National Native American Heritage Month continues at historic Peña Adobe
National Native American Heritage Month continues through Nov. 30 at Pena Adobe Park in Vacaville, where there are lots to learn about the first people who lived in Solano County, the Golden State, and North America.
On a recent visit to Peña Adobe Park, Marge GrowEppard, a Miwok tribal elder of California “fondly talked about working as a teenager” at the Peña Adobe Park with caretaker Cliff Bisbee in the mid1960s, Cricket Kanouff, of the Pena Adobe Historical Society, said in a press release.
Grow-Eppard, or Sister Who Walks With Bears, her Indian name, is the director of the American Indian Movement Foothills Central California chapter. She was joined by John Pryor, a professor at California State University, Fresno, and American Indian Movement members, who toured the Adobe grounds.
Pryor led a discussion of the American Indian artifacts displayed in the Mowers-Goheen Museum adjacent to the Adobe.
Grow-Eppard is also a trustee at DQ University in Davis, a school that offers a wide variety of Native American extracurricular activities, ranging from music lessons to team sports to art classes. Holly Cardoza, also from DQU, joined the tour, as did Melissa Mendoza from the 7 Generations Intertribal Council.
Several certified cultural resource monitors also attended and listened to Grow-Eppard’s talk about Jim Big Bear King, who was active in the establishment of the Suscol Inter-Tribal Council, whose mission is to develop and maintain a Native American cultural center as well as preserve and protect Native American sacred sites and traditions. He spent countless hours speaking not only at Peña Adobe but at schools and colleges throughout Northern California before he died in November 2007.
Kanouff noted that in the summer of 1975, Big Bear set out on a journey to the state Capitol, walking from Napa with an Indian protest symbol: a cross to symbolize his people’s burden. He walked 58 miles carrying his cross with a copy of “Kappler’s Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties” bound to it. Big Bear reached the Capitol, where he met then-Gov. Jerry Brown Jr. on July 5.
Big Bear then took his cross to the Peña Adobe Park, where he often spoke to visitors and campers during the summer. He made Native American glyphs, telling the story of his pilgrimage on the arms of the cross and placed the number 389 on the top of the post (389 represents the number of treaties with tribes and the U.S. Congress), Kanouff said in the prepared statement.
Big Bear raised the cross on the small knoll beside the duck pond at the Pena Adobe. Over time, the cross was damaged and removed to storage.
Peña Adobe Historical Society docent Armando Perez, whose family is Chiricahua Apache, discovered the cross earlier this year while working in the Adobe storage area, said Kanouff, adding that Grow-Eppard spoke about Big Bear and the many stories he shared, including his walk to the Capitol.
The afternoon visit ended with Sky Road Webb of Davis, a descendant of the Tomales Bay Miwok and a board of director for ACORN (All California Oratory Resource Network), a nonprofit dedicated to supporting native language revitalization.
Webb is a storyteller and keeper of native music and language. He has composed and performed original Miwok songs with many organizations. As the tour ended, he performed songs and invited docent James Tunstall to join in. Tunstall, whose father is from the Yaqui tribe, has been a docent with the Peña Adobe Historical Society since 2019.
“This November, as we reflect on National Native American Heritage Month, we look forward to this knowledgeable group returning to Peña Adobe and sharing the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans who lived here years ago,” Kanouff wrote in the release.
According to the National Congress of American Indians, the month is meant to celebrate the cultures, histories and contributions of American Indians. It also is meant to educate people about Native American culture and the challenges Native people have faced historically.
The historic Adobe is in Peña Adobe Park, just off Interstate 80 at Peña Adobe Road in Vacaville.
The Pena Adobe the Historical Society is a nonprofit, volunteer group founded in 2004 and committed to preserving the Peña Adobe and providing educational and cultural events to the community.
The center of attraction at the historic park is, of course, the adobe, the oldest, fully restored structure in Solano County, California Historical Landmark No. 534 and the former home of the Peña family, which, together with the Vaca family, arrived in Solano County in 1841.
For more information about the Adobe, or to volunteer, or park hours, send an email to penaadobe@gmail.com, telephone (707) 447-0518, or visit www.penaadobe.org.