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Costanoan Indian Research Inc (CIR) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Indian Canyon, Hollister, California. Indian Canyon is the land of the ancestors of the tribal family members, including Ann-Marie Sayers, her brother Chris, and her daughter Kanyon Sayers-Roods, who is currently the President of CIR and the Tribal Chairwoman of Indian Canyon Nation. CIR is owned by the Indian Canyon Chualar Tribe of the Costanoan-Ohlone People, also known as "Indian Canyon Nation," and serves as its nonprofit and administrative arm.

The mission of CIR is to preserve and protect the cultural heritage of the Costanoan-Ohlone People and to promote their history, traditions, and contemporary issues. This mission statement is rooted in a long and painful history of colonization, displacement, and erasure of Indigenous peoples in California.

For thousands of years, Indian Canyon has been a sacred land to the Costanoan-Ohlone People; and it is the only land that has been continuously held by the Ohlone people, the first inhabitants of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas. It has served as a safe haven for Indigenous peoples in need of land for ceremony and education, and it continues to be known as primarily an asset to North American Indigenous communities, to whom Indian Canyon is an important cultural site for pan-Indigenous ceremony and land-based cultural education and practice; however, from the 1980s up to present day, the land has been available to non-indigenous people since the 1980s, being of service to local communities educating themselves on Costanoan Ohlone history and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, including K-12 students who visit Indian Canyon through field trips, and student researchers who intern with the Costanoan Indian Research, and anyone whose spirit draws them there for ceremony.

In order to provide a place for Indigenous and non-indigenous people who need access to land for ceremony, Indian Canyon hosts over ten sweat lodges, two beautiful arbors area for gatherings, and offers a round house area (site for our future traditional Village House) for special events. In addition to offering 30-40 areas for individual prayer and ceremony, Indian Canyon is also the home of Costanoan Indian Research, Inc. (“CIR” est. 1985) a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization owned and held by the Indian Canyon Chualar Tribe of the Costanoan-Ohlone People (aka Indian Canyon Nation), which provides research and exchange opportunities for students throughout Northern California.

The history of the Costanoan-Ohlone People is one of resilience, resistance, and survival in the face of immense adversity. For centuries, they lived in harmony with the land, practicing sustainable agriculture, hunting, and fishing. But with the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the late 1700s, everything changed.

The Spanish brought with them disease, violence, and forced labor, devastating the Costanoan-Ohlone communities. They forced the people to convert to Christianity, destroy their cultural artifacts and practices, and work on the missions as laborers. The Spanish destroyed traditional villages and forced the people to live in the missions, where they were subjected to abuse and mistreatment.

Even after the Mexican government took control of California in 1821, the oppression of the Indigenous people continued. Land grants were given to white settlers, and the Costanoan-Ohlone people were forced off their ancestral lands. The California Gold Rush of 1849 further disrupted their lives, as thousands of settlers poured into the state, taking over more and more land.

Despite all of this, the Costanoan-Ohlone People refused to give up their culture, their traditions, and their connection to the land. They continued to practice their ceremonies in secret, passing down their knowledge and stories from generation to generation.

The following italicized words were written by Ann-Marie Sayers in 2014:

My personal contribution to the continuation and revitalization of the Ohlone culture is the ability to share the land, particularly for the Ohlone descendants and all Native people from all over. They can feel the ancestral presence when they come into Indian Canyon. Just that connection to me is a reason for living. I hear a lot of Ohlone people talk about it, but I live it. I’m right here. I’m in the sweat lodges. I’m in the ceremonies. I love it. Living in the country where you’re off the grid and have to cut your wood to keep warm, is not the easiest thing in the world, although it is one of the richest ways to live.

