By Sara Ballenger

Making face paint by rubbing two wet rocks together, eating acorn paste and piercing balloons with a bow and arrow are just a few of the ways Keith Gutierrez spends his time.

The resident naturalist at Redwood Grove in Los Altos spent Oct. 23 teaching Colleen Stockwell and Trish Mitchell’s third-grade classes from Santa Rita School about the Ohlone American Indians. Gutierrez has been running programs at Redwood Grove for the past nine years.

Ohlones lived in more than 50 small communities from San Francisco to the Monterey Bay that shared roots of culture and language, according to the Monterey County Historical Society.

The year-round hands-on Ohlone program is geared toward third- and fourth-graders learning about California Indians and California history.

“We do almost all of the Los Altos schools and beyond that,” Gutierrez said. “For kids, hands-on and visual learning is essential.”

The program, run by the Los Altos Recreation Department, has added a new element this year, an authentic Ohlone village.

“We used to walk down and come into the main room here,” Gutierrez said, referring to the education center in the preserve. “But being in a room is like being in a classroom. We are trying to make it more of a natural setting for the students.”

Gutierrez enlisted the help of Eagle Scout Ben Slotnick from Los Altos troop 37 to build an authentic hut made out of tule, a type of grass reed.

“We gathered willow branches for the frame,” Gutierrez said. “We went down to the shoreline, with permission, and gathered the tule to set around it. It (the hut) makes it all come alive a lot more.”

Parents and teachers agree. “There are so many different things for them to do. It’s not just one lecture situation,” said Stockwell. “It adds so much more to the experience, like watching Keith try and make fire five different times - it wasn’t just lighting a match and having it work.”

Among the many activities the students participated in were dressing up in authentic clothing, gathering berries in baskets, making acorn paste, singing ceremonial songs and dancing.

“Native Americans were around about 15 to 20 thousand years ago,” Gutierrez said. “The students get a better idea of the people and how they lived. It starts to connect them with the things they start to read in class about California Indians.”

Participating in the Ohlone program at Redwood Grove has brought their textbooks alive for many of the students, like Maya Khatri.

“I learned how there are no (full blooded) Ohlones alive right now,” Khatri said. “The baskets that hold water were interesting because they wove them so tight that water couldn’t get out. They were very talented.”

Students also make the connection that Ohlones were the early Los Altans, said parent and field trip coordinator Vicki Yort.

“It really brings a relevance to where you live,” Yort said. “The fact that we’re not overdeveloping is great, because the kids don’t have to drive forever to go see nature. It’s right here in your own back yard.”

For more information about the programs at Redwood Grove, call 941-0950.