WISDOM FROM ASCENSION

By Jay Scherf, AMLT Project Assistant

Ascension Solorsano was a Mutsun healer and leader who had extensive knowledge of Mutsun culture, language, plant uses, and customs. In the 1920s and ’30s she shared her knowledge with the ethnographer John P. Harrington, who recorded over 78,000 pages of her wisdom, which are stored at the Smithsonian. Here are some of her words:

Reel 61.1, Frame 93.2

Tree moss, lama de los arboles

There are other types of moss that grow on trees, they grow more and are larger on white oaks than on other trees, they don’t grow so much on live oaks. That which grows on old fenceposts and on rocks, they are also called lama.

This lama is very soft and spongy but isn’t good for making a bed, it gets all matted up.

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