The Costanoan Ohlone people, who extend from San Francisco down to Big Sur, are not recognized tribally, but they are federally recognized as individual Indians. Those descendants whose ancestors filled out a special California Indian census in 1928 were assigned a roll number and their descendants until 1972 were given a number. In 1851 and 1852, there were 18 treaties that were signed between the government and the California Indians. Those treaties were never ratified; they just disappeared. They could not push Indians further west, like they did in the rest of the country. In addition to that, there was too much natural resource, gold being one of the main items. Everyone started coming west and the Indians were in the way. Then the large railroads came in. There were four main areas where they were going to put the Indians on reservations, but those areas happened to have been too valuable and so the government just decided not to ratify the treaties. They were not located until 1904 or 1905. Then it was, “Oh my God, the Indians still own the state of California!” It took from that point in time until 1928 to come up with a workable formula to deal with this situation. If the Indians in California who were living in California in 1928 could prove that their ancestors were living here in 1851/1852, then they were assigned a roll number. They were the recipients of the California Land Claims Settlement which allotted forty-one cents an acre which they believed was the value in 1851. It took from then until 1950 to distribute when there was a $150 of interest that had accumulated. In 1972 I believe there was $668 distributed to the descendants. My great-grandfather and my great-grandmother, who were living in 1928, filled out this questionnaire. My great-grandfather had to have a witness verify that what he said was true and that they knew him. He signed his name with a thumb print and an X. In 1934, the government created the IRA, the Indian Reorganization Act. The government said to all the different groups of Indians in California, “This is how you have to form your tribe or your rancheria. We need the mes and the number of people who are receiving services from us. You need to have membership criteria and how you formulated that membership for your tribe.” We’ve always been here in Indian Canyon since man started walking on the earth. We have the allodial title to this area and that’s why the ancestral spirits are still here and why the honoring ceremony took place here. The allodial title is pre-feudal; it’s before fee-simple deed which you probably have on your property. It’s the connection you have with the earth where you’ve always been from, generation after generation, century after century. Everyone has their creation story -- just like the Bible is a creation story. Every creation story I’ve ever heard is equally valid. We are where we’ve always been, here in Indian Canyon. I love being where I’ve always been from – right here in this canyon. You can have your Big Bang theory or your migration over the Bering Strait theory, but that’s exactly what it is: theory. I have my theory too. At the entrance -- not on our property, but where the vineyard is located, is the original village site that goes back for tens of thousands of years. When Ken Gimelli purchased the vineyard property, he came across a Native American burial when one of his workers plowed the area. We had the sheriff come out, which is what you do by law. You have to stop all construction. We had Allison Galloway, a forensic anthropologist from UCSC, determine that this individual was a twelve year-old Native boy. We had the county archaeologist record it with Sonoma State. The archaeological site record has a permanent trinomial: CA-SBN-20, but there has been no dig. We reinterred the remains ceremonially very close to where it was unearthed. There was no destructive analysis. In the 1940’s when they were originally disking the area to plant grapes, Jesus Salcido said, “It would be so frustrating because I would go ten feet on the tractor and come across another mortar. I’d have to get off the tractor, move it out of the way, and then go another five feet and me across another mortar!” According to Frank Salano, between both of them, they removed more than one hundred mortars and pestles, just in that area right there. My brother and I inherited the land that my mother owned who inherited it from her grandfather, my great-grandfather, Sebastian Garcia. His ancestors – his mother and his grandmother and her grandmother lived on this very site. My brother and I inherited his trust allotment that he received from President Taft in 1911. Then when I wanted to build on this site right here [indicating the cabin in Indian Canyon where she lives], because this is where he had his home and his grandmother and her grandmother had their homes. A mile away is the recorded site at the entrance of the canyon that goes back 4200 years. I say it goes back much further. When my brother and I inherited the original trust allotment, I had it surveyed. The southern boundary is three hundred feet from here. Where I want to build is not on the inherited land; it fell under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. At the time I had the money to purchase it. I went up to the Bureau of Land Management office right outside Sacramento. They said, “Right now we are not having any public auction for any Bureau of Land Management land.” This was November 1980. I said, “How about the Indian Allotment Act of 1887?”1 In 1911 that was what my great-grandfather used to establish claim to the land in Indian Canyon as ‘an individual trust allotment’ of almost 160 acres. They said, “Ann Marie, that is a hundred year old act. It is almost impossible to meet the requirements. You have to show that you can generate revenue enough to live on and you have to live on the property exclusive of a home elsewhere. You have to do grazing without irrigation.” I worked with the Soil Conservation Service to see what we could do that this land could support. That is when we came up with West African pygmy goats. Then I had to build a home which is the log cabin I now live in. It took eight years of jumping through hoops. This allowed me to establish claim to the land adjacent to the iginal trust allotment. In 1988 I got the trust patent title for this property which consists of 123 acres. This is the land my current cabin rests on and the original site of my great-grandfather’s cabin and of the cabins of my people for many generations back. It is an individual trust allotment, which is considered ‘Indian Country’. “The term ‘Indian Country’ has been used in many senses. Broadly speaking, it is all the land within an Indian reservation and any other land which has a special relation to Indians and their government. As a general rule, Indian Country is controlled by tribal and federal law as opposed to state law.” This is from The Rights of Indians and Tribes, Stephen L. Pevar. We’ve opened up my great-grandfather’s trust allotment to all indigenous people who are in need of traditional lands for ceremony. We have seven sweat lodges here. We have between thirty to forty different sites where individuals can come for their ‘hamblechiya’ or vision/nature quest where they can commune with nature without being disturbed by anyone outside the natural life. We have workshops that take place here. For the last eighteen years (in 2014; today in 2023, it’s now been twenty-seven years) we’ve put on the Storytelling Event where people have the opportunity to hear Native stories told by Native people. We have Bear Dances, naming ceremonies, crossing-over ceremonies. That is why we are here.

The following italicized words were written by Kanyon Sayers-Roods in 2014:

When I was younger I always knew I was Native because my mother made it clear about our heritage and kept me included in ceremonies, going to sweat lodges, community gatherings, big meals, pow-wows, because that is the Native circuit. Always learning and always being able to observe it, I was very included in my Native upbringing. A Native living on the land in a log cabin with a wood-burning stove, I was deprived of all the social norms that everyone else learned to deal with – like TV or anything of that nature. I was always behind when it came to my peers when I was growing up. I was always stricken with slight jealousy, but at the same time, I had a huge knowledge of everything else around me. My baby sitter was a pocket knife, my dog, and a hike all day and I would come home before dark. I learned about the world really young. I learned how to breed red-legged frogs and tree frogs before I even knew what the term ‘breed’ meant. I knew their whole life-cycle. I didn’t even know that the Monarch is our state butterfly, but I got to hold a Monarch butterfly coming out of its cocoon. It crawled on my hand. I got to pet his wings before the first layer turned into fine powder. The wings were soft as silk. I waited for its wings to dry and he flew off. I got to see amazing things in my youth. I surpassed kids in 4H or Boy Scouts. Maybe they were great at tying knots, but I sure could survive out in the wilderness better than they could. Also, just connecting with nature – understanding animals’ body language, understanding the weather, trees – everything around me. You mess with something there is a karmic or even domino effect that happens. When I was about six or seven I was going to school and having a conversation with another child, now a friend, but I was just barely getting to know him when I was younger. I shared with him that I was Native American and he said, ‘If you’re Indian, you’re dead, because all Indians are ad!’ I came home crying. Mom tickled me and said, ‘Well, you’re laughing. You’re not dead. I’m not dead. I know who I am. You know who you are.’ Later on she had a conversation with that kid’s parents. He denied me my own heritage just because he thought that. I’ve always accepted myself being Native American. Also, I’m a mutt. My dad is a Euro-mutt. He is predominately Irish. I said, ‘Oh great, I’m a quadruple-suppressed minority!’ (Being a Native, Irish, Woman, and Two-Spirited individual.) I’ve always shared with other individuals about my Native pride. I have respect for my grandmother because I’ve always heard stories about her. She was a strong woman. I hear from my mom’s friends that I look like her. She held this land. Even though Grandma may have gone to a boarding school and assimilated into a lot of forced mannerisms and a Eurocentric perspective doing her daily routine, she still knew who she was. She was a Native of this land, and always ever reminding my mother that she was a Native and affirming everything that she was able to do. My Mom lived her life and came home and took care of Indian Canyon. My Grandma always took care of Indian Canyon. What I’m planning to do is take care of Indian Canyon and continue the education. CULTURAL REVITALIZATION Oral traditions are definitely important because not a lot of what we have is written down. We have bits of information that has been documented, but sometimes it hasn’t been documented accurately. In the past translators may have stumbled. We need to constantly educate our youth about what has been done in the past, because the youth are the future. Languages and ceremonies are also areas that keep our culture alive. If we have all the elders talking and just being enriched in culture, and not sharing it with the youth, when the elders pass, where did it go? I just say focus on youth and on the oral traditions that need to be shared with more youth – songs and ceremonies and the language. There have been many songs I’ve heard, as well as a few that I have actually created and sang. They came to me, so to speak. When they came to me, I shared them with everyone else ound me, because it was done in a good way and with the fundamentals of what language I was able to understand and speak. Our language is not fully intact. We don’t have any solid Native speakers living today. We have dictionaries. We have pieces. We have some pieces of ceremonies that can be translated. We can translate an enormous amount of words, but just keeping the dialect strong with the sentence structure, I’m not familiar with. The oral tradition of songs and sharing more of the language keeps a realization that your family was from here, the people of the land were established here. My family, all of my ancestors already had means of communicating. Just because you are colonialized and English is the dominant tongue, doesn’t mean that you are any less an entity because you may still be here, but what is really here that is you? With the dominant language overcoming not just the way we speak, but the way we interpret and represent things, we tend to allow that to be the norm. I recently read an article, ‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue’, by Gloria Anzaldua, where she discussed oppressing a language suppresses the being. She said something along the lines of a language which they can connect their identity to, one capable of communicating the realities and values true to themselves - a language with terms that are neither one language or the other, but both. I have observed a few people I know who are Native, but they are not sure what kind of Native, or they are not sure of their language. Being denied that, or just not having access actually causes a little bit of conflict within someone’s esteem. That connection is definitely important. Oral tradition helps that, because that is how we learn. We share stories. Oral tradition is what keeps the community together. I know some words and quite a few songs. I intend to learn more. In one of my classes I took on an assignment where I had to be altruistic and needed to share something with the larger community. I wanted to share our language. With my skills being strong in art, I’ve been working on a little art book that we could sell at the Storytelling which would have our Ohlone words to share with other people. It developed into a little coloring book that had my artwork and another young Ohlone dancer’s artwork. She has been adopted into the Ohlone clan, Amah Ka Tura a dance group for the Pajaro Valley Ohlone Indian Council. She always announces that she has been adopted into the Ohlone clan. She dances with that group and helps the youth with their regalia. By presenting her artwork and mine in a coloring book, I’m sharing little pieces of our language, just individual words. Now I have an Indian Canyon coloring book, which shares the Native plants and animals that are in the area. I’ve been working on this project for a while now. I presented this coloring book at our July 2014 Storytelling Gathering. This is a grassroots effort, so when family and friends want a copy, the straight-forward method of contacting me and exchanging information can get them a copy – either in person or via email: www.indiancanyonlife.org/ksr. I stress the importance of elders sharing with the youth. If we weren’t colonialized and forced into Missions, discouraged to practice our song/dances/traditions, killed just for being indigenous in the 1800’s and 1900’s, we would have more elders available sharing the culture and history with the youth. Had the youth not been assimilated and forced to not speak their language and forced to cut ties, we would have more Native speakers. I most definitely want to learn the language as it opens the doors for more songs, for more ceremonies to be understood, for more prayers, and just a better, deeper understanding of what is going on around me as well as how my elders and my ancestors interpreted everything around them. I’m ever striving to continue my education and then also continue to teach individuals. I need to learn more to keep our ceremonies and songs intact. My grandmother says, ‘Honor the past to shape the future.’ By honoring the past, continuing my education, always respecting my elders and learning from them, I can gain more knowledge and then be able to share that knowledge with our youth -- sharing life experiences, Native songs, Native ceremonies, always king in Native events and ceremonies and just being with other individuals who are proud and know that we are all still here. As my mother and grandmother say, ‘When ceremony and dancing stop, so does the earth.’ I do believe that. By just continuing on and doing everything in a good way and always sharing what I know, as well as learning more, is my goal. I’m always educating myself so I can wear many hats to fit into numerous scenarios, but I'm also seeing myself as a mediator to help convey messages. I'm always communicating with different parties who can't seem to hear the message between themselves. Putting me right in the middle, I know the gist of what one party is saying to another between the worlds that I walk in. My mom lives traditionally on the land, off the grid. I have many friends that have been urbanized. Some things are a matter of perspective that even in conversations are lost in translation. On a simple note, we leave our keys in our car for emergencies. Some people have been so urbanized, and for a good reason living in the city, they can't do that. But the concept of them being so insecure to not want to do that in a place that we have assured is safe, that they cannot let go of that, is where they may get lost in translation. Something so obvious to my mom isn't clear to them. Or, maybe due to their experiences, it's very clear to them that they will never make that mistake again. It's not clear to my mom that their experience has led them to need to walk that path, and it's not clear to them the path she's walking. As a mediator, a middle person, I can convey messages. As an artist I'm learning all forms of art -- from fine arts to traditional Native craft to contemporary art to computer media. Art is a powerful message. If you actually look at the spelling of "Earth", you take the E and you take the H, what is left? Art. I see myself as someone who helps convey a message, be it a message of what needs to happen, or a message of what I've experienced, to just ever learning my role, and to help take care of Indian Canyon, which has been a role expected of me, and my choice of being dedicated to.

