MORONGO INDIAN RESERVATION, Banning, Calif. — On Sept. 10, families and
especially children are invited to hear children’s author Lisa Patencio
read from her book, “Counting Butterflies in Cahuilla,” at the Morongo
tribal hall. This is the sixth event in the popular Morongo “Rez Readers”
program. The program highlights American Indian authors and encourages the
community to read and to engage in discussions about reading.

Patencio is an Athabascan/Alaska Native and a self-taught artist. Patencio
both writes and illustrates her works. Married to Agua Caliente tribal
member Moraino Patencio, she and her husband have been longtime advocates
of preserving their heritage and traditional stories.

She is also in the process of writing a book called “How the Snake Got His
Fangs and Rattle.” As a part of this new project, Patencio is doing a
documentary and will film the children listening to the reading of “How the
Snake Got His Fangs and Rattle.”

“Since moving here in 1993, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and
this beautiful land has inspired my artwork,” said Patencio. “I like to use
computer graphics, acrylic and watercolors.”

She has donated paintings to the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum and
participated in the desert area’s “Path of the Bighorn Sheep” project, and
her ram creation is on display at the Tahquitz Visitor Center in Palm
Springs.

Three decades ago, contemporary stories of American Indians living on
reservations, farms and in cities were largely invisible and American
Indians had little voice in literature. Indian folktales and legends
entered American culture through movies, television and books written by
non-Indians. In 1968, Indian author N. Scott Momaday published his Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel, “House Made of Dawn,” and many people read for the
first time the authentic text of an American Indian author.

During the 1970s, more works by American Indian authors appeared. Narrating
their own lives, religions and cultures, American Indian authors like
Sherman Alexie, Greg Sarris and Gordon Johnson are part of a genre that now
fills bookstores and is taught in classrooms from kindergarten through
graduate school.