On Feb. 12, the Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society hosted a weaving demonstration and informative talk. Clint McKay, Dry Creek Pomo/Wappo/Wintun weaver, is a featured participant in the museum’s current exhibit, “From Diggers Bend to River Rock: People and History of Dry Creek Rancheria.”
The exhibit, curated by Dry Creek Pomo historian Sherrie Smith-Ferri, opened on Sept. 30 and runs until May 29. Since its opening, the Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society has hosted various events that correlate to the collection of historical items on display as part of the exhibit.
Future related events include a traditional native food festival on March 26 and a Pomo Indian Art Fair on April 23.
“Clint McKay is a member of Dry Creek Rancheria and is an accomplished basket weaver. Clint and Lucy McKay have participated in various museum events related to our exhibit, and this has enriched our programs and the exhibit overall. Clint is included in the exhibit because he is a weaver and culture bearer in the tribe. Clint’s elders taught him the traditions that he is now passing down to new generations of members of the tribe,” said Lauren Carriere, research curator for the museum.
As McKay created a basket for event attendees to see, he talked about his heritage and life.
As he continued to weave his basket McKay told a story about how he attempted to make three small baskets for his daughters for Christmas.
“And I gave myself about a month and I thought, you know, I’ve been at this for a long time, I can whip out three baskets in a month. I just finished them last week. So I hope it was worth the wait to them,” he said as the crowd laughed.
Someone asked if he and his wife ever worked on a basket together. McKay replied they do and even said basket experts might not know when two people worked on one.
“It doesn’t happen a lot with us, but like that basket from all of my grandkids at some point, she’ll say, ‘I want to help you.’ And so we will work together on that,” he said.
McKay went on to talk about a specific basket they created together. He said many Pomo people do quail top designs but theirs happens to be different.
“It’s almost as if we would say it’s our family crest. When our first granddaughter was born, I said, ‘I’m gonna make her a quail top basket,’” he said. But then his wife wanted to participate in the creation.
“We finally decided we were going to combine — so it’s quail top designs on the side, and stars around the top. On the moonwalk side, over in Amador County, where my wife is from, quail is really prevalent to them, too,” he said.
McKay further explained a word his wife uses in her tribe means “catch them while they are sleeping” which refers to the quail going to sleep at night.
“That’s the best way we can incorporate the Pomo side from us — the Pomo side from me, and those design elements are the best that her papa and ama could give her,” he said.
Both McKay and his wife are proud to spread awareness of their culture and also to pass it on to their children.
“Along with the blessings that we’ve received comes … an incredible responsibility that we feel that we carry. When people hear me speak my language, and they say, ‘You know how many people speak it,’ there’s nobody around today that I can talk to,” he said.
“Our numbers are really scary right now. That’s why we try to support people at any level at any age that’s interested in learning and carrying on this part of tradition. We need you, I don’t care if you’re five or 50,” he said about teaching basket weaving and his language.
Jokingly, McKay said even though people can claim you cannot force your children to do something, they do.
“Because I don’t ever want my kids or our grandkids to stand up in front of a group of people and say, ‘I didn’t have that opportunity.’ So our children, we’re putting an incredible responsibility back on them. Our children speak their language, our children know their dances, they know our songs, they know what those songs mean,” he said.
