Native California Research Articles

The Boom Interview

An interview with Alex Steffen, a futurist and native Californian. Steffen, a self-described optimist, is nevertheless deeply worried about the inertia he has found in his home state. The power of the past—which, it turns out, has much to do with the California dream—weighs on the present, preventing the changes needed to ensure that the California dream continues to evolve. The irony is that how we think about the future is a big part of the problem.

Acorn Soup Is Good Food: L. Frank, <em>News from Native California</em>, and the Intersections of Literary and Visual Arts

Acorn Soup Is Good FoodL. Frank, News from Native California, and the Intersections of Literary and Visual Arts Susan Bernardin (bio) collaborative indigenous aesthetics N. Scott Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain. Leslie Silko’s Storyteller. Nora Naranjo-Morse’s Mud Woman: Poems from the Clay. Eric Gansworth’s A Half-Life of Cardio-Pulmonary Function. Deborah Miranda’s Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir. The collaborative interplay of literary and visual genres enacted by these diverse works posits that relationships are at the heart of Native aesthetics. These relationships extend from the mixed-genre form so common in contemporary Native literature to the dexterity of many Native artists who move among multiple creative forms: writing, painting, photography, performance and film work. Yet, this constitutive facet of contemporary Native literary arts remains undernoted. The most consistent scholar to do so, Chadwick Allen, has repeatedly called for a more capacious framework for Native literary studies that proceeds from the recognition that many Native artists work in “multiple media, and . . . often juxtapose genres and forms” (xxii). From Blood Narrative to Trans-Indigenous: Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies, Allen has made the case that “when we conceive written literatures within a more expansive, inclusive context of Indigenous arts, the alphabetic text becomes simply one option within a larger field of self-representation. Literary scholars, I argue, ought to join writers, artists, and arts scholars to engage in Indigenous-centered conversations across the boundaries of traditional disciplines” (xxii– xxiii). Similarly, in Engaged Resistance: American Indian Art, Literature, and Film from Alcatraz to the nmai, Dean Rader places “Native art, literature, and film in context and in conversation with one another to create a cross-genre discourse of resistance” that models what he aptly terms “indigenous interdisciplinarity” (1–2). While it should surprise no one in the field that [End Page 1] Native writers are also visual artists or saxophone players or that Native poets also create poem-films, how do we continue to translate that multiplicity into our interpretive practices?1 To use Allen’s and Rader’s terms, how do we extend the “conversation” these works compel, both internally, with the new forms forged from the interplay of genres, and externally, with affiliated Indigenous arts practices? At the same time, how do we pay closer attention to the multiple “lives” of Native literary and visual arts as they are produced and experienced at various sites for diverse audiences? As we know, location—where a work is presented, published, exhibited, or disseminated—matters. Consider the case of News from Native California, a Berkeley-based quarterly magazine, and its signature artist, L. Frank Manriquez (Tongva/Raramuri/Ajachemem).2 Both separately and together, the magazine and L. Frank’s cartoons and mixed-media work, Acorn Soup and Second Serving, exemplify what one might call the moving practice of Native literary studies. When L. Frank published Acorn Soup: Drawings and Commentary in 1999, her single-panel cartoon of the same name was already a long-term, highly popular staple of the magazine. This essay locates L. Frank’s work within the multiple contexts of News from Native California, The Dirt Is Red Here (an anthology of California Indian visual and literary arts), and the book Acorn Soup—all three of which are published by the nonprofit Heyday Books. How does L. Frank’s Acorn Soup work as a form of local aesthetics within the California Indian–centered venue of News? How does the complex interplay of text and image in her work differently engage local and larger audiences? How do the shifting, collaborative relationships between form and format in Acorn Soup help us adjust the frames of Native literary studies? Since 1987 News from Native California has documented contemporary Indigenous activism in California alongside the ongoing recovery of land, languages, foods, and customary arts. Its cofounders—writer-publisher Malcolm Margolin, anthropologist Vera Mae Frederickson, and anthropologist-filmmaker David W. Peri (Coast Miwok)—started the magazine to counter legacies of genocide, historical trauma, and intergenerational loss for Indigenous peoples in California. Those legacies unfold from Spanish military occupation, enslavement, sexual terrorism, and dispossession of Indigenous peoples in coastal regions from 1769 to 1834; state-sponsored extermination...

Efficacy of a sensory deterrent and pipe modifications in decreasing entrainment of juvenile green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) at unscreened water diversions.

