San Geronimo Valley Historical Society by Owen Clapp Announcements We have been working with the Arts and Events team to program some collaborative events throughout the year. We are planning a ‘Valley Arts History’ panel discussion towards the end of the Spring Art Show (on Saturday, May 25) featuring some of the exhibiting artists in the show. Later, towards the end of the year, we are planning a Coast Miwok history series with guest speakers. Both events will include related new exhibitions for the Living Room history space. Also in the works is historical signage around the valley! We were awarded a County grant about two years ago and have been working to gain approval for signage installation in a prominent location in Woodacre. More news coming soon on this! At the end of the summer, Alex Cusick’s 4th/5th grade class visited the Living Room space for local history. We’re working to develop curriculum and more integration between the Lagunitas Community School and the Historical Society.
Time Capsule & Living History The story of He’-Koo-Las is an ancient story told by the Coast Miwok people of Tomales in the early 1900s to European-American researcher Clinton Hart Merriam. In this story, the main characters - or as Merriam dubbed them, “personages” - are He’-koo-las the Sun-woman and O’ye the Coyote-man. O’ye appears constantly throughout Coast Miwok storytelling and culture. The story reads: “The world was dark. The only light anywhere was He’-koo-las the Sun-woman. She lived far away in the east. The people wanted light, and O’-ye the Coyote-man sent two men to bring He’-koo-las. They traveled along time, for they had far to go. When they came to the place where she lived she refused to go back with them. So they came back alone and told O’-ye. Then he sent more men; this time he sent enough men to bring her whether she wanted to come or not. They made the long journey to her home and tied her with ropes and brought her back to make light for the people. Her entire body was covered with ah’-wook—the beautiful iridescent shells of the abalone; these made her shine so brightly that she gave off light and it was hard to look at her.” Merriam collected a number of Marin-specific stories from the Coast Miwok in the early 20th century. Some stories he gathered were ancient, and others he designated “present day,” though it is unclear how he differentiated them.
Thanks for reading, Owen
Loaning Images for Digitization If you know of anyone with historic Valley photos who might like to loan the photos for long enough for them to be scanned into our archive, please send an email to sgvhistoricalsociety@gmail.com.
Image of sunset at Kehoe Beach Trail from Author’s Collection.
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SGV Community Center Stone Soup Page 21
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