This week students watched a video from Place-Based Learning Communities at Humboldt State University called History of Native California, which features Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, Payómkawichum, Kumeyaay, Cupeño, Tolowa Dee-Ni', Wiyot, Nor Rel Muk Wintu, and Chumash people telling their stories.
In class, we enjoyed our own Pacific Ocean version of chips and dip and ate nori chips with a sesame seaweed guacamole garnished with a Japanese rice seasoning called furikake. All in all we tried three types of seaweed: nori, wakame, and dulse.
My biggest takeaway from this unit has been the call from Indigenous people for the rest of us to learn with and from the Indigenous community and not just about it. It’s a principle I’d like to apply more intentionally as we continue to grow our program. Another theme that has come up a lot in our discussions around Native communities is the work of cultural preservation, particularly around language preservation. With all this in mind, in class we took a few minutes to learn to count to ten in the Hupa language from Hupa elders. After teaching three classes, I’ve retained a few numbers, but definitely need to keep practicing!
This week’s kit included a cleaned clam shell, and in breakout rooms students tried to come up with as many uses as they could think of for the shells in everyday life. Some of the ideas they came up with were spoon, cup, shovel, knife, necklace, treasure box, eye patch, paint, pottery patch, and money. We learned that tribes including the Hupa traded clam shell beads for other natural resources like obsidian, use them as fish hooks, and are known for their clam shell necklaces.
