Acknowledgments
The cultural relationship to and importance of water is evident throughout California’s diverse Tribal communities and is sacred in Tribal societies. Ancient Tribal societies were organized into moieties or clans, which revered water and references back to traditional law. This typically placed the responsibilities to look after water on the members of that moiety or clan. Nearly every Tribe has traditional stories about water that addresses the origins of human beings to explaining the place where one’s ancestors depart to when deceased. As part of the California Water Plan Update 2009 process, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) convened a voluntary Tribal Communication Committee in December 2007 to seek advice on how to communicate appropriately and e ectively with California Native American Tribes. The Committee released a working draft Tribal Communication Plan in July 2008. In this process, the Committee identified stories as a powerful and e ective educational tool because they involved real people, places, and histories. The Committee initiated a Tribal Water Stories project and began reaching out to all California Native American Tribes to submit stories that explained something about a Tribe’s historical connections with water and its current connections with water, to convey that Tribes continue to be a part of California’s diverse landscapes. The full list of Tribal Water Stories can be found at water.ca.gov/About/Tribal-Policy. The Making of the World was provided to the Committee and is included in the Tribal Water Stories compiled by DWR. It is a story first recorded in 1918 from the North Fork Mono Tribe. The story was recorded by Edward Winslow Gi ord, Researcher from Berkeley. The storytellers included: Molly Kinsman Pimona, Mrs. George Teaford, Singing Jack, an old shaman and, an old man. Dan Harris, a young man, was the interpreter.
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Volume 2
My age is
My school is
My favorite body of water is
DWR contracted with Dudek to develop K-12 educational materials for school districts and educators statewide to conduct communication and engagement and help identify the needs, risks, and vulnerabilities of Tribes and other underrepresented communities (URCs) with respect to the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Through the process, and in collaboration with the DWR Tribal Liaison, the URC Technical Assistance Program (URC TA Program) and Executive sta determined that making the Tribal Water Stories into graphic novels would be highly beneficial to continued outreach to Tribes and to teach California youth the importance of water and its connection to California Native America Tribes.
DWR intends to continue developing more graphical novels using the Tribal Water Stories in its ongoing e ort in outreaching and educating youth on the importance of water, where their water comes from, what groundwater is, how groundwater is connected to surface water, and many other water supply and quality related topics. Video links for the animation of these graphical novels will be added to the URC TA Program when available. For updates on the K-12
educational materials, URC TA Program, and more Tribal Water Story graphical novels, please visit www.water.ca.gov/urctaprogram or email the URC TA Program at SGM_TA@water.ca.gov.
Scan barcode to read about the history of DWR’s Tribal Water Summit
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