A Coopers Hawk perches on a Desert Fan Palm trunk in Murray Canyon near Palm Springs.
The Coachella Valley (home to present-day Palm Springs) used to be half-covered by Lake Cahuilla, then fed by the Colorado river. After the river changed course in the 1500s, the lake dried up and the Cahuilla people were sustained by oases, such as Murray, Tahquitz, and Palm Canyons. These oases also sustained California’s only native palm, the Desert Fan Palm. The palms provided food, shelter, clothing, and tools for the Cahuilla, and continue to provide sustenance or convenient hunting perches for the wildlife drawn to the oases.