Vol. 14, No. 2, Winter 2000/01

The Committee For Traditional Indian Health: A program of the California Rural Indian Health Board, Inc

By Linda D. Navarro, Cahuilla-Shasta, Director

I recall that first gathering in September of 1981 as if it were yesterday. Hundreds of Indian people from all over California and other parts of the country gathered in Sacramento at Cal Expo for California Indian Day. A major part of the celebration was the participation of Flora Jones, Keeper of the Wintu ceremony, from the Redding area. Florence brought together Indian medicine people from around the country to participate in a traditional gathering that now marks the beginning of the Traditional Indian Health Education Program. Stanley Red Bird, Lakota, and Joseph Eagle Elk, Lakota, came from South Dakota. Phil Lane, Jr., Lakota, traveled from Canada, and Ed Dao came in from the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. They joined Flora in bringing together traditional and spiritual leaders from throughout California to encourage tribal people to keep their languages alive and to bring back their ceremonies and traditional ways. There had been no gatherings or ceremonies conducted openly in this part of the country for many, many years.

In the evening of the first day of the gathering, Flora and her helpers built a fire in a campground on the banks of the Sacramento River and nearly a hundred people came. Flora performed a Wintu ceremony and walked through the fire that night. On the second night, we were blessed with a cleansing rain in the form of a huge thunder and lightning storm. We moved the yuwipi ceremony (Lakota spirit calling ceremony) indoors, to the offices of the California Rural Indian Health Board (CRIHB), nearby. My staff and I took all the glass-framed pictures off the walls, moved desks, chairs, and files to make room for the ceremony. Blankets were hung on the windows so that not even the tiniest rays of light could come through. A large coffee can filled with dirt was used to hold the burning sweet grass.

When I returned to the office to straighten up the next morning I was confronted by my boss (a non-Indian) and a co-worker. The co-worker had arrived before me and called the boss and the sheriff because she thought that the place had been broken into and we had been robbed. The two of them chewed me out royally and the boss pointed his finger at my face and held me personally accountable for putting the place back together again. Before stomping out the door he said that they were embarrassed to have our neighbors in such a fine business park see the blankets on the windows (Personally, I don’t think they could see through the mini-blinds). So I went for help and found Stan Mayer, Mono, from North Fork, and Joseph Saulque, Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute, Chairman of the CRIHB Board, who where attending the festivities at Cal Expo. They were not pleased with the disrespect shown by my co-workers for the medicine people and their ceremony. They assured me that they would take care of the office and not to worry about any repercussion from the CRIHB Board. The boss resigned shortly thereafter and the CRIHB Board made a commitment to support the Committee and to promote traditional medicine practices in its member programs.

This experience with the first gathering was my introduction to the Committee For Traditional Indian Health, now a program of the California Rural Indian Health Board, in its 21st consecutive year of funding from the State Indian Health Program. I am so very thankful to have been a part of that very first traditional gathering and to be in a position for the past twenty years that allows me to work with the Committee and with medicine people and spiritual leaders from across Indian country in efforts to promote traditional approaches to health and wellness.

The Indian Health Branch within the State Department of Health Services provided a small grant to cover the cost of travel and food for the first gathering in 1980. The CRIHB agreed to provide administrative support to Joe Carrillo, coordinator, and the Traditional Indian Health Advisory Committee, Anita Silva (Kashia Pomo); Neddeen Naylor (Paiute-Shoshone); Wes Sawyer; Art Martinez (Chumash); and Sam Jones (Yurok), were sanctioned by the State of California, Office of External Affairs, as the advisory body to the State Indian Health Branch and its subcontractors, the Indian health clinics, on all matters concerning traditional Indian medicine and traditional Indian approaches to the treatment of mental health. A number of people have served on the Committee over the years. Neddeen Naylor, a founding member from Lone Pine Reservation, served for seventeen years. Sam Jones, Yurok, from Weitchpec, also a founding member, served for eighteen years. Jay Johnson, Miwok-Paiute, from Yosemite and Laughing Coyote, Chukchansi-Mono, from Fresno, served on the Committee for a short time. Current members serving with Art and Anita are Beverly Hunter, Mono-Chukchansi, Table Mountain Rancheria; Clarence Atwell, Tachi, Santa Rosa Rancheria; and Walt Lara, Sr., Yurok Tribe, from Klamath. Under my direction, the Traditional Indian Health Education Program operates within CRIHB’s Department of Public Information & Training. My staff and I provide program coordination, administrative, and contract support.

The Traditional Indian Health Education Program has experienced a huge level of success in promoting traditional medicine practices and in increasing awareness and respect for traditional healing among Indian health clinics and the communities that they serve. Traditional Health Committees have been established at most Indian health clinics and many tribal communities are now holding their own traditional gatherings on a regular basis. Funding from the State Indian Health Program provides for three committee meetings and the annual traditional Indian health education conference each program year. In years past, the conference has been held at Camp Pollack, Sacramento; El Portal, near Yosemite; Patrick’s Point State Historic Park, near Trinidad in Humboldt County; and for the past thirteen years the gathering has found a home at Chaw Se—Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park.

