“The month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. Heritage Month is also an opportune time to educate the general public about tribes, to raise a general awareness about the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges.”
- National Congress of American Indians
Native American Heritage Month
November is Native American Heritage Month, but at Turtle Bay Exploration Park, we celebrate Native American Heritage every day. Our 300-acre campus straddles two traditional Wintu territories; elpom on the south side of the river and dawpom to the north. When you are at Turtle Bay, you are walking in the footsteps of people who have lived here since time immemorial.
In addition to annual events, such as our involvement in Indigenous People’s History Day and the Cottonwood Treaty Commemoration held at the Sundial Bridge, Turtle Bay has school programs geared toward teaching students about traditional Wintu ways of living. We also create temporary exhibitions in collaboration with local Wintu people using the museum’s extensive collection of ethnographic objects and our partners’ deep knowledge of their history.
But you don’t have to wait for a tour, event, or special exhibition to honor Native American heritage. You can come to Turtle Bay all year round to learn about the Wintu and neighboring tribes. Enter the museum and step inside our replica incense-cedar bark house, built by indigenous craftspeople, and listen to local legends in both English and the Wintu language. The bark house is next to a real lumjawi, an Atsugewi canoe found in the Rising River at Hat Creek. Take a tour of the Resources Gallery and learn how native people subsisted off of the abundant plants and animals available at Turtle Bay before European contact.
If you visit the Park while the museum is closed, don’t worry, you don’t have to come inside to get a taste of Wintu life along the river. Walk the River Trail and discover interpretation about village life and ethnobotany – the native use of plants. The audio stations were recorded by Wintu adults and students learning and preserving their native language.
So, this year, as you are enjoying your Thanksgiving feast, consider celebrating Native American Heritage Month. Bring your family down to Turtle Bay to learn more about the people who have been here since long before the legendary Pilgrims spent three days with the Wampanoag, giving rise to an official holiday that did not begin for another two centuries.