How Hummingbird Brought Fire: An Ohlone Folktale

After a decade, I’m adding another tale to my Hummingbird Folklore series. Yesterday, I caught one of the last days of an excellent exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California: Good Fire: Tending Native Lands. The exhibit explored “cultural burning,” i.e. the traditional controlled burn practices of the Native Communities of Northern California, and discussed their efforts to reintroduce these practices into modern land stewardship. It was super informative, and I’m glad I caught it before it left. One of the pieces on display was a painting, based on the cover of a booklet of Rumsen Ohlone stories, as told by Linda Yamane. They also had a recording of Yamane telling the story in both Rumsen and English. The first two hummingbird tales I told when I started this series were from the Rumsen Ohlone, so I’m delighted to share this one, too. Rather than retell it myself, here’s Valentin Lopez, of the Aman-Mutsun Ohlone tribal band, reading Yamane’s version. Do enjoy. Book cover image…