Please review our hiker info page to familiarize yourself with hiker safety rules and our hike ratings so that you can select hikes that meet your level of fitness. Unless specified otherwise in the activity descriptions below, hikes have a 15 person limit, and they begin in the ABDNHA parking lot.

  • Lecture: Native American Life, Use of Native Plants

    ABDNHA Library 652 Palm Canyon Drive, Borrego Springs, CA, United States

    Speaker: Cathy Chambers, Volunteer
    Many hundreds of years ago, there was nothing close to a store in all of North America. The people living here before that time needed materials for clothing, storage containers, food, tools, and other essentials to build living structures. All of these materials were gathered and processed into the items they needed. Groups traded with each other for what they needed, offering what they had in surplus in exchange. In this presentation, you will see and handle samples of plants and the objects made from them that were used in everyday life in the surrounding desert. Cathy Chambers is a lifelong naturalist who studied ethnobotany for her personal and professional development, starting her career decades ago here in Anza-Borrego. GP $12, M $10, V $8. You can register online or at the Nature Center, 760-767-3098.

    Register here for the program.

  • Lecture: “I May Still Be Speaking” – Indigenous Oral Tradition of Northern Baja California

    ABDNHA Library 652 Palm Canyon Drive, Borrego Springs, CA, United States

    Speaker: Michael Wilken-Robertson, Anthropologist
    Indigenous people of northern Baja California share ancient cultural and linguistic ties with other Yuman groups of southern California and Arizona. Over the millennia, native peoples developed richly elaborate cosmologies in which the earth, sky, plants, and animals were infused with spirit; these narratives were passed along through myths, legends, stories, and song. In this lively talk, we will hear examples of storytelling from the Kumeyaay, Paipai, and Kiliwa peoples that Wilken-Robertson has worked with for over 40 years in Baja California. The narratives will be considered in their cultural context to help us better understand the meanings embedded in them and why the particular narratives passed down for generations remain compelling to listeners today.

    Anthropologist Michael Wilken-Robertson has developed lifelong collaborative relationships with native artists and traditional authorities to foster cultural revitalization and sustainable community development in northern Baja. He has taught in the anthropology department at California State University, San Marcos. His fascination with native plants and the natural landscapes of the Californias have inspired him to explore the many ways that humans have interacted with their environments, from the ancient past to the present. Michael resides in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. In the ABDNHA Library. GP $12, M $10, V $8. Register online, or call us at 760-767-3098.

    Register here for the program.

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