March 17-21, 2015

Sierra College Indigenous Peoples Days

Please join us at Sierra College this Spring
for our second annual Indigenous Peoples
Days event. Our Yomen Wedameaning
Spring Feast in the Maidu languagewill
involve four days of notable lectures, enlightening workshops, inspiring performances, cutting-edge media productions and
many other compelling events hosted primarily by visiting Native American artists,
activists and scholars. The event will conclude on Saturday, March 21st with a Big
Time and Indian Art Marketa Native Californian gathering filled with traditional
dancing, singing, storytelling, games and
ceremonyas well as a closing reception at
the Maidu Museum.
You certainly wont want to miss this wonderful opportunity to witness, participate
and celebrate the richness and depth of Indian cultures, to meaningfully connect
with the powerful current of indigenous cultural revitalization.
For more information and to follow the events of the week
FB Sierra College Native
American Club

http://bit.ly/1zJFXFx

&

#YomenWeda

Program Contents
List of Events

... 2

Presentation Descriptions

... 3

Presenter Biographies

Indigenous Peoples Days

List of Events
Each day between 10:00am-2:00pm there will be events and tables in the Quad.
Tuesday, March 17th
9:30am-11:00 am, Fireside Room

Samoan Tattoos

Florence Malaga Charlie

11:00am-12:30pm, W-110

Artistic License or Artistic Injustice?

Brenna Chapman

3:30pm-5:00pm, Fireside Room

Creating Leadership for the 7th Generation

Maggie Steele

5:30pm-8:00pm, W-110

Rebel Music - Hip Hop, Culture, and Activism

Melissa Violet Leal

Wednesday, March 18th

9:00am-11:00am, Fireside Room

Cultural Competency Training

Dean Hoaglin & Paul Tupaz

11:00am-2:00pm, Quad

Pow-Wow Dance Demonstration and Discussion

Thundering Moccasins

2:00pm-3:30pm, Fireside Room

Rush for Gold: Nisenan Perspectives

Shelly Covert

4:00pm-6:30pm, Amphitheater

Audiopharmacy Concert

7:00-9:00pm, V-229

Native American Herbology: Past, Present and Future

Sage LaPena

Thursday, March 19th

9:30am-11:00am, V-229

New Native Media

Lindsie Bear

11:00am-12:30pm, V-229

Missions Counterstory

Vincent Medina

1:30pm-3:00pm, Fireside Room

Language Revitalization Workshop

Carlos Geisdorff

2:00pm-4:00pm, D-12

Two Spirit (2S) and Queer Indigenous Film

Jacob Edward Dunlap

4:00pm-6:00pm, V-229

Community Forum: Sierra College Native American Student

Center

Matthew Archer

Friday, March 20th

9:00am-10:00am, Fireside Room

Gender, Native American peoples and Womens Coming of

Age Ceremonies

Cutcha Risling-Baldy

10:00am-11:00am, Fireside Room

Flower Songs and Puberty Rites

Kayla Carpenter

11:00am-12:30pm, Fireside Room

Decolonizing Birthing

Sage LaPena

Saturday, March 21st

9:00am-5:00pm, Quad

Yomen Weda, Big Time

11:00am-12:00pm, Standing Guard

Memorial

Sierra College from an Indigenous Perspective: A Walk

6:30pm-10:00pm, Maidu Museum

Reception

Sage LaPena

Sierra College
Tuesday, March 17
Samoan Tattoos
9:30am-11:00 am

Fireside Room

Although Florence has been physically away from her native island, she remained connected to her Samoan culture
and traditions through church and community activities. Her love and deep appreciation of her strong heritage led
her to receive the traditional Samoan tatau called the Malu. Florence will be presenting on the history and meaning
of the Samoan traditional tattoo.
Presenter: Florence Malaga Charlie (Bio on page 9)

Artistic License or Artistic Injustice?

