By Gia Hale
For California Indians and Native peoples all over the world,
Indian Canyon provides a refuge for ceremony, healing and cultural
rediscovery.
For California Indians and Native peoples all over the world, Indian Canyon provides a refuge for ceremony, healing and cultural rediscovery.
“We have many ceremonies that take place here,” said Ann Marie Sayers, a Mutsun Ohlone and tribal chairwoman of the Indian Canyon Nation. “Indian Canyon is the only federally recognized Indian territory for 350 miles along coastal California.”
Indian Canyon is located west of Hollister down a dirt path off Cienega Road. On Saturday, it had one of its larger events, an Ohlone community gathering. Ohlone people from all over the region and the country came to Indian Canyon to undertake an Honoring the Elders ceremony as well as the traditional Ohlone Dance and the Bear Dance ceremonies.
“Understanding the wisdom of the elders and honoring that is very important in our society,” Sayers said. “It allows people to stay on track because when one is unbalanced or misguided, they know the elders will always be there to share the wisdom with them that allows them to get back on track again.”
In the ceremony, the elders were first honored with gifts and songs. Then the youth, age 12 and younger, were honored with gifts and shook each elder’s hand.
“It was very beautiful,” Sayers said. “It wasn’t planned; it’s just the way it unfolded.”
Sayers explained that it is important for the youth to know that the elders’ wisdom can help them with their troubles.
“The youth know they only need to ask and the elders will share that wisdom,” she said.
One of the elders honored in the ceremony was Ruth Orta, who has spent the last 20 years learning about her Ohlone heritage. The Ohlone are the native inhabitants of the San Francisco Bay Area. Orta grew up in the Newark/Fremont area.
“I knew nothing about my culture when I was a child. I just knew I was an Indian,” Orta said. ” I didn’t know anything about the way our people lived.”
Orta said her mother was raised in Mission San Jose at the Dominican Convent and Orphanage, so their knowledge of their culture was limited.
“All we knew is that we were Indians from the area and to be proud of who we were,” Orta said. “So we were.”
It wasn’t until later in life that Orta began to rediscover her Indian heritage.
“I was 50-something years old when I started to learn, and my mom wasn’t here for me to tell her that I’m learning,” said Orta. “So everything I do now is to honor my mom.”
Orta and her family are involved in the Ohlone Intern program at the Coyote Hills Regional Park, where they are learning about their heritage.
“We’re learning our culture, learning how they lived and what they did,” Orta said. “I do the acorn soup, which I am learning from the elders that know how to do it.”
For Orta, being and elder and coming to Indian Canyon is important in passing on the Ohlone traditions to her children.
“When something like this happens it’s really an honor. It’s an honor to be here and to be an elder,” Orta said. “To share it with the kids nowadays and to keep it going is what we’re all about.”
As well as honoring the elders, another important tradition kept alive Saturday evening was the Bear Dance, an ancient healing ceremony that is held annually at Indian Canyon.
“The preparation for the bears – what they go through – is quite incredible,” Sayers said. “Usually they go up in the hills for four days for the Vision Quest. They’re praying for their ancestors to help with healing of peoples that need healing. It’s just an extraordinary, powerful Bear Dance.”
The ceremonial dance begins after dark and continues through the night. Dancers wear bear skins and dance as bears around a sacred fire and give blessings to those present and to the world.
“I came to the Bear Dance last year,” Peter Montelonga of Georgia said. “I believe in their medicine now. I didn’t think it would have any effect on me, but the dance proved me wrong.”
Montelonga, also an elder, became involved with Indian Canyon when he found out that he was of Native American descent.
“I told them if the good Lord was willing I would come back and that’s where I am right now,” he said.
Community events like the Honoring of Elders and the Bear Dance help to preserve the culture and tradition of a people whose roots have been torn from beneath them.
“This is all about community and cultural revitalization for people who have suffered tremendously from genocide and ethnocide. This is a healing place for that to occur,” San Francisco University professor Philip Klasky said. “Tonight a very special event, the Bear Dance, is again a continuation of the healing process.”
Klasky is with San Francisco University’s American Indian Studies department, which works with Sayers and Indian Canyon. Klasky said that while community events like the one on Saturday are a part of the healing process for Native peoples, there is still progress to be made in educating the public about those indigenous to this country.
“There are 562 recognized tribes, but they are not recognized. They are not recognized by the public, they are not recognized in education and they are not recognized in the media,” he said. “Often in the media what we see are negative stereotypes, and that has not only a negative effect on the population as a whole because ignorance is dangerous, it has a negative effect on native people who are alive and well and struggling to this day because of the history of this country’s relationship to them.”
The desire for recognition is apparent in the elders’ Words of Wisdom, which are oral histories on display in Indian Canyon’s information office. They echo a common message: “We are still here.”
