When you return transcript
- See, just everywhere you look out here, little bits of shell all over the place. And this is one of the remaining shells of the clams that lived here in the Lake, the southern edge of the Tulare Lake Bed right here. And it's a native freshwater clam that gets to be pretty good size, almost the size of the palm of your hand. I'm just seeing more little pieces of it here. Here's one just sort of embedded in a piece of clay. But it's really beautiful. It's got that shiny mother-of-pearl kind of a patina. The one thing we also find often right down in this same kind of area, I don't see any yet but maybe we'll be lucky just as we stroll. This area is just loaded with Native American artifacts, arrow points and flakes and chips and scrappers and all sorts of things. One of the things that fascinates me about a place like this is to think about how, how much we have changed it in a very short time. When the Native People were here, each year they would build boats out of the tule plants and they would float down the channels of the Kings River all the way out to the Tulare Lake Bed. I sometimes say that when you look at California pre-European settlement, perhaps a million people living in the Valley, living sustainably with the water supply and the wildlife of the Valley, some experts would say we have changed that landscape more completely in less than 200 years than any other place in the United States, possibly more than any other place in the world. We know that there are many lessons we can learn from the way that the Native people lived here and some of those lessons are lessons that might help us to, to live more sustainably with the land we live on today.
- Bend it a little bit to make it bowl. And see, then, it'll start going up and that'll pull those down too. So these here, you just pull over together and pull it tight and shape it up.
- Keeps getting that gap when I try to push them down.
- Just stick, there and just shape it, pull it. And pull it down and then pull your stick over, yeah, and just shape it up. Kind of bowl it more. Just pull them tighter when you're here. Our baskets were used for cooking and for gathering seeds, and then people started wanting to buy them. So that's when grandma started making more baskets and people were buying those for $35. That money helped at the time because she used it to buy groceries, you know, and her extra spending money. And this basket is a fine, fine weave, about 60 years old. My grandma made it. How thin these are. 13 stitches per inch. And that's what the collectors are looking at, those stitches. And that's just working with smaller, smaller weavers, but it takes so long. These different designs are different symbols. These are mountains and valleys and lightning. And, they have people, like on this basket here holding hands all the way around the basket and that's called a Spring Ceremony. And this is the white root, the black root and the red bud. White root--
- [Both] Hop'ud.
- Black root. Gee, I forgot black root.
- Not. not
- And, red bud?
- Anap'? A'nush?
- Anap'?
- A'nush?
- Anap', anap'. Yeah. And then in the middle, the thing that's in the middle of all of this that we weave around is called the deer grass. And in our language it's chak'ihsh And that's a big, hard process to go out and gather. And that's seasonal. You see, there's only a certain time frame that we can pick these things.
- We're in a little town, well, it used to be called Dutch Colony in this little area. And we only had about maybe three or four houses. My mom and stepdad moved here in 1964, I think it was. But, they called it Dutch Colony in this area. Now, places to gather the basket stuff is dwindling. A lot of places have no trespassing signs. Then they spray them with the pesticides and all that. I just started just here lately, how to make a basket, 'bout 10 years ago, but I've, gotten into it.
- If you are going to be a basket weaver, you need to get out here and pick. When we were growing up, we didn't make baskets. And so just probably 10 or 12 years, we started gathering again.
- Well, I used to do it with my grandma when I was little, but I haven't been out here since, like eight, nine years old. So, familiar with it. Just haven't done it in awhile.
- This material that we're picking today is for the cradleboards and that's where we carried our babies over our backs. We're picking sourberry sticks. Make sure that they're straight so that when you're doing your cradleboard, it'll just lay straight. In our language, t'ak'aat'i'ihn wihchet', sourberry sticks.
- What we're looking for is the darker brown sticks on here instead of the dried out ones. These are the like the newer, the newer sticks on here. So that's what we try to look for. And we're trying to get the straightest ones. These are a little bent, but when we clean them, you could straighten them out. We put, tie it with yarn and it could straighten them out, the bent ones on there. So that it'll be good.
- There's a lot of good ones gonna be here pretty soon. I'll just leave it until next time. They'll be bigger. Now I have to get out of this jungle.
- Sourberries.
- I hope everybody's got their fill. Did you get some? Not yet? I'm going to head back but I always see them on the way, so, I still clip but my hand's getting full.
- Yeah, this where my mom and them used to come out and gather a lot of these. And the lady that owns it, I think her mother used to weave.
