We Are Still Here

The Story of Elder Katherine Siva Saubeland the Cahuilla Indians of Southern California

Director: Leigh Podgorski
57 Minutes • Documentary Feature

We are still Here documents the tenacious struggle of elder and tribal chair, Dr. Katherine Siva Saubel, and her efforts to preserve the culture, history and traditions of the Cahuilla people.

Presented through in-depth interviews with Dr. Saubel and her brother, traditional Cahuilla Bird Singer, Alvino Siva; the film also portrays the powerful Creation Stories of the Cahuilla performed by a stellar all Native American cast. Footage also includes Cahuilla festivals and traditional arts of basket weaving and pottery.

Katherine Saubel also introduces the viewer to the ethnobotany of the Cahuilla people. The Cahuilla people have preserved the tradition of their ancestors and are teachers of their language and songs that maintain their culture.

In 1999, playwright and Project Director Leigh Podgorski created a play based on her oral history of Dr. Katherine Saubel, a Cahuilla Elder living on the Morongo Indian Reservation east of Los Angeles who is both an ethno-botanist and tribal historian.

Saubel has traveled extensively around the world lecturing on Cahuilla history and culture, as well as plant foods and medicines. This project will create a DVD featuring the creation mythology from Podgorski’s play and other material about the Cahuilla, including footage of original Cahuilla territory and additional oral histories.

“By sharing Katherine Saubel’s story and the story of her people and other Cahuilla elders who have flourished in this seemingly inhospitable desert land for thousands of years, it is our hope that the public will recognize the critical need for continued preservation of this land and its people,” said Podgorski.