POMO ELDERS SPEAK OUT ABOUT VINEYARDS

By Violet Parrish Chappell and Vivian Parrish Wilder
Special To Wine Industry Insight

Annapolis, where we used to live, no one can see anything now. It is time we open our mouths. Those vineyard people are interfering with our ancestors’ area.

Wherever our villages were, wherever we picked our food, those places are blessed places. When we had to live in two worlds, we had to get along with people we did not know.  We had to live with white men who took the land away. We coped with it.

Mom taught us good things, how to get along with different races of people. She taught us how to get along in the world. She told us, “You are going to go out and educate others about us.” We don’t think that others will ever completely learn about the spiritual part of an Indian.

That is deep.  But we want to explain why it is important to Kashia Pomo.
That patch over there—Artesa land in Annapolis— is a blessed place for us. We went there as kids. We picked berries there with our mother. We picked manzanita and madrone berries for necklaces. There are places where there is a lot of Manzanita.

They were really important to us. We made spoons and awls from its wood.  These are things we grew up with.  We dedicated our trees not to be cut. The trees in the forest are blessed. The redwoods give us good medicine from the sap that hardens.  It is used for anemia.  The young shoots are used for colds.  Our houses and our bark dolls are made from redwood.
Everything out there is used for something.

The reason we are against the disturbance in Annapolis is that the place is alive. It is a dedicated area. It is a special area. If they do something wrong there, things will not go right.  Who will believe us?  We speak from Kashia’s viewpoint, the viewpoint of our spiritual leader, the way we were taught. The non-Indian may not understand—there are things that we, Indians, can’t touch but can see. Good teachings are spiritual.

We are disturbed by things that are happening around us. We can’t go to some beaches to harvest food.   We can’t pick huckleberries any place we want.  We can’t find good sedge to make baskets because the best place was ruined by Lake Sonoma.  We know that there is sedge over there. Baskets were our cooking pans and used to store things like acorns. It is important for our kids to learn. It would be a good place to teach the kids how to make baskets.

Religion was all our life. We’ll tell you why. There were no man made conveniences here.  Everything was from the creation. That is why we take care of it.  That is what our leader did, she taught us to take care of the food, the water, and the trees. They will disturb the places where we prayed. The spirits are still there. We say, gee, now they are going to disturb Indian land, dig up the remains of our people. They are impacting our spiritual life.

The idea that these sacred places could be fenced off is not good.  We don’t want that.  Please do not dig them up.  We know that the whole area is a village site. These places were occupied and used by our people.  The whole place is one.

It was not so bad when the land was used for sheep grazing.  Now they are going to flatten the land – which could better be used for education and where our children and neighbors can learn about our ancestors and their way of life.

It is a blessing to pick food.  It is a blessing to roam around. The creator wants us to take care of this place.

Violet Parrish Chappell and Vivian Parrish Wilder are elders and scholars of the Pomo Kashia band. They are daughters of Essie Parrish, the renowned healer, basket maker and Kashia Pomo leader.