September 28, 2024, Eureka High School, Eureka, CA: After seeing Sage preform next to local Native students at two different Eureka City Schools during California Native American week I was able to sit down with him and Mia, a Eureka High School student, and ask him a few questions about his non-profit and his mission to showcase Native American culture and ceremony to our community. Never before have I seen cultural healing practices in educational setting. I was intrigued by these assemblies going on in Northern California schools and community centers.

Natascha: Hello! Welcome to the Little Lost Forest blog. I am here today with Sage at Eureka High School. He has been performing at schools in Northern California for California Native American/ Indian day.

Natascha: Hello Sage, thanks for sitting with us. How is your day going?

Sage: Manahu, it’s going well. Thank you.

Natascha: I just want to know, what’s your mission?

Sage: So, my mission is to help spread awareness of us as native people still being present. You know, we still have our culture. We still have a living way of sharing the traditions that our people have today, and also that we have a presence, you know, because there are many times when our people are overlooked or often seen as no longer really around. We don’t have a voice. Or there’s even where I’m from there’s this, perspective of like, oh, you guys are you’ve been defeated. You know, you need to sit quietly and, uh, it’s just a mentality that’s, you know, that’s been in people’s minds for a long time. So, my mission is to, you know, show that we’re still here. We still have strength. We still have grace. We’re still all about keeping things going. And, uh, you know, it’s about honoring the legacy of our loved ones that have gone on, the ones that have, uh, that are no longer here, that we can continue the traditions of song and dance and language and things that they taught and keep them going. So that’s what my mission is.

Natascha: And when you say we, you’re talking about your tribe? What tribe are you from?

Sage: So, I’m from the Big Pine Paiute tribe. From my mother, my late mother, Margaret Romero. And we call ourselves the Tovowahammatu Numu. And I’m also of the Taos Pueblo, the Tuah-Tahi people, people of the Red Willow. That’s the people of my late father, Andrew Romero. And we, when I say we, it’s obviously talking about my tribe, my community. But then again, you know, I don’t really have the right to speak for everybody. I’m just generally speaking, in terms of everybody that’s within our community. But, you know, I say it in a respectful way. So that’s who I mean.

Natascha: What about your culture do you feel has been lost?

Sage: Quite a few things have been lost. Where we come from, our people experience the Owens Valley Indian Wars, which was in 1862. And so, you know, fairly recent if you think about the history of the United States. And within that, our people were removed from our valley. And it wasn’t until the early 1900s, 1912, 1914, that our people started coming back because of the failure of the fort systems. They weren’t able to, you know, retain or keep our people there in a healthy manner or also just functional manner because it was so terrible back then. But back then they started putting our people back in the valley. Our people started moving back. And within that, of course, there was a loss of a lot of, you know, family members that didn’t survive the movement, the basically trail of tears of our Paiute people during that time.

Sage: And so, we lost a lot of connection to language, dances, songs, stories, things that had been passed down because obviously people that held those didn’t survive those times. So, they weren’t able to carry it on. And then with the introduction of Colonization efforts and, you know, being indoctrinated into different religions of people from different parts of the world. You know, it made our people forget about who we were and start adopting the beliefs of others because they lost a lot of the connection of the ancestors from that time. And so, you know, they started learning like Christianity and different teachings from other people.

Sage: And so, within that, there was also the effort of eliminating the Indian identity and making sure we all become a part of the general population, you know, the melting pot of America. And so, the idea was to eliminate language, eliminate culture, eliminate things that they do and just make them citizens of the United States. Work job, pay bills, retire, and that’s it. You know, you’re done. Uh, so within that, we lost a lot of culture, and now our people are really working to revitalize a lot of those things. There’s a big revitalization of language, right now. Of course, with dance and song, you see a lot of these things coming back. More people are practicing, more people are learning. Young, young ones are starting to learn earlier. And, uh, you know, that’s a big part of our culture. And we still got it going on today. But we did lose a lot in those times.

Natascha: And when you refer to the medicine, what are you referring to?

Sage: So, when I’m doing my presentations, I often talk about medicine. And as i explained to the children, it’s not about pills or a drink you have to take. It’s just the medicine to us is a spirit and the emotion. Your body, what’s around you, how you portray yourself, how you carry yourself, how you treat others. That’s a medicine. How you make people feel. And so, when you’re doing something like me sharing the hoop dance, you know, it’s, uh, affecting people differently that watch it, you know, some people will see it and they’ll see take something out. And I believe that, that’s a medicine. That feeling that I’m giving them. And so, within myself, I have to make sure I’m living in a good way. I don’t partake of any type of drugs or alcohol. Things like that, substances. Because I know that when I’m out there dancing, I want to make sure every message that’s going through my body, through the hoops is received in a good way. You know, because when you mix just like any prescription drug, you mix them wrong. You can make people sick, right? So, there’s that whole aspect of the spirit.

