Essie Pinola Parrish
{{Short description|Kashaya Pomo basket weaver and medicine woman from California}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Essie Pinola Parrish
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| birth_name = Essie Nellie Fisk Pinola
| birth_date = {{Birth year|1902}}
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| death_date = {{Death year and age|1979|1902}}
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| nationality = Kashaya Pomo, American
| field = Basket weaving, Kashaya language studies
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| movement = Native American basketry
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| patrons = Robert F. Kennedy
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Essie Pinola Parrish (1902–1979), was a Kashaya Pomo spiritual leader and exponent of native traditions. She was also a notable basket weaver.{{cite book |last=Sarris |first=Greg |url=https://archive.org/details/keepingslugwoman00sarr |title=Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts |publisher=University of California Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-520-08007-2 |location=Berkeley |language=en |doi=10.1525/9780520913066 |oclc=1414455577 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}{{cite book |last=Oswalt |first=Robert L. |title=Kashaya Texts |publisher=University of California Press |year=1964 |series=University of California publications in linguistics |volume=36 |language=en |oclc=1085256}}{{cite book |last=Sarris |first=Greg |url=https://archive.org/details/mabelmckayweavin0000sarr |title=Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream |publisher=University of California Press |year=1994 |isbn=9780520086128 |location=Berkeley |language=en |oclc=29223266 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}
Biography
Essie Nellie Fisk Pinola (Pewoya in the Kashaya Pomo language){{Cite web |last=Stanley |first=Eric |date=22 November 2021 |title=Collections Spotlight: Essie Parrish |url=https://museumsc.org/collections-spotlight-essie-parrish/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805202423/https://museumsc.org/collections-spotlight-essie-parrish/ |archive-date=5 August 2023 |access-date=5 August 2023 |website=Museum of Sonoma County |language=en}} was born in 1902 to Emily Colder and John Pinola at the Haupt Ranch.{{Cite book |last=Lawson |first=Vana Parrish |url=https://www.fortross.org/lib/167/the-roots-of-our-culturestories-of-essie-parrish.pdf |title=The Kashaya Pomo Indians of Metini - The Roots of Our Culture/Stories of Essie Parrish |last2=Andriano |first2=Richard |publisher=Fort Ross Conservancy |access-date=24 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805201955/https://www.fortross.org/lib/167/the-roots-of-our-culturestories-of-essie-parrish.pdf |archive-date=5 August 2023 |url-status=live}} She was raised by Rosie Jarvis, her maternal grandmother and a great tribal historian.SARRIS, G. Parrish, Essie (1902-1979). Native American Women, [s. l.], p. 234, 2001. At the age of 6, she was recognized as a shaman by the Kashaya and eventually became the spiritual leader of the Kashaya community. She was considered a prophet and a skilled interpreter of dreams.{{cite news |last1=LaBaron |first1=Gaye |date=11 March 1984 |title=Insight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/297175798/ |url-access=subscription |work=The Press Democrat |location=Santa Rosa, California |page=22 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite web |title=Native American Women's History Quiz |url=http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/nativeamericanquiz.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706185601/http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/nativeamericanquiz.php |archive-date=6 July 2010 |accessdate=8 April 2013 |work=National Women's History Project}}{{Cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Suzanne J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEopBoB8ch0C&dq=essie+parrish&pg=PA731 |title=American Indian Religious Traditions: An Encyclopedia |last2=Kelley |first2=Dennis F. |date= |publisher= |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-57607-517-3 |language=en |oclc=780368093 |via=Google Books}} In 1920, she moved with her people to Stewarts Point Rancheria in Stewarts Point, California. In 1943, upon the death of her predecessor Annie Jarvis, she became the official religious leader of the Kashaya people. As a religious leader, she became known as yomta to her tribe. She married Sidney Parrish and raised sixteen children.
Parrish was also a healer and a teacher. Parrish educated Kashaya (Kashia) children in the Kashaya Pomo language.
