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(Photo courtesy Save the West Berkeley Shellmound / Facebook)
As thousands of shoppers took advantage of Black Friday deals last week, Indigenous Ohlone people and supporters gathered for the 28th annual Shellmound Prayer Walk in Emeryville, Calif.
The event is to bring attention to the shopping malls built on burial sites known as shellmounds.
Christina Aanestad reports.
Some 200 Ohlone activists and supporters gathered at the Berkeley shellmound for the Shellmound to Shellmound Prayer Walk, bringing attention to the Indigenous villages and burial sites from Berkeley to neighboring Emeryville, where shopping centers are built.
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Corinna Gould is tribal chair for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan.
“Bay Street (Emeryville) mall was placed on there in the late 1990’s and the city of Emeryville knew, even though they were cleaning up a brownfield at the time, that that was a sacred site and one of the largest cemeteries in the area, and yet they decided to do it anyway. We protested for many weeks, at city council and zoning meetings in Emeryville, and still they allowed that to happen. So it’s a reminder that even though there’s buildings on top, even though there’s asphalt, that these shellmounds, these burial sites, remain in our area and they’re covered by all these places.”
Gould first organized the rally nearly 30 years ago. Then, three years ago, she passed on the organizing to her daughter Deja Gould.
“We’ve started doing this walk to set prayers down, set intention down, but also to bring awareness to community, and people, that our people are still here, are still active.”
Now they march and stop at shellmound sites and villages along the way that were also developed or paved over.
Gov. Tina Kotek during a Zoom call with tribal officials on November 20, 2024.
Expansion of gaming across Oregon doesn’t seem likely, a development some tribes were hoping for.
During a recent press call with tribal officials, Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) said she appreciated visiting with all nine federally-recognized tribes within Oregon this year. However, in terms of allowing more development of gaming venues…
“My position has not changed, and we have had fruitful conversations about the importance of gaming.”
The Coquille Tribe has expressed interest in an electronic bingo facility in Medford, Oreg., which Gov. Kotek said she opposed in 2023.
Her stance continues a “one tribe, one-casino” policy that’s been the mainstay for the state.
And for tribes across the Pacific Northwest, it’s an ideal time to burn hazel.
About a dozen Native people gathered yesterday to burn hazel growth in a rural spot used for Traditional Ecological Inquiry Programs (TEIP) near Eugene, Oreg.
Jerome Viles is a Siletz Tribal member, who led the burn demonstration.
He says this practice makes for better baskets for his people.
“When it burns, it stimulates a plant to send up really straight, long shoots. So when it doesn’t burn, we’re still able to get shoots, but they’re not as straight or long, so basket weavers really want those long, straight hazel shoots to weave baby baskets and all sorts of other baskets.”
The Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program group discusses hazel burning and basketry. (Photo: Brian Bull)
Nearby, TEIP leader Joe Scott – also Siletz– pares down hazel with a hedge trimmer, as Jerome Viles’ father Drew explains.
“That’s one technique that we’ve resorted to since reservation times to tend the hazel with. It likes to put up straight shoots after coppicing, and that’s what Joe’s doing right now.”
The senior Viles appreciated his son taking his knowledge of hazel and basketry, and put it to use.
“Gives me encouragement and makes my heart a lot lighter when you see young people who are practicing their culture.”
In roughly a year and a half, the hazel will be harvested for baskets.
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