StoryCorps at the Maidu Museum

StoryCorps at the Maidu Museum

by Tiffany Adams, News from Native California Contributing Editor

A little over a week ago I had the privilege and honor to help bring together Native peoples from around northern California to share some of the stories of their lives. It was a day of many feelings for most of the storytellers, a day of reflection, memory, of hope, and a day of healing for many. Gathering community members, of different ages, tribes and different lives to come together and share something we all have in common, stories! The stories of our lives.

There seemed to be something greater at work over those two days, excitement and a feeling of home and community settled with everyone present. While we talked and shared pieces of our lives with each other, you could feel Spirit present throughout the day. The afternoon was filled with food; acorn, wild rice soup, fried seaweed, smoked salmon and tortillas, herbs and stick tea. We shared an area for creativity with traditional and contemporary jewelry, and games. Heyday provided copies of News From Native California and posters, so everyone was able to take a memento home to remember their experience.

The gathering was held at the Maidu Museum and Cultural Site in Roseville California, a sacred site to the Nisenan and other Maidu peoples. This is a place where many stories are written in stone in the form of petroglyphs and grinding rocks, so it seemed a perfect place for the continuum of oral history and storytelling.

I want to give special thanks the list of storytellers: Dolly Suehead, Norma Knight, Lois Davis Potts, Virginia Covert, Shelly Covert, Rose Enos, Alicia Adams, Lindsie Bear, Vincent Medina, Alan Wallace, April Moore, Sage LaPena, Charlie Burns, Tiffany Adams (me), Kimberly Petree, and Linda Blue. Thank you for trusting in the process and sharing your story. Thank you to the StoryCorps family who came and guided us through the recording process – Geraldine, Yosmay and Tien were our calm and humble guides through the entire experience. Thanks to Mark Murphy, from the Maidu Museum, for always providing a space for the continuation of Native peoples’ art and stories.

Many tribes have lost the stories of their ancestors, my hope is this unique gathering will continue and be used as a preservation tool for future generations.

Thank you all!