Jeneva was named after her great-grandmother, this tiny, yurak Indian woman, less than five

feet tall, who lived in the village of Rekwa.

Its wayway in Northern California, in the heart of the Redwood Forest, were the clear waters

of the Klamath River, pouring into the salty Pacific Ocean.

All of Jeneva's earliest memories are there, mostly walking alongside her great-grandparents

to see how the salmon was cooking in the smokehouse.

Even as a two-year-old, her favorite food was eel.

We cut eels right at the mouth of the river there, and they're really fatty-rich.

They're like a really fatty pork chop.

With her elders, uncles, and aunties, and a house built by Jeneva's great-grandmother's

grandpa, they'd all sit around a table and eat, speaking in a mix of English and a little

yurak, while little Jeneva picked out on eel.

And so apparently I'd eaten a lot, and people were worried that the baby was eating too

much eels, and they said I couldn't have any more, and so I stood up on my chair and

put my hands on my hips and said, more eels, please.

And that was apparently the first full sentence I had ever said.

Between bites of smoked fish and seaweed.

Her elders, many of them, native activists, would reminder how lucky the yurak are to live

on their tribal lands.

They're the largest tribe in California with almost 5,000 members, and while so many native

people are displaced, they told her that the yurak had been in Rekwa since the beginning

of time.

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