Indian Canyon provides an irreplaceable resource for
community events in the lives of Native people living on the
Central Coast. The California Indian Story Telling Conference
draws hundreds of people to the Canyon each year. The Village
House will contribute greatly to the accommodation of this annual
event, and will also house winter storytelling events. Moon
ceremonies are held yearly in the Canyon, and are attended by
hundreds of women from the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas.
Indian Canyon has hosted indigenous runners from the Peace and
Dignity Run and is being used for the Bear Dance, a traditional
California Indian ceremonial dance. The Village House will
make possible more of these traditional dances and major
gatherings.
Participants travel hundreds of miles to attend ceremonies
at Indian Canyon. In addition to the California Indians using the
site, spiritual teachers and tribal members from the Southwest,
the Plains, Canada, and the East Coast come to do ceremony at
Indian Canyon, as do indigenous people from all over the world:
Maori of New Zealand, Australian Aborigines, Sami people from
Finland.
It will be a tremendous source of pride and hope to local
Costanoan people, particularly the elders to see their ceremonies
performed in a traditional setting on their own land. We look
forward to the day that they will enter the Village House for the
first time, to dedicate it to the continuance of ceremony, and to
honor their ancestors.
