The Salt Song Trail Map
The Salt Songs are the sacred songs of the Nuwuvi people and describe a physical and spiritual landscape spanning ocean and desert, mountains and rivers, life and death. The landmarks identified on the map are described by the songs and represent ancient villages, gathering sites for salt and medicinal herbs, trading routes, historic events, sacred areas, and cultural landscapes.


The Storyscape Project of The Cultural Conservancy (www.nativeland.org) has been working with the Salt Song Trail Project to produce a map of Southern Paiute (Nuwuvi) sacred landscapes based on the Salt Songs. Philip M. Klasky teaches in the Department of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University and has worked for three years conducting field studies with Nuwuvi elders and singers. Klasky will talk about the meaning and significance of the Salt Songs and the process of cultural cartography/mapping.