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Annual Gathering at the Gatekeeper's Museum
Gathering & Cultural Apprenticeship
In 2024, Stewarding Knowledges hosted their first annual gathering with support from a Creative Corps grant through the California State Arts Council. This annual event was born of a collaboration among the Museum, the Center's Stewarding Knowledges team, and Wá:šiw Elders, centering on their vision for the future of Lake Tahoe. In 2024, the CAC Creative Corps grant enabled us to support Washoe Tribal artists in Master–Apprentice programs focused on basketry and traditional songs and to create an annual gathering. Wá:šiw Elder basketmakers shared family baskets, heirloom tools and games, and played handgame with participants.
Since then, we have been holding these community gatherings in collaboration with our host partner, the Marion Steinbach Indian Basket Collection and Gatekeeper’s Museum in Tahoe City, California. Our focus is the future and holding space for Washoe people to articulate that future.
Bringing Together Community with Knowledge Keepers
During our first year, we invited Tribal Elders to sit in circle for a conversation focused on addressing the separation caused by forced removal from the Tahoe Basin. This tradition has become central to every Stewarding Knowledges event, supporting Washoe goals of restoring Lake Tahoe and the surrounding Basin to health.
In 2024, our creative team launched the Envisioning the Future, a public art project inviting event attendees to envision the possible futures of Lake Tahoe by creating art and messages on small paper cut-outs of the Lake. These individual pieces will become part of a installation, which we are continuing to develop as a public artwork. Our environmental and science team also led tours of plant relatives growing on the parkland next to the lake, highlighting their importance for Washoe medicine, food, and craft materials.
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On May 16, 2026, we will celebrate the third annual Stewarding Knowledges event at the Marion Steinbach Indian Basket Collection and Gatekeeper’s Museum in Tahoe City.
These gatherings have attracted basketmakers, storytellers, and fostered Wá:šiw-led conversations with Knowledge Keepers, artists, scientists, local residents, and visitors. We are excited to continue this evolving collaboration, returning each year to gather in community, learn from one another, and build a strong stewardship ethic to support and heal the Tahoe Basin
Stewarding Knowledges Core Themes
LandBack & Cultural Continuity
Tending Da'aw 'Lake Tahoe'
Collaborative artmaking, story-sharing, and environmental learning
People & Collaborators
Washiw Zulshish Goom Tahn Nu (Washoe Warrior Society)
University of
San Francisco
Washoe Tribal Off-Reservation Membership
California State Parks
Gatekeepers Museum,
Tahoe Basin
Sierra State Parks Foundation
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