WATERD OG & THE LOVE CHA R M A STORY TOLD BY ELIZABETH DOLLAR OF THE DRY CREEK POMO INDIAN TRIBE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the following people for their support and contributions: Our professor, Dr. Jeanine Pfeiffer, from San Jose State University, for all her advice, expertise, and guidance throughout the development of this project. Our cultural representative, Sherrie Smith-Ferri, from the Grace Hudson Museum, who provided us cultural knowledge from her great-great aunt, Elizabeth “Belle� Lozinto Cordova Dollar, of the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians. And lastly, in effort of cultural preservation and awareness, the students from San Jose State University, Summer 2016 Nature and World Cultures, Amber Liu Jorge Morga Lauren Davison
P R EFA CE The miracle of life that spawned on the planet Earth has no known equal in the universe. The vast beauty of the Earth stems from the abundance of diverse life forms it contains. Humanity has spent its entire existence attempting to explain the wonders of Earth. In these stories we often find relevant information regarding a particular landscape. Information that details the characteristics of the environment, its plants, animals and unique resources. Humanity has had an impact on every part of the planet. Each individual culture holds unique perspectives and detailed knowledge of the particular area they have impacted. Recording this knowledge is only a recent trend. Thousands of years of knowledge are contained in oral stories and traditions. The only key to unlock knowledge in these forms is language. The loss of cultural diversity threatens to make these keys irretrievable. The story of “Water Dog and the Love Charm� is an example of unique cultural insight. It is told here to serve as a key to preserve this priceless cultural wisdom.
PA RT I THE DRY CREEK RANCHERIA BAND OF POMO INDIANS Preserving tribal history, language, and cultural identity There are over 20 independent Pomo communities that reside around the ancestorial lands of Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake counties. Descendants of the early Pomo people continue as a Tribe in the Alexander Valley, and today are known as the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians. The Pomos of the Dry Creek area are historically hunter/gatherer people, using regional plants and game for food, such as clams, fish and abalone collected on trips to the coast during summer. Natural resources play a central role in Tribal arts. The Pomo Indians are widely recognized for their stunning basket weaving from indigenous materials. For centuries, Pomo weavers gathered sedge grasses, willow roots, and bulrushes from local coasts and wetlands. These became the foundation for intricate coiled baskets, woven with a variety of complex techniques.
Ornate baskets, given as gifts to loved ones and revered elders, were often adorned with black and white “Spanish seeds,� and elegant feathers from mallards, woodpeckers, orioles and blue jays. Although women were the designated weavers in most Tribes, Pomo men traditionally made baskets for fish traps and cradles. Their primary food source was acorns, which were gathered, stored, and processed throughout the season. Their ties to the land are strong, with practices like basketweaving, the Pomo people have a balanced give-take reciprocity with maintaining the wellbeing of the natural biodiversity. Many Tribal celebrations feature acorns, which were a primary source of sustenance to the Pomo people. Acorn soups, cakes and breads were typical traditional dishes. Acorn bread was made of dry acorn flour, and then wrapped in wet leaves and baked overnight on hot coals. The acorn bread lasted for months, making it an ideal food source for this hunting/gathering Tribe.