- The European days, I try not to think about it 'cause that's all in the past, but I know when my kids see the documentaries, you know, it makes them very angry. And I know we have things to be angry about, but it's not gonna help anything. You know? So, we just, I dunno, I just try to educate people on what we're doing and why we're doing it now. And you know, just trying to keep the togetherness and, getting our traditions to come back and stay alive. I mean, you see how many different tribes that it's brought together today. And this is Monos, Tachis, Wukchumni. And then Donny's looking for milkweed that we make our belts with.
- Great-Grandmother had just the fiber itself. And then whenever she got ready to she'd just lay it out there and grab a few strands each and then just roll it on her leg and then start weaving. See it's these. This is the fiber that we peel off of these. Get all that little covering off of it and then, kind of roll this up into a little string. They make long strings in about three or four of them and then braid it into a belt or yeah, a belt like, with a rope.
- This is the peppermint tree. And it's medicine. Mash it up and you can boil it.
- [Lowana] You can smell it. Yeah, it's peppermint.
- Put the leaves on where you ache, good for aches and pains.
- Grandmother would pick acorn, prepare acorn, pick wild onions, pick mushrooms, pick sourberries. And all the nature that was around us. Air was good. Water was good, clear and cold. Like you had ice water. Yeah. Life was beautiful. As I grew up, grandmother was great at showing everything. Never went shopping. Everything was made, prepared at home. And the young men, they went deer hunting, fishing, all that was dried and fried and, oh all the animals. We had the quail, mi-soo, dove. Oh, those were specialties. Yeah. Well, we moved to the Valley they were farm laborers. So when the season finished, we'd come back home. And, after they passed, then we just stayed in the Valley. Most of us like myself, we went to school. So we got away from the Indian way of life and the language. So we're going back into that too. And my grandmother, she taught Tachi, no English. So therefore you had no choice, but to learn it. So I learned it then, and now we're looking for someone to speak it. So I know a little bit. So I'm helping my family.
- See that green out there, those little bunches. That's the watercress, that we eat.
- These are good with salad. I like to eat them with lemon and onions and soy sauce. Mmm.
- I think I got plenty.
- Right here.
- Where?
- You can't make it right here? It's really fun to go out and gather the materials. You have stories to tell when you're doing your basket. Well, with this redbud, you know, I fell down the hill trying to get it, or somebody stole my redbud, huh.
- [Woman] In the snow.
- Yeah, in the snow.
- Okay, come on up here. Wonderful day.
- Yeah.
- Wonderful. We had a good time.
- We're at mom's house that she's lived here for 40, 50 years. And today I'm going to be teaching Rachel, Dave and Andy, how to make a baby rattle. And these are not our traditional rattles, but it's used with our traditional materials. Take five sticks and four sticks and crisscross them. Do two ends, flip two ends over so you've got two fat ones and two skinny ones like this. That way. Yeah. Crisscross those. And pull this one over this way. I started about 19 years ago working with Clara Charlie. She didn't have anybody to work with and me and mom were going to her classes and I really wanted to keep making baskets 'cause I knew it had to be in me somewhere, to know how to learn, how to do these, 'cause my grandmas all did them. We never lived on the reservation, Tule Reservation. Grandma was born up there and her dad lived there. She told stories, but hers were the traditional stories. She didn't really get into the history. And then part of that was, we didn't really ask. We didn't, you know, get into it.
- There was Eagle. He's our leader. And, he's the one that made the world. He was flying around in the sky by himself all the time. He got tired of just flying around by himself. So he made a tree. And then he made a few of the animals: the wolf, the mountain lion, the dove and all the birds. And then he said, oh, I need to make people. And the animals, made the stars and the moon and the day. So they told the stars to shine at night to guide the people to their homes. Then the birds showed us how to make our baskets when they build their nests. So that's how we got our start of weaving baskets.
- Our family, they came off the reservation to work. And so we never lived on the reservation. And we were always out here working in the fields, picking oranges, lemons, tomatoes, olives, just all the fruit.
- [David] Grapes.
- [Jennifer] Grapes. Oh, gosh, grapes. And things like that.
- Okay. This is a whole root and we have to split it. I usually do these with my teeth, but a lot of the ladies don't like to use their teeth. So, uh...
- And it's really hard to do these, to get them pliable. You have to shave it. You can feel it here. It's really kind of stiff and thick. So we try to shave it, that excess, but you still need that white on there.
