Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream - Essay Example

When Mabel's father Yanta Bone married Daisy Hansen, he already had a wife from the lake. Yanta Bone's parents did not like her and they called her the big lady. Mabel was a premature infant and soon after her birth, her mother got sick. She moved to her mother's home and after four months later she left the infant with her grandmother Sarah and went to Colusa to live with a Wintun man named Andy Mitchell.Mabel was a very quiet and observant child. She always stared about the things.She was so weak that Sarah had to tell to the people who said the girl looked like she was starving to death.

When she began to speak a strange thing happened that she started restless nights and she began to say things that were not supposed to be known by her.She talked about her stepmother the big lady. Everyone was surprised that how could she have known anything about that as she was an infant child then. Sarah considered her special child with unique qualities. When Mabel was at the age of twelve years, her mother Daisy returned back and tried to handover her to an old Colusa man. Sarah had to shift Mabel McKay to Mrs.

Spencer's house who was a very nice lady and mostly hired the Indian to cut the grapes at each fall. There were many ways by which the local inhabitants following the indigenous practices and views. They expressed their views and followed traditional customs in different gatherings and festivals. For example, when Sarah went to see her sister Belle, both "sat on the floor, in the old style, even though Belle had a new table with four perfectly comfortable wooden chairs. And when they got sleepy, they camped right there, folding up their shawls for a pillow" (Sarris, 16).

Life in the valley till was very simple yet few things were changed. There were Roads everywhere. where. Also, the large oak tree along the Creek looked dry and along the water where sweet clover grew year-round, there was nothing but, dusty earth, and cow dung (Sarris, 17). The following were the common ways by which the people follow indigenous practices and views.1. Dance: People loved to participate in old-time dance. They gathered from every part of the county. They gathered in Roundhouse, whose roof rose up to a peak in the middle of an open field.2. Food and Refreshment: During dance festivals, women cooked traditional food items like black and green Pinole and acorn mush.

Also, grasshoppers were also toasted.3. Dresses: The indigenous practices were also shown by people's colorful dresses. The man who danced wore elaborate and colorful big heads, great feathers on top and streamers of yellowhammer feathers down their backs while ladies wore traditional headdresses and shell pendants (Sarris, 24).