Why the Appropriation of Indigenous Cultures in Art Matters
11:00am-12:30pm

W-110

This talk will address the ethics of appropriating imagery from indigenous cultures. We will discuss historic examples
of artistic appropriation within the Modern art movement, as well as how appropriation is born of a problematic
history of colonialism, prejudice, and continued injustice against indigenous peoples.
Presenter: Brenna Chapman (Bio on page 9)

Creating Leadership for the 7th Generation

3:30pm-5:00pm

Fireside Room

Poet, singer, medicine-woman, activist, Maggie Steele is a fear-less warrior for the peaceful empowerment of us
all. In this session she will share with us her philosophy and experiences of working to generate leadership and hope
within places of suffering and bring healing to those most in need, whether in the prisons or communities plagued
with crushing poverty. It's not just about who we help now, Maggie will help us see, but how our actions now create
or diminish opportunities in the future. Let her positive message inspire you, hopefully towards assisting in bringing
some healing to our region and the world.
Presenter: Maggie Steel (Bio on page 11)

Rebel Music - Hip Hop, Culture, and Activism

5:30pm-8:00pm

W-110

During this session there will be a screening of the film Rebel

Music: Native America, and a talk and discussion on Indigenous
Hip Hop artists and activism.
Presenter: Melissa Violet Leal (Bio on page 11)

Indigenous Peoples Days

Wednesday, March 18
Cultural Competency Training
9:00am-11:00am

Fireside Room

While there are public policy, grant requirements, best practice models and efforts to promote cultural competency
in the provision of services, there remains a significant gap between policy and actual accomplishment of cultural
competency throughout various systems of care, programs and services for tribal people. ITCC has developed a
cultural competency education model providing participants with insight to the various events and activities that
have impacted tribal people. The cultural competency education model incorporates information and activities that
enable the participants to gain a deeper understanding of the historical events that resulted in certain conditions
that exist in tribal communities among our tribal people today.
Presenter: Dean Hoaglin (Bio on page 10) & Paul Tupaz (Bio on page 11)

Pow-wow Dance and Discussion

11:00am-2:00pm

Quad

Our goal is to bring awareness and positive attention to all Native Americans through
song and dance. Thundering Moccasins would like to present Native American dancing
and singing with an educational aspect. We will be explaining the difference between
contemporary pow wow dancing to the Traditional ways of singing and dancing, mainly
focusing on California Natives. Our goal is to bring awareness and positive attention to all
Native American Tribes.
Presenter: Thundering Moccasins (Bio on page 11)

Rush for Gold: Nisenan Perspectives

2:00pm-3:30pm

Fireside Room

Revealed are some of the lesser-known stories of the Gold Rush, as told by people living in and around the Deer
Creek Watershed in Nevada City, California. The film combines interviews & local footage with archival film & photos
to highlight the stories of the native people, the Chinese Immigrant workers, and the environment itself.
Presenter: Shelly Covert (Bio on page 10)

Audiopharmacy Concert
4:00pm-6:30pm

Amphitheater

Spawned from its roots in Hip Hop, Audiopharmacy extends its

repertoire beyond the genre. By intricately fusing live instrumentation,
global musical styles, and indigenous roots, the bands audio healing redefines the meaning and the sound of World Hip Hop. By pulling
together inspiration from all corners of the earth, Audiopharmacy makes
music that is unique & avant-garde, yet always speaks the language of
the people.
Presenter: Audiopharmacy (Bio on page 9)
4

Sierra College
Native American Herbology: Past, Present and Future
7:00pm-9:00pm

V-229

Native American herbologist, ethnobotanist and teacher Sage LaPena will discuss the crucial role of native plants in
local Native American cultures. She will address the synergy of natural and cultural systems, identify contemporary
challenges and discuss the crucial role of Native American endogenous medical knowledges within the revitalization
of Native American cultures and communities.
Presenter: Sage LaPena (Bio on page 10)

Thursday, March 19
New Native Media
9:30am-11:00am

V-229

Lindsie Bear is the editor of News From Native California, a publication with the crucial goal of amplifying the voices
of Native California. In that role she not only witnesses but participates in numerous innovative Native American
applications of new media technologies to challenge dominant narratives and promote indigenous cultural
revitalization. Come participate in this demonstration and discussion of some of these powerful and important art
forms.
Presenter: Lindsie Bear (Bio on page 9)

