No One Asked Me But… (March 17, 2021)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… Some old friends of mine are in hospice. Someone deliberately poisoned them. I have had the occasion to visit them in their pain over the last month.

Dastardly! You say! Who could these victims be? Before you call the police, let me explain. My friends are the palm trees at Roger Springs.

For those of you have never visited the springs, the death and removal of these palm trees may not seem like a major issue. Plants are often destroyed. Good heavens carrots, lettuce, peas, green beens, etc. are slaughter every day. Much to the distaste of the very people who champion the removal of the palms at Roger’s Springs trees are harvested throughout the United States. Why would one get their “knickers in a twist” over a few palm trees in a beautiful desert oasis? Let me explain.

A month or so ago, I picnicked at Roger Springs and there appeared to an effort by the Lake Mead Recreation Area “powers that be” to thin the palms at Roger Springs and the lessor area of Blue Point Springs. This seemed to be a noble effort to improve the looks of both areas. Upon returning a couple weeks later, it became apparent that the palms were not being thinned but they were being destroyed.

Making contact with the authorities of Lake Mead Recreation Area, I found that indeed the palms were being removed. They explained to me that the trees were an “invasive” species and endangered the existence of the Blue Point Springs Snail and the Leopard Frog; therefore, they must die.

This brought to mind the fight over the palms in Upper Moapa Valley in the mid-to-late 1990’s. There was basically the same claim made in the preservation of the Moapa Dace.

When I pointed that out to the “powers that be,” they seemed to be unaware of a document entitled “A report regarding: The Palm – Washingtonia filifera – in Moapa NV.” It was produced by Spencer Winton in December of 1995, who stated “This 100 page document is written for distribution to LMNRA, and Nev. Fish and Wildlife, Nevada Fish and Game, BLM, and Other Agencies….” While this report was mainly designed to study the palms in the Upper Moapa Valley section four of the report deals with Rogerand Blue Point Springs as well.

The palms at Roger’s Springs appear naturalized and are not planted in rows or straight lines. We do know when the palms at Blue Point were planted. They were planted in 1903 by a man named Syphus, who later became governor of Nevada, when he started a fish hatchery there. This may prove that palms were in Moapa Area before the arrival of the Mormon pioneer Mendis Cooper. Cooper arrived in the area in 1893, which means that if his palms were the original palms in the valley all others had to be the progeny of his. His palms would have had to be sexually mature in less than 10 years for Syphus’s trees to be progeny of Cooper’s. This is not believable since under best conditions these palms require a minimum of 15 years to mature. This allows us to predate the palms in the Moapa Valley to before Cooper’s arrival. Furthermore in 1903, the manner in which the palms were planted at Blue Point strongly suggest that transplants – not seed – were used. A nearby source had to be available for transplants to be the case. That source was most likely Roger springs.

In groves of Washingtonia filifera throughout the southwest identical deep bedrock mortars have been associated with palm groves through both literature and by personal communications and are usually adjacent and within viewing distance of the groves. These bedrock mortars were specifically used in processing Palm fruit. Bedrock mortars are also found at Roger Springs.

Bedrock mortars at Roger Springs suggest the palms were there when native Moapas still used mortars as Moapa elders have stated in affidavits. It would be unwise to dismiss Moapa elders’ memories regarding their claims.

J. Lowell Bean has shown that The Cahuilla used the bedrock mortars for soaking and crushing palm fruit and this is similar to what Moapa elders have described seeing when very young. The curator of the Palm Springs Desert Museum, James Cornett has written: “… it was probably the Desert Fan Palm that held the greatest attraction of any oasis tree. Palms provided construction material for dwellings, bows, baskets, and clothes as well as wood for tools, ceremonial objects, and fire starting material and food!”
The Cahuilla Chief Patencio stated: “…(the) mark of my family is written on the rock on the high places of the mountains.”

From this written account, we understand a little about the rock symbols. There is a strong resemblance to palm spadices in the double petroglyphs in the Valley of Fire. Early people knew the plants of their environment…the few they chose to illustrate are those of the most practical value. In the Cahuilla creation story, the first Cahuilla was three things: a palm, a place, and a man all rolled into one being.

According to Chief Patencio, the first Human became a Palm tree to benefit his people. Roger’s Springs and Blue Point are the nearest sites to the Valley of Fire housing palms.

The conclusion of Spencer Winton’s report states: “Clearly the last word by those who formerly had declared this palm a non-native is both problematic and unsubstantiated. Whatever may have been the true causes of all the continuing mis-understandings and mis-classification in the past, it is now apparent that those responsible for this wrongful classification had not given these plants a truly unbiased or objective look…The least that should be done is to revise current policies…and halt further destruction by giving the plant and its history a long deserved and overdue benefit of the doubt.”

He further stated: “The Washington fifera has been shown to be a native plant in Southern Nevada and an incredibly important and as yet unknown part of the ancient Moapa history of the area. Climate, hydrology, elevation, biotic communities and even native cultural associations fairly shouted that distinct likelihood that these palms were in fact, indigenous in the area. Removal of this palm from natural areas is therefore, unwise, premature, and unfair … For these reasons such policies and resulting removals should be discontinued immediately.”
Good bye, my old friends.

Thought of the week… “No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced”
― David Attenborough