Z Space

The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (FIGR) and their Tribal Chairman, Greg Sarris, have been a part of Word for Word (WfW), almost from its inception. In 1994 we produced a show, one of our first mainstage shows, from Greg’s book Grand Avenue, a novel of interlinked short stories about contemporary, urban American Indians and other marginalized people who live in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. We were struck by the theatrical potential of the stories and their characters who were seldom seen in fiction at that time, and rarely seen on stage.

We invited Greg to the opening night of his story “Slaughterhouse,” and as he often tells it, he came to the theater not knowing what to expect – “They’re performing my story – word for word? What the heck is that?” – but left the theater a fan. And we’ve been mutual admirers ever since. That led to many more wonderful collaborations, most recently between our arts education program, Youth Arts, and FIGR’s youth summer camp programs. This summer will be our seventh providing arts programming for the Native youth of Sonoma County!

• 1994: Slaughterhouse, at the Bayfront Theater, directed by Octavio Solis.
• 1998: Joy Ride - a co-production with Campo Santo, at Intersection for the Arts, directed by Margo Hall.
• 2008: WfW commissions Sarris to write stories for its School & Library Tour: “How Tom Smith Caused the 1906 Earthquake”  for elementary school students, “Ancestor” for high school students. These shows toured  to over 70 schools, libraries and community centers in Northern CA.
• 2012: Stories from Sonoma Mountain, directed by Nancy Shelby - a show for children and families from Sarris’ stories “How Tom Smith Caused the 1906 Earthquake” and “Waterbug Walks Away with Copeland Creek” from Sarris’ book How a Mountain was Made. Performed at Z Space, and several other venues around Northern CA.
• 2017: The writing of "How Tom Smith Caused the 1906 Earthquake" for WfW's School & Library Tour inspires Sarris to retell more Miwok/Pomo tales and results in his book How a Mountain Was Made, published in 2017 by HeyDay Books.
• 2018 - present:  Word for Word’s arts education program, Youth Arts, begins its residency as the arts provider for FIGR’s youth summer camp programs.
• July 2019: Word for Word performs a staged reading of Greg Sarris' short story "Citizen" as part of its Off the Page staged reading series. Greg is interviewed by playwright Octavio Solis after the reading. (Solis directed WfW's production of Sarris' story "Slaughterhouse" in 1994).
• November 2019: "Citizen" is reprised as an introduction to a conversation between Sarris and Amy Tan at Word for Word's short story festival, "Exactly!" They Said...
• January 2021: WfW produces "Citizen" as a podcast for its pandemic podcast series Word for Wordcast.
• October 2023: WfW stages a full production of "Citizen" at Z Below. The show was an enormous success, garnering the San Francisco Chronicle's coveted "jumping man," with reviewer Lily Janiak deeming it "...as lush and penetrating as a Sonoma County grapevine." The show has been nominated for multiple Bay Area Critics Circle Awards, including best overall production and best featured performance for Ixtlán.

While Word for Word was delving into Greg’s work, Greg was busy with another impressive project – helping his people, the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo of Northern California, gain federal recognition. Greg co-wrote HR5528, a bill that became law on Dec 27, 2000, making Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria the last tribe in the United States to be restored by an act of Congress. FIGR went on to use the opportunity and reparations from that recognition to create an enterprise that would change everything – the Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park. Greg is in his 16th elected term as the Chairman of The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, and what he and FIGR have created needs to be celebrated. In addition to providing programs and services to Tribal Citizens to realize their dreams of self-sufficiency, the Tribe “pays it forward”—making many impactful gifts.  The Resort itself has a forward thinking design, with sustainability in mind. The employees receive some of the best pay and benefits for service workers in the county, (and they never stopped receiving that pay or benefits during the Covid shut-down). The Tribe has created an organic garden onsite at the resort that feeds local elders. 

• Since 2010, the Tribe has seen a turn around from an 80 percent dropout rate by 9th grade to an 80 percent graduation rate from high school.
• Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Make It Possible for All California Native American Students Accepted to University of California to Attend Tuition-Free
• Tribe behind Graton casino gives $8M to Sonoma County environment, education, fire relief
• Supporting the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian’s national education initiative, Native Knowledge 360°
• Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Donate $1.5 Million to the National Native American Veterans Memorial
• FIGR funds Sonoma State’s 2022 Summer Bridge Program, helping create a smooth and supportive college transition for SSU’s most educationally vulnerable first-time-first-year students
• UCLA School of Law has received a $15 million donation from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria to advance the study and practice of Native American law
• Graton Resort and Casino supports employees with exceptional benefits.