- See, you have to hold your thumbs right here. So it sort of guides your thickness.
- When I was growing up, my grandmother was telling me stories, how she helped her grandmother, you know, to gather. And, uh, when they go out, they pay their respects to the land where they're at and stuff. You need to learn how to treat the land, where you're at, also being kind to the other people that are in your surroundings, you know. You have to learn what they want you to do and what you can and can't do, you know, from their perspective also not just your own.
- [Jennifer] And that things them down, a little bit more.
- You gotta look 'em over careful so they don't, they don't have one that's fading. See how like that.
- This basket here is, one that I've been working on for, oh, probably three years. I started it. And, so I was going probably the next year. I quit about here. And then the next year I thought, well, I'm gonna keep going. So I started getting it too big right here. And so I saw that, that's not the way it's supposed to be. So starting right here is where I realized this is how a basket is supposed to be done. You know, stitch by stitch. And then I used small weavers here where it, see how small those are in comparison to this. So this is basically my learning basket. And then I wanted color. And so I added my red bud. Might as well show what you got, huh, Ma.
- [Marie] Mm-hmm.
- Red and white, red and white, like that. You do three reds, seven whites, three reds, seven whites, three reds. And you just go all the way around. One, two, three, four, all these grooves right here, all the way around to see how many sets you could get and to match up to, you know, so you're not having two together. So each time I learned something different, you know, Oh, did we tell you our rules? Oh, do you remember them all? Or do you have it?
- Always make an offering. When we gather any of our basketry. We pray to the Creator, tell Him, we're here to gather our basket material and to give us a good crop for next year. We're supposed to be the caretakers of the land. And then the ones next to it.
- This one?
- Yeah, and the other one. We don't take any more than we can use.
- This one?
- [Marie] You receive from the earth. You have to give back to it.
- My tallness comes in handy.
- And that's why we tell them they got to give thanks for what they get. Yeah, those are pretty.
- I like that one.
- Yep. Get him, get him.
- [Girl] Straight and red.
- [Marie] There you go. Here's another one. This long one right there.
- This one?
- Yeah.
- Oh, you have to give your first project away.
- Oh, yes. Away.
- [Jennifer] And that's to teach them to give. You know, you love something you make. You don't want to give it away, but, but it's your first project so you have to learn how to give by giving your first project to somebody.
- And, the reason we don't weave at night, is because the belief was that the spirits, the bad spirits, travel at night and it might get into your basket. That's also why we don't weave when we're angry or sad, because all that stuff goes into your basket. That's why the basket does what it wants to do lot of times.
- [Jennifer] It's just all such fine work. And that's just working with smaller, smaller weavers, but it takes so long. This one here, Mom uses for the acorn, to sift it and get the fine, fine acorn. In fact, there's still some on there. And, that's what she uses that for.
- I want to wear those. I got my work pants on.
- We had the kids come in. I went and gathered the raw acorns, you know, we picked them up. And Dave showed them how to split them and peel them, get that shell off of there. And then, they were grinding the dried acorn.
- And pour hot water on it. The water will go through pretty good until all that leechy stuff gets out of it.
- The bitterness?
- Yeah. And then they'd let it sit out there and get dry into powder form. So they could save it and use it later to cook.
- There. This is a long process too stitch by stitch and people think they can buy these baskets for $20. Okay. So this is the part I was telling you where I'm having that problem of adding-on, where this piece here shows. That you pull it all the way through, down to the end there, and then poke it through the next one and just cross over over it, Mom?
- Just leave it that way and then you can cut it later. It's not dry.
- Do I?
- You can under the, or over it like that.
- Like that?
- But, uh, here, wait, you can--
- [Jennifer] Work it in.
- See, this one is the excess here. She can bring it over here and, with her filler. But this one out here, this side has to stay out there because it would show too much.
- [Jennifer] No'om [Mother], I'm almost there.
- [Marie] Ihnshihsh [Good].
- The reason we started the language was because Mom said she wanted someone to talk to. And that was my main goal was to be able to talk to Mom.
- Actually it's just, fluent is, Jennifer's and Dave's uncle and he lives in Orosi. Orosi, Jen?
- [Jennifer] Yeah.
- His name is Felix Icho and Saturday is going to be his birthday, 96, huh?
- [Jennifer] Yep.
- And, me, I'm just learning again. So we're the only two that actually do speak our language and he's a Wukchumni.
- The language, when you understand the language, that's who you are and that's, the different languages like the hello's in the different languages. That's how it tells me what tribe you are.