There are so many things I want to do because I need to make Indian Canyon selfsustainable and by doing that, I then could open the doors for more students to visit and learn about the land, and to house other Natives to visit or share their culture. Not taking a tourist route, but making it know that Indian Canyon is here. Maybe by having horses where people could go on a nature ride and learn Native plants of the area, having them come to a family meal, including them in the dance. So many people have shared that a pow-wow was their first experience learning about Natives. What I love is when people visit Bear Dances because Bear Dances are more inclusive and more intimate when it comes to everyone partaking in it. Pow-wows are great because you get to observe amazing cultures, observe amazing dances and songs, but it is still presented in a manner that is almost like a circus. You get to see their talents and then they are gone. When someone is included in a smaller ceremony or a more intimate group and they actually get to dance in front of the fire or sing with everybody, they partake in something that they’ve never experienced. At the end they feel this sense of connection and being part of something that is phenomenal. By me continuing my education and hopefully ever striving to help Indian Canyon, I will be able facilitate opening doors to ways the community can come together, and be exposed to another perspective. They could learn positive things. They may have a connection who can help us to grow. They may know somebody who knows somebody who may have a bulldozer, or someone who wants to invest in a green self-sustainable building off the grid! You influence someone’s life in a good way and you could always move forward in a good way. I became a volunteer staff member of the San Juan Star, the free newspaper from San Juan Bautista. They are extraordinarily excited and grateful that they have a local who is also willing to share the Native perspective. They know that their amazing little historically rich town is lacking in cultural and historical accuracy when it comes to local Natives. They have a ton of history on what happened in the mission -- when the mission was built, the people who came, the amazing history, he historical landmarks that have fallen, the historical figures who have visited, the occurrences and developments, but they don't have that much history from the viewpoint of the people who were there before, and the people who are still there after. Sometimes a new perspective is great, a new lens, and a new way of seeing things. Their town is beautiful. They know what they know, and they would like to know more, because it's something that fascinates them. I'm very happy to be in a position to help them. I get to write a Native Voice column. I have so many ideas for it. I get to comment on occurrences, everything that pertains to San Juan Bautista, for the locals, by the locals, for that reason. Everything is focused on San Juan, but Indian Canyon is not even 18 miles away, and the Natives who were there, traveled to Indian Canyon, because they came here for a safe haven. I get to share my perspectives on things that maybe they don't see in a certain fashion. I can share with them that something they're putting on display could be seen as offensive to some Natives. They will be curious as to why, and I'll be able to explain. If it was an object that was sacred to us, then why that's offensive to us. I'm not saying what needs or is supposed to happen. I'm just sharing my perspective. I'm not trying to take any action. Of course I'm always trying to encourage people to support Indian Canyon; I'll always do that, but in it, I can share the Native perspective. Also in the column, like maybe every couple of months, I’ll have a portion saying, ‘Ask a Native’. If I get repetitive questions from readers, I'm definitely going to answer that. I will constantly do my research to make sure I give a valid answer. They will be educated about a question either someone was scared to ask a Native, or felt too shy to. They have the anonymity of not having their name there. I've written two articles in a very fast fashion. One is about the Peace and Dignity runners, running through Indian Canyon through San Juan to Watsonville. I shared it from the local standpoint. Then I wrote an introductory article to my column, ‘Native Voice’. That is a huge duction about everything: about Ohlone territory, about my experiences, and then about me as a person becoming a member of the San Juan Star – not being a journalist for the position. I try to do everything in a good way. Going about things in a way that causes the least amount of ripples. Everything I do has certain thoughts behind it, that are of my personality. My personality is the coyote. Coyote is known to be a trickster, is known to be a wily individual. I participate in ceremonies. I enjoy singing our traditional songs, be it in ceremony, with friends, without friends or alone, in any way or context, because it's what I know. Sometimes it's just soothing. Respecting nature is just an innate part of general actions that I've always known, more of a second nature rather than a protocol to live by. By doing that, I have a ritualistic sense when I do things in my life. When I see road kill, I may not be able to stop and honor it with tobacco, but a positive thought goes out, a painful thought initially, for the loss of a life that would have occurred so suddenly and so painfully, but also just a saddened feeling that another life has passed. Things that I watch, things that I observe, things that I feel, the way I make my choices, are all in a sense everything that I've learned in my life. It may not be ritualistic; it may not be something of ceremony. Well, what is ceremony? Anything is ceremony; the way one lives could be ceremony. Just how my mother explained, things that she naturally did, that weren't exactly officially ceremony, were ceremony. An elder that I know wakes up every morning and offers tobacco to the day, thanking to be here, to have another day, and for the occurrences of the day to be something of value, be it desirable or undesirable. He could be glad for whatever occurrence that one must observe in life; it happens the way it's meant to happen. To honor the day, to thank Creator, to thank Mother Earth, to thank oneself that you're here another day, that in itself is a ceremony, but it's not like I am going to conduct a ceremony, and this is the way it must be conducted, and for everybody around me I am doing a ceremony. It's not official like what a lot of the public has observed ceremony to be. A lot of eople have seen ceremony being conducted as we go back in the past, dress in our regalia, speak the language our ancestors have spoken, do things in that manner. But not all ceremonies are like that. Everyday occurrences can be ceremonies that are treated as such. That's how I live, and that's how I do things in life, not fully ceremonial, but very ceremonial. FUTURE VISION I would like to see a stronger development of sustainability for Indian Canyon, a means of survival without needing to constantly pull out of my own pocket, or rely on other things. We're always developing. We are way better off today than we were ten years ago, and in ten years we'll be so much better. Self-sustainability. If we want to host indigenous people, in two days, we have the means to. We have more solar. We have maybe another pump, a water resource to provide showers. We have a kitchen and a community-gathering center so we can host indigenous people nights. We may be able to conduct workshops to do this, or grants, or just continue educating people. Opening up for ceremony, opening up for education so when we have field trips, we can host them in a nice fashion, showing that we're living our traditional ways, showing that we can live off the grid comfortably in a contemporary fashion, and we are succeeding. Self-sustainability is a focal point of mine. Just because we are honoring our ancestors and revitalizing our culture doesn't mean we have to stay stuck in the past. Everyone always focuses on how it was, how it's meant to be, and how it's supposed to be. Today we're honoring our ancestors and doing things the way they used to. But today we need to be making our own contemporary rituals and ceremonies so 50 years, 100 years in the future, they don't look back and say, ‘What were they doing then besides trying to copy their elders?’ Because our elders were just doing things in normal fashion. It was their everyday life. Their ceremonies were honoring the experience of life. They were thankful for the weather, for the blessings of life, and the blessings of death, and the songs honoring those occurrences, honoring 190 what happens with us as human beings. We're always trying to look at the past to honor that. We are honoring our ancestors, but we also have to shape our future so we have to stay present. That also ties into the statement my grandmother said, ‘Honor the past to shape the future.’ We need to come together and stop struggling over areas that we perceive separate us. We need to realize we are all related; we are all of the tribe; we are all of the territory; we are all family. We shouldn't fight amongst each other. We should fight stronger organizations that are denying us our truth or our reality. We are recognizing ourselves. We don't need anybody else to say, ‘You are’ or ‘You are not’. We need to come together as a family, and stop being frustrated because we are trying to deny each other. That's one little frustration that I know the youth have: ‘Why does my dad or my grandpa not like this person?’ or ‘Why don't these elders get along?’ That's always a question amongst the youth. It's a conversation that desperately needs to happen among the youth, and among the youth and the family. Another way we could move forward: the media that surround us today is so much better. I can understand how certain elders, due to experiences, may have had a negative interpretation of video or film, because maybe the wrong people were behind the camera, and manipulated words, statements, quotes without context to not portray us the way we are. Many elders are jaded by that. But with today's media, we have more control. We don't have to work with somebody who has an agenda. Media is now at our fingertips. I am a strong advocate of social media. I am always online, doing either work related projects or leisure time, or promoting events, promoting Indian Canyon. Youth are always learning new things, and we can do more. We can promote who we are, share that we are still here, share our rich cultural history, our heritage, our footprint, and share with the world that we are always revitalizing. 191 We are culturally revitalizing everything. We are not just in history books. We still live our way. We know where we came from, and honor our ancestors. We need to share that with more people, because so many people think most Indians live in teepees, and fit into certain stereotypes. With today's media, we can take charge of that and say, ‘Hey! That's not true.’ We can debunk the myths. We can recreate our songs and dances and documents. Some elders are against that; some are for it. I see youth coming together. We can all have conversations on how to go about that in a good way, how to go about that in a way that will not disrespect our elders, in a way that will not disrespect the way that we have always known, because we are strong and dedicated to our heritage of being active in oral history. We learn more communicating with each other. We learn more from our elders, telling stories, sharing experiences. There is a large detachment when it is recorded or videotaped, but it still can reach and educate so many. Conversations need to occur on how to do it the right way. Maybe the recordings never leave the tribe. I'm fine with that. If an elder dies, it would have been amazing to have quite a few interviews and for him to share all the songs he knows, but he may not want that information to be shared with the general population. But he definitely would want that to be shared with his grandkids, and his great- grandkids, and his great- great- great grandkids. Some youth choose to walk another path from their family, and so they're physically not there to share that with their kids, but their kids will want to know. Maybe their elders passed. To have documentation is definitely important, but we have to have a conversation about how to go about that so we can go forward. The youth are coming together, and still need to come together in other areas to find out about our ancestors. We already know it's meant for us to honor our ancestors, to do things in a good way, and continue what we already know. We can always evolve with current time to do that, and still stay honorable to our roots. My vision for the future is coming together, uniting together, not allowing politics of certain matters to separate us, to realize that we are all family and we are all still here. When we are 192 together, we are listened to. We come together and realize that we have a larger family. We come together and share our family history. We share our current ceremonies. We share our past knowledge so then learn more. There is a saying, ‘It takes a tribe to raise a child.’ All of us learn together and thrive together, continuing going forward knowing we are still here and honoring our past to shape our futures is the most beneficial thing we can do. Coinciding with Mother Earth rather than against her. We need to come back together and realize that we were better off in the past and what colonization and assimilation have done to us. Federal Recognition ~ To be federally recognized is a daunting task. The Ohlone should pursue it as one giant family. I understand that there are a few groups that are seeking federal recognition. An individual within that group wants to be in charge – that is when splinter groups happen. Someone is denying someone else’s history that something happened, or someone wants to be in charge. But if we were to approach it as a huge family, we would all be able to have recognition. My frustration is why do we need to do this? Why do we need to go to some entity to get the OK in their eyes that we are real, that we are legitimate, that we were the people of the land, and we’re the next generation of the ancestors who were inevitably slaughtered and pushed under the rug? Why do we need to go to them to gain recognition in their eyes? I know I’m Native. I know so many family and friends are Native. I know Native-at-heart individuals who don’t have the genetics to follow up on that. I see Natives who have been assimilated and don’t have that much pride within them. I’m not saying they are not Native, but Native-at-heart they seem to lack. I don’t like the concept of needing to seek recognition, but at the same time I’d like to have that recognition because there are burials that are sitting in steel boxes at UC Berkeley and other colleges and in government facilities, burials that were dug up before they were established. There wasn’t any protocol about those burials. Some of them could have been just tossed and allowed to 193 decompose in a different rude manner, like digging up someone’s grandparents. Some of them are sitting in boxes because no one is there to claim them and re-inter them into the ground ceremonially. By gaining that federal recognition a few things are open to us: to re-inter burials that have been unearthed, to share our history and to just be seen. That is the terrible part. I don’t like that concept, but it opens doors too. Significance of a Land Base ~ Being people of this land, communing with nature, living off the land, understanding the cycle of our Mother is key to our survival as peoples. Every aspect of our ceremonies, gatherings, songs is focused around the earth and our relation to our Mother and everything around us. Songs honoring the animals, the plants, the relations we share with one another – our thankfulness to how they provide for us. I find it important that Ohlone people have land that we could call ours. The government, society and people need to see us as a living, surviving people, and it is a bit more recognizable in ‘others’ eyes as substantial or official, when they see indigenous people with their own land. As if we need

