Having been part of Marc Chavez’s program for Native teens since 2004, I thought I had seen it all. Even though the title of the program has morphed from Young Native Scholars to Intertribal Youth to Native like Water, the focus is incorporating Native culture with science and water activities.
Once again, this summer, he asked me to teach ethnobotany at the Torrey Pines State Reserve. I taught 30 teens about the local uses of the native plants. Richard Bugbee always led this activity, and we miss him terribly. He was a Luiseño-Kumeyaay ethnobotanist who taught us about the tools and household objects made out of the plants, as he was taught by Auntie Jane Dumas so long ago.
This year, our revered elder was Dr. Stan Rodriguez (Kumeyaay). As a scientist, I knew the plants mostly by their Latin names. I carried my database with all the known uses of the plants at Torrey Pines. But I use so few of them, that my knowledge is mostly theoretical. The database said that chamise was used for arrows, as well as infections, sores, swelling, baskets, and tattoos. Arrows? The chamise bushes were all stunted and entwined. How could these puny bent stems be arrows? Stan knew and taught us that chamise has very hard wood that is used for the top section of arrows, attaching to the arrowheads. When an arrow is shot, that section with hardwood stays in the animal so the hunter can pull out the straight shaft and reuse it.
Teaching wasn’t Stan’s only focus—he did something I’ve never seen in my life. He asked each one of the 30 teens where they were from, what tribe(s), and who their people were. He proceeded to share which of their Kumeyaay/Luiseño/Cahuilla/Cupeño family members he knew. For the Shawnee kids, he greeted them in their language—ever the professor to discover who spoke their language.
Environmental scientist Thomas Morales (Western Shoshone) shared some of his important science working in environmental contamination. Atop stunningly beautiful Red Butte at Torrey Pines, Manny Lieras (Navajo/Comache) and his daughter Joni sang to us a vocable prayer song. Panther Tiwa (Taos Pueblo) sang to us in Jemez Towa.
Past sundown, we climbed back up the hill in the dark, with teenager Bryana Twilling (Dakota) holding my hand, as taught by her beloved grandmother. Being a carer, she wanted to make sure that this elder didn’t fall and leave some blood behind. I need to return there again to teach plants and rocks to next years’ group of Native teens.
