For thousands of years, Native Californians found ways of wielding ingenious tools from nature. They crafted weapons from stone, bone, and tree branches; wove quivers and mats out of tule reeds; formed intricate baskets out of redbud shoots and other materials; and fashioned awls, hair accessories, purses, and spoons from elk and deer bone. In short, from the bounty of California's lands, they created material goods that gave their lives not only comfort, but extraordinary beauty as well.

"Surviving Arts" takes the reader step-by-step through many of these practices, providing an introduction not just to a number of fascinating technologies, but to a way of thinking and of living. Finely-wrought diagrams encourage the reader to follow the various steps in the tanning of deer hide, the making of a wild salad, the reading of animal tracks, and the making of dozens of objects of practical and aesthetic value. More than just a how-to book, "Surviving Arts" also offers insight into the culture and values of the first Californians who developed these skills and their descendants who still maintain knowledge of them.