From a StoryCorps Interview with Julian Lang
Lyn Risling ( Karuk / Yurok / Hupa ) and Julian Lang ( Karuk ), photo courtesy of Brandi Easter .
From a StoryCorps Interview with Julian Lang
Writtten by LIndsie Bear
love is at the center of this story but [ also ] kind of the end result of the story , because in the beginning it was just me and my friends , my cousins and all , and we were traveling around . I had gone to college and then I dropped out of college for a while , and then came back to my home country and ended up in the Eureka-Arcata area . During that time , I was wondering what I was going to do with college . Then I started doing this whole theater arts thing . That seemed to be the way to weave together all of these , the history that was so important to me and literature and the arts and everything . It all seemed to make sense that the theater was a place where you could tell all the stories at once . You could weave stories that involved everything that I was really involved in at the time in terms of study .
I started that but then had a little baby . […] Finished out that year and then moved to Santa Rosa and slowly got a job and all of that , and started the family thing down there . […] That was probably in the early 70s , probably 71 or something around in there , 72 . Got to meet a few people and then in Santa Rosa I kept moving — not kept moving but I had a really good job and then was encouraged to apply for another job , which I didn ’ t do . Then this other job did come open as the executive director for the Santa Rosa Indian Center , Urban Indian Center . I decided to apply for that and got the job . A friend of mine came to also apply , and that was David Tripp . I ’ d never really met him before but we ’ re relations and so we ended up getting to know each really well after that .
Fast forward to 1980 , I had left Santa Rosa and was now working as the chief administrator for the Cahto tribe . And they were in their interim process of creating a full council and a dopting a constitution and all of that . Then there ’ s a whole — that ’ s a whole other branch of story which we won ’ t get into , but I ended up leaving the Cahto tribe employment and deciding at that point that I ’ m never going to work again . […] I said , “ Forget it .” I jumped off that path and pursued my path as a Karuk Indian person , cultural person , and never looked back , and decided that that ’ s what I was going to do .
That ’ s when I moved back . I was talked into being a fatawe ’ na , the prayer person for this important ceremony that we have in the World Renewal . I spoke the language relatively good by then . I had studied it on my own . I had this experience in the home , language in the home and language amongst all the kind of elders and community , language community , and then I was also understanding the grammar that I had learned . I was gifted with languages so I learned German and Spanish and Japanese , all these different languages . It was easy for me to organize the Karuk language into some understandable grammar . […] It ’ s just this whole idea of creating myself as a Karuk person that was totally immersed in culture .
During the 70s , during that late 79 – 80 period , there were three of us that used to run around , Glen Davis and David Tripp and I . We did everything that summer together . Young guys , go to all the ceremonies and singing , dancing , just total immersion into that part of it as well , just the social dynamic of ceremonies and going to every one , constantly . Either we were resting up from the last one or getting ready for the next ceremony and we would just spend that whole time
SPRING 2016 ▼ 11
Lyn Risling (Karuk/
Yurok/Hupa) and
Julian Lang (Karuk),
photo courtesy of
Brandi Easter.
From a StoryCorps Interview with Julian Lang
Writtten by LIndsie Bear
love is at the center of this story but [also] kind of the end
result of the story, because in the beginning it was just me
and my friends, my cousins and all, and we were traveling
around. I had gone to college and then I dropped out of
college for a while, and then came back to my home country
and ended up in the Eureka-Arcata area. During that time,
I was wondering what I was going to do with college. Then
I started doing this whole theater arts thing. That seemed
to be the way to weave together all of these, the history
that was so important to me and literature and the arts and
everything. It all seemed to make sense that the theater
was a place where you could tell all the stories at once.
You could weave stories that involved everything that I was
really involved in at the time in terms of study.
I started that but then had a little baby. […] �[�\�Y�]]�YX\�[�[�[ݙY��[�H���H[����H��H�؈[�[�و][��\�YH�[Z[H[���ۈ\�K���)�H]�\�ؘX�H[�HX\�H
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