ELIZABETH “BELLE” LOZINTO CORDOVA DOLLAR Was born in 1895 to Dry Creek Pomo mother, Rosa Bill Lozinto, and an Italian father named Morgantini. She came into the world at a time when her people had lost their land, and with it the foundation of their cultural identity and a secure way of life. The previous half century had routinely included the casual killing of Indian people living in northern Sonoma County and the loss of many more thanks to newly introduced diseases. Those Indians who did survive were often forcibly removed to distant reservations. As a result, the formerly rich and complex Native social fabric was destroyed. As a child Elizabeth witnessed and experienced the dark side of this social devastation: a local Indian community plagued by poverty, insecurity, homelessness, alcoholism, anxiety and violence. At the same time, she also witnessed and benefited from – and later came to embody – the courage, strength, and resilience of a generation of Native people who managed, despite enormous obstacles, to care for their children, maintain important aspects of their culture, and adapt to a rapidly changing world. (left) Elizabeth Lozinto Cordova Dollar circa 1970
Belle’s grandparents taught her traditional Native practices as they were lived at the time, from dancing and doctoring to storytelling and seasonal ceremonies. Her earliest memories concern dances and ceremonies. From her grandmother, she learned basket weaving. The family cooked in baskets, and fashioned spoons from mussels. She also learned to gather, preserve, process, and prepare traditional Native plant foods such as grass seeds, bay nuts, greens, acorns, and berries. From her grandfather, she learned to fish and to prepare meat jerky. All of this she learned in the hills and valleys of the Russian River watershed that had been her people’s home for millennia. Belle grew up speaking Southern Pomo, the Native language of her mother and grandparents. In fact, she didn’t really begin to learn to speak English until she was thirteen years old when she was given a job as a helper at a dry goods store on Dry Creek Road in Healdsburg. (right) Elizabeth Lozinto cordova Dollar and her mom Rosa Bill, circa 1935
She and Robert Oswalt also recorded a number of traditional “Coyote” stories, set in a time when animals had speech and other human attributes. Elizabeth Dollar left us with the only existing record of traditional Dry Creek Pomo stories and a unique window into Southern Pomo identity. This linguistic material is being used today in a Southern Pomo language revitalization program at Dry Creek Rancheria. Equally important, during many hours of conversations, Elizabeth Dollar also told Oswalt her “life story,” a remarkably honest and vivid narrative, representing the richest existing account of the lives of Southern Pomo people during more than a century of survival and cultural adaptation extending from the 1830s into the second half of the twentieth century.
(Left) Elizabeth Dollar and daughters, Rosie,Ruth, Tillie, Lena
PA RT I I THE STORY “WATERDOG AND THE LOVE CHARM”
“It is told by my great-great aunt, Elizabeth Dollar near the end of her life, to Robert Oswalt, a young linguist at the time from UC Berkeley.” - Sherrie Smith-Ferri
MAIN CHARACTER Waterdog Red-Bellied Newt (Taricha rivularis) An endemic species is unique to a specific place and cannot be found anywhere else in the world but that specific location. The “water dog” described in this story refers to the red-bellied newt (Taricha rivularis); it is a part of the Salamandridae family, which consists of salamanders and newts. There are 13 extant genera (Notophthalmus and Taricha) occurs in the North America (Petranka, 1998). The red-bellied newt is “the most limited in distribution of the three species of Taricha” (Nafis, 2013). Their distribution overlaps with the storyteller’s ancestral lands.
Little Frog married Bull Frog, Wappak married this big one, The kind that they eat, Bullfrog Brullfrog married this Little Frog, And they had this big nest, atolo And then this Big Frog wanted to Marry this Little Frog, so they thought It was going to be all polliwogs.
And then this pashikwala came, Waterdog, Wanted to ask to marry this Little Frog This Bullfrog said no, we don’t, we don’t care, We don’t want to because you not coloured Like we are; you are orange and you are brown, We don’t want you coloured to be in this polliwog; We want one kind, we don’t want no colour in. So then Water Snake come and ask to married They said no, you’re too long, we can’t have you, So that’s what the Bullfrog said.
They wanted the Bullfrog to have Babies that would be like a polliwog, This Waterdog and this Water Snake. They wanted a frog to not look like a Bullfrog, They wanted all to look like a polliwog and this Little Frog. So that’s why Waterdog wanted to keep them right there In the water, but the Waterdog stays around the edge of the water. So that’s why they live around the way they are That’s where the Water Snake are, where the Bullfrog
And then the Waterdog wanted to marry this frog, And they don’t, they just keep on, keep on. Worms, hair worms or something, ah-kacho, We call it, it wiggle around like a snake --is like a hair, but is a snake. And then he got on to this Bullfrog, and the Bullfrog break that, he got long legs and break it, chained it like it’s chained up. Broke the worm in two, and then he said, “Well look, that’s what she want me for, because I break this worm, I break this worm, So she gon have to marry nobody else but me.”
Then this Bullfrog said, “I’m going to leave this for all the rest, even the human that’s going to do this: You get the hair, you get the hair, and tie it, tie it, tie it like this, and Put it on a riffle with the water. You set one big white rock on top of it, Where the water can take it. And then you leave it like that sitting, And this thing will be moving all the time. You don’t have to use worm hair, You use your own hair, or any girl hair, What girl you would like. And you put that big white rock on it, and this thing is moving, and moving, and just working for the love for you, love coming for you.” So that’s what the Bullfrog told the Waterdog.
