Essie Pinola Parrish
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Essie Pinola Parrish (1902–1979), was a Kashaya
Pomo The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small grou ...
spiritual leader and exponent of
native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...
traditions. She was also a notable basket weaver.


Biography

Parrish was born Essie Pinola in 1902 at the Stewarts Point Rancheria in
Stewarts Point, California Stewarts Point is an unincorporated community in Sonoma County, California, United States and part of the "historic" Salt Point Township. Stewarts Point is located on the Pacific coast and California State Route 1, west of Healdsburg. Stewarts ...
. At the age of 6, she was recognized as a
shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
by the Kashaya and eventually became the spiritual leader of the Kashaya community. She was considered a
prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
and a skilled interpreter of dreams. Parrish was also a healer and a teacher. Parrish educated Kashaya (Kashia) children in the Kashaya Pomo language. She collaborated with Robert Oswalt, a linguist at
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, to write a dictionary of Kashaya Pomo. Her work on Kashaya Pomo is in the
California Language Archive California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. She helped create over 20 anthropological films documenting Pomo culture. She lectured at
the New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1972. Parrish was well known for her expertise in basket weaving.
Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
was among her collectors.


See also

*
List of Native American artists This is a list of visual artists who are Native Americans in the United States. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 defines "Native American" as being enrolled in either federally recognized tribes or state recognized tribes or "an individual ...
*
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes ...


References


External links


Redwood bark dolls made by Essie Pinola Parrish


includes photos of Essie Parrish * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parrish, Essie Pinola 1902 births 1979 deaths Female Native American leaders Native American basket weavers Pomo people Religious figures of the indigenous peoples of North America 20th-century American women artists Native American women artists Women basketweavers 20th-century Native Americans 20th-century Native American women