- Haa'a ma'ihneshat'a?
- [Jennifer] IIhneshat'a.
- Ihneshat'a, yeah.
- [Jennifer] Haa'a ma'ihneshat'a
- Yeah.
- Is how are you feeling? Haa'a ma'ihneshat'a hechi? How are you feeling today?
- We don't have a goodbye, 'cause we never said goodbye. We just said, we'll see you later, when you return and all that. Haa'a ma xuiwihn. Eka na mam haudau ma xuiwihn, that's, I'll see you, when you return. I was born on the Cutler ranch. My dad worked for Mr. Cutler, L.O. Cutler. We lived over here, behind Cutler Park on the next road across from the St. John's River. I spent a lot of my childhood with my grandma and we'd walk way on down, my grandma and my grandpa. And, gather roots, 'way long roots for our baskets. Now they built the houses out there. No more roots.
- This land here is where our ancestors used to come and gather white root all the time. They'd bring their biscuits and their beans, sit out there and pick all day. You got one more to go through. People wanting to learn keeps me going because otherwise I'm gonna be sitting here by myself, making a basket. You know that ain't no fun. It's more fun with everybody here and talking about stories and different things you remember when, you know? So...
- Can you imagine going through here in the rain? You get stuck.
- The white root is right out over there, look, a green bladed grass, and this grass, you have to be careful when you're getting in here, 'cause it'll cut you. It's sharp. Find some, Dave?
- [David] They're just small. They're growing into the other roots.
- [Jennifer] Gotta dig deeper.
- This is my first time, I don't know.
- You can get on the edge over there. There's, anywhere along here or even get in the middle. But I haven't tried it in the middle, but I think the edges are better 'cause they're just going right out. They just criss-cross every which way. See, I got all these going here. So these are the weavers and they're hard to cut so... Now, see how skinny and fat it is. You want your weaver to be the, all the kind of, at least a little bit the same width all the way down. So I have to go down it like this, to try to get the right width. You just got to feel it. Just take your time and just pull it a little bit at a time. What was it in 1991? I think it was, we got permission to come out here and gather the materials. Whoever gets the longest one, gets a dollar.
- That's going to be me because mine's still going and it's about at the beginning, Going toward you, Grandma.
- Yeah, oh, it's coming this way, huh?
- Lowana, I always say, how'd those old ladies do this, man. It's hard work. Just dig at it and follow that along and see how long you can get it.
- Look, Grandma. That's how long it is.
- That's a good one.
- Yeah, there's a little one digging into it. Wonder if it's connected to all these other roots.
- It's good to get people out here to dig 'cause it's thinning it out also, making it the room for these other ones to grow. Really having to dig for them.
- [Girl] Auntie!
- Pretty! That's nice.
- Grandma, I'm done.
- Good girl! I got my long one. I know there's another one there, though. And I think this'll be a nice long white one, but there's more in there. They're just all tangled. I love it. I love digging in the dirt.
- Makes me feel good. Really. You don't know how it makes me feel, to see the new generation gathering. It's a sight to see for an old person.
- Auntie said you have to have 20 strands of root, so, to make the basket. So we can come in here probably a lot of times to get that 20 or you work together and you get five each.
- It's going, it's clear over there and I got to get to this grass out, but it's well worth it.
- [Girl] Auntie!
- [Jennifer] Oh, you got a longest one.
- [Girl] I got one!
- [Man] Oh, look at that.
- A long one!
- [Girl] Ooh, that's bigger than mine.
- [Man] A little beat up but it's good.
- Wait, let's see.
- He went from clear over there, over here. He's got the longest one so far.
- After we dig the roots that we put the, put the ground back in, the dirt back in where we dug at. So that it'll be, make it nice and grow again, stuffed all the roots and everything. So whatever we pile up, we push it back in there.
- And I want to keep on making baskets and teach my granddaughter and teach whoever wants to learn. 'Cause it's just pride, you know, and making things and accomplishing something. And I'll do it 'til I'm an old lady and can't go gather no more. Look at this one, Lowana. Yeah, I just got this one. Isn't that pretty. Yes, it was a nice day.
- We don't have a goodbye. 'Cause we never said goodbye. We just said, we'll see you later, when you return and all that.
- Look at my nails. The dirtier the better, huh?
- Ha-dama-hoow-wyn. Huh-gotma-domma-hpuh-wyn. That's, I'll see you when you return.