Many anthropologists consulted Parrish on the Kashaya Pomo. She collaborated with Robert Oswalt, a linguist at University of California, Berkeley, to write a dictionary of Kashaya Pomo. Her work on Kashaya Pomo is in the California Language Archive.{{Cite web |title=Search Results: Essie Parrish |url=https://cla.berkeley.edu/list/index.html?sparams%5B%5D=pplid%3D483%3DEssie+Parrish&size=25&collfrom=0&bndlfrom=0&collpage=0&bndlpage=0&tab=bndl&with_js=1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014034057/http://cla.berkeley.edu/person/483 |archive-date=14 October 2017 |accessdate=24 January 2024 |website=California Language Archive}} She helped create over 20 anthropological films documenting Pomo culture.{{Cite web |last=Bourne |first=Susan Powers |date=29 November 2012 |title=Essie Pinola Parrish |url=http://ourherstory.net/2012/11/29/29-nov-2012-essie-parrish/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130703075215/http://ourherstory.net/2012/11/29/29-nov-2012-essie-parrish/ |archive-date=3 July 2013 |accessdate=8 April 2013 |work=Our Herstory - Women's Words and Works}} Her film Chishkale on acorn preparation won the 1966 Western Heritage Award. She also made costumes for religious events.
Parrish's religious work is especially significant due to the assimilation of other Pomo communities at the time. While she emphasized the importance of going to school and integrating "into the white world to survive," she also forbad her tribe from intermingling, to avoid "losing their Indian blood line and of the chaos it might bring into their way of life," alcohol, and gambling. Parrish was also involved in local civic life, advocating for Sonoma county Indians through her testimony to the American government.
Parrish lectured with Mabel McKay at the New School in New York City in 1972.{{Cite web |last=Rothenburg |first=Jerome |date=1 March 2013 |title=Outsider Poems, a Mini-Anthology in Progress (52): Essie Parish in New York |url=http://jacket2.org/commentary/outsider-poems-mini-anthology-progress-52-essie-parish-new-york |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004154848/http://jacket2.org/commentary/outsider-poems-mini-anthology-progress-52-essie-parish-new-york |archive-date=4 October 2023 |accessdate=8 April 2013 |work=Poems and Poetics |publisher=Jacket2}}{{Cite book |last=Sarris |first=Greg |title=Mable McKay : weaving the dream |publisher=University of California Press |year=1997 |isbn=9780520209688 |location=Berkeley}}
Parrish was well known for her expertise in basket weaving. Robert F. Kennedy was among her collectors.
Parrish died in 1979. She is buried next to her husband and McKay.
See also
References
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External links
- [https://portal.hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/?f%5Bobjobjectclasstree_ss%5D%5B%5D=Photographs&f%5Bobjpersondepicted_ss%5D%5B%5D=Essie+Pinola+Parrish Photos of Essie Pinola Parrish] from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
- [https://webapps.cspace.berkeley.edu/pahma/search/search/?collector=Essie%20Pinola%20Parrish&collector_qualifier=keyword&anondonor=Essie%20Parrish&anondonor_qualifier=keyword&displayType=full&maxresults=50&start=1 Redwood bark dolls made by Essie Pinola Parrish] from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
- [http://www.sourcememory.net/womanshaman/pomodreamers.html Pomo Dreamers and Doctors], includes photos of Essie Parrish
- {{Cite web |title=Search Results: Essie Parrish |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014034057/http://cla.berkeley.edu/person/483 |archive-date=14 October 2017 |accessdate=24 January 2024 |website=California Language Archive |url=https://cla.berkeley.edu/list/index.html?sparams%5B%5D=pplid%3D483%3DEssie+Parrish&size=25&collfrom=0&bndlfrom=0&collpage=0&bndlpage=0&tab=bndl&with_js=1 |url-status=live}}
- {{Cite book |title=Sucking doctor (DVD video, 2009) |oclc=438246565 |access-date=8 April 2013 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/438246565}}
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Category:Women Native American leaders
Category:Weavers from California
Category:Religious figures of the indigenous peoples of North America
Category:20th-century American artists
Category:20th-century American women artists
Category:Native American women artists
Category:American women basket weavers
Category:American basket weavers