Tag: Burns Paiute

Flying By

Summer that is! Wow! It’s almost the end of July. I can’t believe this month is almost over.

I spent most of this month with my butt in the chair writing the next Spotted Pony Casino Mystery. I wanted it to be published right before I go on a vacation in September. It is written, polished and off to my critique partners and beta-readers. I am proud of myself for writing over 70,000 words in 25 days.

My cover designer has the cover made.

Now to get the back cover blurb written and some memes made to promote the pre-order and the release of the book. That’s what the rest of this month and all of next month will be about. Setting up all my blog posts and promotions through my vacation. I don’t want to worry about having to get things out on a schedule when I’m enjoying traveling with my oldest daughter and granddaughter. I’ll have more about the trip in future posts.

I made time this month for two fun things. The first one was learning how to make Tule baskets from a Paiute woman. My daughter and I took a class from Beverly Beers. It was fun and taught me a bit about the culture and that I need to really practice if I want to make tight baskets. Here are some photos of the process.

We started with ten pieces of tule that had been soaked. You squeeze out the water and kind of flatten them in the process.

The next step was crossing five pieces over the other five and weaving them together to make the bottom of the basket.

When the bottom was woven, then a longer piece of tule was bend in two and then used as the weaver to go around the basket. I struggled with twisting the pieces correctly in between the uptight pieces. Beverly took mine out at one point and made me start over.

My finished product. We were told we could soak them and then put them around a can or jar to let them dry to the that shape if we wanted a perfectly round basket.

This is what it looked like after it dried and I added the tule rose I made (with help from my daughter) and the dried seeds that were on the end of one of the tules.

The other fun thing was attending the Tamkaliks Powwow in Wallowa Oregon. I enjoy the ceremonies, the dancing, and visiting with the vendors. I found a young woman who was selling healing teas and balms from the Umatilla tribe who gave me her email so I can ask her questions to hopefully give my Spotted Pony Casino books more color and influence of the culture.

Here is a youtube video I took of the horse procession at the powwow. It is my favorite part of the event.

Have you ever attended a powwow? I enjoy the singing and drumming as much as the colorful regalia and dancing.

Evening of Inspiration by Paty Jager

Rogue Valley Chorale

Last Sunday, my friend and I attended an event at the Burns Paiute Gathering Center. It was a chorale concert and pow wow dances.

The Rogue Valley Chorale traveled to Burns to perform a piece composed by Joseph Julian Gonzalez. The composer had studied Aztec storytelling after having a rhythm and chant come to him out of the blue. While diving into centuries old transcriptions by clergymen, he discovered one story that he couldn’t get out of his mind.

Butterfly Dancers

This was the story of a woman searching for flowers. The birds and butterflies directed her to a beautiful place with radiant sunshine and the most beautiful flowers the woman had ever seen. they told her to gather them into her robe and take them back to her people. But she thought about this and left the flowers to grow as they were.

Gonzalez talk of all the different symbolism the scholars and elders came up with for the flowers and the maiden not returning to her world with them. And this story is what sparked the composer song- Origin of the Songs. Which is what the stories that were found from centuries ago were called. The reason he wished the song to be premiered in Burns with the Paiutes stems from the fact they are one of the few North American tribes that speak the language of the Aztecs.

Fancy Dancer

While I enjoyed the pre-concert talk by Gonzalez on how he came to write the piece and the powwow dancers in the middle of the program, it was the final song, the Origin of the Songs that I had waited for all night and found to be the most enchanting. Along with the Rogue Valley Chorale, there was mezzo accompanist, Shelly Cox Thornhill, who sang the part of the woman finding the flowers.

I came away from the evening with some great photos and feeling more connected to the Crow character I am writing in my current work in progress.