others’ approval to just be us! With a land base we can gather and have ceremony. We can share with the community by having community gatherings. We can be educators for the public about current indigenous issues, about truth in history – writing history in a better way than the recent track record. Role of the Next Generation ~ I’m always focusing on new and traditional ways that I can interest my and younger generations to become more involved with our culture, traditions, communal gatherings. With today’s mainstream society shaping our youth, some aspects of our culture seem plain or boring to them. What is beautiful though, some of our youth become interested and passionate when they have a true moment to observe the larger picture, like that ‘Ah-hah! Moment’, where they realize that being indigenous to their local territory and that their families are active in community is truly a unique 194 occurrence. Sometimes when I observe other cultures and mainstream Americans, they seem detached from their roots, and seeking something to fill that void. As to the youth and interacting with community, I don’t believe there is a cure-all answer. We are all different beings with similarities or overlapping commonalities. To find a way to get, let’s say, my female middle school cousin versus my maturing high school nephew to get more involved with our cultural community would be different. Sometimes it takes their peers from other perspectives to generate interest or curiosity. Or sometimes the sense of community, where family and relations can relate on another level and understand certain feelings/emotions/reactions at any given point – such as an overwhelming sense of warmth on a cold evening during a special ceremony when everyone comes together. I always focus on encouraging these younger generations to participate in these gatherings because I know it’s important to continue the songs, the traditions, the passion. This next generation is the future. Role of Public Schools Regarding the Teaching of Ohlone Culture and History ~ I’ve been blessed to have the mother I have because had I just relied on the public education that I’ve been given, I probably wouldn’t know anything about Native Americans, besides that there were Natives that the Spaniards took over. They used bows and arrows, and these local Natives lived in tule huts and hunted deer. Natives on the Plains lived in teepees and hunted buffalo. Maybe a little bit about the Missions. San Juan Bautista Mission doesn’t present much information about the local Natives. They have a tiny, tiny, tiny dark room that has a few baskets that someone told me weren’t even from this area. I have no doubt that there are thousands of Natives who are buried along the Mission who are not being acknowledged. They weren’t even given credit that they helped build the Mission. They didn’t want to help build it; they were told to build it. Truth in history is very important. To incorporate it into the classroom would be almost an entire course, and to assimilate it into the history books as young as possible, like applied knowledge 195 similar to how children are encouraged to build missions in 4th grade. Let them learn hands on, not just theorize and recite history from the books. To the younger, younger generation you share with them that there were Natives on this land, and not all of them had that headband and rainbow war bonnet and wore the Pocahontas brown dress. Just always starting the honesty young. The history of this land didn’t start with Columbus. When they are younger, you just share some basics. They lived with the land and nature; they didn’t over-populate. When they get older tell them how they were enslaved in the Missions, how they were denied their culture, how they had to go to boarding schools, and how they couldn’t even communicate with their families. They were taken to boarding schools, told to speak English. Parents couldn’t understand English so they had a family member speaking an entirely different language, so how can oral traditions be shared? The older you get, the more can be shared and the more history you will learn. Truth in history. No sugar-coating it. No saying, ‘There were Natives here, then we took over and now we have cell phones and TV and cities!’ As if Natives were myths like dragons or an extinct entity. Learning from the Ohlone Experience ~ In the past our ancestors always lived off the land. It seems like this giant thing that is happening that everyone is going green. It is really sad that people have barely come to realize this now. In the past they could have nipped it in the bud before industrialization and consumerism took over everything. Grandmothers used to tell their kids only take what is needed. Everyone seems to take more than what is needed, because they are so scared that they might not have it at the end. So you take a few more handfuls. Like at a buffet only take what you need because you are only going to eat so much, but people always add on a bit more. The same happens when it comes to producing cattle. More cattle are produced in a small area to provide for all these people, but you are damaging the land; you are damaging the cattle who are trying to live because you are producing them in an unnatural environment, therefore more get sick. We don’t need to take as much as we are really 196 taking. Looking back in history Natives lived off the land and respected the earth they were on and respected their environment and actually coincided with Mother Earth. We thank every life entity. We thank the plants for providing a vegetable or a beautiful flower or a ceremonial or healing herb. It is not there to be taken for granted. Do not damage Mother Earth. That is how they lived off the land because they knew that they were borrowing it from their kids. They wanted to leave it beautiful and pristine and share their knowledge with their kids so their kids could do the same exact thing. It may seem long in our own little view, but in the concept of this entire planet, we live a very short life. Our ancestors knew how to live with it. They accepted the births and the deaths that came, that our bodies were meant to go back into this earth when complete. They accepted how they lived on this earth in a good way because life is short. REFLECTION Living in Two Worlds ~ Only now and then it is a challenge being comfortable sharing means of communication from one world to the next. The norms are different. The way you share yourself is different because in every day society, you act a certain way, but when it comes to a gathering for a ceremony or with family there is an expected way to act out of respect, or just being yourself rather than in everyday society fitting into what society wants you to be. The only wall I ever feel, jumping over that fence, is the communication. Being in both worlds is a wonderful thing, because I am getting numerous perspectives so I’m able to observe things in many ways and learn to understand more about what is going on around me. There is definitely a communication barrier when it comes to different worlds, different perspectives. For example, whenever a gathering of Natives has a meal planned, everyone is partaking and helping in some way or another. Also, elders are always respected. Elders are meant to have the food first. After a meal has been prepared usually an elder, who is either honored, 197 respected or a medicine individual or someone who may even speak the language, would be requested to take the lead. After the food is prepared and everyone is seated at the table a plate goes around and pieces of every bit of the meal are put onto that plate because we are sharing it with the spirits who will partake of the meal with us. We make that plate first. Any individual ceremony they know would be shared into that spirit plate, given to the spirits. After the plate is full an elder will speak over the food and give thanks for the food being here, the individuals who process and cook the food, all the people who made it here to this table, and all those who did not get a chance to make it to the table. After the ceremony is done, a youth or an individual at the table will take the spirit plate out into usually a nature area or even the ceremonial fire. If in town, it would be by a tree, and then given to the spirits. Sometimes the spirits may be crossed to another world, or sometimes the spirit animals that are here every day that we see, get to share this with us because they are a part of Mother Earth and we are sharing it back. They get to eat and then we come in and the elders get their plates first, and then we all enjoy a meal as a group. Conversation, laughter, stories – everything happens at a meal – good times. In everyday society, maybe there is Grace spoken, but there isn’t a set norm that elders eat first, that it is a slow and respected process of just enjoying each other; it isn’t just grabbing the food and go in front of the TV. It is a family event so everyone is helping everyone. Everything is communal. Who is Native American/Indian? If you were born in the Americas, you could be considered Native American, but in the history books it is America because of Columbus. The way I see Native: you are true to where it is you are standing on Mother Earth. The way you connect with Mother Earth is what helps someone be a true Native -- coinciding with Mother Earth and the life force around you. Native Americans have this understanding with the earth. I’m not saying we’re better than anyone; I’m just trying to 198 compare observations. I’ve observed Natives living with Earth and communicating with animals and just knowing that every life on this earth is important and has a spirit and is an entity

