In this Week's Newsletter | |
- Inspiring Inclusion: November is Native American Heritage Month
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Featured CanDo Project: Neighborhood Reads
- CanDo News and Events
- Spotlight on Local Nonprofits
- Highlights from CanDo's Community Calendar
- Words Matter: Using Person-First Language
- Compost Corner: Carbon Monoxide Detectors and Toothpaste Tubes
- Be an Informed Voter: Short cartoon - "Don't Listen to the Polls"
- Bits & Pieces: Free Calm App Subscriptions
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Native American Heritage Month
Tribes in Napa Valley and Nearby
November is National Native American Heritage Month. A Native American is defined as a member of any of the indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America, especially those indigenous to what is now the continental US. Adding to the depth of that definition, Wikipedia references indigenous as being “sprung from the land, native.”
Do you know the name of at least one of the main indigenous cultures that thrived here in Napa’s abundant valley and surrounding communities before the arrival of European settlers?* Each of the tribes was distinct with its own language, traditions, and beliefs. Their individual customs, art forms, and social structures infused a legacy of diverse culture into the land.
According to GoodGoodGood, there is much that can be gained through greater exploration and understanding of this bond the indigenous have with nature. There is an innate passion within them to protect our water systems and our land that we can learn from.
Yet instead of learning from them, majority-European settlers over the years have subjected Native Americans to violent oppression in the forms of mass displacement, racism, classism, and exposure to disease and extreme violence that decimated their numbers.
The results of the Native American Historical Trauma and Traditional Healing Project conducted in 2018 revealed historical trauma in the DNA markers throughout family lineage, indicating that trauma suffered can be so deep it is embedded into the DNA and passed on from generation to generation.
As a result of this intergenerational trauma, within the United States, Native Americans have the highest poverty rate among all racial groups, with figures often around 25% or higher, significantly above the national average.
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Here in Napa, The Suscol Intertribal Council (logo pictured) strives to change this by establishing relationships that support and heal both the non-native and native populations of Napa, uniting and strengthening our community.
Having a safe place for Napa’s indigenous peoples to live true to their own cultures is probably the most important goal of the Suscol Intertribal Council. In 1998, the council purchased 20 acres of land in Chiles-Pope Valley and construction was soon started on the Suskol House, a safe place for gathering and ceremony. As a sacred place, the property is open to the public by appointment only.
The Suskol House symbolizes a commitment to the preservation and teaching of the native cultures for future generations. It also serves as a pilot project for water, forest, and indigenous land management for the state and country.
| In 2023, Suskol House was 75% done. Next, siding was painted to match the Manzanita plant of green and burgundy (pictured). The inside walls, plumbing and appliances are next! More info about Suskol House here. | |
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Inspiring Inclusion topics are researched and presented by Pro-Inclusion Napa (PIN), CanDo's new project. This addition to the CanDo Connection focuses on diversity, its significance, and the way it is celebrated and supported locally.
Kelly Renda, one of PIN’s founding members, is the main contributor for Inspiring Inclusion, sharing ways that Napa inspires inclusion to assure that every person in our community feels included, needed, and valued.
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Jim Big Bear King
(photo by Richard Gilmore, Sacramento Bee)
“…human beings are made of water. We are made to adjust, change, and move. (Don’t be) afraid of change and… make the best choice we can in the moment,” said Jim Big Bear King, founder of the Suscol Intertribal Council. He encouraged others to focus on the good, saying “good words and strong examples last forever.”
| VIDEO of the traditional use of acorns and tule, hosted by Charlie Toledo of the Suscol Council: | Wappo woman and her child (photo courtesy of St. Helena Historical Society) | | |
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Probably the best way to learn about local native cultures is to immerse oneself in them. Here are some ways you can support and learn about our local Native American communities.
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Check out the La Historia Society and the Suscol Intertribal Council websites to learn more about the local history of Napa’s indigenous peoples.
- The Napa County and the St. Helena Historical Societies have photos and other documents relating to Indigenous Napa County peoples.
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Check out the weekly meditations and classes and community outreach and educational services offered to the public by Suscol Intertribal Council.
