Institute of Archeo-Astronomy and Rocket Engineering Research Project

’alałpay INSTITUTE OF ARCHEO-ASTRONOMY AND ROCKET ENGINEERING RESEARCH PROJECT = the place of the rocket scientist = ’ałtšuqlašmu “the place of the astronomer” Interpretive Planning at stawayǝk ’i’alałpay, “sky valley” Simi Hills, Eastern Ventura County ’ałtšuqlaš = a person who observed the night sky and named children Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains (RCDSMM), Clark P. Stevens Michael Sotona Matthew Vestuto Devlin Gandy for Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians The root verb for ’ałtšuqlaš (astronomer) is šuqlaš. Sam Cohen šuqlayǝš, a related noun, is the term for a series of songs sung at night by the ’ałtšuqlaš. Copyright © 2020 Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, all rights reserved + & Coca 2 Test Stand # 2787 Area 2 Nasa SSFL Cupuled rock outcrop with a Bedrock Milling Feature Area 2 SSFL Photo: Wired Magazine June, 2014 Photo by: Juergen Nogai + = Chumash ’ałtšuqlaš “Astronomer” ` Wernher von Braun at Santa Susana Field Laboratory INTERPRETIVE CENTER PROJECT SITE : stawayǝk ’i’alałpay “sky valley” - former Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) ’alałpay INSTITUTE OF ARCHEOASTRONOMY AND ROCKET ENGINEERING = the place of the rocket scientist ’ałtšuqlašmu = the place of the astronomer The interpretive center covers the entire history of the site, while focusing on two primary periods of significance: PERIOD 1 Chumash, Paleo-astronomical ’ałtšuqlaš period of Astronomer activity (__? to present) 7 PERIOD 2 Santa Susana Field Lab period Contrast of two different cultures, both focused on the heavens in this extraordinary landscape, is the unique interpretive opportunity of the site. ’ałtšuqlaš Geological, pre-historic, ranching/mission, and environmental remediation and habitat conservation periods will also be interpreted to provide a = a person who observed the night sky and named children context for the primary periods of significance. The root verb for ’ałtšuqlaš (astronomer) is šuqlaš. šuqlayǝš, a related noun, is the term for a series of songs sung at night by the ’ałtšuqlaš. ’ałtšuyapo’oš PROJECT PREAMBLE “the milky-way” Both indigenous and modern cultures have occupied the The SYBCI did so largely because, as the only federally recog- The post-war American program for the site, which kept a hills above šimiyi (a Chumash village from which our modern nized band of Chumash people, having both the opportunity competitive edge in militarized space and brought us the “journey of the piñon gatherers” Simi Valley derives its name) to develop and practice the and capability of assuming the responsibility as caretakers of heroes with “The Right Stuff”, also left a residue of toxic and rituals, ceremonies and technologies that could connect the site on behalf of the many other native communities that radioactive “wrong stuff”, now being addressed and- one humankind and the heavens- in order to influence their once came here. Since then, the SYBCI has advocated instead hopes healed by the current culture, that of restoration and conditions on earth. The results have been both mythical and for national monument status for the NASA parcel and pos- litigation. Promethean. sibly the rest of the site. Even now, darkness and light, light and darkness: In order The F-1 engine developed in this place brought the crew of The parallels between the activities of the rocket engineers, to make things right (justice) some proponents of cleanup Apollo 13 to the moon. The cupuled and painted rocks here at the ‘high priests’ of the Cold War and Space Race, and the would go too far (shame), and needlessly destroy the very tšwaqšikitš simup, the painted cave at “Burro Flats” - framed Chumash Astronomers if not somehow directed by the Land ecosystem, landforms and human artifacts and architecture the solstice and illuminated the Chumash astronomer’s hiero- itself, if not actually uncanny, then are at least entirely that provided the platform for these attempts to access what phany, or - a “showing of the sacred”. unprecedented in their co-location. Nowhere else did two the Chumash call the Upper World. For Chumash linguist cultures share a space so intensely focused on reaching the Matthew Vestuto, this is a place “where the acquired visions This 2,800 acre plateau, now the Santa Susana Field Lab, and heavens, in order to learn the secrets and divine the intentions found actuation, the wind (spirit) carrying the vision off the perhaps one day to be open space protected from develop- of the sky above, so that the people below might benefit by surface of the womb-like cave into the world to manifest.” ment, was and is the place where cosmic order is revealed. that knowledge. The Boeing Company is the current owner of most of the Field So there are important differences here, too. It comes to Lab, while the western portion of the site is leased to the fed- As this place exists now, at least for a while, it contains mind that one culture observed and studied