You just set that rock there and that girl hair, Girl that you like, that you get someway, when She comb her hair or when she wash her hair, You be standing there below her where the water take her hair, and you grab the hair and make a knot and just set it on the riffle. Set the rock on it and then this hair Will be moving all the time water is going. So you don’t have to ask to marry her, She will come right to you And ask you to marry her! You don’t have to talk to her, Your hair be talking in the water, And that’s a love coming too, That’s just what I do, The Bullfrog told the Waterdog.
And then the Waterdog asked Water Snake, “Do you think that is true, what the Bullfrog is telling us?” He said to him, “no, I don’t believe it. But the way I feel, I can stick my tongue out like that and they see my red tongue, And that’s what they like, the ring. That’s the ring, you said My tongue with the red point. Sure the ring, they would like that, that they hear.” Then the Waterdog said to Snake, “Why a ring, why not like a girl? Ring don’t do you any good, but the girl, because you like the girl...”
“But I don’t,” the Water Snake said, “I don’t like the girl.” And then the Waterdog said, “I do! I think I’m going to do what the Bullfrog said. I’m going to set a hair in the water, So girl would come ask to marry me, Because I’m fast.” That’s why, when you get the Waterdog, You threw at him and hit something, He just goes turn-up because they’re fast. They turn their back way up like that. It goes turn up just like it’s dead, but it’s not. And so that’s just what he said.
And then he just couldn’t find nobody’s hair, Nobody’s hair, nothing. So he went and find some driftwood, and then he find this hair; He don’t know whether it’s a human hair, So happened to be a Bear. Bear must have scratched his back on some kind of snag, some driftwood. And so he found it and he do this, this way. And he did it like the same way that the Bullfrog told him to-Set a big rock and then the riffle, Tie knot, the hair waving, the ends are waving That’s the love coming-That’s the way they get the love.
So then he went, and he got the hair. He had an awful time to tie the hair, It was so short to make knot. And then he tie all together, all together; But four, he get four knots, And then he made it in the middle, And he set that and put ‘bout four rocks on top in the river. “Well I did what the Bullfrog told me!” This Waterdog told Snake. Snake said, “I won’t do what you’re doing... It’s not good if you’re going to do things like that.” The Waterdog didn’t do good when he put that thing in the water-That’s what the Water Snake told him.
And then this wife--the two married people, There was a Frog and a Bullfrog, and all, lot of these pollywogs they got around, And he was given a lecture, you know, telling the pollywogs not to be in deep water, “Just be in the edge of the water, Always around the edge of the water, That’s where the food is, that’s where you could eat. And when the sun shine on you, that’s when you grow,” Which is what he said-Bullfrog telling his children.
And the Snake comes along, and he said to this Bullfrog, “Why let them get fed? I eat them as fast as they grow-I just pick them up and eat them” The Snake told Bullfrog. “That’s just why you don’t get married, You don’t want to settle down. That’s all you like to do; You just go on eating All the polliwogs and frogs-You eat everybody! But you can’t eat me, Because I’m too big” The Bullfrog said, talking to the Snake.
The Waterdog is always Waiting, waiting, Waiting for the love. He’s waiting-Who’s going to ask to marry me? Just looking around, looking around, And he goes in the water, and he comes up, He goes in the gravel barges, going around...
He had four nights, Then four bears come. And then one--the first one-Told the Indian story: Everything is always be four, everything is four. And so they said, the first bear asked the Waterdog, “Were you... got us to liking you? We love you, we four of us love you! You think you’re going to love us four?” She said to this Waterdog.
Waterdog never say nothing, He’s tiny, he feels bad, he thought he would get one for himself. But then they say, “Well if you don’t get in a hurry to love us, We’re going to step on you!” They stepped on the tail, And he just went back, and then keep on Going back, another one stepped on, Another one touched it, And then he just goes back, backwards... You get him sometimes in the water, and you just catch it, and it just goes back-Yellow there, just like it is on the front, But on the back it’s dark brown, So keep on, these Bears are bothering him, Bothering him...
So he said, “I am one man. I am not for four, four ladies.” “Well can’t you marry us four?” Waterdog said, “Well... I don’t think so. I can’t,” he said, “I don’t have no love for four, I have a love for one, I could have a love for one, I could love just one,” he said. And then the other rest of the Bears said: “Well why we love you then? How come we love you? All of us love you the same, So what happened? What did you do to us, That we like you--we love you? We anxious for you, we want you to love us!” He said, “No, I’m just the one.”
