Handing down the wisdom of the ages - Camp teaches Chumash
youth tribal traditions
NORA K. WALLACE, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Below, a Chumash painting of a turtle adorns Camp
Kalawashaq's sign. Above, Chumash children at the
summer camp program, which teaches ancestral and
sacred skills, make traditional tule reed mats.
MIKE ELIASON / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
July 13, 2007 1:23 PM
A select group of young Chumash children
are spending a month this summer
learning sacred ancestral knowledge and
skills.
During the July-to-August Camp
Kalawashaq at Rancho Oso, the 44
youngsters are learning vital Chumash
history such as making tule reed mats,
gathering sacred feathers from fallen
hawks, painting gourd rattles and even
learning the ancient language itself.
A girl, standing in silhouette, shakes her painted gourd
rattle.
"Our main focus is the culture and
science," explained Nakia Lent, cultural
director for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. "For the ages 6 to 13,
that whole age range is so important for them to be educated and taught
traditional cultural values."
Throughout the course of the program, the children will hear from a
storyteller with the Santa Barbara band of Chumash, as well as from an
anthropologist from UCSB. Various "culture presenters" will visit the camp to
instruct about a wide range of topics, such as the art of making clappersticks
and regalia, and how to build the ancient tomol, or wooden plank boat the
tribe historically used to travel through the Channel Islands.
After it first started in 2003, the program was held for several years at
UCSB's Sedgwick Reserve in the Santa Ynez Valley. It is now at Rancho Oso.
The children eagerly jumped into the various tasks one day this week,
laughing and talking about everything from summer schedules to arts and
crafts.
"We're learning about our culture and stuff," explained 8-year-old Laniecia
Howard, who sat near cousin Makya Saldivar while making a tule mat. "You
learn about your tribes and stuff and you have fun with your cousins."
Makya, a 9-year-old from Los Alamos, classified the camp as "fun."
"I learned our clan is called the turtle clan," she offered.
Her mother, Nakoamie Saldivar, is working at Camp Kalawashaq as one of
about 15 instructors.
"I hope to be one of the ones to keep the culture going into the next
generation," explained Ms. Saldivar, a trained bakery and pastry chef. "If I
can affect any one of these kids, it was worth it."
Tribal member Frank Dominguez spent much of a recent morning instructing
the children about the sacredness of hawk feathers.
"The feathers come to you," he said. "You don't go to the feathers. You never
ask for a feather. Because you are asking because you want it, not because
you need it. That's a big difference."
He considers much of his presentation sacred, and prefers not to reveal much
of what he tells the youngsters. But throughout the day, many of them would
reach into pockets and look at the red-tail hawk feathers they were given.
"Before, this was never offered to children of my generation," explained Mr.
Dominguez, a ceremonial dancer. Many of the ancient ways, he said, were
"beaten" out of Native Americans during the mission era when they were
being assimilated into European culture.
"If we revitalize the culture, we wouldn't be needing these camps," he said.
"Our language would be intact. It's important for me to bring up some of the
younger kids as dancers. That's my job. I want to be a role model and show
them what it's like to be a ceremonial dancer."
Thirteen-year-old Anna Romero, attending camp for her second year, said if
she and her friends didn't attend camp, "we won't be able to know who our
people are."
The tule reed mat project can be challenging for the children, Ms. Lent said.
But "it teaches them discipline, patience and perseverance," she added.
"Those are a lot of values they can use."
MacKenna Crane, 13, was using a willow twig to paint an ochre-colored turtle
design atop her gourd rattle. In past years, she gathered the resources for
the crafts, such as searching for tule in the area, and collecting it for use in
making sitting mats for sweat lodge ceremonies.
"It's fun learning our culture, like how we used to be and how we are now,"
explained MacKenna, whose mother, Barbara Keaser, is Chumash. "It gives
me a sense of how the world was before."
Though it was difficult to paint using twigs, MacKenna said she wouldn't have
it any other way.
"It gives me a sense of how it's important to do things by hand, not just with
tools," said the Jonata School eighth-grader.
Near the Stone Lodge at Rancho Oso, Ms. Lent watched over the making of a
willow sweat lodge. Her father, Pete Crowheart Zavalla, a tribal relations
program manager for the Los Padres National Forest, was helping with the
construction. Camp Kalawashaq children will be instructed in the protocol of a
sweat lodge, such as the proper way to enter and exit a lodge, Ms. Lent said.
Throughout the camp sessions, the children are also participating in "Sons
and Daughters of Tradition," a drug-and-alcohol prevention program created
by a Native American company called White Bison. The lessons taught one
day at camp included respect and self-esteem. And on one recent day the
children were grouped by age and gender -- all boys, teen girls and young
girls.
There are also sessions about healthy living, diabetes and other issues.
"Knowing who you are always keeps you grounded," Ms. Lent said. "If you
lose your way, you'll always find it back through this. Mentally, spiritually and
physically, we're teaching them how to take care of themselves and respect
themselves in all realms."