Green Gal

Last Friday while on vacation in the mountains, my family took a day trip to the town of Murphys . We make the drive from Tuolumne to Calaveras county almost every year when we're up there. Though historic like its neighboring towns, Murphys is a little more upscale. It's a big wine-tasting place: in the Sierra Nevada Adventure Co. , I saw a shirt that said "Save the Earth. It's the only planet with grapes." After lunch at Firewood , my family sat in the shade by Murphys creek, which runs through a park behind the main street. My sister and I waded in its waters, and we read our various books at a picnic table. The library is right across the creek from the park, so my dad and I ventured in, since we'd never been in before. They had the same Miwok book that my friend Alexys's grandmother let me borrow. It was printed at Columbia Junior College and can't be found online. We spent some time in Sustenance Books , on the main road in Murphys. It's a de...

On Saturday, I returned home from a little more than a week of vacation in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I had an interesting and enjoyable time venturing around Twain Harte, Sonora, Columbia, Murphys and Pinecrest. Here's a brief recap of the first few days of vacation: Thursday, July 1 I drove up with my grandparents and their dog Simba. We stopped at their favorite pie stand along Highway 120, at Jack Tone Road. My grandma bought two frozen cherry pies and a cantaloupe. My mom and sister surprised everyone by showing up past dark at my aunt's cabin that evening! That night, my cousins and I slept on the deck on cots, under the stars. I woke up to birds chirping and their dog Chester barking. Delightful! Friday, July 2 My cousins Ben and Nick, my cousin Ryan, his friends and I hiked around Pinecrest Lake , a moderate hike of 4 miles. Ben set a quick pace and we soon lost Ryan and his friends. It was a great hike that definitely pushed me, which is good since I'm going BA...

I always forget that I know how to draw and that I actually enjoy it. When I was little I drew like crazy, but as I got older I drew less and less. Every once in a while I draw something and remember that I can. It's not that I can draw really well (as my sister PawPrint can), but I can at least get my point across sufficiently. So yesterday after I posted the drawings I'd made in December , I thought I might as well take pencil to paper and make another addition to my Miwok Picture Language Book. I brought my Native American and Miwok books downstairs to our coffee table and began sketching, looking up words and images when needed. I copied the roundhouse from a drawing in a book published through Columbia Junior College called "Miwok" that Alexys's grandmother let me borrow. I collected the words from various sources: Alexys's knowledge of the Miwok language, the internet , Deeper Than Gold , the "Miwok" book, and a pamphlet from the Stanislaus Na...

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

Photo from the book Deeper Than Gold On Friday afternoon, my family drove up to Nevada County to visit my step-mom's parents in Grass Valley. Saturday morning we drove to Empire Mine State Park for a family portrait. I had never been to Empire Mine before, but unfortunately we didn't really get a chance to look around. We took the portrait on the well-manicured grounds and walked around the gift shop. While looking at the interesting rocks and knick-knacks in the shop, I spotted some carved rock hippos, which happen to be my sister 's favorite animal of all time (no doubt, pictures of the various hippos she acquired this weekend will appear on her hippo blog soon!). Surprisingly, they had a variety of different stone hippos for her to choose from. She bought a pink-colored rhodonite one. I found some bear fetishes carved from various stones with a description about what they signify. Bears are my favorite animals. The first time I saw a bear was while hiking with my dad ...

For my second semester senior year Economics project, I was to choose an economic issue of interest to myself and find eight articles from various angles. I had to write an introduction to the topic, write paragraph analyses of each article, and then come up with my own solution to the economic problem. I chose Native American Reservations as my topic. Here is the opening paragraph of my project: Games of gambling and luck are nothing new to Native American people; their culture includes traditional games of chance, so it's not entirely arbitrary that Native American reservations often maintain casinos that otherwise would not be able to exist in certain states, like California, where gambling is illegal. Along with casinos, other industries such as golf courses, natural resource mining, and sports facilities have generated a much-needed income for many tribes and have improved conditions for the Native American people themselves, as well as boosted the economies of local communiti...