That was the knot he made you know, The four knots. That was the love. He had four Bear hairs, but he had four, four, four different. He said this is just for one, this one here, He put all this here, and here, that was four. What all of them, what all this... And so then, he just made it, made it, Talking, talking So finally, they lost their love. They didn’t love him. So one left--the youngest one-They left the Waterdog.
That was the knot he made you know, The four knots. That was the love. He had four Bear hairs, but he had four, four, four different. He said this is just for one, this one here, He put all this here, and here, that was four. What all of them, what all this... And so then, he just made it, made it, Talking, talking So finally, they lost their love. They didn’t love him. So one left--the youngest one-They left the Waterdog.
The Waterdog said to the others, “I’m sorry, I just have love for one, that’s all. I’m sorry, that’s all I can have. Just one.” He didn’t know it was Bear, But it was a hair, and he put it there... So he went and told the Snake, “Oh, I told you, you don’t have any sense, Beyond anything...” And he said, “Well I can’t help it! I did what the Bullfrog tell me to do! I made a knot, but I made four, and then the four came to me, but I didn’t have love for four, I had love for just one.” And he said, “Well that’s all. I try what the Bullfrog tell me and I did it.”
“Well okay,” said the snake, “I’m going to stick around here Until I take the wife away from the Bullfrog Because I love to eat pollywog (that’s a pollywog, the whole tribe here, the bullfrog and the wife… just a regular frog) And he said, “I’m going to try my best, to do that too, I’m going to put the knot on the water, And I’m going to do that for her, And see if she can lose the love for her husband,” The Snake is talking to the Waterdog.
And then the Waterdog told him, The Waterdog told the Snake, “If you ever get wife away from the Bullfrog, You come! Join with me so we can live together!” He said, “We always going to be in the water, You know that, we’re going to be in the water.” He said to him, “Alright, you wait, you just wait, Just live in the little pond of water, and you can live right near it, because your wife can be in the water all the time. If my wife stay in the water, and you stay in the water, not the main river, just the pond.” He said okay--he went and took his Bear, And finally found the place where the pond is, And that’s where they live.
And then this Water Snake is trying to take wife away from Bullfrog... So Water Snake set out to find a hair to tie for his love spell, but there was no hair to be found. When he told Waterdog, he suggested to find the root of a willow--the root of the willow can be used as a substitute love charm. So Water Snake went out and found a willow root. He was successful, but had a difficult time tying the knot. He couldn’t do it because the roots were so small and fine. So Water Snake thought-I know! I’ll find a bigger root. It’ll make the her fall in love with me faster. He couldn’t wait to make love with her.
He can’t do nothing to Bullfrog-“He’s too big and I’m small,” Said the Water Snake to the Waterdog. Waterdog said, “Well, look at me! I’m small, but look at my wife!” And he was making fun of Water Snake, Who was scared. That’s why Water Snake will hide in the water when they see people. And so Water Snake finally put big white rock on top of the knot like this, And he went up there, around the Bullfrog and polliwogs and everything, The Bullfrog told his young polliwogs, “Stay at the edge of the water, not inside, Where the riffle is. Just go around the edge.”
Water Snake drew closer, And was spotted by the Frog. As soon as she saw him, She went right to him. Though Water Snakes eat Frogs, she approached with no fear. She went to him and began to make love to the Water Snake. The Bullfrog sees that and thought, “Why is she going to the Snake?” The Frog told the snake, “I’m tired of my man, the Bullfrog. He’s got these two long, spread-out legs. I want a husband with just one. I don’t like the long legs, I’m tired of it! I like you.”
Water Snake just smiled; He knew his magic was working. So he said, “You think you have a way to leave your man, Bullfrog? He is the father to all your polliwogs.” The Frog replied, “Yes, I can jump on very small limbs and Easily jump away from Bullfrog; He is too big to keep up with me. The polliwogs can’t follow me either, Because they can’t jump. I’ll jump down the stream, And then across, over there, And that’s where you can pick me up.”