Missions Counterstory
11:00am-12:30pm

V-229

Vincent Medina works as a curator at Mission Dolores in San Francisco

and offers tour groups a counterstory of the mission history. When
school groups file through, Medina said, he often thinks back to when he
was a fourth-grader, touring the San Jose mission while a guide told his
class how happy the friendly, faithful, peaceful Indians were that the
Spanish had brought them civilization. Even then, Medina said, he knew
"that isn't really true. ... That's what drove me to work at the mission, to
be able to talk about mission history from a more just and fair perspective, really focusing on native identity and the cultural perseverance."
Presenter: Vincent Medina (Bio on page 11)

Language Revitalization Workshop

1:30pm-3:00pm

Fireside Room

Carlos Geisdorf is a singer and language activist, developing and implementing Miwok language revitalization programs for members of his community and beyond. In this workshop he'll help us better understand the importance
and also some of the specific strategies of indigenous language revitalization. Who knows, you might leave knowing
how to say a few words of Miwok.
Presenter: Carlos Geisdorff (Bio on page 10)
5

Indigenous Peoples Days

Two Spirit (2S) and Queer Indigenous Film
2:00pm-4:00pm

D-12

Jacob is delivering a presentation exploring the history of 2S and Native queer

filmmakers and storylines. This presentation was authored and birthed from a research
literature project by Dr. Gabriel Estrada entitled, Two Spirit Visual AIDS: queering
indigenous visual erotic and theological sovereignty.
Presenter: Jacob Edward Dunlap (Bio on page 10)

Community Forum: Sierra College Native American Student Center

4:00pm-6:00pm

V-229

Want to see more of your Native youth getting into college and succeeding? So do we! Please help us figure out how
to do that by coming to this community forum and letting us know how best to help your families and communities.
We're ready to make the effort. Please help point us in the right direction by sharing your ideas or concerns either
publicly or anonymously. For more information please contact Professor Matt Archer (916) 6608033 or MArcher@SierraCollege.edu.
Presenter: Matthew Archer (Bio on page 9)

Friday, March 20
diningxine:wh-mil-na:saa:n (Hupa people - with them- it stays; there is a Hupa tradition) Gender, Native American peoples and Womens Coming of Age Ceremonies
9:00am-10:00am

Fireside Room

At one time, the Hupa womens coming of age ceremony was a public celebration of a girls first menstruation which
not only demonstrated that young women were powerful members of Hupa society but that gender equality was
central to Hupa epistemologies. California's post-invasion history was genocide aimed at the total annihilation of
Native peoples and included systematic attacks on Native women and their coming of age ceremonies. As a result,
the Hupa no longer practiced their womens ceremony. Twelve years ago, a group of Hupa women came together to
bring back the ceremony as a way to strengthen their community and address issues of health, trauma and disease.
This presentation explores the cultural revitalization of the Hupa womens ceremony to demonstrate how this
revitalization articulates and supports an Indigenous decolonizing praxis by enacting Indigenous research
methodologies that center on ceremony to counteract the impact of settler colonial ideologies of gender, history,
literature and spirituality. To learn more about this project please visit: www.cutcharislingbaldy.com.
Presenter: Cutcha Risling-Baldy (Bio on page 11)

Sierra College
Flower Songs and Puberty Rites
11:00am-12:30pm

Fireside Room

In this inspiring talk we'll get a glimpse of a woman's body, of her coming of age,
from the perspective of one of our local Native American scholars, teachers and
activists. She'll help us understand the importance of local indigenous coming-ofage rituals and their crucial role for revitalizing and advancing gender equity in
Native American communities.
Presenter: Kayla Carpenter (Bio on page 9)

Decolonizing Birthing
1:30pm-3:00pm

Fireside Room

In this lecture Sage LaPena will help us see birthing in a new and Native American inspired way. She'll not only discuss the importance of indigenous birthing customs and techniques, but also help us to critically examine mainstream American approaches to birthing. Sage will help us to better understand the importance which handing birthing in a Native specific way has for empowering Native women, their families and their communities.
Presenter: Sage LaPena (Bio on page 10)

Saturday, March 21
Yomen Weda and Big Time Event
9:00am-5:00pm

Quad

The last day of our event is truly special. Sierra College is honored to host
a Yomen Weda, a Spring feast, and a Big Time, a Native Californian
celebration. Events of the day will include traditional California dance, a
cultural arts market, demonstrations, food, games, a nature walk, and
tours of the science museum. Spectators are welcome and Native
American crafts and foods will be available. During this event please ask
for permission before taking photographs.