we can always learn from, and by respecting it we are living in this world in a good way. Being Native could be genetic, that you come from someone who has been on this particular piece of land for a super-long time or like some people say ‘going Native’. If someone is ‘going Native’, that definition of that little bit of stereotype would be that they were assimilating into where they are at. They are going into that environment and becoming part of it and understanding and communicating with it. ‘Going Native’ is actually probably doing the right thing. It was meant to be a racial slur – an individual getting assimilated into the Natives. I know a few Cherokees who were adopted and lived that life. They were adopted but they are still considered Cherokee. I truly love that idea, that even though your genetics don’t say you are Native American of the Americas before colonization, doesn’t mean you are not Native. I do believe it is just how one connects with their environment; ideally it would be Mother Earth, not an urban environment. Earth is the body; fire is the spirit; air is the breath and water is the blood. To realize that you are related to that, to realize that that is another entity that is fully living and thriving around us gives you a perspective that you are tiny and insignificant, but you still have meaning because everything that has life has meaning. Knowing that Mother Earth is alive, knowing that the plant out there seems to ever grow, change colors, produce amazing flowers or beautiful leaves, to realize that it is alive, gives another perspective that everything around you is thriving. To actually identify with that would be Native in my eyes. Those who take it for granted, and those who don’t identify it as alive, that it is something that is there for them, or something that they can take advantage of, or something that doesn’t mean anything to them, have a skewed perspective in life that I don’t appreciate. 199 Reconciliation between the Ohlone and the Larger Society ~ Reconciliation is always a ‘hopeful’, and there are instances that I believe I’ve seen it: true compassion for other people, listening and learning from our Ohlone bands, walking on sharing the truth they’ve learned, and encouraging others they come in contact with to do the same. On a larger scale, reconciliation toward Ohlone peoples feels like a slow process, be it with the government, mainstream education, or the society’s ‘cultural norm’ – by that I mean people of the Bay Area don’t seem interested in knowing the roots of their home. When I interact with people of other nations/countries, they are more interested in learning about the roots of different territories, especially the areas they visit. They conduct themselves with what I call ‘Indigenous Protocol’, by being respectful and requesting permission to share songs, visit sacred sites, or be welcomed to the land by the indigenous peoples. This is something that seems so bizarre to today’s mainstream culture. I am hopeful and upset. Reconciliation is a process that is at the core of our actions, and until we all know ourselves, our community, and the truth in history, this reconciliation between the Ohlone and society will be slow. Proud to be Ohlone ~ I am proud because I’m lucky enough to live on the land where my ancestors lived. I know a few Natives who have been relocated. I understand connecting with one’s home site, knowing that our grandparents or great-great grandparents once lived off this land, hiked this same land, ate the same vegetation or the same animals -- just to be familiar with what we know our family has always shared is an amazing thing. I’m proud to be Native here right now on this land. I appreciate this chance I’ve been given: to realize I’m Ohlone; to realize that I’m on the land that my great-great grandparents survived off of and to be who I am today at this opportunity because there are so many things that I have the potential to do, that this world has made available to me because 200 technology is ever-booming. I can always utilize different means of art to present my story, different means of sharing with other youth because technology will allow me to talk to somebody across the globe. I’m just proud because of who I am, where I am.

