The Kizh Nation is trying to restore its ancient archaeological site known as Big Rock. Archaeologist Gary Stickel and other experts say the rock had pictographs on it and also has a hole that the sun shines through on each solstice. Photo from Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, the winter solstice. Gary and his film crew were there to document the authenticity of the Big Rock in the Angeles National Forest and San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, off Highway 39. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Some of the drawings that were found on the the Big Rock as documented from a photograph taken nearly 90 years ago. Archaeologists are trying to restore the rock to bring out the pictographs. and learn more about the Kizh Nation, who lived in the San Gabriel Mountains. (Courtesy photo from Kizh Nation)

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

The Kizh Nation, a Native American tribe, is restoring its ancient archaeological site known as Big Rock. Gary Stickel , tribal archaeologist and other experts say the rock had pictographs and a hole that the sun shines through on each solstice. Photo from Thursday, December 21, 2017, the winter solstice. Gary and his film crew were there to document the authenticity of the artifact in Angeles National Forest and San Gabriel Mountains National Monument off Highway 39.(Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

The Kizh Nation tries to restore its ancient archaeological site known as Big Rock. Tribal archaeologist Gary Stickel and other experts say the rock had pictographs on it and also has a hole that the sun shines through on each solstice. Photo from Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, ithe winter solstice. Gary and his film crew were there to document the authenticity of the Big Rock in Angeles National Forest off Highway 39 in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.(Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Out of the Big Rock’s holy hole is a stick known as a gnomon. The sun cast a shadow after hitting the stick that pointed due north, lining up with the sun’s rays. during the winter solstice, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)



Matt Teutimez, a tribe biologist with the Kizh Nation, talks about the Big Rock, the ancient artifact in the Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Photo from Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, the winter solstice., when the tribe would celebrate life and the creator. Archaeologists and a film crew were there to document the authenticity of Big Rock .(Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Members of the Kizh Nation, a Native American tribe, came to restore an ancient artifact that had been marred by graffiti. Tribal archaeologist Gary Stickel and other experts say the rock had pictographs on it and also a hole that the sun shines through on each solstice. Photo from Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, the winter solstice. Big Rock is in Angeles National Forest off Highway 39 .(Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Gary Stickel, tribal archaeologist for the Kizh Nation, a Native American tribe, is being filmed in a documentary about Big Rock, an ancient Kizh ceremonial site in the Angeles National Forest. Photo from Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

The sunlight reached the red pole sticking up from the carved “holy hole” deep down inside the ancient ceremonial rock. The shadow cast, like a sundial, pointed due north. But more importantly, the line landed on a faded pictographs painted on the rock some 1,000 years earlier.

Archaeologists on Thursday studying the Kizh Nation’s Big Rock, located in a remote section of the Angeles National Forest off Highway 39, are trying to unlock the mystery of the Native American rock art by recreating this Kizh tradition. If the shadow cast on this particular day, the winter solstice, was pointing to something, what was it? And what was the significance to the people that inhabited the San Gabriel Mountains centuries before white settlers?

“If the the shadow correlates with a sacred painting (on the rock), that configuration would be unique in Native American archaeology,” said Gary Stickel, tribal archaeologist with the Kizh Nation and leader of Thursday’s expedition.

Stickel and his crew took digital and blue-filter photos that will be put through a computer program of David Peoples, a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist based in Arcadia. The scientists, including those with the Getty Research Institute specializing in rock art, hope the technique will bring out the faded pictographs on the badly deteriorating rock, revealing mysteries of the Kizh Tribe.

Hints of what the paintings looked like come from a photograph taken in 1930 and early published accounts from the 1880s. The photo shows “V” shaped lines depicting specific mountain ridges, while other zigzags may represent the San Gabriels in general. Not much is known about the pictographs or their meaning, Stickel said.

But many theories abound.

“We think it re-enacts the creation story of the Kizh,” Stickel said.

Kizh tribal biologist Matthew Teutimez said Big Rock may have been used for various ceremonies. He compared the light casting a shadow from the gnomon due north, toward Polaris, the North Star, as a celebration of their creator and his promise to provide.

Thursday’s reenactment came about in tandem with one in the Santa Susana Mountains on a site owned by Boeing, formerly Rocketdyne, in Simi Valley, he said. In the Burro Flats Painted Cave are Chumash pictographs of concentric circles. On every winter solstice, the sunlight pierces the center of the main circle, like hitting a bull’s eye. The deviation is less than a millimeter each year.

“This tells of God’s promise to you,” Teutimez began. “He is there for you every year. He is there to show you God always provides, giving us sustenance that we need to survive because in the winter there wasn’t much food.”

As he motioned toward the willows that supplied his people with medicinal pain killers and the nearby stream for drinking water, he added: “Here he gave us plenty. So it is a ceremony of appreciation, of thanks and of relying on the creator.”

The rock may have been used in female coming of age ceremonies, Teutimez said. Young girls entering puberty would gather at Big Rock and the tribal leaders would place a crystal rod into the cog stone or tamet, a hole carved 7 feet into the 23-foot long rock.

“This signifies when male and female come together. It is like Earth Mother and Father Sky producing life,” he said.

Stickel hypothesizes that one pictograph shows a woman holding a baby that was kidnapped, later rescued by Kizh leaders. The pictographs of trees may express the Kizh belief that after death, their original ancestors became the first pine trees, he said.

Because it is located within the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, currently under review by the Trump administration for possible changes to the boundaries. it may add weight to the monument status. Protecting historical sites, including those from Native American tribes, are mentioned in the Antiquities Act, used by President Obama more than three years ago to establish the monument within the Angeles.

“This is the greatest, most significant, ancient monument in the new national monument,” Stickel said.

Andy Salas, Kizh tribal chairman who attended Thursday’s event, said the U.S. Forest Service has not done a good job protecting his ancestors’ ancient sites. The Forest Service allowed a stream to be moved decades ago that placed the Big Rock in the path, causing erosion of the pictographs.

Taggers have also defaced the site. He asked that its exact location not be used in the story to protect it from vandals.

Surrounding the site are burial grounds of his ancestors, he said. These were often marked only by tall sycamores, which dot the Big Rock site.

Before the sunrise, Salas and Teutimez climbed a nearby hill and prayed. Suddenly, a scent of burning sage filled the air, though no fires or smoke were seen, they said.

“Those are the ancestors celebrating this day,” said Salas.