LAKEPORT>> The 23rd annual Tule Boat Festival returned at Big Valley Rancheria at the point on Mission Rancheria Road on Saturday. The event was a cultural festival primarily for the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians. The festival was also environmentally conscious regarding Clear Lake and the tule. The area was set up with more than 20 environmental booths, native outreach programs, and cultural demonstrations. Following lunch in the afternoon, the boat races started.
The boat races were divided into at least four categories and comprised of various teams. Starting with seniors (women and then men) before going on to children and young adults. As stressed by Sarah Ryan, the Pomo’s Environmental Director, the water was tested to ensure it was “safe for people to go in.” Beyond doing “a lot of aeration and weed removal” (including primrose), they checked for hazards like bacteria and cyanotoxins.
As for the boats, each one was made out of tule. The tule had been harvested and collected on Thursday, July 24 at the Clear Lake State Park. The tule was then bound and cut into shape on Friday, July 25 at the Big Valley Rancheria. The Pomo had been using the tule for boats for years; the festival was even started by a late Tribal Elder, Nelson Hopper, to teach the youth how to make a traditional tule boat. Since 2001, the festival has grown to be a yearly gathering for the Big Valley Community.
Even if the festival was centered around the boat races, there was more to offer. Various booths were set up to educate people about the environment and how important tule is. The theme of the festival was awakening traditions in their youth; having cultural displays of the Pomo tribe. Aside from dancing, there were booths set up for crafts like weaving. Ashley Balletto, a tribal member of the Pomo, personally demonstrated and helped children bend tule into figures like the bitten bird. She said tt was rewarding for her.
“Yeah, it’s my favorite part because I wasn’t sure if anybody was going to want to come to my booth or if it would be fun or not,” Balletto expressed warmly. “Seeing it here with these kids that are really excited, about to start, just makes my heart super grateful that little young ones just want to be out here doing this thing.”
For Corine Pearce, a basket weaver whose great-grandmother was from Big Valley, it was rewarding to have other weavers present.
“Before it was just me as the only basket weaver here. And now it’s four,” Pearce remarked. “My hopes for the future is that it passes on and that it continues to spread and there’s more interest.” She added that the vendors keep reconnecting with people and with the culture they represent.
The connection of community and culture was a related feature of the festival. Olivia Hart, another weaver, remarked that “I think right now it’s time for the youth to really meet each other, do a lot of intertribal meeting, do some exchanges,” adding that it would be really great to have more visits between tribes in future events.
In turn, another first-time vendor from the Yurok tribe admitted that he was glad to be there, to see it, to witness it, and be around all these things that are positive things for the community. He added that he thinks his tribe will do it again next year.
