North Bay Indigenous community leader dedicated to ‘building bridges across cultures’

Rose Hammock’s face is lined with Wailacki facial tattoos — traditional markings worn by women in her culture.

The seven bands on her chin represent seven generations of her family and signify wisdom and knowledge. Hammock, 25, is Pomo, Wailacki and Maidu — an enrolled tribal member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Mendocino County.

She proudly wears the markings of her culture not only on her skin but in her heart, too.

“It’s important that we’re able to celebrate who we are and to be proud of who we are,” Hammock said. “I’m proud to advocate for my culture and my people.”

The Santa Rosa native has a hand in multiple local organizations that support and advocate for Native American communities. She works with programs that are addressing public health disparities; helps with training her local community, both Native Americans and non-Native, how to use Naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses; and, in schools, advises teachers on how to support their Native American students.

But the cause Hammock devotes most of her time to is teaching others about her culture and heritage.

Several times a week, she takes on the role of language ambassador and educator with Big Picture Learning, an organization that works with students in small groups nationwide to support their interests through mentoring and equitable opportunity. Hammock teaches kids, both Native American and non-Native American, from schools across the North Bay, from Healdsburg and Windsor to Cloverdale and Fort Bragg. Through her teaching, they learn about traditional plants, beadwork, languages, ceremonies, basket weaving, the land’s history and other Native American cultural traditions.

“I want our Native students to feel recognized and seen in these lessons,” Hammock said. “I want to advocate for them, speak up for them and make sure these students have a seat at the table.”

Hammock is also a program developer for Redbud Resource Group, which she created in 2020 with two other women, Executive Director Taylor Pennewell and Director of Research Madison Esposito. The organization aims to eradicate public health disparities in Native American communities through education, research and community partnerships and also encourage organizations and businesses to consider Native American perspectives in their work.

For her dedication to serving as a cultural resource in her community, Hammock has been selected for the North Bay Spirit Award for January. A joint project of The Press Democrat and Comcast, the award highlights volunteers who demonstrate exceptional initiative for a cause, often identifying a need in the community and finding an enterprising way to fill it.

“Rose has never wavered in dedicating herself to building bridges across cultures that hold different world views,” said Pennewell, who is also a member of the Berry Creek Ranchería of Tyme Maidu Indians.

“It’s amazing how focused she is,” said Angelo Baca, co-founder of Big Picture Learning and member of the Diné/Hopi tribe. “Rose can work on multiple things, be hilarious and fun and have those strong healer qualities. It’s pretty impressive.”

Finding community

Hammock was still in high school when she first noticed that her culture was rarely, if ever, represented in textbooks and lessons. That was perhaps the first spark of what drives her now to teach others about her heritage.

“You’re not told to learn about local tribes in school,” Hammock said. “We’re not represented anywhere from (kindergarten to 12th grade) and especially not in higher education.”

In high school, Hammock was told by one teacher that the class would dedicate a single page in their agenda to legendary Native American Pomo basket weaver Elsie Allen, the namesake of Hammock’s school. She questioned her teacher why this was so but was left disappointed and confused.

Wanting to belong and break out of her shell, Hammock started dancing at age 11 with a group of Native American dancers at Sonoma County Indian Health. Later, at 13, she attended a conference in Oregon for Native American youth. There she connected with other Native American kids and could talk about sensitive issues, like mental health.

“That conference really opened my eyes,” Hammock said. “When I met all these people my age that faced similar struggles, I didn’t feel so alone anymore. I felt supported, like I had a community.”

Now Hammock is committed to ensuring Native American students feel seen, heard and represented, including in their school lessons.

During her classes with Big Picture Learning, Hammock leads students through local parks and forests while she points out plants and explains their traditional uses by Native Americans. Some are burned for prayers and ceremonies. The Pomo use Angelica root as a medicine, she explains.

Other times she teaches her students about basket weaving, one of the oldest Native American arts, and about beadwork, another traditional art.

She works with teachers and school principals, too, talking with them about how to make a school’s curriculum more supportive and inclusive of Native American students and their needs. While she was growing up, for example, Hammock lost many of her family members, yet her teachers didn’t give her much support when she was absent to attend ceremonies for her deceased relatives. Now she works to generate more understanding for today’s Native American students.

“Every time she shows up, she shows up with her best self. She shows up with warmth and grace, caring for her students in every way,” said Holly Sheehan, a school design coach with Big Picture Learning Native American Initiative. “She’s a healer.”

Embracing traditions

On a table in Hammock’s living room in Roseland are clam and abalone shells and colorful beads stored in plastic containers.

This is where Hammock will sit for hours, listening to reggae or Motown and stringing together shiny beads, a traditional art she learned from her father and grandfather.

“I feel relaxed and calm when I bead. It brings me to a good head space,” Hammock said. “Self-care means being in my culture. Whether I’m in ceremony, in prayer or dancing, it’s where I don’t have to worry about all of the worries of the world.”

As Hammock experienced frequent loss growing up, she often turned to her culture for comfort and healing — traditional feather dancing when her cousin committed suicide in 2011 and the quiet focus of beadwork when her mom died in 2018.

“Being able to share my stories of grief with students is impactful. When people meet me it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re so happy and positive and you’re very involved.’ But everyone has their story and goes through things. What matters is what comes out of those hard times,” she said.

“My culture, my elders and my family have helped me process through those times.”

A lifelong student

What’s next for the community leader?

Hammock plans to create in-person workshops for Redbud Resource Group, with local Native American leaders educating organizations and businesses at parks, reservations or rancherías about the land’s Native American history and culture. The workshops are set for late 2022.

Aside from her work with students at local schools, Redbud Resource Group and other organizations including the California Rural Indian Health Board and California Indian Museum and Cultural Center, she’ll be beading jewelry and necklaces in her free time to sell to her community.

“Learning never stops,” Hammock said. “I’ll be a student for the rest of my life.

“With everything I do, I try to keep an open mind and open heart,” she said. “I hope to always serve my community and my people. I hope to continue learning about my culture and who I am.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mya Constantino at mya.constantino@pressdemocrat.com. @searchingformya on Twitter.