Water projects designed to extract fresh water for local urban, industrial and agricultural use throughout rivers and estuaries worldwide have contributed to the fragmentation and degradation of suitable habitat for native fishes. The number of water diversions located throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin watershed in California's Central Valley exceeds 3300, and the majority of these are unscreened. Many anadromous fish species are susceptible to entrainment into these diversions, potentially impacting population numbers. In the laboratory, juvenile green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) have been shown to have high entrainment rates into unscreened diversions compared with those of other native California fish species, which may act as a significant source of mortality for this already-threatened species. Therefore, we tested the efficacy of a sensory deterrent (strobe light) and two structural pipe modifications (terminal pipe plate and upturned pipe configuration) in decreasing the entrainment of juvenile green sturgeon (mean mass ± SEM = 162.9 ± 4.0 g; mean fork length = 39.4 ± 0.3 cm) in a large (>500 kl) outdoor flume fitted with a water-diversion pipe 0.46 m in diameter. While the presence of the strobe light did not affect fish entrainment rates, the terminal pipe plate and upturned pipe modifications significantly decreased the proportion of fish entrained out of the total number tested relative to control conditions (0.13 ± 0.02 and 0.03 ± 0.02 vs. 0.44 ± 0.04, respectively). These data suggest that sensory deterrents using visual stimuli are not an effective means to reduce diversion pipe interactions for green sturgeon, but that structural alterations to diversions can successfully reduce entrainment for this species. Our results are informative for the development of effective management strategies to mitigate the impacts of water diversions on sturgeon populations and suggest that effective restoration strategies that balance agricultural needs with conservation programmes are possible.

Early clinical leader Lawrence Borgsdorf dies at 67.

Lawrence R. Borgsdorf, Pharm.D., FCSHP, who started his decades-long clinical pharmacy career as a full-time practitioner–educator in a school of medicine, died on October 14 in Bakersfield, California. He was 67 years old. The unusual employment arrangement in the 1970s made the residency-trained Borgsdorf a clinical pharmacist independent of a pharmacy department and a pharmacy school. Years later, as an ambulatory care pharmacist for the Kaiser Permanente Medical Program in his native California, he provided innovative services that caught the attention of the HMO’s physicians. He was a member of the ASHP Commission on Credentialing in 1997–2000. In 1992, he served as the president of the California Society of Hospital Pharmacists (CSHP). Two years later, CSHP recognized Borgsdorf as its Pharmacist of the Year. “He was a top-flight clinician,” said William E. Smith, Jr., who was serving as pharmacy director at Memorial Hospital Medical Center in Long Beach, California, when Borgsdorf started his career.

Founders of pediatric pathology: Arthur James McAdams.

Arthur James (Jim) McAdams chaired the Division of Pediatric Pathology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital from 1962 until 1995 during a period of unprecedented expansion in the mission of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and its associated Research Foundation. Jim briefly was attracted to work in Cincinnati with Ben Landing, who was the first pathologist to be recruited to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Jim departed shortly to his native California for a leadership position at the Oakland Children’s Hospital, and then was invited to return to Cincinnati when Ben vacated the Midwest in 1961 to seek his fortune in Los Angeles, CA. The pathology division (a component of the Research Foundation then and now) at the time of Jim’s arrival had its dwelling in a small wing that had been designed by Landing as an addition to the original Research Foundation building endowed and constructed in 1931. This new space was devoted to anatomic pathology only, as the clinical labs at that time were fragmented and under the leadership of academic pediatricians, as would continue to be the case, effectively, though increasingly anomalously, for the next 35 years. During this period, Jim expertly guided the pathology group and the tissue laboratory that supported its functions, as its work expanded in harmony with the steady growth and expansion of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in both the clinical and research spheres. A tradition of excellence had been established by Landing during the formative 5 years of Ben’s tenure. Subsequently, under Jim’s much longer leadership, the pathology division gained enormously in strength through increasingly successful recruitment of faculty and fellows (35 under his mentorship). The result was steady collaborations with a small but very high-quality clinical faculty and, as times changed, with newly recruited scientists in the emerging field of developmental biology. Who was Jim McAdams? What was his style of leadership? Why was he so successful? What sort of things did he hold to be important? What was it about him that made many personal encounters with him so memorable? Why was he able to singlehandedly create and sustain one of the great departments of pediatric pathology? Of Scottish heritage, son of a building materials dealer, grandson of a protestant minister, Jim was raised in Santa Barbara, CA, and attended the University of California (Berkeley) where, lacking credits in German, a degree was not conferred. He headed east to complete his education at Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Residencies followed in Internal Medicine in Cooperstown, NY, and Pathology in Boston, MA, where he eventually came under the spell of a host of generational leaders in academic pathology including Sidney Farber at Pediatric and Developmental Pathology 17, 161–164, 2014