- Hang it over her shoulder. Now I can see how that would touch the ground.
- We too seldom think about how much water is under our feet, but that's the water where if you live in this part of the Valley, every time you turn on your shower or your kitchen faucet, most of that water is coming from the underground. This is being irrigated. The agricultural of our modern Valley is irrigated agriculture. The difficulty with groundwater is that it is water moving invisibly between tiny particles of soil under our feet. Not like a giant fish bowel of nothing but water. We're pumping it from the underground. And we have done that in our Valley to a point where we are taking groundwater out from below our feet, faster than nature can put it back into the underground and the faster we take it out, the faster we are speeding up the day of reckoning.
- Bend it a little bit to make it bowl. And see, then, it'll start going up and that'll pull those down too. So these here, you just pull over together and pull it tight and shape it up.
- Keeps getting that gap when I try to push them down.
- Just stick, there and just shape it, pull it. And pull it down and then pull your stick over, yeah, and just shape it up. Kind of bowl it more. Just pull them tighter when you're here. Our baskets were used for cooking and for gathering seeds, and then people started wanting to buy them. So that's when grandma started making more baskets and people were buying those for $35. That money helped at the time because she used it to buy groceries, you know, and her extra spending money. And this basket is a fine, fine weave, about 60 years old. My grandma made it. How thin these are. 13 stitches per inch. And that's what the collectors are looking at, those stitches. And that's just working with smaller, smaller weavers, but it takes so long. These different designs are different symbols. These are mountains and valleys and lightning. And, they have people, like on this basket here holding hands all the way around the basket and that's called a Spring Ceremony. And this is the white root, the black root and the red bud. White root--
- [Both] Hop'ud.
- Black root. Gee, I forgot black root.
- Not. not
- And, red bud?
- Anap'? A'nush?
- Anap'?
- A'nush?
- Anap', anap'. Yeah. And then in the middle, the thing that's in the middle of all of this that we weave around is called the deer grass. And in our language it's chak'ihsh And that's a big, hard process to go out and gather. And that's seasonal. You see, there's only a certain time frame that we can pick these things.
- We're in a little town, well, it used to be called Dutch Colony in this little area. And we only had about maybe three or four houses. My mom and stepdad moved here in 1964, I think it was. But, they called it Dutch Colony in this area. Now, places to gather the basket stuff is dwindling. A lot of places have no trespassing signs. Then they spray them with the pesticides and all that. I just started just here lately, how to make a basket, 'bout 10 years ago, but I've, gotten into it.
- If you are going to be a basket weaver, you need to get out here and pick. When we were growing up, we didn't make baskets. And so just probably 10 or 12 years, we started gathering again.
- Well, I used to do it with my grandma when I was little, but I haven't been out here since, like eight, nine years old. So, familiar with it. Just haven't done it in awhile.
- This material that we're picking today is for the cradleboards and that's where we carried our babies over our backs. We're picking sourberry sticks. Make sure that they're straight so that when you're doing your cradleboard, it'll just lay straight. In our language, t'ak'aat'i'ihn wihchet', sourberry sticks.
- What we're looking for is the darker brown sticks on here instead of the dried out ones. These are the like the newer, the newer sticks on here. So that's what we try to look for. And we're trying to get the straightest ones. These are a little bent, but when we clean them, you could straighten them out. We put, tie it with yarn and it could straighten them out, the bent ones on there. So that it'll be good.
- There's a lot of good ones gonna be here pretty soon. I'll just leave it until next time. They'll be bigger. Now I have to get out of this jungle.
- Sourberries.
- I hope everybody's got their fill. Did you get some? Not yet? I'm going to head back but I always see them on the way, so, I still clip but my hand's getting full.
- Yeah, this where my mom and them used to come out and gather a lot of these. And the lady that owns it, I think her mother used to weave.
- The European days, I try not to think about it 'cause that's all in the past, but I know when my kids see the documentaries, you know, it makes them very angry. And I know we have things to be angry about, but it's not gonna help anything. You know? So, we just, I dunno, I just try to educate people on what we're doing and why we're doing it now. And you know, just trying to keep the togetherness and, getting our traditions to come back and stay alive. I mean, you see how many different tribes that it's brought together today. And this is Monos, Tachis, Wukchumni. And then Donny's looking for milkweed that we make our belts with.
