Museum of Riverside

SEAWEED, SALMON, AND MANZANITA CIDER

THIS EXHIBIT IS NOW CLOSED (May 10, 2012 - November 4, 2012)

About the Exhibit
Filled with historic and contemporary photographs, baskets and other artifacts, food specimens, memoirs, and recipes, Seaweed, Salmon, and Manzanita Cider: A California Indian Feast is a new statewide traveling exhibition from the Grace Hudson Museum and Exhibit Envoy. The exhibit foods important in the lives of Native Californians including fish, shellfish, seaweed, meat, vegetables, berries, fruits, flowers, nuts, seeds, and salt. This delicious look at Native foods is based on the Heyday Books publication "Seaweed, Salmon, and Manzanita Cider: A California Indian Feast" by Margaret Dubin and Sara-Larus Tolley (2008), a delightful and sometimes startling compendium of Native American cuisine (the most authentic local food around).

Modern California Indians have retained much of the precious plant and animal knowledge of their ancestors, and are in a process of recovering even more. "Despite missionization, Mexican land grants, the Russian quest for sea otters, and American expansionism, we are still here," states Smith. "We knew (and still know) the land with an intimacy that results from countless interactions."

The traveling exhibition includes historic and contemporary California Indian baskets and other artifacts used to hunt, gather and process California Indian native foods; historic and contemporary framed photographs of California Indian peoples gathering, preparing, and enjoying traditional food; large format framed contemporary photographs of California Indian food resources; and informative text panels. For visitors to take home, there are tear off recipe pads of some ways to enjoy California Indian foods. The exhibit also contains preserved or processed examples of types of California Indian foods (jars of kippered salmon, dried manzanita berries, dried seaweed, different types of acorns).


Exhibition Support
Funding for this exhibit was provided by the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, the Mendocino County Office of Education, the California Exhibition Resources Alliance (now Exhibit Envoy), and the Sun House Guild.

About Exhibit Envoy
Exhibit Envoy provides traveling exhibitions and professional services to museums throughout California. Our mission is to build new perspectives among Californians, create innovative exhibitions and solutions, and advance institutions in service to their communities. For more information, please visit www.exhibitenvoy.org.