WATER, Weather Camp & the Winnemen Wintu

Winneman Wintu Chief Caleen Sisk (r.)
at Stanford Mother's Day Powwow
of Northern California with other women in 2012

This disturbs me greatly. I was at a presentation at Howard University two days ago on Meteorology. Present were high school students from around the country who had been studying for two weeks an assortment of subjects and ideas at a Weather Camp hosted by NOAA Center for Atmospheric Sciences. Each child presented their findings to family, friends, and staff. It was extraordinary. At the end of five hours I spoke because the camp director, Mike Mogil, asked for comments from the audience.


I spoke about the women in different tribes who are responsible for the water. When I spoke about them my hand involuntarily held my stomach the way a woman holds her Womb as if I was embodied by any one of the women of those circles I've met. I could see the correlation between the new technologies and the science around air and water and land and the ancient ways and knowledge of indigenous nations around and with water. The two can and should come together. The director was astounded.


"Who are you and who are  you with?" he asked.


I told him, and he said, "We need to talk afterwards."


We did and I learned the people in his field of interests have been unsuccessful connecting with the American Indian communities.


"We have, obviously," he said; "connected with the Black American community, the Hispanic and white communities. But..."


I mentioned Swift Otter's vision of building sustainable environmental community for his people, the Menominee, and I thought of other people to introduce, but the time was short and the space for such things was not there on the Howard University campus. So we exchanged cards.


My cousin Amber Liggett is 16 years old. She was one of the select students in the Weather Camp. In her talk she addressed the large islands of plastic in the oceans. Masterfully, she painted the picture with her words of our trash making a circle and coming back to slap us in the face. It seems to be an irreversible cycle. Answering a question she illustrated how the plastics and trash in the water can be picked up but it would more than likely be buried in land fills! I reason we are in a fix because there are limits to that solution, and if we send the trash to outer space we add to an overflow of trash already circling the Earth's atmosphere. If what can be burned is burned it adds to the pollution in the air joining volcanic ash in the air that is already a threat to air travel!


When I spoke before this small assembly I remember saying what my friend Pam Tinker says often, "A man's religion is revealed in the way he treats water." Ponder that and take this in:


The U.S. government wants to flood more of the land of the Winnemem, and refuses to acknowledge they exist somehow. This occurs in the open. It is easy to suffer this much in the United States with most eyes focused on the glitter of trivia, and inconsistent notions of freedom. The myopic approach to the problem of pollution seems to be merely focused on tobacco smoking to the exclusion of the myriad and complex problems of the near end results of philosophies, ideologies and practices of desecration common to the advancement of European powers, and the perpetual motion of misdirection by the illusions created by the image makers of North Americans who don't know how to own their images, or relate in a sacred manner with the Earth, our Mother!


The time is now. The time is right now to focus the nation away from the idiot and self-servicing reasoning, and justifications for destroying water, land and air. Our children do not yet understand the relationship of the US government to the indigenous people of the land. They don't understand how nefarious and dangerous it is the waters of activism, and how deeply entrenched  notions of dominance and superiority are alive within industries, and large segments of the United States. It is staggering  the belief structures killing us! Life will always prevail, and Peace Makers will always be birthed by women is the hope for tomorrow. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

Amber Liggett (l.) & two other Teenpreneurs who competed
for a feature in Black Enterprise magazine. Amber won
and was featured in the June 2012 issue!

Tow Winnemen women sitting on a bench
April 23, 2012

WINTU HEALER

Florence Jones (1907-2003)

Florence Curl Jones, Wintu spiritual leader and healer, died on Saturday, November 22, six days before her 97th birthday. She was the most fluent speaker of the Winnemem Wintu language, and was known as a "top doctor" by Native people throughout the western United States.

Born Florence Violet Curl (Puilulimet) on November 28, 1907, on the McCloud River (Winnemem, or "Middle Water") south of Mt. Shasta in northern California, she was the daughter of William Curl (Dolikentillema) and Jenny Charles Curl (Chipoki). From the time of her birth Florence Curl was recognized as a special child, destined to become a leader. At five years of age, Florence was forcibly taken by agents of the U.S. government to the Indian School at Greenville, California. Five years later, after the school caught fire, she returned home and resumed her training as an Indian doctor and spiritual leader. At ten years of age, Florence was sent on foot on an 80-mile solo journey along the McCloud River. Soon after this journey, Florence was again taken from her home by the government and sent back to Greenville School. As a teenager, she was sent by the school to work as a servant for a family in San Francisco, where she attended Lowell High School. At age 17, she made her way back to the McCloud River and again took up her training as a traditional healer.

She married Andrew Jones (Jones Valley near Redding was named after his family). Lands allotted by the U.S. to Mrs. Jones' family were lost with the construction of Shasta Dam and the flooding of the lower McCloud River in the 1930s. The bodies of her father and mother, recently deceased, had to be re-buried to escape the rising water of Shasta Lake. Following the death of her parents and uncles, Mrs. Jones assumed the successional role of leader and top doctor of the Winnemem Wintu. Leadership has now passed to Caleen Sisk-Franco, Mrs. Jones's great-niece and designated successor. Mrs. Jones was an expert on the plants of northern California and their traditional uses. Throughout her life she conducted ceremonies at the Winnemem Wintu's sacred sites on and around Mt. Shasta, following a thousand-year tradition. She was recognized by her people, by elders of other tribes, and by archaeologists and anthropologists, as a uniquely gifted healer. Mrs. Jones championed the cause of protection of sacred sites from development. In 1998, the U.S. Forest Service dropped plans to build a ski area on Mt. Shasta due in part to the efforts of Mrs. Jones. Despite unbroken traditions of language, culture, religion, and self-governance by Mrs. Jones and the Winnemem, they are not recognized as a tribe by the U.S. government. In the 1980s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs dropped the Winnemem from their list of recognized tribes without explanation. Mrs. Jones was the subject of a documentary film, In the Light of Reverence, which aired nationally on PBS in 2001.

 Florence Jones died in her sleep, at her home north of Redding, surrounded by family. She is survived by her daughter, Grace Marjory Charles. A son, Howard Richard Charles, died at the age of 2. Letters in support of the Winnemem Wintu effort to regain tribal recognition may be addressed to: Secretary of the Interior 1849 C St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20240.

http://wintutribe.net/body_index.html 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "My heart is moved by all I cannot save, so much has been lost.... so much has been destroyed. I must cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power... reconstitute the world."

Winneman Wintu Chief Caleen Sisk at Stanford Mother's Day Powwow of Northern California with other women in 2012