2018 April PASO Magazine
The Story of Us - Delivered. Read all about the remarkable community of Paso Robles in the pages of PASO Magazine.
The Story of Us - Delivered. Read all about the remarkable community of Paso Robles in the pages of PASO Magazine.
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By Millie Drum<br />
The El Paso de Robles Historical Society presents "Time and the Tide," an<br />
exhibit that will run through <strong>2018</strong> at the Historic Carnegie Library in the downtown<br />
City Park. Director of Research, Janice Cannon, introduced me to the<br />
story of local Native Americans, the Salinan tribe, who settled in southern Salinas<br />
Valley and along the Santa Lucia range on the Central Coast. This exhibit<br />
was first displayed at the Hearst Castle Visitors Center in San Simeon before<br />
moving to Mission San Antonio. The storyboards portray the Prehistoric Period,<br />
the Mission Period, the Gold Rush, Hearst Castle and the Military.<br />
Archaeological excavation revealed evidence of this tribe at least 10,000<br />
years ago. Through mission records, living tribal members have traced their<br />
genealogy to pre-mission villages on the Central Coast. According to the storyboards<br />
circling the Time and The Tide exhibit at the Carnegie, the theme is<br />
following the life of a Salinan woman, Agueda Agata. Agata is a descendant of<br />
the Hokan language-speaking people, considered to be the oldest language<br />
spoken in California. Follow her footsteps and those of her descendants as<br />
you go through time, through the exhibit, around the village sites of Tsitakak<br />
(San Simeon) and Holamna (Jolon). In 1778, at the age of 105, Agata died<br />
at Mission San Antonio. Her granddaughter, Margarita De Cortona, and her<br />
husband Juan Maria Ruiz, started a family of their own, continuing her lineage.<br />
Prior to when the story begins, native people lived here for thousands of<br />
years. We start our journey in 1542, the time of Agata’s great grandparents,<br />
when there was evidence of Cabrillo visiting the Central Coast of California.<br />
Agata was born in 1673, a child of the San Simeon and Jolon areas. There was<br />
no development except for villages of tulle huts.<br />
Centuries pass, the military takes over and many of Agata’s descendants<br />
are forced to leave their land once more. They are not allowed to visit ancestral<br />
lands and places held sacred. Other lands now owned by the U.S. military<br />
Agata is a descendant of the Hokan language-speaking people,<br />
considered to be the oldest language spoken in California.<br />
includes Stony Valley, a very sacred place to Agata and her descendants.<br />
Appropriately, the tribe is now recognized by the State of California with a<br />
pending petition for federal recognition. The elected Tribal Business Council<br />
meets regularly to continue their educational effort and dedication to preserve<br />
and honor the tribe’s heritage. Now, during the winter and summer solstice,<br />
the tribe is legally able to ascend Morro Rock to follow in their ancestor’s<br />
tradition and light a fire on top of the symbolic rock. Because the Salinan tribe<br />
did not give up their fight for religious freedoms, it is their hope that other<br />
tribes will gain access to their sacred places in their native lands.<br />
The internet offers interesting research, particularly from the organization’s<br />
website: Salinantribeofmontereyandslocounties.com. The images of native<br />
people reenacting the traditions of their culture are fascinating. Today, Donald<br />
Walter Pierce, is a member of the Salinan Tribe of San Luis Obispo Counties.<br />
His Native American heritage comes from his father with lineage dating back to<br />
the 1670’s. His hobbies including cutting rocks, making jewelry and knapping<br />
arrowheads; a craft learned from his grandmother and brother. Donald adds,”<br />
It is relaxing and challenging to see how each creation unfolds; the rewards are<br />
endless as my heritage emerges in the creations my hands have made.”<br />
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38 <strong>PASO</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>, <strong>April</strong> <strong>2018</strong>