The Committee continues to hold the conference in a mountainous/natural outdoor setting in accordance with recommendations handed down from tribal elders at the second traditional Indian health conference. The following quote is from the conference report from 1982: …"when such gatherings are held in natural surroundings, respect is shown to all things in nature and harmony is created. In turn, spiritual strength is given to those who have faith in their ways." We agree that contemporary conference settings are inappropriate locations for a California traditional gathering.

A sacred fire is lit on the first day in the round house at Chaw Se and the Sierra Native American Council opens the gathering with traditional Miwok songs and dances. The Committee opens the program each day with morning prayers in the Round House, followed by workshop presentations on traditional healing, traditional medicine practices, and demonstrations of healing plants and medicines. Jane Dumas, Kumeyaay; Josephine Peters, Shasta-Karuk; Betty Hall, Cahuilla-Shasta; and Genny Franco, Yokut, have shared their knowledge of healing with plant medicines with participants and have inspired many people to begin to seek knowledge of their tribe’s medicines and cures.

Food is medicine for our bodies and is prepared with as many natural and organic ingredients as can be found in today’s markets. White sugar, salt, hydrogenated and polyunsaturated fats, soda, and junk foods are avoided and participants are rewarded with venison, salmon, stews, beans, and fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, and acorn soup. For the past several years the number of youth groups in attendance has grown and so have the complaints about the food. The elders with diabetes, hypertension, and other ailments appreciate the healthy menu choices and the herbal teas. Many of the teens go into withdrawals from lack of junk food and we have noticed that a large number of kids have never had a meal of red beans and rice with cornbread; or venison/elk or buffalo and acorn. Many turn up their noses at the clear liquid broth and vegetable stews. The benefits of returning to a native diet is a recurring agenda topic that promotes native foods as a traditional approach to healing the body from many diseases, i.e. obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension.

Several years ago a sweat was constructed at Chaw Se. Sweat lodge ceremonies are open to conference participants and are held morning and afternoon each day of the conference. There are a large number of youth that participate in sweat ceremonies on a regular basis and come to the conference looking forward to the children’s sweat, the women’s sweat, and the men’s sweat ceremonies. The sweat lodge has proven to be an effective traditional intervention in the treatment of alcohol and substance abuse.
The Red Road to Recovery and the traditional—spiritual lifestyle has been the theme of numerous conferences. The talking circle held on the final day of the conference is a time when participants share their feelings and talk about the role of tradition and Indian medicine approaches in their lives. We hear from people that are struggling with their sobriety and those that are on the Red Road. Many share the pain and suffering that they attribute to not knowing their language, their traditions, the songs, their ceremonies, and the loss that they and their families have suffered as a result. Many are trying to find their way and are caught in that in-between place where they have not yet made the commitment toward a traditional lifestyle or a commitment to ceremony that may mean making sacrifices. It is not an easy life—being a traditionalist, a spiritual leader, or a medicine person. The medicine people will tell you that the other way is easier.

Tribal dancing and singing in the Round House is a highlight of the conference. The Pomo Big Head singers and dancers from Elem Indian Colony, Clearlake Oaks, have been a part of the program for many years. Frank LaPena and Rose Enos and the Maidu Traditionalists as well as members of the local Miwok community open the Round House with their dances. Last year we were honored to have Robert Levi and the Cahuilla bird Singers share the bird songs and dances. Walt Lara, Sr. and a group of Yurok young people demonstrated a jump dance. The singing and dancing in the Round House is a blessing for those that participate. Workshops are held to educate participants about the protocols and the purpose of the Round House and what is expected of those who enter.

The Traditional Indian Health Education Program is intended to increase the level of awareness and respect for traditional Indian medicine healing practices in Indian health clinics. This gathering is open to health care providers working in Indian health clinics and the tribal communities that they serve. Participants must pre-register. California traditional gathering and Round House protocols must be observed.

For information on the 21st annual traditional Indian Health Education Program conference contact Linda Navarro, Program Director, Traditional Indian Health Education Program, at CRIHB: 1451 River Park Drive, Suite 220, Sacramento CA 95822. E-mail: lnavarro@crihb.ihs.gov Telephone: (916) 929-9761.

Linda Navarro, of Cahuilla and Shasta ancestry, is a member of the Torres Martinez Band of Desert Cahuilla Indians. She is knowledgeable of tribal culture, a weaver of Shasta baskets, and a life long student of the healing power of native plants and medicine cures. She has been employed by California Rural Indian Health Board since 1978 and has co-authored a workbook for American Indian youth, Know Your Heritage—Know Yourself (1994).