Water Snake said with delight, “Alright! Let’s do it. Are you going to let your man know?” “No,” replied Frog, “He saw me coming to you. He knows Water Snakes eat frogs. Maybe he won’t try to come for me, Thinking you’re just going to eat me.” “Alright,” Water Snake replied, “We have a place ready to go-Waterdog is helping me fix up the place Where we are going to stay.”
And so Frog was jumping from limb, And he was hiding, On the other side of the creek. Then the Bullfrog tried to break that limb, So that she would go into the water. But she was too fast, And made it to the other side where Water Snake was waiting. Water Snake took her to their new home, Where Waterdog and Bear was. The Bear was sitting by the water, And the Waterdog was inside the water.
The Bullfrog couldn’t get across, Because the water was pretty high, And he didn’t want to cross. So they just stayed there, Stayed there, Then, The Bullfrog went over, And killed the Snake.
And that’s the end of the story.
PART I I I BIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY AND WHY IT MATTERS The story of Waterdog and the Love Charm shows us the great importance of preserving traditional ecological knowledge. This short story provides a wealth of significant historical insight into the Pomo culture. We see traditional beliefs, in their reverence for finding someone to love. We see their sense of humor. This gives us a fundamental connection to the Pomo. We can see the landscape they inhabited and particular characteristics of that landscape. This allows us to track the decline of waterways or know what plant species have traditionally thrived in a particular area. We see a deep rooted knowledge of animal species. The story teaches us that a snake’s top prey are pollywogs, that bullfrogs eat snakes and snakes eat bullfrogs. We learn about the natural habitats of these species, which allows us to help preserve biological diversity. Most importantly, we see how important the landscape and its biological diversity is to the Pomo and how it is tied deeply to their cultural survival. This offers just one example of the knowledge we stand to lose if we don’t take action to help preserve biocultural diversity throughout the world.
ILLUSTRATIONS in order shown in book: PREFACE Globe illustration. Amber Liu. (2016). PART I Pomo Basketry Photo. Amber Liu. (2016). Stone Gallery: Pomo Basketry. Ukiah, CA: Grace Hudson Museum. Elizabeth “Belle” Lozinto Cordova Dollar (coloured illustration). Retrieved from Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians website. Elizabeth “Belle” Lozinto Cordova Dollar (black/white photo). Received from Sherrie Smith-Ferri from Grace Hudson Museum. PART II Nature Photo. Gary Nafis. Retrieved from www.californiaherps.com. Main Character: Waterdog Photo. Gary Nafis. Retrieved from www.californiaherps.com. All Story Illustrations. Lauren Davison. (2016). Story End: Nature Photo. Gary Nafis. Retrieved from www. californiaherps.com. PART III Pomo Basketry Photo. Amber Liu. (2016). Stone Gallery: Pomo Basketry. Ukiah, CA: Grace Hudson Museum.
RESOURCES Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians. (n.d.). Preserving Tribal
History, Language, and Cultural Identity. Retrieved from
http://drycreekrancheria.com/. Dry Creek Rancheria. (n.d.). In Facebook [Organization]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/drycreekrancheria/ Dollar, E. C. (n.d.). Waterdog and the Love Charm (R. Oswalt, Interviewer)
[Audio File, provided by Sherrie Smith-Ferri from Grace
Hudson Museum]. Retrieved from https://verifyle.com/
u/16148b6578ebc351/#guestview:HUM%20159. Garbaldi, A., & Turner N. (2004). Cultural keystone species: Implications
for ecological conservation and restoration. Ecology and
Society, 9(3), http://ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss3/art1.
Hough, S. (2003). Phenomenology, Pomo Baskets, and the Work of
Mabel McKay. Hypatia, 18(2), 103.
Kelbessa, W. (2013). Indigenous knowledge and its contribution to
biodiversity conservation. International Social Science Journal,
64(211/212), 143-152. doi:10.111/issj12038
McDaniel, D. (2013). Learn Southern Pomo - Alphabet. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-southern-pomo alphabet/id478244197?mt=8 Nafis, G. (2013). A Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of California:
Red-bellied Newt - Taricha rivularis. Retrieved from
www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/t.rivularis.html. Petranka, J. W. (1998). Salamanders of the United States and Canada.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Patterson, V. (1998). Change and continuity: Transformations of Pomo
life. Expedition, 40(1), 3.
Terralingua (n.d.). The Inextricable Link. Retrieved from http://terralingua.org/biocultural-diversity/inextricable-links.