Tired of waiting in line at the supermarket during this holiday season? Well, there may be some native foods that are making a comeback in the southwest that you can harvest near your home.
Native Foods Make A Comeback In Southwest
By Jill Replogle
Deborah Small and Lydia Vassar spend a lot of time wandering the hillsides and arroyos of northern San Diego County. Today, they’re looking for dried chia flowers. Almost completely ignored for centuries, the seeds of these flowers have become a popular health food product in recent years. They’re rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. Read More Here!
"As we depend more on mobile technology, wireless cellular carriers are facing a new challenge...finding a way to build infrastructure needed to keep up the pace. For the most part, they'll do just about anything to avoid having to co-exist with other carriers. This makes negotiating with them not only challenging, but almost impossible. Throw a county historic park into the mix and the issues are only compounded. Here's Suzanne Bartole! "
Basket Weaving News and Events
World Water Day Festival!
Join us Saturday for the
World Water Day Festival!
Schedule
12:00 -Opening remarks by Supervisor Bill Horn and Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall
Join us for agave tasting, along with fire roasted turkey, rabbit stew; wild greens, chia lemonade and black walnuts Luiseno storyteller Kathleen Chilcote Wallace of Native Talk will be performing.
Pauma and Rincon students will be demonstrating their basket weaving skills and native games.
Bird singers
Join Miss Lydia and CSU San Marcos Students for our First Annual Agave Roast Event!
"On Saturday I was driving past the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Discovery Center, and saw a rather large crowd out back. What I discovered was that Native American Artist Lydia Vassar was there teaching folks how to weave deergrass into baskets." by Duane Conder The CarlsbadPatch
Mary Jane Oatman Wak-Wak, President Elect will be chairing the convention as it enters the 41st Convention!
The oldest and largest Indian education organization in the country continues to grow offering a four day convention with many surprises and highlights in store.
Mark the dates on your calendar and plan on attending the 41st Annual Convention.
Stop by our booth!
NATIVE TALK.org will be presenting traditional California Indian tales performed by Luiseño storyteller Cathleen Chilcote.
There will also be basket weaving demonstrations using traditional basket materials by Luiseño artist Lydia Vassar from WaterturtleWeaver.com
Basket Weaving News and Events
Come Join Us!
Nex'wetem 10th Anniversary Gathering of S. Calif. Indian Basket Weavers Org.
October 29-31, 2010
Yokoji-Zen Mountain Center PO Box 43 Mountain Center, CA 92561 United States: See directions below
Nex’wetem - Southern California Indian Basket-weavers Organization 3546 Donald Avenue Riverside, CA. 92503 (951) 536-5581
Directions
Driving time from Los Angeles is approximately 2 1/2 hours without traffic. Driving time from San Diego is approximately 2 hours. Again, expect heavy traffic leaving the city on a Friday afternoon.
Allow extra time, especially the first time you come.
Directions from Los Angeles
60 East to Hemet/San Jacinto Exit (Gilman Springs Rd.) Right on Sanderson Left on Ramona Expressway to Florida Ave. (Hwy 74) Left onto 74 to Apple Canyon Rd. Left onto Apple Canyon Rd.
Directions from San Diego:
I-15 North to 79 South 371 East through Anza to 74 Left onto 74 to Apple Canyon Rd. Right onto Apple Canyon Road
SAN MARCOS: Weaving past and present together. Posted: Thursday, September 24, 2009 7:40 pm
Meadow Fuller, a fifth-grader from the Chammakilawish Pechanga tribal school, assists Lydia Vassar from the Luiseno band of American Indians with a basket-weaving demonstration Thursday at Cal State San Marcos. The event was part of a weeklong series held in conjunction with California Native American Day, celebrated each year on the fourth Friday in September.
Indigenous arts part of CSUSM California Indian Day celebration
By: COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer
SAN MARCOS -- Two local artists and activists wove human history and ecology into their demonstration of traditional American Indian basket-making Tuesday at Cal State San Marcos.
