#NWCRegaliaStories
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About the Dresses

California History

Native American Women & Regalia

Regalia Stories

Links & Sources

Feedback/ Evaluation Form

Northwest Coast Regalia Stories Project

With support from Cal Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.

Project Coordinators

Cutcha Risling Baldy
Rachel Sundberg

Humanities Adviser

Dr. Beth Rose Middleton

With Thanks To

Viola Risling
Joy Sundberg
Lois Risling
Mary J. Risling (Me'Dil Institute)
Viola Brooks
Mary Risling
Emmilee Risling
Dr. Beth Rose Middleton
Marlette Grant-Jackson
Stephanie Lumsden
Vanessa Esquivido
Tannah O'Rourke
Kayla Carpenter
Naishian Richards
Natalie Carpenter
Nina Surbaugh-Gibbs
Rachel Provolt
Michelle Hernandez
Kristi Smith (Yurok Designs & Photo)
Arya Mettier
Denise McKenzie
Tayshu Bommelyn
Native Women's Collective

Consider donating to this project so that we can continue to build our exhibit and publications! Click here
Introduction by Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok) & 
Rachel Sundberg (Ner-er-ner/Pu-lik-lah)
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.

The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on. -- Joy Harjo "Perhaps the World Ends Here"
This project began around a kitchen table. The two of us were dreaming big dreams about a nonprofit organization that we hoped to start one day. We said we would call it The Native Women's Collective. This organization would be a place that supported Native artists and would help them to give back to their communities by organizing and funding workshops, classes and demonstrations. We would invite people to our table, we would feed them and listen to their dreams and make those dreams happen.

Some of the things we wanted to do?
        Language revitalization, education, booth sales, presentations, exhibits,        
        documentaries, gatherings, story telling and service to our communities. 

During dessert we started telling some of our regalia stories. "You know what would be great," we thought, "to document these stories. Every piece of regalia has a story, a biography, a life that we are all a part of..." and we both reflected on two special dresses that we had in our families. It was then we looked at each other and said, "let's do it." That was 2008. In 2009 the Native Women's Collective became a nonprofit organization 501(c)(3). 

The CAL HUMANITIES: Community Stories Grant has given us the opportunity to start our Northwest Coast Regalia Stories project. The “NWC Regalia Stories” explores the life of cultural regalia pieces for Northwest California Native peoples. This digital humanities project also reflects on the history and biographies of these Native regalia pieces through the last century. The personal perspectives and experiences of living regalia makers reveal the meanings embedded in the regalia. These traditions are represented through collected stories and mixed-media to illustrate the remarkable continuance of these cultures. For the start of this project we are focusing on women's regalia pieces, but we fully intend to continue with this project and to incorporate men's regalia pieces as well.

We invite people to share regalia stories with us. As we put together this online exhibit, we have been awed by the heartfelt words of our many story tellers. We are also indebted to our contributors who provided us with short articles about various types of women's regalia from Northwest California. There were many themes and ideas that emerged from their writings and stories including:
  • Indigenous cultures in Northwest California are complex, sustainable cultures that are intimately tied and spiritually connected to the land. This connection is a relationship and it is demonstrated by the regalia pieces, which were often made from native natural materials.
  • Regalia pieces connect people in physical, spiritual and social ways to the past, present and future.
  • The history of Northwest California - from pre-contact to genocide and assimilation- is not the end of the story. Native peoples in Northwest California did not "vanish" or go "extinct." Instead, they persevered, becoming stronger through the connections they forged with one another, their cultures, their ceremonies and their knowledge from the beginning of time. 
  • Storytelling is a powerful tool for Native people to (re)claim. For many years, anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, linguists and ethnographers were treated as experts on California Indian peoples. Their assumptions forwarded the idea that Native people were "primitive" and that the last "real Indian" died in 1849, before contact with white settlers. Now, many more Native people are coming forward to (re)write and (re)right these assumptions.
  • Native people (re)claiming, (re)writing and (re)righting the stories told about their culture is an important way for them to continue to heal from the lasting effects of colonization. 
  • These regalia stories begin that process. History is embedded in these pieces; their life stories reflect the very real struggles, celebrations, and memories of the people of Northwest California and beyond. 

This project is ongoing and we will continue to add information to the site, so check back often! We look forward to building a curriculum for the materials, and to producing short films and interactive presentations. We also plan to publish much more information on each topic in a book (forthcoming).  We would love to travel and present on this project and help people to share their regalia stories in public workshops. Donations made to this project will be used to continue this work and to engage with people around the world.

We also hope that other Native peoples from around the world will share with us their regalia stories. If you would like us to publish your regalia story, click on the picture to the left OR click here. We look forward to hearing from you. 

About this exhibit: 

To navigate the online exhibit you can click on any of the topics at the top left of the page. Each section provides different information that will help you to learn more about these regalia pieces. For the first part of this project we are focusing on two dresses that have been worn by multiple generations of Native women from Northwest California. We have also collected numerous personal vignettes from community members telling us about their regalia stories.

Exhibit sections: 

About the Dresses: This section introduces the two dresses featured in this initial phase of the project. Both of these dresses have been utilized by multiple generations of women throughout the past 100 years.They are currently owned by Viola Risling and Joy Sundberg.

California History: This section provides a quick overview of California Indian History, the Gold Rush and salvage ethnography.

Native American Women & Regalia: This section provides a history and discussion of Native American Women and their regalia pieces.This includes information on: bark skirts, buckskin dresses, basket caps, dentalia, blue jay veils, and contemporary jewelry. On each of these pages you will be able to read personal stories from Northwest California Indian women about their regalia. 

Online Exhibit Tour: Take a quick online tour of the dresses and learn more about how they are made and what they are made out of. This tour is powered by Prezi.

Links & Sources: On this page you will find information about sources used in each article, useful websites, organizations from Northwest California, tribes of Northwest California and photo credits.

Feedback/ Evaluation Form: Please take a moment to fill out our evaluation form to help us as we continue to expand on this project. You can also register to win a prize!

We hope that this exhibit enhances your understanding of contemporary Native peoples in California through an exploration of the cultures, peoples and histories that helped to build and rebuild the state from time immemorial. Please check back often as we continue to update our collected archive, exhibition, and interactive website with documentary film shorts and photo essays of regalia stories. And please remember to fill out our feedback/ evaluation form!
Thank You -- ts'ehdiyah -- wokhlew -- yôotva -- shu'-shaa-nin-la
We could not have completed so much work on this project without the help of so many from our community. We are grateful to everyone who submitted a "regalia story," for those who were interviewed as part of our forthcoming documentary shorts, for those who completed research and writing about the various topics, for those who sent in photos, took photos and for those who encouraged us along the way. Thank you so very much for your continued contributions to our organization.