Humboldt County.
Southern Humboldt County.
Southern Humboldt.
Humboldt of the South.
South to whose North?
Eureka government man say southern Humboldt
mean Fortuna, mean Rio Dell
and, oh ya, w-a-a-a-y down yonder,
way down Mississippi Eel River
be down home
be point of the alders
be dew sweet as honey
be thorn of the white flowers
be sheep and cattle and lumber ghost town villages
just now awakened and awakening
to new beginnings, renewals, regenerations
of Life beautiful as we have Love to give,
of People new and old
the humble and the bold,
many hearing ancient rumors and seeing vision prophecies
of war and earthquake and famine,
pestilence and plague and the wrath we wield
upon ourselves
as the Earth, our Mother, ready to cleanse,
cries out to Her Children
"Now, I need you here today!"

Yes, look a-way down south, look away,
to town say "Freeway Exit 101"
where Yankee reporters go a-hunting,
searching out talkative natives
they bear no gifts, neither bead nor trinket,
they wear cameras and tape recorders and deadlines
and preconceptions like New York underwear
down there, down here be home town, market town,
steep land for sale not cheap town
so grow your green smoke, son,
and do sell your dry goods, sir,
"cause, yes, this be a center-come-to-meetin" town,
come to somethin" town
where southern sisters and their brother men
know the Movement is alive, has never dimmed
are learning the backwater flow from Fish to Aquarius
is a daily calico of picking up every stitch
'cause way down yonder
there be a dance goin' on &
call it, "We Be A Place In Time".

Southern Humboldt?
South to whose North?
North to whose South?

Eureka Agriculture Department man saying "Spray's the way"?
Ukiah Department of Forestry man
deciding whether Sinkyone virgin forest homelands
shall fall to multi-national gypo chainsaw?
Sacramento Resources Planning agents
dealing away these mountains and waters to quench the greed
of our hypnotized kin in the Land of La?
West to whose East?
Washingtion DC & BLM & BIA & IRS & FBI
A to Z bureaucrat men and women
declaring, oppressing, taxing and ensnaring
a land and its people?
this land, these people,
the two-leggeds and the winged ones,
the four-leggeds and the crawling ones,
the swimmers and the skimmers,
the green ones whose roots bring forth the Mother,
the silent ones of stone who know and witness all,
the breath revealed ones who ride the blue wind sky ones
and buzzing, fluttering little streaks of light ones . . .
all & all of these and more than we are given to know.
this land, we the people.

Yet, here is a lesson, a message of place:
"Where each one dwells, here is the center."
and so we say,
Let the Spirit of the North give us Wisdom,
Let the Spirit of the East shine Illumination,
Let the Spirit of the South renew our Innocence,
Let the Spirit of the West reveal us to ourselves,
people, let us honor this land and these directions,
but let us, in our hearts at least,
be done with this idea of southern Humboldt!
truly, this place has need of another name,
this place which is our center,
this place which is the center of our universe.

And so i seek a name
and because the waters are life itself,
and because the waters pulse with the blood of our Earth Mother
i listen to the rivers,
to the Eel, to the Mattole,
and a new name forms in their mingling:
Mattole.  Eel.
Mattole.  Eel.
at their conjoining i hear
Mateel.  Mateel.
and from this center, this center in this heart of these two rivers,
i know i am of a place,
not a somewhere, but a place.
Mateel is that place.
Mateel is my home.

With respect, i offer us this naming,
Mateel
Mateel
Mateel !

~Jim Deerhawk~