Sierra College from an Indigenous Perspective: A Walk with Sage LaPena

11:00pm-12:00pm

Meet at the Standing Guard Memorial

There's so much more to Sierra College than we usually notice. Sage LaPena will take us on a learning tour of the nature paths at the Rocklin campus. It's not only that few of us walk back there to appreciate an undevelped area of
the Sierra Nevada foothills and appreciate the native plants and their numerous uses and significance. On this walk
Sage will help us see the area through the eyes of a Native American ethnobotanist, herboligist, healer and teacher
and enlighten us each step of the way.
Presenter: Sage LaPena (Bio on page 10)
7

Indigenous Peoples Days

Reception
6:30pm-10:00pm

Maidu Museum and Historical Site

Please join us to celebrate the close of this powerful and enlightening series of events with a
reception at the Maidu Museum. Don't miss this opportunity to socialize with the many elders,
activists and scholars who blessed us and our region with their wisdom and medicine. Live music,
film screenings, hors d'oeuvres and beverages will provide additional entertainment and inspiration.

Sierra College
Presenter Biographies
Matthew Archer Professor, Sierra College
Dr. Matt Archer is a professor and chair of the Sierra College
Anthropology Department. He's been advising the Native American
Students Club for the past few years and in that time has awoken to
the critical need to address some of the specific challenges which
Native American students face both getting into and succeeding in
college. Dr. Archer has taken the lead in starting a Native American
Center at Sierra College and is passionate about delivering
programs which address the needs and interests of our local tribes
and communities. (916) 660-8033 or MArcher@SierraCollege.edu.

Brenna Chapman
Brenna Chapman has a Masters degree in Art History from UC
Davis and has been teaching at Sierra College since 2003.
Specializing in Chinese Literati painting during her studies, Brenna
has since expanded her expertise through a variety of opportunities
abroad including teaching in Florence for the Sierra College Study
Abroad program in 2007, working on Butterfield and Butterfields
Hoi An Hoard auction in Singapore, and travelling widely in Europe,
Asia, and South America. Brenna loves teaching about all types of
art, but has particular interest in the themes of visual literacy,
gender studies, postcolonialism, and the role of artistic biography in
the history of art.
Session: Artistic License or Artistic Injustice?

Session: Community Forum: Sierra College Native American

Student Center

Kayla Carpenter
Audiopharmacy
Making music that moves the soul and stirs insight, Audiopharmacy
is a multicultural mix of
members consisting of founder Hapa (Chinese) American Teao
(producer, guitar & turntables),
Pomo Indian/African lyricist Ras Kdee (MC & keys), Pasha
Brown (MC & sampler), Italian Keepyahjoy (bass & buckets), Virgin
Islander Ras Kwome Gustave (drums & vocals) and the Native
Hummingbird, Desirae Harp (vocals). www.audiopharmacy.com
Session: Audiopharmacy Concert

Lindsie Bear

Kayla Carpenter is a Hoopa Valley Tribal member of Hupa, Yurok

and Karuk descent. Carpenter holds a bachelors
degree in Linguistics from Stanford University and
a masters degree in Linguistics from U.C.
Berkeley. She is currently a graduate student in
the Linguistics Ph.D. program at U.C. Berkeley
and a board member of the Advocates for
Indigenous
California
Language
survival.
Carpenter is working towards conversational
fluency in the languages of her family heritage, and is also a
traditional basket weaver and singer.
Session: Flower Songs and Puberty Rites

Director, The Berkeley Roundhouse

Lindsie Bear is the Editor of News from Native California magazine,

as well as Acquisitions Editor for California
Indian books at Heyday, and Outreach
Director for Native events, classes, and
exhibitions. Ms. Bear is part Oklahoma
Cherokee, raised near the Bishop Paiute
reservation in California. She received her
B.A. in Philosophy and the History of
Mathematics from St. Johns College in Santa Fe before spending
seven years in as Senior Editor and Marketing Manager at the
University of California Press while concurrently co-directing The
40th St. Warehouse, a successful underground arts and music venue
in Oakland, CA. She is currently a trustee on the board of the
California Historical Society.

