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Katherine Siva Saubel

Katherine Siva Saubel
Katherine Siva Saubel.jpg
Born Katherine Siva
March 7, 1920
Died November 1, 2011(2011-11-01) (aged 91)
Morongo Reservation
Resting place Saint Marys Catholic Cemetery
Morongo Reservation
33°57′37″N 116°49′33″W / 33.960365°N 116.825737°W / 33.960365; -116.825737Coordinates: 33°57′37″N 116°49′33″W / 33.960365°N 116.825737°W / 33.960365; -116.825737
Alma mater La Sierra University
Occupation Scholar, educator, tribal leader, author, activist
Known for Preservation of the Cahuilla language, culture and history

Katherine Siva Saubel (March 7, 1920 – November 1, 2011) was a Native American scholar, educator, tribal leader, author, and activist committed to preserving her Cahuilla history, culture and language. Her efforts focused on preserving the language of the Cahuilla. Saubel is acknowledged nationally and internationally as one of California’s most respected Native American leaders. She received an honorary PhD in philosophy from La Sierra University, Riverside, California, and was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the University of California at the University of California, Riverside.

Saubel was an enrolled member of Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians and served as their tribal chairperson.

Saubel, the eighth of eleven children, grew up speaking only the Cahuilla language until she entered school at age seven. Her mother, Melana Sawaxell, could only speak Cahuilla. Her father, Juan C. Siva, eventually mastered four languages: Cahuilla, Spanish, Latin, and English. While in high school, Katherine grew alarmed when she found that as she spoke Cahuilla to her friends, they would respond back to her in English. She worried that her people were losing their language. She began writing down the names and uses of the plants and herbs she learned from her mother as she gathered with her.

This notebook later became Temalpakh: (From the Earth) Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants that she collaborated on with anthropologist Dr. Lowell John Bean for ten years and was published by Malki Museum's Malki Press in 1972. Temalpakh demonstrates the depth of Saubel’s expertise in the Cahuilla culture, and the second major focus of her scholarship: native ethnobotany, the study of the plant lore and agricultural customs of a people or specific ethnic group. Saubel was an expert on the unique uses Cahuilla made of plants such as mesquite, screw bean, oak, acorn, datura, and others.


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