[ together ]. It was something that I needed to do and then that fall I was talked to by David Tripp : “ You need to do the fatawe ’ na for the World Renewal because you know the language .” Finally I called up the old man . Chad Davis was Clint Davis ’ s dad , Chad D we called him . Called him up and said , “ Hello , Chad , I wanted to say I ’ ve been thinking about it and I think I ’ d like to volunteer for the fatawe ’ na for the irahiv coming up , the World Renewal .” He says , “ All right . Well , that ’ s good to hear .” Then a few more words and that was it . I had to wait .
About that time when it was time , September — dark of moon in September is the finish up for the World Renewal . We found out that my car had died , so I was waiting . I was waiting and waiting . I was wondering , “ When is somebody going to tell me what I ’ ve got to do or what ’ s going to happen ?” I had no clue . I was getting a little antsy and wondering what ’ s going on . Finally , I was looking and I was thinking about when . I had no clue , so then I decided , “ Hmm , well I think I should probably head in that direction .” Like salmon in the spawning mode or whatever , I went out . I didn ’ t have my vehicle . I was living in Happy Camp at the time so I went up to the end of the road there , end of town , and stuck my thumb out . This little blue Datsun came flying down the road about eighty-five miles an hour and slammed its brakes on and pulled over and dust everywhere . It was our medicine woman and her husband from the Brush Dance , Elizabeth Case and Fred Case . They said , “ Where you going ?” I said , “ I ’ m going to the center of the world .” They said , “ Well , hop in . So are we .” It was pretty good .
Hopped in and then we ’ re going down . We ’ re talking , and they said , “ Yeah , it ’ s going to be good . You ’ re going to be fatawe ’ na . That ’ ll be good because you know the language .” I said , “ Yep .” They said , “ Well , what you been doing ?” I said , “ We ’ ve gone to every ceremony that there is .” Then they said , “ Oh , yeah , well , that ’ s where we ’ re going . We ’ re going to go . Before we go , we ’ re going to go down to Hupa . They ’ re having a Jump Dance .” I said , “ You know , that ’ s the only ceremony I haven ’ t seen yet .” […] I got kidnapped on the way to the World Renewal and taken to the World Renewal at Hupa . They were having their World Renewal . We went down there .
We ended up at this place … there ’ s this old man there , sitting there talking , and we got to talking about everything . All this knowledge was in my head and right in the frontal lobes , packed to the gills . We were talking and this old man , he just had all kinds of things and he was telling me all kinds of things . […] All of those were real interesting stories that confirmed and affirmed everything I had learned . It was like a really good chance meeting with this old guy who seemed to know so much . His knowledge affirmed the great understandings that I was having at that time by having immersed myself in all this cultural experience and knowledge . Here is an old man that ’ s sitting there affirming everything that I came to know , that I came to believe , that I was in the process of becoming . I was like becoming a human being . It was really neat . […] Then we got done with that and then headed out , spent the night and the morning , then they took me back to Katimin , to the center of the world , and I went in and checked in . They said , “ Oh , here you are . We were wondering where you were . Somebody said they thought they saw you down there at Hupa .”
Then later on that next summer that we were — no , it was earlier in that summer . David and Glen D and I were on the road and we were at Barry ’ s Summit , which is between the coast and Willow Creek on Highway 299 . We were there and this gal shows up , this really pretty gal . I didn ’ t know who she was . David knew who she was . Glen D was always kind of a goofy fella so he was all just flirting , really just blatantly flirting and everything . That was my more reserved self . I was reserved in those days . Then I just thought , “ Oh , my gosh .” Just wondering who that was , “ Well , who is that ?” I kept asking more and more questions . I found out she was married and all of this . I said , “ Ah , forget it .” The idea that was in my head was one of these days . “ You just wait and see ,” I was telling myself . I don ’ t even think I was explicit but it was one of those things .
Fast forward years ahead , [ I ] moved to Berkeley . […] I ended up getting a job down there at the Lowie Museum , Phoebe Hearst Museum , and so worked with them . […] Came back to Humboldt for a while , I think work related to the G-O Road . Lo and behold , there ’ s this woman , Lyn Risling . The one I had met at Barry ’ s Summit ten-plus years before who I had fallen in love with in some way . So there she was . She ’ s now — we ’ re getting her involved . She ’ s friends with different friends and so she ’ s getting more and more involved with culture because she has this similar love for our Indian culture . I was always trying to do [ things ] with her . We ’ d do things together , whatever .
The next thing you know , we are now about to — Malcolm had this offer . At the time , there ’ s all this Native community revitalizing . In a way , [ it was like a ] chemistry project , that cultural chemistry of bringing all these parts back together and all of that . This whole thing was seen . It ’ s as if we had gone as far as we could up to that point , so that it was like stand back and think about it . Well , now how can we begin this process ? […] One day , Malcolm — being himself , Malcolm Margolin came one day and he says , “ So , if somebody gave you a fully outfitted theater , a theater staff , and five thousand dollars , would you know what to do with it ?” I said , “ Actually , I do .” I ’ d just devised this whole performance thing in my mind . He said , “ Well , what ’ s it going to be ?” I said , “ Well , I