Julia Parker has spent most of her years living and working in
Yosemite Village in California. Although she was born in her
native Pomo territory, her early teachers were elder Indian
traditionalists and basketweavers of the Sierra Miwok and Mono
Lake Paiute people. After her mother's death when Julia was
five, she and her siblings were placed in a foster home and
later sent to Stewart Indian School near Carson City, NV. There
she met her husband to be, Ralph Parker, and in 1948 they
married and moved back to the Yosemite area. Ralph was employed
by the National Park Service and Julia worked as a housekeeper
for the Yosemite Park and Curry Company. In 1960, Park
naturalist Douglas Hubbard wanted to revive demonstrations of
Indian basketweaving at the Yosemite Museum and Julia
volunteered. With master elders as her teachers, most
significantly Ralph's mother, Julia soon was demonstrating
basketweaving in the park. She also revived the practice of
making acorn meal and mush, which in the traditional way uses a