Author Archives: Erik Gordon Bainbridge

About Erik Gordon Bainbridge

Erik Gordon Bainbridge is a MAPOM director and a Kule Loklo volunteer who also builds virtual worlds and teaches community education classes in Marin County.

Urgent: You can help Marin’s Coast Miwoks return home

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Huukuiko Inc is a 501(c)3 nonprofit supporting the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin in their attempt to purchase land in Nicasio to use as a new home base in Marin.   The land is 26 acres in Nicasio.  It would truly be coming home – the land they are attempting to purchase is next to the site of their 19th century rancheria, Etcha Tamal.

However there isn’t much time left.  They need commitments by next Sunday, June 18.  If you can help, or if you know someone who might be able to help, please do.  You can learn more at the Huukuiko website coastmiwokofmarin.org/huukuiko.html and in this Point Reyes Light article.

Kule Loklo Big Time July 21, 2018

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The annual Big Time Festival will be held on July 21, 2018 at the demonstration Coast Miwok Indian village at Bear Valley in Point Reyes National Seashore.  As usual, it will feature traditional dancing, songs, and storytelling as well as crafts for sale and activities for children.  The festival will be from 10am to 4pm.

There will also be singing by Sky Road Webb and three lectures at the nearby Red Barn:

  • Greg Sarris, Chairman of Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
  • Tom Whitley, discussing “20,000 years ago at Pt. Reyes”
  • Paul Engel, discussing the Point Reyes Archeology Program.

The Red Barn session will be from 9:30am to noon.

You can see archival photos of dancing from some previous Kule Loklo Big Times at kuleloklo.com/photos.html.   For more information, contact Carlo Arreglo at 415.464.5146.

Annual Big Time Festival

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Sky Road Webb and Alicia Retes perform at the 2015 Kule Loklo Big Time.

Kule Loklo’s annual Big Time festival will be this coming Saturday, July 16, 2016.  As usual, it will feature several Pomo dance groups, skills demonstrators, and vendors.  It will run from 10am to 4pm.  There are no food facilities on site, so bring a lunch.

If you’re interested in learning more about Calfiornia Indian’s, you should consider attention a lecture being held that day, 9:30am to 12:30pm at the nearby Red Barn in Point Reyes National Seashore. The speakers are:

  • Sky Road Webb (Tomales Bay Miwok): Welcome
  • Vincent Medina (Chochenyo Ohlone) will focus on his work at Mission Dolores in San Francisco. He will focus on a more accurate story of missionization and highlight the Indian resistance and perseverance into the present day. He will discuss his opposition to the canonization of Junipero Serra, and his role during the 2015 Papal Mass.
  • Tsim Schneider (UC Santa Cruz and Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria) and Lee Panich (Santa Clara University) will discuss the interactions between colonial programs and the native people of Marin and Sonoma counties. They will also present recent discoveries from their continuing archaeological research at Tomales Bay examining a community of Coast Miwok and others formed after the missions.
  • Peter Nelson (Coast Miwok) will discuss the cultural and natural resources in Tolay Lake Regional Park and how the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and the Sonoma County Regional Parks Department work together to develop and manage these park lands. He will describe new technologies and non-invasive methods of research to learn about and protect cultural resources.
  • Olivia Chilcote (Luiseno) will review the politics of Federal recognition in California and what it takes for a tribe to be recognized. She will talk about the history of the process in California and the implications to non recognized tribes that are not granted the same rights as their federally recognized counterparts.

The registration fee is $49.  You can registerat the door or online.  This is part of MAPOM’s College of Marin series of classes that can lead to a certificate in California Indian Studies.

Kule Loklo in 1978 – photos

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This week I was going through photographs taken by my late mother, Peggy Williams, and discovered three photographs of Kule Loklo that she took in 1978 of the original roundhouse under construction, a tule kotcha, and the sweat house.  The roundhouse shown in this picture was replaced in 1992 by the current roundhouse.

You can enlarge each photo by clicking it.  Enlarging the sweathouse photo, you can see behind the sweathouse the roundhouse roof on the left and tule kotchas on the right.

Kule Loklo was created by MAPOM and the Park Service in Point Reyes National Seashore in the 1970s.  The annual Big Time festival in July of each year features Pomo and Miwok dancing as well as vendors and traditional skills demonstrators.  You can see photographs of Kule Loklo at kuleloklo.com.

A National Treasure

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(written by John Littleton, who was unavailable to log in to post it)

Along with family members, Julia Parker will be offering her annual MAPOM Basketweaving Class on Saturday and Sunday, September 19-20, 2015 at Kule Loklo in the Point Reyes National Seashore. Enrollment is already filling in and should you wish to experience a true national treasure, call College of Marin at 415-485-9305 to reserve a spot. The deeper value in this connection lies with the opportunity to learn from a wisdom keeper who maintains her people’s spiritual relationship with the land. As expressed in the book written about Julia entitled “Scrape the Willow until It Sings,” her words speak for themselves.