Sage: Same idea.

Sage: You want to make sure you’re in a good place when you’re sharing these type of things. Because that medicine, the dance, the songs, everything that helps people and that’s what it is to us.

Natascha: Well, thank you for sharing the medicine with our community.

Speaker1: Thank you.

Natascha: Do you feel like the community as a whole can and should participate in a Native American cultural celebration?

Sage: Uh. It depends. It really is dependent upon what community you’re around, because there are some ceremonies that our people keep private that we still have. And oftentimes our people will share that, this is just for our community, this is for our people. And, you know, it’s just a way of having respect given people, our people and space and time to have that just for our people. But like with the gatherings like tonight or like a powwow or a social gathering, a big time, which often happens here, that’s everybody’s welcome to come to those. So that’s always a good thing. And I think it’s a good spirit, you know, because it shows people what we do. You hear the stories, you hear the protocol. You learn how to how to act when you’re there. And oftentimes, you know, we ask people when you come to these gatherings, so make sure you’re not under any type of influence. You’re not drunk, you’re not high or anything like that. Come with a clear mind when you’re there so you can be present. And, you know, as I talked about before, medicine, how it’s important. That’s also so you can receive that good medicine and balance.

Sage: So, I think it’s good for people to come and attend to our public ones like tonight and take part and learn, you know, because as my mission is to, you know, spread awareness. If nobody’s coming, they’re not going to, you know- it’s not going to- my awareness efforts aren’t going to spread because people aren’t hearing the stories. But if people from the community non-natives are coming, they’ll hear the stories. They’ll see the perspective; they’ll experience it hands on in a sense. You know, being right there and hearing it and seeing things in person is so much more powerful than, you know, watching YouTube videos or TikToks and things like that. There’s more, you know, it has more impact upon your soul when you’re there, present with it. So that’s always good to have. So yeah, I’d encourage people to come to public, but remember the protocols and make sure you. Ask first if it’s something that the public can come to, or if it’s just for the tribe.

Natascha: Thank you. Can you tell us the story on love?

Sage: So, there’s many stories of love within our tribal peoples, and really depends on where you’re at and what time of the season it is and stuff like that. But the one I’ve been telling at the presentations, because I play the Native flute, has been a story of courtship about the efforts someone would take if they had become interested in somebody. And this comes from the Plains people.

Sage: And so, this story talks about an individual falling in love with another. And so, when that time comes and they’re of age, you know, the proper age, they’re kind of grown a little bit. And they’re given permission by their family that they could start doing these types of things. Perhaps they had gone through their puberty ceremonies, adolescent ceremonies, because that’s something you have as native people, so they’re seen as an adult.

Sage: All right. So, if you become interested in somebody you would often start learning the protocols of your family. So, one of those protocols is a flute song for those people from the plains. And the flute song would have been passed down for generations. So, their family has a song that’s specific to them. And they would go, and they would learn that song. And then once they knew it, they took time and devoted themselves to that practice. They would take the time to go to that person that they were interested in, go to their lodge, which was not just the person, but also their family, and they would sit outside it at night after the sun had gone down. And then they would begin playing that one song, and they’d play that song all through the night until, you know, the first light started coming.

Sage: And then they would take the time to go get a little rest themselves, because you’re not supposed to sleep all day just because you’re trying to be romantic. And so, they would go and rest up, and they would come back the next night, and they would do that again all through the night. And then after that they would come back again. Third night. Then they’d come back again a fourth night. So, they would do this for four nights in a row. And then after the fourth night was the time to show it out, because as they were doing that, the person being played for in the lodge, that they’d have an idea, you know, someone was interested in them, so they know, but they were never allowed to look out and see who was playing for them.

Sage: So, it was a little bit of a mystery, per se. And so, after that fourth night, the individual that was interested played the flute would go in front of everybody in the village in the middle of everybody, and they would start playing that same song over and over again in the middle of the day. And this would, you know, make people say, oh, there’s that song that was played at that lodge over there. Somebody go get that individual that was living there. Someone go find them and bring them back so they could see who’s been playing for them. And so, they would do that and that person would come back to the village and they could finally see who was playing the flute. And so, if they were interested, you know, and they accepted that courtship, all they had to do was go up to that person and take their hand in front of everybody in the front of the village, and then everybody would bear witness and say, okay, these two are now together. Let’s let them build a relationship. Let’s let them get to know each other. Nobody else tried to come and disrupt that. Let’s respect that space so that. That’s what that would be known.

