Indian Village Field Trip

October 5th turned out to be a brilliant day for a field trip to Sumeg Indian Village at Patrick's Point State Park

boarding the bus enjoying the ride arriving at Patrick's Point Ranger Brent Montgomery gave us a very informative tour of Sumeg Indian Village starting with this Yurok canoe carved from a redwood log Justin and his twin brother Zach listen intently the regalia house Mrs. Thrash signs the ranger's talk to Jasper Ranger Brent tells about the ceremonial sweat lodge reactions were varied... ...but everyone was eager to go through it coming out the other side next we heard about a typical Yurok home before getting to tour it Daniel comes through the round hole designed to keep out grizzly bears noting what this dwelling does and doesn't have that our own homes do last stop was the Brush Dance pit the Forest Ecology walk began with a warning about these poisonous mushrooms Katie & Jack run to catch up with the pack on the way to 1st ecological zone ...the Initiation Zone is how a forest starts out – from a meadow or mown field next comes the Exclusion Zone - where taller plants begin to exclude shorter one then comes the Understory Zone, here dominated by fast growing Red Alders eventually other species surpass these understory trees and create a Climax Zone ...where there tends to be little undergrowth - but a little further on... moss, huckleberries & full grown tree had made a home on a rotting fallen... lunch & games... a volunteer wearing a magnificent Yurok dentalium shell necklace... led us through the steps in making one for ourselves stringing beads one by one alternating with the conical dentalium shells which required first snipping their tips off to make them tubular at the middle of the string we tied on a pretty piece of abalone shell we had five colors of beads to choose from in creating our own patterns when Daniel finished the second side of his string he became the... model for how to find what point to tie it so it would fit over his head ...as well as how to adjust it before adding the final knot ...as Lizzy is doing here Erin, Jasper, and Sierra model their completed necklaces Daniel reads the display about dentalium regalia and trading for shells enjoying the bus ride home...