the Upper World eral Department of Energy. With the demolition and cleanup the best remaining examples of Cold War and Space Race here, and another worked and built here in order to access process well underway, there is broad interest in architecture alongside a major ceremonial site with some of it. In some way both were attempting to influence it for the preserving the rocket-era history of the site, even as the the best preserved Chumash rock paintings. Archeologist betterment of their “villages.” It is ironic that the tall, heaven- physical evidence of that history, - much of which is eligible Dan Larsen suggested that it would be appropriate to bring reaching structures were designed to tether the heaven- for Historic Status - is erased. together the different meanings of the sky and space that straining engines to the earth, and that the earthen, interior, the different cultures have, in order to underline this ironic cave sheltered artifacts were created to reach, and curry favor The interior of the property is owned and managed by parallel. with, the heavens. Harmony of opposites? NASA (National Air and Space Administration) and has been declared “surplus property” to be transferred or sold after “Thus, [a suitable]… name might be Place for the Study of All of this is rich material for interpretation and the design of the contaminant removal has been completed. The Santa ’alałpay, the heavens. After all, the Upper World is alive for landscapes and structures. Recognizing this, the Santa Ynez Ynez Band of Chumash (SYBCI) initially submitted a request both cultures”. This place has been the seat of power and Band of Chumash hope to create an Interpretive Center for to become the owner/steward of the interior 400-acre parcel “light” for two cultures, the locus of great aspirations but also the public along with a landscape made safe for public use. containing the remaining rocket engine test stands and facili- of fears. It seems that light often attracts darkness. ties along with many of the most important cultural artifacts of the site, including tšwaqšikitš simup, the painted cave, as well as the undeveloped Northern Buffer Zone. - Clark Stevens “Old Men, powerful doctors, carefully study In the Simi Hills the horizon during the Winter Solstice ceremony and the heavens at dawn doctors gather to sing and hold rituals measuring the movement of the Sky people in a painted cave. against the shapes on the eastern horizon Focused by a notch in the sandstone cave and with wooden markers, a small triangle of light, arguing about the rising times like an arrowhead, of the stars, sun, and moon. pierces a target of five white circles. Anywhere power The light shifts moves through the Above and Below into the shape of a finger into the Middle World moving, left to right, over the mural’s pecked and polished wall and speaks to those who have the knowledge-power A scale model of Burro Flats Main Panel (VEN- ‐1072, Locus 160), with its red and white figures 10 constructed at Southwest Museum of the American Studies. to understand is kas’ elew. painted on the blackened rock. Doctors paint Their visions on the walls. The light renews the life of the images and everything images that activate the Chatsworth Formation exposed sandstone outcrop Simi Hills in the world they evoke”. power of what is painted Text From: Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California by Susan Suntree PALEO-CULTURAL CONTEXT Photo by: Juergen Nogai “The most important archeological complex at the SSFL is undoubtedly the 25- acre National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) Burro Flats Painted Cave site (#76000539; hereafter BFPC), which has the State of California trinomial CA- VEN- 1072, and the primary number 56- 001072. The BFPC itself is only the most obvious and elaborate focus of what is a large ceremonial complex, which consists of over a dozen pictograph and/or cupule loci, and which includes 258 associated sites. Note that in 1917 the then- ‐leader of the local Native American community, Don Juan Menendez, explicitly told the anthropologist John P. Harrington that the Portrero de los Burros was a ‘place of first class importance’- in other words, a sacred place.” A scale model of Burro Flats Main Panel (VEN- ‐1072, Locus 160), constructed at Southwest Museum of the American Studies. 13 Right Image: Low resolution photogrammetry digital model of the Burro Flats Main Panel (VEN- ‐1072, Locus 160). Model created from photographs available at the SCCIC. Lower image; DStretch CRGB colorspace. (Devlin Gandy) “The best known and possibly the most important location in “The pictographs at Burro Flats are a remarkable record of the greater SSFL site complex is the “Burro Flats Painted Cave.” prehistoric Native American art. Archaeologists who have It is of special interest that the “main panel” of paintings is still visited the site have said that it includes some of the most very bright, especially some of the red paintings.

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