Ms. Marcia Hunter, Tule River Tribal Elder and Cultural Bearer

Please tell us about yourself (name, age, tribe, and work you've done in your life).

I'd like to say “Heyuk min Yokuts” – meaning “hello to the people.” I am Marcia Hunter Estrada. That is my English name. My Yodanchi name is Mawsh (phonetically “Moss”) - it means sweat lodge. My father named me. My mom is Yowlumni, the people who howl. My dad is Yodanchi, the Mountain People. Those are my spirits that I have within me, and I grew up knowing that as a little girl. My dad had a sweat lodge down by the creek where I would sweat when I was little. I had to be around four or five years old at that time. He would have us sweat separately in a teepee type sweat lodge, but he would take it down after every sweat and lay it on the ground as if it were a campsite. The reason for that was way back in the fifties all the way up to the mid-seventies, he knew that he could not practice his spiritual ways openly because it was against the law.  

        So that's how we grew up with the spiritual part of it. Our yard had a round fence. Everything was round to keep the bad (“hich’wiya”) out because the hich’wiya hides in the corners; he would leave tobacco in the corners of our house to protect us. Our mom would do that also, plus she would sprinkle the sacred Tule River San Juan’s waters into the corners to protect us.

        I didn't know anyone who grew traditional tobacco when I was growing up. My dad smoked a pipe in the evenings. I loved the smell of the pipe, or he would smoke cigars, and I love that smell of the cigars. I tried smoking cigars too as I got older, but I didn't stick with it. That's the only tobacco that I knew of in our home growing up. I grew up in a home that was alcohol and drug free. I know down the road it was harder for some others.

        In the mid-seventies I was raised in the sweat lodges way when they came back to the people; my older sister and brother would pour the water. My brother poured the water for several years every Friday at the Tule River Alcohol Program (“TRAP”).  All of that just naturally came back to us: knowing the sweat lodge ways and such things. When we left our offerings, they were commercial tobacco. Occasionally, they were traditional tobacco depending on the gifts that were given. So that’s how I do it now. I have a sweat lodge that is coed, and we use commercial tobacco, but I pray prior…I know it's a gift. I don't refuse it. It's given in a good way. Before we begin Ceremony I open the bag, and I just pray and let grandfather know, this is how it is right now. But when we do get the gift of traditional tobacco, we use that for our ceremonies. So, it depends. We live in two worlds, so we adjust to that.  

        My grandson smokes now. He didn't use to, but now he's smoking. I need to talk with him… to change to traditional tobacco because he knows the spiritual ways. My granddaughter, as far as I know, doesn't smoke, and my other grandson doesn't smoke. Very few people in my family smoked. My siblings didn't smoke. The ones who are around me, not very many smoke.

        Now I just work with women, and I have a nonprofit group that works to hold spiritual gatherings. I also belong to a group called Indigenous Inmate Voices of CA. I work with inmates in prisons to help them with their spiritual needs. Currently there is no tobacco allowed in CA prisons. They have to leave other medicinal offerings.

In December, you attended a Red Medicine Tobacco Prevention Project workshop. Could you share your thoughts on anything that stood out for you?

When you introduced yourself and started to talk, my first thoughts were “oh, this tobacco thing again? What the heck?” Because my brother, way back in the seventies, used to provide tobacco education. It just kind of drifted off, and then here we are - back there, in 2024. It's revisiting us. So, I listened. There wasn't really anything new for me that I haven't heard other than the vaping and how the younger kids are finding different ways to experiment with some type of commercial tobacco and how harmful it is. That was what I got out of the presentation.

Why do you think kids pick up newer commercial tobacco products? 

I would say peer pressure. You have a friend who says, “hey try this” or “so and so's doing it. You could do it.” I would think a lot comes from just peer pressure. The other thing is wanting to belong, to be a part of a group. It really has nothing to do with the object or the thing. Once they try it, it depends on what feeling they get... how it feels when it hits your forehead, goes through your head… Addiction begins, and they don't even know it.

Your brother is well known for the work he did on tobacco and bringing back Tule River traditions – could you comment on that?

He did that from the time he started till the day he left this earthly world… They called him Songman. He was one of the main people that brought back the sweat lodge songs. A long time ago, before the sweat lodges came back, he used to drink with some different guys here at Painted Rock. He had come from the house and walked down over to Painted Rock because he could hear those guys over there talking. He said he came walking down there and then all of a sudden just coming through Painted Rock, he felt really sad. He said, “We don't even have any [Tule River] songs”. He kept walking towards the group and then he saw this one guy there. This guy was walking out, bent down and picked up a couple of sticks. He started hitting them together and started singing a coyote song. He started walking back to the fire and my brother was coming up and he goes “we got the songs…we got Bob Jeff.” That's the guy from Tachi. He got all happy. Then he went to the circle, and they were sitting over there singing the songs that Bob Jeff was singing, and he felt really good. But then during the times after that is when the spirit hit him, and he went through a lot… It's a whole other story of what he went through physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to be Songman. Grandfather chose him to do what he did, and he did it. That's why I said that he was committed for however many years to pouring that water at TRAP every Friday. Never failed. People came from surrounding areas. They go, “he's pouring the water, let’s go sweat with him.” They came and there he was. Never failed.

During the presentation, did you have any thoughts about this whole colonization of tobacco that was brought up?