- Great-Grandmother had just the fiber itself. And then whenever she got ready to she'd just lay it out there and grab a few strands each and then just roll it on her leg and then start weaving. See it's these. This is the fiber that we peel off of these. Get all that little covering off of it and then, kind of roll this up into a little string. They make long strings in about three or four of them and then braid it into a belt or yeah, a belt like, with a rope.
- This is the peppermint tree. And it's medicine. Mash it up and you can boil it.
- [Lowana] You can smell it. Yeah, it's peppermint.
- Put the leaves on where you ache, good for aches and pains.
- Grandmother would pick acorn, prepare acorn, pick wild onions, pick mushrooms, pick sourberries. And all the nature that was around us. Air was good. Water was good, clear and cold. Like you had ice water. Yeah. Life was beautiful. As I grew up, grandmother was great at showing everything. Never went shopping. Everything was made, prepared at home. And the young men, they went deer hunting, fishing, all that was dried and fried and, oh all the animals. We had the quail, mi-soo, dove. Oh, those were specialties. Yeah. Well, we moved to the Valley they were farm laborers. So when the season finished, we'd come back home. And, after they passed, then we just stayed in the Valley. Most of us like myself, we went to school. So we got away from the Indian way of life and the language. So we're going back into that too. And my grandmother, she taught Tachi, no English. So therefore you had no choice, but to learn it. So I learned it then, and now we're looking for someone to speak it. So I know a little bit. So I'm helping my family.
- See that green out there, those little bunches. That's the watercress, that we eat.
- These are good with salad. I like to eat them with lemon and onions and soy sauce. Mmm.
- I think I got plenty.
- Right here.
- Where?
- You can't make it right here? It's really fun to go out and gather the materials. You have stories to tell when you're doing your basket. Well, with this redbud, you know, I fell down the hill trying to get it, or somebody stole my redbud, huh.
- [Woman] In the snow.
- Yeah, in the snow.
- Okay, come on up here. Wonderful day.
- Yeah.
- Wonderful. We had a good time.
- We're at mom's house that she's lived here for 40, 50 years. And today I'm going to be teaching Rachel, Dave and Andy, how to make a baby rattle. And these are not our traditional rattles, but it's used with our traditional materials. Take five sticks and four sticks and crisscross them. Do two ends, flip two ends over so you've got two fat ones and two skinny ones like this. That way. Yeah. Crisscross those. And pull this one over this way. I started about 19 years ago working with Clara Charlie. She didn't have anybody to work with and me and mom were going to her classes and I really wanted to keep making baskets 'cause I knew it had to be in me somewhere, to know how to learn, how to do these, 'cause my grandmas all did them. We never lived on the reservation, Tule Reservation. Grandma was born up there and her dad lived there. She told stories, but hers were the traditional stories. She didn't really get into the history. And then part of that was, we didn't really ask. We didn't, you know, get into it.
- There was Eagle. He's our leader. And, he's the one that made the world. He was flying around in the sky by himself all the time. He got tired of just flying around by himself. So he made a tree. And then he made a few of the animals: the wolf, the mountain lion, the dove and all the birds. And then he said, oh, I need to make people. And the animals, made the stars and the moon and the day. So they told the stars to shine at night to guide the people to their homes. Then the birds showed us how to make our baskets when they build their nests. So that's how we got our start of weaving baskets.
- Our family, they came off the reservation to work. And so we never lived on the reservation. And we were always out here working in the fields, picking oranges, lemons, tomatoes, olives, just all the fruit.
- [David] Grapes.
- [Jennifer] Grapes. Oh, gosh, grapes. And things like that.
- Okay. This is a whole root and we have to split it. I usually do these with my teeth, but a lot of the ladies don't like to use their teeth. So, uh...
- And it's really hard to do these, to get them pliable. You have to shave it. You can feel it here. It's really kind of stiff and thick. So we try to shave it, that excess, but you still need that white on there.
- See, you have to hold your thumbs right here. So it sort of guides your thickness.
- When I was growing up, my grandmother was telling me stories, how she helped her grandmother, you know, to gather. And, uh, when they go out, they pay their respects to the land where they're at and stuff. You need to learn how to treat the land, where you're at, also being kind to the other people that are in your surroundings, you know. You have to learn what they want you to do and what you can and can't do, you know, from their perspective also not just your own.
- [Jennifer] And that things them down, a little bit more.
- You gotta look 'em over careful so they don't, they don't have one that's fading. See how like that.