Florence Malaga Charlie Counselor, Sierra College

Florence is currently the General and Former Foster Youth student
counselor at Sierra College. Florence was born in American Samoa,
an island in the South Pacific. At the age of 12, Florence traveled to
Sacramento, California with her family so that her father could
further seek cancer treatment. She received a Bachelors degree in
Ethnic Studies and a Masters in Social Work from California State
University of Sacramento.
Session: Samoan Tattoos

Session: New Native Media

Indigenous Peoples Days

Shelly Covert

Tribal Council Secretary, Cultural Outreach

Liaison & Spokesperson, Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe
Executive Director, of California Heritage: Indigenous Research
Project
Shelly is an advocate for the Nisenan people and is a direct, lineal
descendant of the Nisenan families that were
here before the Gold Rush. The stories of Nisenan
survival are some of her favorite to share as they
pinpoint the adaptability and tenacious spirit of a
people who survived here for thousands of years
prior to outside She is also of Miwok descent on
her grandmothers side.
Session: Rush for Gold: Nisenan Perspectives

Jacob Edward Dunlap Health Education Coordinator

Jacob Edward Dunlap is Annishinaabe (Original People), a two-spirit
tribal member of the Fond du Lac band of
Minnesota Ojibwe. The Sacramento Native
American Health Center honored him as a
Champion for Change for his mentoring of
health and wellness. He is a pre-nursing
student, a writer, founding member of the
Sacramento Valley Two-Spirit Society and big
brother to Native people in his community.

Dean Hoaglin

Lead Researcher, Rebel Music Native America

Part-Time Faculty, Sierra College
Currently working for the Inter-Tribal Council of California, Inc.
(ITCC) as the Cultural Competency Program Coordinator, has over
21 years of experience working in Native
American communities providing AOD
prevention education, youth leadership
development,
program
and
policy
development that are tribal health based. Mr.
Hoaglin has worked with tribal organizations
such as the California Rural Indian Health
Board, Friendship House Association of
American Indians, Native Wellness Institute, University of
Oklahoma Health Promotions and the Sonoma County Indian
Health Project. He is a traditional dancer and singer of his Coast
Miwok and Pomo heritage and believes that culture is prevention
for tribal people. He is committed to health promotion in Native
organizations and communities and is hopeful that healing and
recovery will become more accessible to those in need.
Session: Cultural Competency Training

Session: Two Spirit (2S) and Queer Indigenous Film

Carlos Geisdorff
Carlos Geisdorff is a singer and a Miwok language revitalization
activist. He is a member of the Tuolumne Band
of Me-Wuk and has worked extensively with his
community building language training programs.
More recently he has been working with the
Shingle Springs Band of Miwok to help with their
language revitalization programs.
Session: Language Revitalization Workshop

Sage LaPena Clinical and Traditional Native American

Herbalist, Mountain Thistle Botanicals and Consultation
Sage LaPena is a Clinical Herbalist, Ethnobotanist, lecturer, teacher,
and gardener specializing in both Native
American and Western herbal traditions.
From the age of 7, Sage has worked with
local medicine people from various tribes
of Northern California. Sage has birthed
five children, four born at home. She
started addressing the public with
Indigenous and women's issues while in
fourth grade and 'studying' California Indians. She has spoken on an
array of topics from scientific botany, politics, women, herbalism
and spirit as an Indigenous woman of California.
Session: Native American Herbology: Past, Present and Future
Decolonizing Birthing
Sierra College from an Indigenous Perspective: A Walk