No. I already knew about it through history… how it is… how it was. With the Native people, they just wanted to share their tobacco with the newcomers. The newcomers came looking for profit... It (tobacco) gets taken back to Europe to see how they feel about it and how they can enterprise on it and make a profit. But then they needed people. So, they went to Africa and got the slaves to come and do the work… It started back east along the coast because that was where the ships came in. That's where they had people working back there in the plantation… the crops for the tobacco. They would export it to Europe to try to sell it to different countries… To me that's just history and the way it was, but it's okay, we're here today.

Do you think young people know about that history? Do you think they're being taught about that?

I don't know. We didn't have any kind of tobacco programs or alcohol and drug programs, anything like that when I was in school. A person needs to know the history of it (tobacco). Where did this originate? Just like us. Where did we (Native people) originate from?

In your opinion, if we see our families or community using vaping or smoking products, what do you think would prevent them from starting or helping them to quit?

It takes knowledge and understanding of what it does to your body. We talk about being sovereign as a tribe. We need to be sovereign as individuals to take care of ourselves in a sovereign way which means we need to gain that knowledge and understanding of everything that's happening to ourselves: emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. I think we need to educate ourselves and we need to educate our families and then to educate others on tobacco.

It'd be good to have a tobacco festival. To have something like that where it's nothing but tobacco we're talking about. It could be an annual thing. There could be different groups, different booths, and even showing what actually happens. Like, when you were talking about the girl who was talking about the lady that had a hole in her throat. Not just videos but bring somebody who actually has that hole in their throat…the way their voice sounds, it's because of all the smoking that was done. Nobody told her and if they did, she didn't listen. Only she knows. Those kinds of things…to have actual speakers that could hit right to the heart of what can happen to you as a young lady over here smoking, vaping, trying things out. It's just kind of like fentanyl. I talk to my granddaughter all the time. Cover your soda, cover your drinks. Somebody can drop something in it. You never know. You just never know what that last cigarette or even one cigarette is going to do to you. So, I would say have speakers, have booths, have a festival of knowledge.

        Another idea would be to make a commitment for one year to staying tobacco free. Then bring everyone back next year and have a little giveaway for it. We could ask who committed and signed up last year and did not have a tobacco product of any kind for one year or put any kind of tobacco product in their body? This would be different from offerings or going to sweat. They will be acknowledged. People like to be acknowledged for the good things they do. So, I see this as a way for people to really think about, hey, I did it for one year. Maybe I could do it for another. Then after a while, they think “hey, I got 10 years behind me I don't even miss it!” It could be any type of commercial tobacco product: vaping, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, even marijuana.

Would you be okay sharing your thoughts about traditional tobacco from Tule River and how they are different from commercial tobacco that is sold? 

I have been pouring water for over 37-38 years, and very seldom do I have traditional tobacco that I use for offering. A lot of commercial tobacco is given to me in a good way too. I just pray… letting creator know that what we have here is offered in a good way. But when I do receive traditional tobacco, I use that respectfully. I appreciate it and am grateful. Here on Tule, I don't know anybody who's growing a traditional tobacco garden. Maybe it's because nobody taught them. We need to bring somebody in who could teach the people who want to know how to do it. When my brother was alive, he introduced me to a couple of guys who were tobacco growers. They wanted to show us how to grow tobacco. They would grow it for him and give it to him. I never learned. That would be a way to find out how to. One of the guys was non-Native, but he was doing it in a good way, respectfully, and was willing to give. My brother would accept it from him to use for sacred offerings. So, like I said, I don't know anybody here. There are people who harvest the river sage. They can also grow the white sage. We use white sage for purification. We use it a lot in our homes. I have a nephew. His mom is from our tribe. His dad is from another state, and they have tobacco. They grow tobacco and they'll send him tobacco every so often and he shares it.

In your experience, is tobacco in California different from tobacco in other areas?

Our red willow is tobacco. We are one of the very few tribes that have red willow growing on our reservation. Our red willow grows way up in the mountains. It doesn't grow here at the lower elevation levels. We have our river willow that we use for our lodges. I like to use the red willow for my sweat lodge. After the 2023 flood all the willow here got washed away. They're trying to grow back, but right now it’s too young for us to use to build lodges. I'm hoping this spring I can get my cousin to bring 35-40 red willows because when you build your lodge and have them there, when you sweat, it drips down on you. It's healing. The red willow is our healing medicine, for healing lodges, and I need to do that this spring. But then you could also cut the bark and then have that… We use that for tobacco. It’s in the lodges because that is a medicine. It's healing. Manzanita is another medicine used as tobacco, and it grows all around us.

Please share your suggestions for keeping our tribal communities healthy and free from addiction, including nicotine. 

It's always knowledge and education. I think if every household had a medicinal garden, that would be good. For example, white sage doesn’t traditionally grow here. It's more common along the coast than in our mountains, but it'll grow here. What grows here for us is the river sage, which we use for teas and for healing baths, and for safety. People could develop their own medicine, but they need different plants. I think that it would be good to help with more of the healing within the community. If they want to try growing tobacco, they could try.

Do you have any final thoughts or anything that you want to share that we haven’t covered?

I was thinking how to take it further so that the tobacco work stays. So, it's not five years here, five years there, or a little bit of knowledge here, a little bit there. To create a tobacco museum. To find that little spot, a space… display cases somewhere where you could talk about how it originated, how it grows here, what the difference between commercial and traditional tobacco is. Put all of that in a big display area somewhere. It could even be over here at the Justice Center. Some little corner of the world where people could come and say, “hey, let's go look at that tobacco thing again.” Or they walk by it, and they see it. It doesn’t have to be a big old rural museum, but a display case for starters.