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Subscribe, follow, and like Suscol Intertribal Council on Facebook and YouTube to access informative videos and learn of annual events like the Art Auction, Open House, and Pow Wows. (The date for the 30th Annual Pow Wow honoring the water is TBD and currently planned for 2025. This event is open to the public, but it is recommended you read Pow Wow Etiquette before attending).
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Read books from this reading list provided by The Napa Book Mine.
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Seek government support through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, BIA.
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Join with activists who stand for human rights and preserving the sacredness of our earth. Read about a few of them here.
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Donate or volunteer with the Suscol Intertribal Council.
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Download an app like Whose Land or Native Land that helps you identify indigenous nations, territories, and indigenous communities across Canada and the US, as well as historic treaties and agreements.
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Neighborhood Reads: Rescued Books for Napa’s Little Free Libraries
Volunteers needed for two routes
| We are coming up on one year of our Neighborhood Reads project, and we wanted to give you all an update. | We have distributed around 1000 books over the past year to the Little Free Libraries around Napa! We have been working with Napa Bookmine, the Friends of the Napa Library, and my own personal finds to keep books from being recycled or thrown away. Recently we found a new source of books from a local school, as they began cleaning out their old class sets of books! | |
We sent out a survey to our volunteers to get some feedback from them, and here is what we learned: Most have gone out about 3-4 times since last January to check on their route’s Little Libraries, and most of the time they find the Little Libraries are mostly full from other donations. We originally thought that the libraries on the routes would be refilled each month, but it seems that many of them don’t need restocking that often. Still, we appreciate that many of our volunteers are checking them monthly.
The majority of our original volunteers are ready to continue this important work, but we do have a couple of routes open for anyone looking to work with our program. We have one route available in downtown Napa, and another in North Napa near Alston Park. If you’re interested, click here to learn more and sign up.
Overall it has been a rewarding experience, and I look forward to continuing it in the future.
~ Andre Garcia, Coordinator, Neighborhood Reads
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P.S. Here is a map of the Little Library routes we’ve established. If you know of a Little Free Library that isn’t on the map, please tell us the address.
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We are proud to introduce Grace Bradbury, our newest Youth CORE (Board) member.
Grace is a Junior at Justin-Siena High School where she is a student ambassador and participates in softball, robotics, FNL, journalism club, Women Empowering Women, and Girls who Code.
She says, “As a local high school student, who is an active member of the community and gets the opportunity to volunteer with so many wonderful programs across the county, I have grown a passion for helping change our community for the better.”
We think she will be a perfect fit for CanDo, as she brings that passion, and her energy and ideas, to our existing projects. We can’t wait to work with her. Welcome, Grace. Let’s see what we CanDo together!
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CanDo's Napa Valley Give!Guide:
Show your support by displaying a lawn sign at your home or business
It’s time for CanDo’s Napa Valley Give!Guide, 2024. Help us get the word out by displaying a lawn sign at your home or business, putting a poster in your window, or passing out flyers. There are two ways to get them:
- You can pick up sign(s), flyers and posters at CrossWalk Community Church, 2590 First Street in Napa, November 7 from 11:00 am – 2:00 or 4:00 – 5:30 pm or November 8 from 11:00 am - 2:00 pm.
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Or, if you would like a lawn sign delivered to your home, please send your address to giveguide@nvcando.org.
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Upcoming CanDo Events
Nov. 14: Don’t miss our festive Give!Guide Kickoff Party. Get your tickets here.
Nov. 15: The Give!Guide 2024 launches! Have you thought about which of the 67 nonprofits you will be supporting this year?
Dec. 3: FINKO! to benefit CanDo (at The Fink). More details soon.
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You can volunteer for one of our dynamic projects, even for just an hour or two, or help one of the many local organizations we support. Each individual action connects to others. Together, we‘re making our Valley and world better. | |
More Opportunities to Support Our Community | |
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Volunteer Opportunities & Events to Support Local Nonprofit Groups
Tell 'em you heard about it through Wednesday!
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AMERICA RECYCLES DAY - COAT, COSTUME & SHOE DRIVE
Sponsor: The City of Napa - Recycling and Solid Waste Division, Napa County, and Napa Recycling and Waste Services
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DAY/DATE/TIME: Sunday, Nov. 17, 10AM - 2PM
LOCATION:
Redwood Plaza Shopping Center - 3385 Solano Avenue, Napa
FFI:
Email jmendez@cityofnapa.org or call 707.258.7864 or visit their website.
