llustration by Brandon Jones
Land Acknowledgement
Wilkinson School Land Acknowledgement
Greetings ladies, gentlemen, and however else you may identify. We would like to acknowledge that our school rests on the ancestral land of the Ramaytush Ohlone people, who were the original inhabitants of El Granada. We are here to honor, respect and show our gratitude to all Ohlone people, then, now and forever to come. The Ohlone have been here forever, since time immemorial, thousands of years before anyone else. We are so grateful for all of their care to the land and we recognize that they will always be here. May we forever honor the people who gave a beautiful meaning to these grounds.
Through education and accountability, we recognize the mistakes of the past, are respectful to the Ohlone in the present, and continue to show respect to the Ohlone in the future. Let us remember that we can not undo the past, but we can pave a better future.
Read on for the touching story about how we obtained our beautiful school drum, written by one of our founders.
How Our School Drum Came
By Ed Wilkinson
For decades, Wilkinson School students gathered each day to the sound of a hand-held school bell. Then, in 2001, the Woos met the Hopi, and that changed. Here is the story.
When we first met our Hopi friends, Bennard and Frances Dallasvuyaoma, we learned that their name means “Carrier of the Sacred Corn Pollen”. Corn is the sacred center of Hopi culture. Bennard and Frances, now in their 70s, are devoted to their role as pollinators of the still cherished traditional ways in the villages and kivas of their homeland in Hopi.
They also walk effortlessly in modern American society. They left thriving professional careers, Bennard as a high school art teacher, and Frances as a lawyer, to fully commit themselves to preserving traditional Hopi arts through their jewelry, which has been awarded honors and recognition from the Santa Fe Market to the Smithsonian Museum. Their offer to walk into our world deepened the lives of our students and parents, giving them a real and rare encounter with the Hopi spirit.
How we met was “Wooish”. It was Veterans’ Day, 2001 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We (Linda and Ed Wilkinson) showed up to scout out sites for our first Intensive Studies Trip to the Southwest. There, amidst the noise, crowds, drumming, dancing, food booths and displays of art in all forms, we met Bennard and Frances, “randomly”. An instant bond formed and they offered to help us with our trip. We said yes.
The next year they guided us on the first of four intimate journeys behind closed doors through Hopi and the lands of the Pueblo peoples: 2002, 2007, 2011 and 2015. We had life changing experiences and, although too many to tell, here is a small sample: we ate traditional meals with family at Tesuque Pueblo and Moenkopi Village on Third Mesa in Hopi, Bennard’s home village; we shadowed with students at Hopi High School; we rafted on the Santa Fe River and camped overnight at Chaco Canyon with Pueblo guides; we witnessed the sacred ceremonies at the San Felipe Pueblo Feast Day; we were guests at Taos Pueblo and Acoma Pueblo; we attended the Gathering of Nations in ABQ, the largest pow wow in North America; we ate at Bennard and Frances’ home and were treated to a surprise by Bennard, who reprised songs he really performed in a movie as an Indian Elvis. What?
Our relationship broadened when we established an annual Hopi Day in November at the school. They came to teach and answer questions in each classroom. To Bennard’s beat of our drum on the school deck, Frances led the Hopi “Butterfly Dance”; they displayed their jewelry and enjoyed a potluck feast with our school community. What amazing encounters!
They were uniquely equipped for transmitting the ancient world of their people to the modern mind and heart of our people. Through words and example, some of the Hopi values we learned from them were sacredness, silence, laughter, respect, reverence, and resilience. There is tragic suffering and loss in the history of their people since the arrival of European explorers over 400 years ago, but these two persons choose to focus their energies on what can be done now to change this. We are called to follow in their footsteps.
Mesa Verde is holy to the Hopi as the original dwelling place of their ancestors. When we told Bennard we wanted to get a drum for our school, he offered to help us and asked to wait until we arrived at Mesa Verde. There, he selected the drum for us, a masterpiece done by a local pueblo drum maker. The sound! The beauty! Love at first sight!
Our Hopi friends taught us to be attentive to the real presence of the spirits of their ancestors in all the lands we walked through with them. This was most especially true in sites like Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon where there once were thriving civilizations. The spirits of their ancestors were alive there and the proper response was remembrance and reverence.
Our school drum came to us from Mesa Verde, in a way that is full of wonder, through a relationship that is full of wonder, with friends from Hopi. The beat of this drum reminds us to honor and revere the ancient peoples not just of the Southwest, but of all indigenous nations, on all lands and to carry this heart of respect and friendship into the present. Yes, even on the land where our school now stands, the beat of our drum each day connects us to the ancient Ohlone people who once made this place their home, and to their present day descendants.
