10/17/2026
Have you ever wondered about the early artists of Joshua Tree?
Long before this area became a haven for mid-century modernists and contemporary sculpture, the high desert was a sacred canvas for Indigenous people.
For thousands of years, the ancestors of the Serrano, Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, and Mojave tribes created art, treating the landscape as a deeply connected space of spiritual and creative expression - showing reverence of earth and cosmos in petroglyphs that you can still see today.
Pottery and ceramics were also an integral part of life. The Cahuilla and other Native American tribes mastered the materials of the land and innovated techniques to mold large rounded-bottom vessels (ollas) that were used to store seeds, food, and water. These beautiful forms were not only functional, but also distinctively decorated - with designs very similar to petroglyphs found on the stone nearby.
Here are just a few examples of the art they left behind
Slides 1+2 - Petroglyphs at Barker Dam Nature Trail
Slides 2+3 - Cahuilla Ollas
Slides 4+5 - Coyote Hole Canyon