The university is celebrating California Indian Day, which is Friday, with a full week of campus activities. San Diego County is home to more American Indian reservations than any other county in the country --18 that cover about 193 of the county's 4,205 acres.
On Wednesday, Rose Ramirez, of the Chumash and Yaqui tribes, and Lydia Vassar, a Luiseno member who teaches on the Pechanga reservation in Temecula, arrived on campus laden with traditional baskets and the makings of traditional baskets: native plants such as juncus textilis, deer grass, rhus trilobata -- a nonpoisonous sumac -- and yucca whipplei.
"Some of these plants -- you can use just about every part of them," Ramirez said, using the yucca plant as an example.
Yucca petals are edible, as are their seeds, she said. The long stalks can be woven into baskets or cord. Indigenous people used to submerge yucca roots, which contain a toxin, in water to sedate fish and make them easier to catch.
But even yucca has its limits. Vassar recommended using no more than a dime-sized circle of it to start a basket because it isn't as durable as juncus.
"If you wanted something to last 100 years, you wouldn't put something at the heart of it that was only going to last five," Vassar said.
In some cases, it's the plants themselves that are having trouble standing the test of time. Changes in the environment, from development to rerouting of waterways, has affected their growth patterns. This comes after centuries of sustainable agriculture by indigenous people who depended on the plants' success for their own survival, Ramirez said.
"They had to make sure that whatever they did with the plants was never too much," Ramirez said.
Cultivating a broader interest in basket weaving could be a way to preserve the plants and the craft. Vassar, who teaches basket weaving to Pechanga children and the San Pasqual elders, wants to make weaving as accessible as possible.
"I'm not really concerned with pattern because I am not trying to sell and make someone stop and say, 'Oh, look at that,' " she said.
That concept appealed particularly to Ashley Kingsbury, a Cal State San Marcos junior who plans to go into elementary education and wants to make the arts part of her curriculum.
"I like how Vassar is making baskets that are durable that children can touch and not worry about breaking," Kingsbury said.
Kingsbury planned to attend another of the week's special events Tuesday night -- a performance by the Intertribal Drum Group, which features local and national tribal performers.
Becky Munoa, a university alumnae and Pechanga tribe member serving as the school's tribal liaison, said students were riveted by the three-hour kick-off event with spiritual leader Robertjohn.
"Nobody got up even to use the bathroom," Munoa said.
The celebration of Indian culture continues today with Michael Wilken, who founded the Native Cultures Institute of Baja California will present a slide show and lecture on the revival of native handcraft. The presentation will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in Arts Hall, Room 111.
At noon Thursday, Bird Singers will perform at Forum Plaza.
The week's events close Friday with storytellers from the Native Talk program and with a performance by the Lake County Pomo Dancers. The back-to-back events begin at 5 p.m. in the Library Plaza.
Deborah Small, professor of visual and performing arts and a member of the committee that planned the observance of California Indian Day, said the local Indian community is integral to making the week a success.
"The folks in this region are so willing to share what they know," Small said.
For more information about California Indian Day events, contact Gloria Wallner, (760) 750-4137.
Destroyed wetlands historically used by the Luiseno Indians
Meanwhile on the other side of town... wrote on Sep 27, 2007 12:49 PM:
" The City of San Marcos approved Palomar Station though it destroys a wetlands historically used by the Luiseno Indians and the native grasses growing on the site were used to weave baskets. Numerous artifacts have been found on the site including human remains, pot shards, arrowheads, tools and others. It was a historic gathering place for this band of Indians and yet, the City approved this project to put a parking garage on top of half of the wetlands then, on the day of the hearing, the Council received documents that the developer had amended the project to pave over the other half of the site to make it into a parking lot. Shame on the City Council for their greed and insensitivity destroying what remains of Native American cultural assets so they can rake in tax money. "
Lagoon Discovery Center
