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I Get Why I Don’t Get It

May 18, 2008

Covering the people poses an interesting difficulty for the community-based reporting encouraged by this master’s program.

Some of my work for this program has been to investigate the different forms of spirituality at Tahoe using video and audio to create multimedia presentations. Since the are the original inhabitants of this area, I was hoping to use multimedia to capture the essence of their spiritual connection to the land.

After a bit of work, I set up a meeting with a group of willing to talk to me about their spirituality. However, I was under the mistaken impression that I’d be able to videotape our conversation.

As the meeting started, members of the group expressed their misgivings about being videotaped. Sensing that only a written piece would be possible, I decided that the story would be to understand why I wouldn’t want multimedia coverage of their particular spiritual connection to the land.

Here’s the thrust behind the Washoe’s objection. To be videotaped and put online as a bit of information to be consumed by a non-tribe members is alien to what is needed to understand the significance of the land for a Washoe. For the , their land is everything and its significance can’t be summed up in a sound bite.

According to Washoe Tribe member Steven James, their language, and their culture are intimately connected with the land. This connection carries with it a way of viewing the world only attained by having grown up practicing the customs that define the way of life.

Here’s an example. Washoe Tribe member Lynda Shoshone told me of a public meeting in which the Forest Service, rock climbers, and members of the tribe gathered to discuss the prohibition of climbing Cave Rock. One climber stated how for 15 years she’d been climbing Cave Rock and that this was her spiritual connection to Tahoe. Shoshone said she replied, “Try 15,000 years. That’s how long we’ve been here and connected to the land.”

Another obstacle in understanding the ’s connection to the land is because non-natives do not understand themselves to be a part of the land. Non-natives think the land is something that we can own, control, and sell.

One the other hand, in a way that at best we can only dimly grasp, the Washoe have a reciprocal and respectful relation with the land. The land–including the lake, the animals and plants, and the streams–is the source of all that is needed to live. The land provides the Washoe with food and clothing. In this sense, the land makes life possible for the Washoe. The , in turn, believe that they should take care of the land.

A third obstacle in understanding the Washoe’s connection to the land is that place makes all the difference for being an authentic person. It is the long history that the have with land in Tahoe that defines who they are as a tribe and as individuals.

For example, I can move from Reno to another place and remain the individual I am. My job may change. My friends may change. My house may change. However, I’m still thinking of myself as the same person.

For the , this is impossible. One’s identity is entirely rooted in the land around Tahoe. To leave the area is to deny the experiences and traditions that define one’s selfhood.

One last obstacle that we might make is to think of the Washoe tribe as an item of the past. Shoshone pointed to an information-laden poster on her wall that read, “Who were the Washoe?” She then said, “That’s wrong. It should read, ‘Who are the ?’”

We, the community-based reporters in this area, need to remember that the habits and traditions of past Washoe still hold significance for the people in the present. The continuation of these habits and traditions up until today also help make sense of the resolution behind Shoshone’s statement: “We aren’t going anywhere.”

However, practically speaking, neither will any of the other communities living around Tahoe.

So, if the Washoe aren’t going anywhere, and the Tahoe public isn’t going anywhere, how can we cover the community? How can we hope to make journalism a positive force in this community, just as we’ve been hoping to help others who live around Tahoe?

The important point for the kind of community-based reporting endorsed by this program is that we can’t hope to represent the Washoe in a single series, with a single piece. Moreover, the complexity, tradition, and sacred nature of spiritual practice can’t be captured and put online for immediate comprehension and understanding by the larger Tahoe public. It’s not information or news to be consumed. Rather, it’s a way of life only experienced if one has been brought up in it.

When leaving the meeting, Tribe member Beverley Caldera said, “Respect us and our ways. Don’t lead, but walk alongside us.”

I take this to be a great metaphor that bears similarity with an idea important for this program: journalism is a conversation. In conversation, neither party speaking has priority of importance. Moreover, conversations take place over time and often involve miscommunication.

In short, would you say of someone whose motivations, about which you were unsure, could sum up your life and the significance of your home in a minute long multimedia presentation?

Using my own intuitive response to this question, I get why the Washoe objected to the approach behind my story. In other words, I get why I don’t get the way of life.

However, I do understand that this is also an offer to get to know the –an opportunity that I hope next year’s cohort will explore.

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Written by Dan Sorensen · Filed Under Community | Leave a Comment