News From Native California - Spring 2016 Volume 29 Issue 3 | Page 37

Grandfather

Written by Randy White

elders, grandfathers, and grandmothers hold a
special place in the hearts and traditions of California’s
Native peoples. They are often the orator of stories, the
singer of songs, and custodians of the dance. They are both
guardian and disseminator of sacred knowledge, a bridge
between past and future generations.
In the summer of 1911 a Native man who had spent
decades cloistered alone in the wild canyons of Northern
California appeared near Oroville. He was promptly taken
into protective custody by the local sheriff. Refusing to give
his name, he was listed in the jail log as Panama Kid Webber.
In fact, this man was a member of the Yahi, a nearly extinct
tribe that once lived in the mountains and hills and canyons
from the Pit River south to the Feather River, from the
Sacramento Valley East to Waganupa (Mt. Lassen).

The man had every reason to be fearful and expect a
swift death. He and his family had hidden in their own
homeland, having witnessed or escaped from massacres.
Once, the man and his family were rousted from their final
refuge, a cave called Grizzly Bear’s Hiding Place. The intruding
white men took most of the group’s belongings. Not long
afterwards, his family dead, he was alone. He and his family had
hid out in their homelands practicing the old ways, the traditional ways of telling stories, quietly singing and dancing
when they could. They passed on an oral tradition thousands
of years old, filled with stories of lizards, a love-struck wood
duck, and a tricky coyote brother. For this man the killing
ground was everywhere, the bones of his people, their
spirits, populating the landscape.

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