10

Sierra College
Melissa Violet Leal

Lead Researcher, Rebel Music Native

America, Part-Time Faculty, Sierra College
Dr. Melissa Leal is Esselen and Ohlone and grew up in Sacramento,
CA. She earned her Ph.D. in Native American
Studies from the University of California, Davis
in 2012. Her research includes the reciprocal
relationship between Hip Hop Culture and
Indigenous Communities with an emphasis on
performance, media, and film. In addition to
her work as the Lead Researcher for the Rebel
Music: Native America documentary; she teaches culture, language,
and dance for various tribal communities in Northern California.
She has taught Native American Film and Cinema at California State
University, Sonoma and currently teaches Introduction to Ethnic
Studies at Sierra College. Melissa has more than 14 years of
experience working with American Indian youth at Indian Education
programs throughout the Sacramento region.
Session: Rebel Music - Hip Hop, Culture, and Activism

Vincent Medina Outreach Coordinator, The Berkeley

Roundhouse
Vincent Medina is a Contributing Editor to News from Native
California magazine, a board member for the
Advocates for Indigenous California Language
Survival and on the board of the Yoche Dehe Living
Language Circle. Mr Medina writes the popular
blog Being Ohlone in the 21st Century, is an
Assistant Curator and educator at Mission Dolores,
and spends his free time learning and teaching his
Chochenyo Ohlone language.

Maggie Steele
Maggie Steele is a distinguished professional mediator/
peacemaker. She is the founder of Seventh Generation Warriors for
Peace, an organization dedicated to violence prevention and
community wellness. Maggie specializes in working with youth to
prevent violence, gang conflict, and in promoting healing through
grass roots organizing.
Session: Creating Leadership for the 7th Generation

Thundering Moccasins
We are a dance group called Thundering Moccasins. We Dance
and Sing to help
maintain our culture,
and give strength to
those who need it.
We would like to give
you a glimpse of our
beautiful singing and
colorful dancing, in
hopes of bringing
attention to all Native
Americans. The group currently involves members of the
Potawatomi, Wintu, Pit River, Dakota, Dine, Cree, Choctaw and the
Three Affiliated Tribes.
Session: Pow-Wow Dance Demonstration and Discussion

Session: Missions Counterstory

Paul Tupaz
Cutcha Risling-Baldy Executive Director, Native Womens
Collective
Cutcha Risling Baldy is a scholar, instructor, and PhD Candidate
whose work applies Native American Studies
to feminist theory, literary theory and the
development of Indigenous methodologies.
Ms. Risling Baldy is an enrolled member of the
Hoopa Valley Tribe with ties to the Yurok and
Karuk peoples. She is a PhD Graduate Student
in Native American Studies at the University of
California Davis. She also has her M.F.A. in Fiction and Literature
from San Diego State University and her B.A. in Psychology from
Stanford University. She is the author of a popular blog that
features articles on California Indians, pop culture, representations
of Native people in mass media and self-representations of Native
peoples via social media. www.cutcharislingbaldy.com/blog
Session: Gender, Native American peoples and Womens Coming
of Age Ceremonies

He has over 20 years experience working within the Native

American communities. After graduating
from UC Davis with a B.A., in Native
American Studies, Paul was the Director
of Student Services and later the Director
of Recruitment and School Relations at
D.Q. University. He worked for a nonprofit agency administering Early Head
Start, Head Start, and Migrant Head Start
services for 11 years and earned a Master of Business
Administration. He presented cultural competency training with
Inter-Tribal Council of California, Inc. since 2010 throughout
California. He currently is the Victim Services Manager for ITCC
offering education, prevention and intervention services for Tribal
victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and
stalking. Paul is a board member of Native Dads Network,
Sacramento Chapter. Paul is a devoted husband and father.
Session: Cultural Competency Training

11

There is a $3 parking fee on campus. Permits can be purchased at the dispensers located on the parking lots.

Thank You to our Partners & Sponsors

Associated Students of Sierra College, Heyday Books, Maidu Museum & Historical Site, Native
American Club, New Legacy Committee, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok, Sierra College Anthropology
Department, Sierra Press, United Auburn Indian Association, UpRock Audio, Yellow Hammer Designs
(Tiffany Adams), Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation

Sierra College Native American Club

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For more information contact Matt Archer at: marcher@sierracollege.edu/ (916) 660-8033