The spirit of a “Chumash Warrior” character depicted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Episode: “Pangs.”
The wildfires this year in California — and just in Sonoma and Napa Counties — have been incredibly intense. We’ve had family members evacuated in August and September, some for the second or third time. A couple of weeks ago, as the Glass Fire raged, I received an email from a reader of my book Sacred Sonoma. His theory of the fires, unfortunately, reflected dangerous stereotypes about American Indians that have been fueled by popular fiction. Read on:
Hi Beth,
This may seem crazy, a crackpot theory. But, I read part of your Sacred Sonoma book about the Pomo tribe and I thought I’d reach out.
When I was a kid growing up off of Brush Creek I would play next door at a vacant lot. I was convinced that the land plot was an Indian tribal burial ground, and I would always play there until I got scared and would run home.
Flash-forward thirty years to Friday night, when I visited Santa Rosa for the first time in awhile. A strong gust of wind came and I got the same feeling as I had as a kid ... it didn’t just feel like wind, but rather it felt like angry spirits had a bone to pick. It was the first time I felt that way since I was a kid.
Crazy, I know.
But then Sunday night came, and my family and I helped my mom evacuate. Since then, I’d wondered if the wind was in fact Indian spirits warning us to get away, or else.
That feeling and thought somehow got me to research online, and I found your book. In it, you mention that Melita Road was a known ceremonial site (which burned).
So yeah, I thought I’d reach out to share my crackpot theory that these fires could somehow be connected to the revenge of the Pomo.
The “Chumash Warrior” turns into a bear. Great.
Here’s my response:
Hi, thanks for your note and interest in Sacred Sonoma. The fires are indeed devastating and scary, but I would discourage you from pursuing the "vengeful native ghosts" idea. There are many Pomo alive and living in Sonoma County, surely including some in the paths of the fires, and I doubt they or their ancestors would wish this scenario on anyone.
Fiction and film love the "dangerous Indian burial ground" trope, but it's deeply dangerous to the actual indigenous people who lived, and still lived, in the Americas: https://newrepublic.com/article/137856/suburban-horror-indian-burial-ground