- This basket here is, one that I've been working on for, oh, probably three years. I started it. And, so I was going probably the next year. I quit about here. And then the next year I thought, well, I'm gonna keep going. So I started getting it too big right here. And so I saw that, that's not the way it's supposed to be. So starting right here is where I realized this is how a basket is supposed to be done. You know, stitch by stitch. And then I used small weavers here where it, see how small those are in comparison to this. So this is basically my learning basket. And then I wanted color. And so I added my red bud. Might as well show what you got, huh, Ma.
- [Marie] Mm-hmm.
- Red and white, red and white, like that. You do three reds, seven whites, three reds, seven whites, three reds. And you just go all the way around. One, two, three, four, all these grooves right here, all the way around to see how many sets you could get and to match up to, you know, so you're not having two together. So each time I learned something different, you know, Oh, did we tell you our rules? Oh, do you remember them all? Or do you have it?
- Always make an offering. When we gather any of our basketry. We pray to the Creator, tell Him, we're here to gather our basket material and to give us a good crop for next year. We're supposed to be the caretakers of the land. And then the ones next to it.
- This one?
- Yeah, and the other one. We don't take any more than we can use.
- This one?
- [Marie] You receive from the earth. You have to give back to it.
- My tallness comes in handy.
- And that's why we tell them they got to give thanks for what they get. Yeah, those are pretty.
- I like that one.
- Yep. Get him, get him.
- [Girl] Straight and red.
- [Marie] There you go. Here's another one. This long one right there.
- This one?
- Yeah.
- Oh, you have to give your first project away.
- Oh, yes. Away.
- [Jennifer] And that's to teach them to give. You know, you love something you make. You don't want to give it away, but, but it's your first project so you have to learn how to give by giving your first project to somebody.
- And, the reason we don't weave at night, is because the belief was that the spirits, the bad spirits, travel at night and it might get into your basket. That's also why we don't weave when we're angry or sad, because all that stuff goes into your basket. That's why the basket does what it wants to do lot of times.
- [Jennifer] It's just all such fine work. And that's just working with smaller, smaller weavers, but it takes so long. This one here, Mom uses for the acorn, to sift it and get the fine, fine acorn. In fact, there's still some on there. And, that's what she uses that for.
- I want to wear those. I got my work pants on.
- We had the kids come in. I went and gathered the raw acorns, you know, we picked them up. And Dave showed them how to split them and peel them, get that shell off of there. And then, they were grinding the dried acorn.
- And pour hot water on it. The water will go through pretty good until all that leechy stuff gets out of it.
- The bitterness?
- Yeah. And then they'd let it sit out there and get dry into powder form. So they could save it and use it later to cook.
- There. This is a long process too stitch by stitch and people think they can buy these baskets for $20. Okay. So this is the part I was telling you where I'm having that problem of adding-on, where this piece here shows. That you pull it all the way through, down to the end there, and then poke it through the next one and just cross over over it, Mom?
- Just leave it that way and then you can cut it later. It's not dry.
- Do I?
- You can under the, or over it like that.
- Like that?
- But, uh, here, wait, you can--
- [Jennifer] Work it in.
- See, this one is the excess here. She can bring it over here and, with her filler. But this one out here, this side has to stay out there because it would show too much.
- [Jennifer] No'om [Mother], I'm almost there.
- [Marie] Ihnshihsh [Good].
- The reason we started the language was because Mom said she wanted someone to talk to. And that was my main goal was to be able to talk to Mom.
- Actually it's just, fluent is, Jennifer's and Dave's uncle and he lives in Orosi. Orosi, Jen?
- [Jennifer] Yeah.
- His name is Felix Icho and Saturday is going to be his birthday, 96, huh?
- [Jennifer] Yep.
- And, me, I'm just learning again. So we're the only two that actually do speak our language and he's a Wukchumni.
- The language, when you understand the language, that's who you are and that's, the different languages like the hello's in the different languages. That's how it tells me what tribe you are.
- Haa'a ma'ihneshat'a?
- [Jennifer] IIhneshat'a.
- Ihneshat'a, yeah.
- [Jennifer] Haa'a ma'ihneshat'a
- Yeah.
- Is how are you feeling? Haa'a ma'ihneshat'a hechi? How are you feeling today?
- We don't have a goodbye, 'cause we never said goodbye. We just said, we'll see you later, when you return and all that. Haa'a ma xuiwihn. Eka na mam haudau ma xuiwihn, that's, I'll see you, when you return. I was born on the Cutler ranch. My dad worked for Mr. Cutler, L.O. Cutler. We lived over here, behind Cutler Park on the next road across from the St. John's River. I spent a lot of my childhood with my grandma and we'd walk way on down, my grandma and my grandpa. And, gather roots, 'way long roots for our baskets. Now they built the houses out there. No more roots.
