February 2012
27 posts
1 tag
“I commanded him to do so, for I hate the padres and all of you, for trespassing...”
– Toypurina, 24 year old California Indian medicine woman, when in front of the Spanish judges about her role in the resistance.
A little something I wrote in Chochenyo….
Tawwa tuuxi, mam henwe?
Hii’e, makkiš tawwa
Ishmen ‘ewe makkiš
‘Ičan tuuxi
Maato piina?
Wáaka ‘ek appa
Wáaka ‘ek paapa
‘Ican tuuxi
Xoosi tuura
Kaknu, Kaana. ‘akwet kishem tashshu?
Makin ‘inxa nee
‘Ican tuuxi
Xoosi tuura
Makim kalta.
/////////////////////
It’s hot out,...
Nothing beats a night in with the family, mak suyyakma. Mom pops out a book of Ohlone lineage, dad tells me stories, and I learned some new words… It’s crazy how once we leave the house people think we are extinct :/
Frustration.
Recently I went out with my friends. It was a fun night, we grabbed dinner in the City, grabbed a few drinks… it all started off great, until the issue of culture came up.
I was explaining to a friend of mine how it bothers me that many in San Francisco don’t know, care, or understand who the Ohlone are, or our modern day struggles.
“You know, Vince, it really...
Íyyanu ja sultáawukma mak ínnutka…
http://www.good-journeys.org/2012/01/05/dancing-for... →
Interesting article..
I had a dream last night, a flashback of a real situation of my childhood, when I was in elementary school.
I was kinda chunky, very awkward, and meek. John, my classmate, kept making fun of me and finally in my futile attempt to defend myself I screamed at him in my shaky voice in the middle of class “GET OFF MY LAND!!!!!!!!!!”
Oh damn. The class got silent. Miss Fitzgerald gave me a death...
All the hard work is paying off. The ancestors give me strength, the future gives me hope. Kaknu, guide me. Rawi.
http://www.parksconservancy.org/calendar/park-inter... →
Chochenyo Ohlone Indians Andrew Galvan and Vincent Medina, Jr. will discuss the history of the Ohlone presence at Lands End from the first inhabitants through today, with their hopes for the future.
They will also share with us current efforts to revive the Chochenyo language and knowledge of Ohlone culture through their interpretation programs at Old Mission Dolores, San Francisco.
That awkward feeling when you’re on BART and someone sits next to you and you think they’re Indian and want to converse and connect, but afraid they might not be Indian at all, and then you’ll just look crazy. Yeah…….. Feeling that right now :/
Sometimes people who aren’t California Indian shouldn’t attempt to analyze our history. This keynote isn’t very interesting — instead way too sterile, suffocated in pretension, drowned in academia. Is this what being a good scholar is? I’m falling asleep.
Day 1 of the California Mission Studies Conference, and this time there is a VERY strong Indian presence, starting today with going to Olompali to visit an ancient Coast Miwok village site, later a speech giving about current Mission-Indian relations by the Granton Rancheria of Coast Miwok, and tomorrow stories of Chumash and Ohlone resistance, past and present.
I’ll update as the...
This weekend I’m at the Mission Studies Conference at Mission San Rafael, where I will give a speech highlighting the success of the changes at Mission Dolores telling the Ohlone story. As dinner starts, my cousin tells the chief of the Acagchemem (southern California Indian group) “you guys sure are nice,” and the Chief responds “we aren’t like those Ohlone!”...
Ummmm really?!
Someone honored the Ohlone people with a……. CIGAR LOUNGE?!
You gotta be freakin kidding me. This is a joke, right?
http://www.ohlonecigarlounge.com/
Early morning blues, sunset rises East..
Red lights on 880. Concrete, concrete, concrete. I look over at Mission Peak, center of Orisom, with all but the sharp top covered in fog shimming in gold from the sunrise. The top of that mountain had prayer seats, I think of the ancients and glimpse at how it could’ve been.
The old song comes into my head:
Go home, Fog, go home/Pelican is...
3 tags
Being Ohlone
While I can’t speak for all, I speak for myself — an Ohlone person living in the 21st century..
The one who is always fighting, who has never given up. The one who lashes out daily against misconceptions that his people are extinct, that his culture is gone. The one who makes an effort to scream, shout, cry out to this world of continued existence, continued presence, a story that has no end...
Upset and annoyed how when I search for “OHLONE” on Tumblr, all that really comes up are my posts and hudreds of posts about Ohlone College, a college where I could easily say the majority of people who attend have no idea that the term “Ohlone” is more than a higher learning institution… but, FIRSTLY, the name of a people.
Words matter.
3 tags
An e-mail I received from a teacher after a fourth grade tour I gave today @ Mission Dolores. I will always do my best to tell the truth. I will always do my best to try to give my ancestors a voice.
Vincent, I cannot tell you how happy and excited I was today with the tour you led us on this morning. As I said, you were the first person and only person I have met in the mission system who spoke...
