News From Native California - Spring 2016 Volume 29 Issue 3 | Page 20

“Old Tom Breyli (phon.)
used to make a pun
on Omesia’s name and
instead of saying la
vieja Omesia said la
vieja mecha—wild girl.”
(Harrington Reel 61, page 979)
Omesia’s personality and lifestyle, her sexual liberation
and sense of humor, frequently reveal themselves in the
language documentation. Omesia is a woman uncensored
and unabashed. Among the phrases Omesia said:
šokšost: big-testicled one (Harrington Reel 65, page 573).
‘iṣṣak wa-pilliw: his penis is big (Harrington Reel 65,
page 563).
piina ša waaten kuuwe rottey wa-pilliw: this one who goes
here has no penis (Harrington: impt. sentence; Harrington
Reel 65, page 563).
‘ičče makk kulyarin: let’s go have sex (Harrington Reel 65,
page 563).
mmmmmm, miššix wa-pilliw, mmmmmm: his penis is good
(Harrington Reel 65, page 952).
pilwiṣt, chilón: one that has a big penis; Omesia said this
when the men did not pay attention to her (Harrington Reel
65, pages 563 and 952; Harrington Reel 66, page 311).
Isabel learned each of these expressions from Omesia,
and sometimes they would get her into trouble. On one
page Isabel describes a time her mother punished her for
repeating one of the more explicit phrases she learned from
Omesia. According to Harrington, “Omesia decia: “Omesia
decia: kaṣ ṣummit ‘e-pilliw [give me your penis]. Isabel went
around saying kaṣ ṣummit ‘e-pilliw all the time, and Loreta
[Isabel’s mother] heard her and said: You won’t go there with
la vieja, hearing those words! She slapped Isabel and left her
there crying. pilwiṣt, chilon” (Harrington Reel 61, page 744).
Clearly, to Isabel’s mother, Omesia was a bad influence.
Yet Omesia is not always overtly sexual in her words.
Through Isabel she also preserved the full spectrum of
Rumsen phrases of affection, applying to family, friends,
spouses and partners, and pets:

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▼ N E WS F ROM N AT IVE C AL IFO RNIA

ka meṣ ‘iwsen: I desire you.
ka meṣ muyšin: I love you.
ka meṣ polšonin: I have become crazy with love
(or sex-crazed) for you.
ka meṣ lomyonin: I have become completely, crazily
in love (or sex-crazed) for you.
ka mačnanin: I have turned in Coyote; this is said when
“you just lose yourself oblivious to the world,” when a man
“is wagging his tail for a woman.”
Again we see Omesia’s complexity shining through in
the documentation. Having endured life in the mission,
under the Catholic gaze, she has refused to let go of Rumsen
conceptions of love. Among the most personally heartwarming notes in the documentation are xaayeno songs,
sung by Rumsen women for the safe return of their love.
Two were recorded on wax cylinders in 1902, but there were
many such songs. Omesia’s xaayeno song is recorded only in
the written documentation; Isabel says that Omesia taught
her to sing this song to cause a boyfriend to return home:
xaṣwaki ku wa-ṣirre, xaaye, xaaye, xaayeno. [Literally: His heart
be scratched, come hither. Isabel’s Spanish description:
Would that his heart be disquieted, so that he returns home.]
As I study the documentation, I see a nuanced and
multi-faceted depiction of my Rumsen ancestors, one that
gives me great pride in the grace and tenacity with which
those before me endured some of the worst times of our
history. When I stitch together in my mind the descriptions
of Omesia with the words from her mouth—the wisdom,
the pain, and the love that come from her—I imagine my
own direct ancestors, who must have known her, surviving
with the same stubborn strategies. In that way, Omesia’s
presence and voice makes my connection to my ancestors
stronger; their voices and words are recorded nowhere, but
she is my bridge to their experiences and perspectives.
Once, when I was telling stories about Omesia and the
things she said, a friend asked me how old Omesia was
and where she lived. I realized then that I was referring to
Omesia mostly in the present tense, with great familiarity.
I realized that, as I take the time to study the documentation
for grammar or syntax, the things “Omesia said” are becoming
a part of my own experience as a Rumsen individual. In some
way, Omesia is guiding my work to contribute to the revitalization of the Rumsen language, and my development as a
Rumsen man, unashamed and unabashed.
šuururu karmentay rukk,
šuururu Omesia.