Touched by the Tolowa-- Part One

We met part of the future. She was sleeping in a handmade basket her father had slept in 26 years before. Basketry is one of the tribal arts still being practiced today. Mary, the woman who made this basket, is gone now. The baby's uncle is putting the finishing touches on her very own...and quite a bit larger ...basket. he is wrapping the edges with spruce root.

The baby is two months old and her father remarked to us, that she does not "miss many meals." The basket maker is Loren Bammleyn. He combines teaching at Crescent City High School with being an active member of this very living indigenous group.

The grandfather in this family has built a special dance house on his property. On the Winter Solstice, December 21st, the father of the baby will dance in the World Renewal Ceremony. We knew about the Karuk doing this in August on the Klamath River. When we went to boatthe Klamath one year, we found the river "closed" for five days. What better reason to dance than to renew the world. Now we know the Tolowa will be dancing to renew the world on the Smith River and we are invited to join them. There are worlds existing within worlds if we have the eyes to see them. So many ways to be human..............