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If you represent a local nonprofit, you may submit a SPOTLIGHT EVENT or VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY by completing our online form. | |
Space permitting, posts run up to three weeks prior to your event. Flyer or image is required and must be sent as a jpg. | |
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Sunday, 6PM for the following Tuesday's edition.
FFI: Learn more and submit your event here.
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Looking for Local Volunteer Opportunities?
VolunteerNow.org, maintained by the Center for Volunteer & Nonprofit Leadership (CVNL) connects local community members with the causes they are passionate about.
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Upcoming Events, Volunteer Opportunities, and Other Ways to Support Our Local Nonprofits | | |
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Using Person-First Language
We love hearing from our readers and were excited to receive several positive responses to our Oct. 29 edition regarding people who are unhoused in Napa County. Among them was this important reminder from Kristine Haataja, Chair of the Napa County Behavioral Health Board:
I suggest that you consider following the practice of many of us who work with people in marginalized populations. I am chair of the county Behavioral Health Board. We adhere to the following guideline for talking about people with mental health or substance use conditions.
- When talking about people with mental illness or substance use disorder, it is important to be mindful and use "person-first language".
- Generic terms such as "the mentally ill", “schizophrenic”, "drug addict" or “alcoholic” are not appropriate since they convey a lack of appreciation for and depersonalize the individual. These terms communicate and reinforce the discriminatory notion of a special and separate group that is fundamentally unlike the rest of "us."
- The use of person-first language such as "a person with schizophrenia," "an individual with bipolar disorder," or "people with mental illness," communicates first that they are people and second that they have an illness.
We thank Kristine for this helpful information and pledge to use person-first language in the future.
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Compost Corner
Napa Recycling provides answers to your questions about recycling, composting, and the like.
| Carbon Monoxide Detectors and Toothpaste Tubes | |
Two questions:
First, I have a carbon monoxide detector that has reached the end of its life. I know to take out the battery and recycle that appropriately, but what about the detector itself? It plugs into an outlet, the battery is just for backup in the case of power outages. Can it go into Recycle More, or is it (sigh) landfill?
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Second, my most recent toothpaste purchase features a triangle with a number 2 inside, and HDPE underneath. Can I believe them and put it in the blue bin? Does it need any preparation before it goes in there? -Veronica
Two answers:
Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are accepted at the Hazardous Waste Facility at 889A Devlin Road, American Canyon. The facility is open 9am-4pm every Friday and Saturday, and drop off is free of charge for Napa residents. We cannot accept them as e-waste on the Recycle More Program, and they are not allowed in the recycling or landfill cart. The other option for safe disposal is to mail them back to the manufacturer – you can look on the back of the alarm or on the company’s website for mail-back details.
As for toothpaste tubes, even if they are marked with a #2 plastic symbol, we cannot accept them for recycling. That symbol denotes the type of plastic but does not indicate whether or not we can accept it for recycling – regarding plastics, we can only accept rigid plastic bottles, jugs and containers #1,2 or 5 – so flexible packaging like a toothpaste tube is unfortunately not recyclable and will need to be disposed of in the landfill cart. In the future, with California’s producer responsibility law (SB 54), companies will need to develop recycling or reuse programs for items like this, so we’ll see how that changes the landscape in the coming years…but for now, we do not have any outlets to sort and recycle this type of product.
-- Thanks, Tim Dewey-Mattia, Recycling & Public Education Manager
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The Napa County Library offers Calm subscriptions, an online platform for stress management and mental health, available to cardholders starting with 21128. Fill out the interest form here.
Note: if you are a Kaiser member, you can receive a free Calm account here.
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PO Box 855
Napa, CA 94559
Email: info@nvcando.org
Phone: (707) 225-8942
Tax ID: 46-2670379
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New to CanDo? Want to receive this nifty eNewsletter? It comes out bright and early the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month, full of ways you can volunteer and connect with community. | | |
You Want to Help. We Make it Easy is a registered trademark of the Neighborhood Food Project. Used by permission.
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