Green Gal

In my journey back into the blogosphere, I've been reconnecting with old blogs I used to follow. One of these blogs that's been on my favorites list for awhile is Beyond the Fields We Know . Earlier this week, I was reading through posts on this blog, and I came across this one: Friday Ramble - Season . Take a moment to read it, and then hop on back over here if you want to know why I'm sharing this post in particular. While reading it, I felt that glowing sense of synchronicity that blooms in me whenever something in my recent life or mindplace seems directly intertwined with something I come into contact with from the outside world. The best part of synchronicity is that the more you acknowledge it, nurture it, talk about it, and appreciate it, the more it happens, which is like magic! Why synchronicity with this post about the origin of the word season? One quote: "Season shares its origins with the word seed, and both entities are concerned with fertility, fr...

In December, my friend Alexys and I spent some time at my family's cabin in the mountains. She taught me some Miwok words and I created a picture book that incorporates the words so I can better learn some of the language. Since then, I've learned some more words and have written many new words from various California tribes (Maidu, Konkow, Nisenan, etc.) in a language and culture journal I'm keeping. Here are the pages that I made in December. I hope to make more soon. watu: sun, lama: tree, oha: woman, nanga: man, kiky: water, lapisay: fish, ohnem: to fish, haju: dog nowehkowai: I love you, ohnem : to fish, nawa: love Alexys drew this one. honon : bear, funawa : laughter Learn how to count in Miwok using this picture. If I make more, I will post them. Thanks for reading! Happy Monday. Green Gal

If you've ever been to Yosemite, you've probably been to the recreation Miwok village. You've probably seen the displays about acorn harvesting and how the Ahwahnichi lived in the Valley. A "Miwok" hut in the recreation village. Some of the styles in the village are actually Paiute. What you probably didn't know is that many of the photographs, recreations, and objects on display are actually Paiute (from Mono Lake), not Miwok (Southern Sierra Miwok). It is a disputed issue between Yosemite National Park and the Paiute people as to whether Yosemite Valley was inhabited by Miwok or Paiute people. The Paiute insist--and have a large amount of evidence to suggest--that the Ahwahnichi of the Valley were Mono Lake Paiutes. I'm not an expert, but the evidence I've seen points to the Ahwahnichi being mostly Paiute. The photographs the Park posts and label as Miwok are actually Paiute --this is a fact the families of these people state repeatedly to the Park....

Happy New Year! I hope you have all had a wonderful first day of the new year and that your resolutions have been put in action! This morning, my family saw Sherlock Holmes at the movie theater. It was awesome! I can't wait to see it again to catch all the details I missed the first time. A lot of action and violence, but Robert Downey Jr. was a splendid Holmes and Jude Law a superb Watson. I highly recommend it! Now for my second word of the day: In Me-Wuk (the spelling given by the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians ), "laughter" is fun-ah-wah , as in "May 2010 be filled with new wisdom, adventure and lots of fun-ah-wah ." I have been researching Native Americans non-stop this week and creating PowerPoint slide shows to present to my sister and family. After learning some Me-Wuk words, I was hooked on learning more about the culture and history of the first inhabitants of the place I call home. My younger sister loves to present slide shows about animals, particu...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish you a Happy New Year full of surprises, new memories, great friends, and new wisdom! I said I would be posting my research paper as my next post, but it seems to be hidden in my mom's computer, so we'll just have to wait for that... Instead, I'll share something new with you. I'm fascinated by world cultures, which makes sense since I want to be an anthropologist. I am particularly interested in historic Native American culture. I love ethnobotany (plant uses in different cultures) and learning about traditions, spiritual beliefs, and language. A replica tipi in the Pinecrest interpretive Mi-Wuk village, across from the ranger station. (Photo taken by me) My best friend Alexys grew up around the Mi-Wuk tribe of Tuolumne City in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Though she is Cherokee and Choctaw, her family ended up living by the Mi-Wuk Reservation. Her grandparents had traveled to California sometime after being relocate...