According to the Joshua Tree National Park website, “the spirits of the Serrano, the Chemehuevi, and the Cahuilla are still with us in the rock formations, the pictographs and petroglyphs, and in the archaeological sites which dot the landscape.” They also refer to these nations as the “vanished people of the Oasis of Mara.” It’s good the park acknowledges an indigenous history to this place, but this type of language put Native people firmly in the past. Not only do they fail to acknowledge why there are no longer indigenous people in the park, they don’t acknowledge that these nations are still around, still vibrant communities. This language is political - it is used to justify an illegal occupation of space, dismissing other claimants as long vanished.
Deserts are easy to dismiss as uninhabited and uninhabitable, but when you visit these area, remember that for the indigenous people forcibly removed from this place, the Serrano (Yuharetum), Chemehuevi (Nüwü), Cahuilla (ʔívil̃uqaletem), and Mojave ('Aha Makhav) - people who still live in nearby towns, reservations, and missions - this is a homeland.