Sage: And from there, that couple would begin, you know, their life, whatever their family would be, they would start creating that. And there was also the turn of maybe they weren’t interested. And if that would happen, they would simply just have to turn around and walk away. And that person in the middle with the flute would continue playing and just wait and wait and wait and maybe someone will come and tap him on the shoulder and say, it’s okay, how come you know that? Kind of give them the give them the little assurance that they’ll be all right. You know, and it’s time to stop.

Sage: So, there’s that story there.

Sage: And then they would just continue on. And I was accepted. You know, it wasn’t something that you wouldn’t try to go and protest and say, how dare you not accept my flute song? You know, you couldn’t do that. You just said accept it because it wasn’t your time. And so that’s how it was done. And that’s a story that’s passed down. And that’s the way that a lot of families were created back in the day, was using such a technique of courtship.

Speaker1: Out of curiosity. Did you ever play the flute for four days?

Speaker3: I’ve tried, yes, I’ve tried and failed, unfortunately.

Natascha: It’s awfully romantic.

Sage: Sometimes, too romantic for this day and age. [Both laughing] Yeah.

Natascha: How do you think sharing culture can unite and make our communities stronger?

Sage: As I said before, it’s about raising awareness and getting an understanding of each other. Because if you’re creating barriers, if you’re pushing people away, you don’t want to have them around. You’re never going to get a sense of connection. You’re never going to be able to form any type of relationship, whether it’s a big one or a small one or whatever. So, to be able to have that connection of seeing each other and hearing each other’s stories and feeling things on a human level, you know, that’s important because that’s what is so important about multicultural gatherings, people coming together and sharing whatever it may be. It gives you an understanding of where other people come from.

Sage: It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to go and, you know, um, be an appropriator go appropriate to the culture. You know, it’s not that. It’s just your understanding of what they’re doing because, you know, everybody’s life journey is different, and it’s beautiful to see all these cultures and how they became the way they are. Even within tribes, native tribes, different languages, different songs, different types of dances. But still, you know, we all respect that. We give each other space and time and understand that, oh, this is how you do it. Oh, this is how we do it. But it’s not like an argument. It’s not like, oh, we’re doing it better and we’re doing it right. No, it’s just that, oh, this is our people’s way. This is your way. That’s good, I understand that. So, I’ll give you space when I need to. You know, that’s that understanding. And I think that’s really important to have in the world today some, some connections so that people can experience each other and just see where they’re coming from. I think it’s beautiful when you can use art and culture as a way to connect to that.

Natascha: Oh, I totally agree. I’m talking about art and culture. How does art play a part in your ceremony?

I think there is a teaching of an elder that said that to us, art is our ceremony. It’s not necessarily art. It is just a ceremony. What it is, you know, our dances and our songs. You could label it as art, right? But to us, to do this dance in itself is a ceremony. There’s no distinction, there’s no separation.

Sage Romero

Sage: It’s just one thing to us. And so, to us, you know, it has to be there where we can share these things together. And, well, like you look at the sand paintings of the Diné people, how they paint with sand and my people with our baskets, how we utilize them. Again, people can see that as arts and crafts, right? But to us, there’s always a deeper meaning to these things. And there’s just it just doesn’t really make sense to me as a native person to separate them because they’re so intertwined and connected. And I think it’s just it’s pretty much just one thing to us.

Natascha: Awesome. Is there anything else you would like to add or share on culture and community to our readers?

Speaker3: I would just say continue learning about others in a good way. You know, appropriate way. Don’t be appropriator or don’t be going and stealing other people’s culture. You know, always ask permission and find out what’s proper for you to do and what’s something you can learn. And you can go and develop yourself. Make sure there’s communication. You know that’s important. But as for other things, I think it’s just important to be a part and share it. Like these gatherings like this, community gatherings, experiencing things, you know, be in the moment. That’s the important part. Be there, be there, be present. Use your eyes to watch. Use your skin to feel the wind around you, the air, the music. You know, how the drum can impact the air around you and all the things that are happening and just be there. That’s what I would say is take it in as much as it is. Take it for what it is. You know, make that effort to be a part of something and go with an open mind and a good mind and good heart. That’s all I can say about that.

Natascha: Well, thank you so much, Sage, for sharing all this awesome wisdom and stories with me.

Sage: All right. Thank you.

Sage Andrew Romero is a member of the Tovowahamatu Numu (Big Pine Paiute) and Tuah-Tahi (Taos Pueblo) Tribes. He is an accomplished Hoop Dancer/ Cultural Presenter/ Director/ Animation Artist/ Singer/ Keynote Speaker and has traveled internationally sharing the Culture of his people through song, story, dance and art. He is the founder and Director of the AkaMya Culture Groups, a Native American owned and operated 501(C)(3) Nonprofit Organization based in Tovowahamatu, Payahu Nadü (Big Pine, California).