Sonoma Mountain Institute

The summer of 2012 started with The Cultural Conservancy featuring Diana Alemendariz working with SMI to preserve the traditions of the indigenous people to reconnect with the water.  The Cultural Conservancy is a 27-year-old organization who’s mission, “is to protect and restore indigenous cultures, empowering them in the direct application of their traditional knowledge and practices on their ancestral lands.” Diana Alemendariz; also known as, “The Tule Lady,” from Sacramento, dedicates her life to practicing and educating others on the traditions and cultural experiences that extend to her roots.

In May of 2012, these experts joined us at SMI to harvest Tule’s from “The Lake” to build a canoe that was paddled across Lake Tahoe.  The Cultural Conservancy believes in, “…restoring the ‘water guardians’ traditions of indigenous people to improve the health of native water… in addition to creating inter-tribal creative leadership teams” which lead to the organization gifting this very canoe to the Washoe Tribe located in Nevada. We at SMI enjoyed this experience so much that additional projects with the Cultural Conservancy are already being discussed.