The story of how California Indigenous people were murdered, enslaved, and displaced from their land is as brutal as it comes. The Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok were spared no exception. It is seldom taught or discussed. And it is not ancient lore. As recently as 1958, Congress passed a law stripping the last collectively governed land (in what is now Graton) from a confederacy of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo (the Graton Rancheria) and granted it to three private owners, making the tribe landless.
Nevertheless, Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok people, communities, languages, and cultures have persisted. The Graton Rancheria is again a federally recognized tribe with land of their own. Language groups meet monthly. Elders still teach their ways.
One of the most intellectually and emotionally fulfilling subjects you can learn about, as a Californian, is California indigenous stories, songs, and culture. I wasn’t taught much at all about Indigenous Californian cultures in school and sought it out as an adult. Books like Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson, The Ohlone Way and The Way We Lived by Malcolm Margolin, feeble as books are, offer glimpses into cultures and land tending ethics of colossal wisdom, part and parcel to their places, woven within and from them — the sheer beauty and genius hinted at hits a European styled farmer, with just enough sense to grasp what he is reading about, like a ton of bricks. There are chapters and stories so rich I had to put the book down, ask myself, “What the hell am I doing?”, and grab my coat, and head outside.
Walking along Green Valley creek, my feet crunch along the hardpack gravel road. Gone are the grizzly bear trails. Ascending the hill to the lookout, the Tan Oaks I pass, a staple food for the Southern Pomo, are all succumbing to Sudden Oak death. Who said post-apocalypse is sci-fi? We are living in one.
Reaching the top of the hill, I turn around, sit down. The rows and fields of the farm lie below. The beauty of the people and cultures that called this place home coupled with the recent horror of their removal is too much too bear.
The resinous tang of rotting Bay Nut fruit on the moist soil fills the air. The light is falling and the air is cold. I get up and start heading down the hill — it is slippery and steep.
It is too much to bear, my friends, but I think there are two beacons of hope: 1.) The opportunity to celebrate and lift up indigenous people, voices, projects, and culture; to face our history and to help rebuild and re-land what we has been displaced. (More on that below.) 2.) The opportunity to learn from indigenous wisdom and land tending ethics and practices so that someday we too might begin to belong to this place, as they did, not just occupy it.
Walking along Green Valley creek, my feet crunch along the hardpack gravel road. I pass under the two towering twin Live Oak trees on the farm road. Acorns roll and dart out from under my shoes. There are thousands and thousands of them — each a seed, each the hope, of a towering Oak tree. I pick one up and plant it, sideways, in the soft soil of the spillway.
The next time you walk on the farm, I invite you to think of the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo who walked this valley for so long, and to think of ways we can support their communities and projects in Sonoma County in the coming year.
Similarly, as we eat our first cornmeal and popcorn this week, let us think of the hands and cultures who stewarded those crops, and so so many of the crops we have enjoyed in our harvest shares this year. As we eat, let’s give thanks to the Indigenous seed keepers, land tenders, and cultures that have nourished us and take action to return the favor.
Resources and organizations to learn from and support:
Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria: The federally recognized confederacy of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo people. They have a Donation page in the works. Their website contains a concise history of the Rancheria and news of current cultural initiatives.
California Indian Museum and Culture Center in Santa Rosa which in addition to its other work offers programs for Tribal youth.
Sogorea Te' Land Trust is an urban, indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of indigenous land to indigenous people in the East Bay.
We have been grateful to follow along and learn from the amazing Indigenous farmer and seedkeeper Rowen White. She can be found here and at Sierra Seeds.
We highly recommend the documentary Gather. In the filmmakers words, "Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide."
mak-'amham / Cafe Ohlone: Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino created Cafe Ohlone as, in their words "an Ohlone cultural institution empowering our community with tradition—and we teach the public, through taste, of our unbroken roots." They have a thoughtful post about their relationship to the Thanksgiving holiday that includes a list of great Native-run organizations to support.
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See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
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