“So when we gather, we are always told to give offering – no matter what we have. If I have money or if I am sitting there eating strawberries, I just throw one out there. That is paying back to the earth with the respect of a thank you. So you follow all those rules. You don’t take more than you need. And you do song, prayer and offering.”

MAPOM instructors Julia Parker and Alicia Retes

MAPOM instructors Julia Parker (left) and Alicia Retes (photo by John Littleton)

California Indian Basket Exhibit at University of San Francisco

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A collection of outstanding California Indian baskets drawn primarily from mission collections will be on display from August 24,2015 to to November 1, 2015 in the Thacher Gallery’s Interwoven: Native California Basketry Arts from the Missions Forward.  The focus is on baskets made from the mission era through the early 20th century.

You can learn more at web.usfca.edu/library/thacher/exhibitions/interwovenbasketryarts or by clicking the picture.

Interwoven: Native California Basketry Arts from the Missions Forward

Interwoven: Native California Basketry Arts from the Missions Forward

Native Americans: Past, Present, and Future

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The next class in MAPOM’s California Indian Studies certificate program at College of Marin is a lecture class, NATIVE AMERICANS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, on July 18 during Kule Loklo’s Big Time festival.

There will be four speakers:

  • Malcolm Margolin, publisher of News From Native California and founder of Heyday Books, will focus on the past, sharing stories of what he’s learned in his forty years of “deep hanging out” in Indian country. He will discuss ancient traditions, values, and knowledge as reflected in people he’s known, how much of it is still alive, and what it has to teach us.
  • Lindsie Bear (Cherokee), editor of News from Native California and director of Heyday Book’s Indian Programs (The Heyday Roundhouse), will discuss the present. As editor of News from Native California and director of Heyday’s Indian Programs (The Heyday Roundhouse), Lindsie is in constant touch with contemporary Indian writers, artists, scholars, leaders, and cultural activists. She will talk about the challenges of “getting the story right” in a world in which there are so many ways of being Indian.
  • Vincent Medina (Ohlone), will discuss the future. A young man, Vincent has relearned his native Chochenyo Ohlone language and is teaching it to others. He is active in a variety of cultural pursuits. He will talk about his work in reviving the past and his hopes for the future.
  • Joanne Campbell (Coast Miwok), is going to discuss the cultural history of native people, revitalizing the language and life ways and what being Indian means as we go forward into the future. She has served as a member of the Graton Rancheria Tribal Council.

This class is a core class in the California Indian Studies certificate program.

Location: The Red Barn, Point Reyes National Seashore
Time: Sat July 18 – 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Class ID: 578 X01
Fee: $49.00

To enroll or for more information, visit the Community Education class page or telephone 415-485-9305.

Big Time Festival at Kule Loklo – July 18

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Kule Loklo’s 35th Annual Big Time Festival is next month on July 18, 2015: Make sure to put this on your list for Summer events. Big Time is the main cultural event each year at Kule Loklo in the Point Reyes National Seashore Park. It will feature Pomo Indian dancing, traditional skills demonstrations, and many vendors.

Kule Loklo is a recreated Coast Miwok Indian Village that is maintained entirely by volunteers.  For photographs of Kule Loklo and Pomo dancing there, visit the Kule Loklo History website www.kuleloklo.com/photos.html

Kule Loklo Big Time Festival

Kule Loklo Big Time Festival

Mary Collier’s memorial service will be April 13, 2014 in Muir Beach

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There will be a memorial service for Mary Collier on Sunday April 13, 2014, at noon at the Muir Beach Community Center at 19 Seascape, off of Highway 1.

Mary was a past president of MAPOM and was active in MAPOM beginning in 1974.

Mary was crucial in gaining access to the Kelly papers, and was a co-editor with Sylvia Thalman of Interviews with Tom Smith and Maria Copa.  She was beloved and admired by all. Her husband, John Collier was a visual anthropologist and her father-in-law was famous as head of the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs).

MAPOM will be at the Marin Show – Art of the Americas

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This year, MAPOM will once again be at the Marin Show – Art of the Americas in San Rafael. It is the largest show of early California Indian art in the nation and includes antique California Indian baskets, pottery, bead work, rugs and many other items for sale.

Contemporary Native American art will be featured in a separate part of the show, just across the foot bridge from the Marin Center, at the Embassy Suites Hotel.

The MAPOM table at the Marin Show will have a large selection of excellent California Indian books and information on the classes we offer. MAPOM board members will be at the table throughout the show.  We’d love to meet you.  Please stop by our table.

Admission is $15 per person.  This admits you into both the antique and contemporary shows.  You can learn more about the 30th annual Marin Show at www.marinshow.com.

The Marin Show – Art of the Americans will be held at the Marin Center, 10 Avenue of the Americas on February 22- 23, 2014 from 10 to 6 on the 22nd and 11 to 5 on the 23rd..