| A wonderful resource is Hinth'el Gaahnula (Talking Indian): a narrative history of Lake County Pomo through 1900. This dvd was produced by Round Valley Rancheria in 2006, & runs 72 minutes. Written & narrated by James BlueWolf, it begins with a view of the rich & peaceful life of the Pomo before contact with Europeans, then moves into the atrocities that followed. BlueWolf brilliantly crafts still photography, paintings by Grace Hudson, voice-overs of family memories, & perfectly chosen music. Toward the end BlueWolf notes that some people think there's no reason to remember this stuff--let it be in the past. Unfortunately, he urges, the attitudes that led to these things still exist. It happened here. If we live here, it's our history & we need to know it. I'd like this video to be required viewing for anyone staying in California longer than 2 weeks. It's certainly a good prelude to thinking about a reconciliation ceremony. |
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Talking Indian
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This is wonderful, I've been thinking a lot about the past lately and a friend sent me this quote from W. Faulkner, “The past is not dead, in fact it is not even past.”
ReplyDeleteA people that are in touch with the land are always present whether they are dead or alive, they move in the wind, rush with the water, and give power to our words when we speak truth from the heart.
We desperately need our Pomo relations during this time of great alienation from the natural world.
As as activist I know if we could reawaken these roots our work within nature would become self-evident. In gratitude, Many Blessings, Magick