known for?
16:33Essentially telling our story, but in a very specific way, in a subtle way, facets that weren't maybe always apparent.
16:42I'm hoping that people are still looking at my art and, you know, hundreds of years from now and still finding something new in it.
16:49300 years from now, it's even more significant.
16:52And they can see that these were the beginnings of these things kind of coming unclutched and opening up because that's what's happening.
17:00And that's what I represent in my art.
17:02Great art is forever and forever is a really long time.
17:06As a California native, one of the most important parts of our culture is bird singing.
17:12It's the songs that our ancestors have passed down for thousands of years.
17:16Songs of wisdom, our creation story.
17:19And now we're going to meet a bird singer who's carrying on that tradition.
17:23I'm a bird singer, tribal member, and I sit on the boards for my tribe, three boards, and I also do music.
17:49I brought in my rattle and my language and put in the lyrics.
17:53And now, you know what I mean?
17:54I have rap music and pulled my tribe in too.
17:57You know, there's the Cahuilla tribe, and I know you're Cahuilla people.
18:00Which is Mountain Cahuilla.
18:01Okay.
18:02And then there's past Cahuilla, Morongo.
18:04Then Desert Cahuilla is like Agua Caliente onto us.
18:07Did you start out as a bird singer?
18:09Yes.
18:10It comes from being a bird singer and a Cahuilla man.
18:13My group was, you know, we were not practicing as much.
18:16And when we dance, you know, we do the grunts.
18:21So that's all I did.
18:23I incorporated that first.
18:25And then after that, lyrics, it all comes together.
18:28So a lot of people don't know what bird singing is.
18:32And what does it mean to you as a native man?
18:36Keeping my culture alive, my songs from my ancestors.
18:41And the songs were their only form of entertainment back in the day.
18:47And we sing around the fire.
18:49So a lot of my clothing and designs, they'll have fire in it.
18:52And because in the end, that's what we all sing into the fire.
18:57We all sit around.
18:58Even when I'm singing, I picture my dad and my grandpa next to me
19:01because they're part of my power and my ancestors with me.
19:05So now you're taking it, you're combining it with a modern,
19:08contemporary music style with rap?
19:11Yes.
19:12Yes.
19:13This is my fiesta flow.
19:15Hey, the bird dancers are getting low, whoa, whoa.
19:19Hey, this is my fiesta flow.
19:22The bird dancers are getting low, whoa, whoa.
19:25Hey, this beat is thumping.
19:27Kauia king is always bumping.
19:29A bunch of pretty ladies in the ribbon dresses.
19:32It doesn't seem like it's different because you're still,
19:35the words that you're saying and the passion in your eyes
19:39is still pouring that blessing out onto the person who's listening,
19:43taking it in.
19:44Being a bird singer, you have power.
19:47You're a leader.
19:48You're a leader.
20:04As our journey reaches its final destination here in San Diego,
20:08I find myself in absolute awe of the immense talent that's flourished here
20:13for thousands of years.
20:15The wealth of skill and knowledge passed down through generations
20:18is nothing short of extraordinary.
20:20In times past, we navigated the vast oceans,
20:24traveling far and wide to trade with fellow seafarers from around the world.
20:28When history books often fail to share our profound contributions,
20:32our voices are now louder than ever.
20:35We are owning our own narratives, rewriting the true story of who we are.
20:40San Diego, a place where ancient history converges with modern progress.
20:45It will forever stand as a testament to the resilience, strength and artistry of the original people.
20:53So this is my hometown, San Diego.
20:59This is where my ancestors have traversed for thousands of years.
21:03And you weren't able to see some of our fellow neighboring tribes
21:06and the talent that we have here.
21:08We've been here.
21:09This is our homeland.
21:10I hope you've enjoyed it.
21:12And here's the thing.
21:13We're not going anywhere.
21:14We're still here.
21:16We're not going anywhere.
21:17We're not going anywhere.
21:18We're not going anywhere.
21:19We're not going anywhere.
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21:42We're going anywhere.
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