- This land here is where our ancestors used to come and gather white root all the time. They'd bring their biscuits and their beans, sit out there and pick all day. You got one more to go through. People wanting to learn keeps me going because otherwise I'm gonna be sitting here by myself, making a basket. You know that ain't no fun. It's more fun with everybody here and talking about stories and different things you remember when, you know? So...
- Can you imagine going through here in the rain? You get stuck.
- The white root is right out over there, look, a green bladed grass, and this grass, you have to be careful when you're getting in here, 'cause it'll cut you. It's sharp. Find some, Dave?
- [David] They're just small. They're growing into the other roots.
- [Jennifer] Gotta dig deeper.
- This is my first time, I don't know.
- You can get on the edge over there. There's, anywhere along here or even get in the middle. But I haven't tried it in the middle, but I think the edges are better 'cause they're just going right out. They just criss-cross every which way. See, I got all these going here. So these are the weavers and they're hard to cut so... Now, see how skinny and fat it is. You want your weaver to be the, all the kind of, at least a little bit the same width all the way down. So I have to go down it like this, to try to get the right width. You just got to feel it. Just take your time and just pull it a little bit at a time. What was it in 1991? I think it was, we got permission to come out here and gather the materials. Whoever gets the longest one, gets a dollar.
- That's going to be me because mine's still going and it's about at the beginning, Going toward you, Grandma.
- Yeah, oh, it's coming this way, huh?
- Lowana, I always say, how'd those old ladies do this, man. It's hard work. Just dig at it and follow that along and see how long you can get it.
- Look, Grandma. That's how long it is.
- That's a good one.
- Yeah, there's a little one digging into it. Wonder if it's connected to all these other roots.
- It's good to get people out here to dig 'cause it's thinning it out also, making it the room for these other ones to grow. Really having to dig for them.
- [Girl] Auntie!
- Pretty! That's nice.
- Grandma, I'm done.
- Good girl! I got my long one. I know there's another one there, though. And I think this'll be a nice long white one, but there's more in there. They're just all tangled. I love it. I love digging in the dirt.
- Makes me feel good. Really. You don't know how it makes me feel, to see the new generation gathering. It's a sight to see for an old person.
- Auntie said you have to have 20 strands of root, so, to make the basket. So we can come in here probably a lot of times to get that 20 or you work together and you get five each.
- It's going, it's clear over there and I got to get to this grass out, but it's well worth it.
- [Girl] Auntie!
- [Jennifer] Oh, you got a longest one.
- [Girl] I got one!
- [Man] Oh, look at that.
- A long one!
- [Girl] Ooh, that's bigger than mine.
- [Man] A little beat up but it's good.
- Wait, let's see.
- He went from clear over there, over here. He's got the longest one so far.
- After we dig the roots that we put the, put the ground back in, the dirt back in where we dug at. So that it'll be, make it nice and grow again, stuffed all the roots and everything. So whatever we pile up, we push it back in there.
- And I want to keep on making baskets and teach my granddaughter and teach whoever wants to learn. 'Cause it's just pride, you know, and making things and accomplishing something. And I'll do it 'til I'm an old lady and can't go gather no more. Look at this one, Lowana. Yeah, I just got this one. Isn't that pretty. Yes, it was a nice day.
- We don't have a goodbye. 'Cause we never said goodbye. We just said, we'll see you later, when you return and all that.
- Look at my nails. The dirtier the better, huh?
- Ha-dama-hoow-wyn. Huh-gotma-domma-hpuh-wyn. That's, I'll see you when you return.
- Hang it over her shoulder. Now I can see how that would touch the ground.
- We too seldom think about how much water is under our feet, but that's the water where if you live in this part of the Valley, every time you turn on your shower or your kitchen faucet, most of that water is coming from the underground. This is being irrigated. The agricultural of our modern Valley is irrigated agriculture. The difficulty with groundwater is that it is water moving invisibly between tiny particles of soil under our feet. Not like a giant fish bowel of nothing but water. We're pumping it from the underground. And we have done that in our Valley to a point where we are taking groundwater out from below our feet, faster than nature can put it back into the underground and the faster we take it out, the faster we are speeding up the day of reckoning.