We arrived about a half hour early yesterday at the Burton Homestead for our appointment with Tsi-Akim Cultural Director Grayson Coney. Grayson was still leading the tour of the Pata Panaka Maidu Active Cultural Center for about a dozen or so attendees of the California Preservation Conference.

We stood off to the side of the tour and chatted with Jason Ryberg, nephew of tribal chairman Don Ryberg. Jason is a very personable and intelligent young man, and a parent of teenagers, one of many points of common experience we discovered in our conversation with him.

Like a lot of men in our county, Jason has decades of experience in the construction trade but is concerned about the dwindling opportunities to use his considerable skills.

Finally, Grayson approached with his group and demonstrated the use of a wooden spear he had fashioned, tossing it in a high arc over our heads.

After the tour ended and the attendees went back to Nevada City, we met with Grayson in front of the bark house pictured below.

See more pictures of Maidu bark houses here.