Located in the courtyard of the Visitor Information Center is a series of road signs created by local Cahuilla Native American artist Gerald Clarke Jr. His website contains a page devoted to his road sign art and it reads:
The Road Signs are a series of works I've been making since the mid-1990's as a way to illustrate the importance of indigenous languages and the history of place. As a Cahuilla artist, I feel a responsibility to my tribal community and the signs were a way for me to engage them with my art.
Let me explain
Having completed my M.F.A. degree, I began to think about bringing my work back home to the reservation. The Cahuilla Indian Reservation does not have a contemporary art center. Thus, I began to think of a way to incorporate art into the environment without interfering with the natural beauty of the land. I chose road signs as the format for these works because people tend to see them or not. In a funny way, road signs such as these tend to become invisible when people choose to ignore them. It's a choice.
I had no idea how these works would be received. On the rez, we don't have law enforcement so I dig holes and "planted" them along our roads. I didn't ask for permission before hand, but I planned to de-install them if there were any complaints. To my surprise, many reservation residents seemed to appreciate the work and it seemed to spark interest in the preservation of our ancient tribal language.