Indian Canyon once again became a sanctuary during the Gold Rush, when the US government allocated $1.7 million towards the removal of California Indigenous peoples, paid out in $5 a head and $0.50 a scalp, leading to the loss of 80% of California Native communities. It was towards the later end of this period that Kanyon Sayers-Roods’ ancestor was able to receive title to an allotment of the Indian Canyon land under the 1887 Dawes Act (aka the Allotment Act of 1887).

Indian Canyon, which had always been a safe haven to local intertribal indigenous peoples, gained public attention in the 1980s due to the efforts of Kanyon’s mother and the founder of Costanoan Indian Research, Ann-Marie Sayers. When she was considering building and new home in a different part of what she and generations of her family had always considered to be her ancestral land, Ann-Marie was stopped by the Bureau of Land Management, a US Government Agency. Ann-Marie was aghast, as this land, the land of her ancestors, was unceded land, and only held by the US government due to war crimes against Indigenous Peoples. Ann-Marie again invoked the 1887 Dawes Act, arguing for the reclamation of fuller access to her ancestral homeland, including ceremonial and sacred sites. She won this eight-year legal battle, was alloted her own trust, and opened up Indian Canyon as a safe haven to conduct traditional ceremony and rekindling Traditional Ecological Knowledge, not just for all Indigenous people, as had been done in the past, but now also to non-indigenous people for community-building and spiritual practices.

Today, Indian Canyon serves as a beacon of hope and resilience for the Costanoan-Ohlone People. It is a place where they can come together, practice their traditions, and connect with their ancestors. It is a place where they can educate the public about their culture and history, and work towards a better future for themselves and their community. However, the land, the tribal community, and this amazing public resource, are at risk.

Recently, in April of 2022, tribal elder Ann-Marie was hospitalized after, at risk and threat of bodily harm, Kanyon rescued her from a toxic caretaker. The cabin in which Ann-Marie lives is off the grid; they run on solar (which is in dire need of repairs and upgrade), gasoline and propane. The “caretaker” a vagrant, used Ann-Marie’s kindness and sympathetic nature to manipulate her. She used threats, aggression and intimidation to temporarily chase Kanyon off the land, out of her own household. Ann-Marie felt sympathy for the caretaker, telling Kanyon, “She's helping me and I care about her and she has no place to go.” The relationship quickly turned into a complacent codependent dynamic, one Ann-Marie could not, at the time, see, and which she ultimately did not recognize the level of abuse she was being exposed to. Kanyon, at the time feeling unwelcome and unsafe at Indian Canyon for the first time in her life, still came to see her mother as often as possible, and slowly watched her mother’s physical and mental health deteriorate over the course of the next five years. Finally, fearing her mother would not live much longer, Kanyon gathered a group of allies together to come to the cabin and recuse Ann-Marie. While Ann-Marie was being taken via wheelchair (as she could not walk, anymore, due to her deteriorated health-state) to the car to go to the hospital, the caretaker physically attached two of the allies Kanyon had requested the help of, punching and biting one of them, and drawing blood from the other using an abalone shell, a sacred item to the Mutsun people. When she arrived at the hospital, Ann-Marie was anemic, needing two blood transfusions; she had an untreated and unreported old head wound that had left blood in her prefrontal cortex (which was originally thought to be as a result of a known injury where she fell on her shoulder and fractured her humerus, however was discovered to be a newer, unreported injury); there was discovery of another unreported and untreated injury that re-dislocated her shoulder; she had intestinal bleeding; she had mental fog and confusion. Ann-Marie had to spend nearly a half-year in rehab before she was able to return home. While the toxic caretaker is currently removed from the land, this threat is not over, as she continues to contact the tribal family, with written threats like, “I’m still here.”

In attempting to enlist legal help to both save Ann-Marie from the caretaker, and then to subsequently ensure the toxic caretaker would not be able to return to Indian Canyon, Kanyon was taken advantage of, and subsequently stolen from, by a con-artist, who falsely represented himself as a lawyer, and received donation funds donated to the tribal community for the purpose of being able to start the work needed to care for two elders, both of whom are in failing health, and off-the-grid land maintenance.

There are neighboring landholders that are threatening to encroach on our land. Indian Canyon Nation is surrounded by vineyards that take water from the land, impact natural resources. Protecting and conserving the ecological diversity and access to natural ceremonial, sacred sites is important. We also have deep concerns of not so neighborly machinations on behalf of one of these neighbors, whose actions, utterances and posturing are reminiscent of one trying to find a way to claim the land, repeating the settler colonial violence of entitled land grabbing that has beset the Indigenous American Tribes since first contact.

Indian Canyon Nation was gravely impacted due to climate change, and is currently experiencing catastrophic infrastructural damage to roads, buildings, and cultural heritage sites. This past winter, California experienced a series of “Atmospheric Rivers,” a meteorological phenomenon that dropped torrential rain and led to massive flooding. Indian Canyon was most impacted by the “Pineapple Express” system, which in early March of 2023, dropped so much rain at such a fast rate that the landscape could not withstand it. Indian Canyon’s creeks overflowed, creating flash flooding that destroyed the main entry road and access to sacred sites. Several structures also require roof repair and maintenance on compromised electrical systems. Indian Canyon has needed infrastructural updates for some time, and the recent flooding makes this urgent. In addition to repairs, Indian Canyon plans to expand off-the-grid infrastructure to support the resilience of residents, including updates to its over 20-year-old solar-electric system. They are desperately seeking assistance in recovering from this event.

Finally, both elders, Ann-Marie and Chris Sayers, are retired, not fully abled, and require caretakers for meals, to build fires and tend the cabin, replace the gasoline and propane, ensure the water tank is full and pumped as needed to guarantee the accessibility of running water, etc., and they sometimes even need help getting to and bathing. The tribal family needs funding to pay for care, and to build ADA compliant domiciles that are greatly needed to ensure the safety of the elders.

CIR plays a vital role in supporting Indian Canyon and its mission. Through its programs and initiatives, CIR promotes cultural heritage preservation, education, and community development. They offer tours of Indian Canyon, lectures, workshops, and other events to educate the public about the Costanoan-Ohlone People and their traditions.

CIR is also involved in land restoration projects, working to restore the native plant species and habitats of Indian Canyon. They have also launched a language revitalization program, aimed at preserving the Costanoan-Ohlone language, which is currently