The Contributions of Donald Lee Johnson to Understanding the Quaternary Geologic and Biogeographic History of the California Channel Islands

Over a span of 50 years, native Californian Donald Lee Johnson made a number of memorable contributions to our understanding of the California Channel Islands. Among these are (1) recognizing that carbonate dunes, often cemented into eolianite and derived from offshore shelf sediments during lowered sea level, are markers of glacial periods on the Channel Islands; (2) identifying beach rock on the Channel Islands as the northernmost occurrence of this feature on the Pacific Coast of North America; (3) recognizing of the role of human activities in historic landscape modification; (4) identifying both the biogenic and pedogenic origins of caliche “ghost forests” and laminar calcrete forms on the Channel Islands; (5) providing the first soil maps of several of the islands, showing diverse pathways of pedogenesis; (6) pointing out the importance of fire in Quaternary landscape history on the Channel Islands, based on detailed stratigraphic studies; and (7), perhaps his greatest contribution, clarifying the origin of Pleistocene pygmy mammoths on the Channel Islands, due not to imagined ancient land bridges, but rather the superb swimming abilities of proboscideans combined with lowered sea level, favorable paleowinds, and an attractive paleovegetation on the Channel Islands. Don was a classic natural historian in the great tradition of Charles Darwin and George Gaylord Simpson, his role models. Don's work will remain important and useful for many years and is an inspiration to those researching the California Channel Islands today.

Supplementary data for: Field Testing Diorhabda elongata (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) From Crete, Greece, to Assess Potential Impact on Nontarget Native California Plants in the Genus Frankenia

Supplementary data for: Field Testing Diorhabda elongata (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) From Crete, Greece, to Assess Potential Impact on Nontarget Native California Plants in the Genus Frankenia

A test of Darwin's naturalization hypothesis in the thistle tribe shows that close relatives make bad neighbors.

Invasive species have great ecological and economic impacts and are difficult to control once established, making the ability to understand and predict invasive behavior highly desirable. Preemptive measures to prevent potential invasive species from reaching new habitats are the most economically and environmentally efficient form of management. Darwin's naturalization hypothesis predicts that invaders less related to native flora are more likely to be successful than those that are closely related to natives. Here we test this hypothesis, using the weed-rich thistle tribe, Cardueae, in the California Floristic Province, a biodiversity hotspot, as our study system. An exhaustive molecular phylogenetic approach was used, generating and examining more than 100,000 likely phylogenies of the tribe based on nuclear and chloroplast DNA markers, representing the most in-depth reconstruction of the clade to date. Branch lengths separating invasive and noninvasive introduced taxa from native California taxa were used to represent phylogenetic distances between these groups and were compared at multiple biogeographical scales to ascertain whether invasive thistles are more or less closely related to natives than noninvasive introduced thistles are. Patterns within this highly supported clade show that not only are introduced thistles more closely related to natives more likely to be invasive, but these invasive species are also evolutionarily closer to native flora than by chance. This suggests that preadaptive traits are important in determining an invader's success. Such rigorous molecular phylogenetic analyses may prove a fruitful means for furthering our understanding of biological invasions and developing predictive frameworks for screening potential invasive taxa.

Effects of natural flooding and manual trapping on the facilitation of invasive crayfish-native amphibian coexistence in a semi-arid perennial stream

Aquatic amphibians are known to be vulnerable to a myriad of invasive predators. Invasive crayfish are thought to have eliminated native populations of amphibians in some streams in the semi-arid Santa Monica Mountains of southern California. Despite their toxic skin secretions that defend them from native predators, newts are vulnerable to crayfish attacks, and crayfish have been observed attacking adult newts, and eating newt egg masses and larvae. For 15 years, we have observed invasive crayfish and native California newts coexisting in one stream in the Santa Monica Mountains. During that period, we monitored the densities of both crayfish and newt egg mass densities and compared these to annual rainfall totals. After three seasons of below average rainfall, we reduced crayfish numbers by manual trapping. Our long-term data indicated that crayfish did not fare well in years when rainfall is above the historic average. This invasive predator did not evolve with high velocity streams, and observations indicated that southern California storm events washed crayfish downstream, killing many of them. Newts exhibit increased reproduction in years when crayfish numbers were reduced. A comparison with a nearby stream that does not contain crayfish indicated that newt reproduction positively responded to increased rainfall, but that fluctuations were much greater in the stream that contains crayfish. We suggest that rainfall patterns help explain invasive crayfish/newt coexistence and that management for future coexistence may benefit from manual trapping.

Why we gather: traditional gathering in native Northwest California and the future of bio-cultural sovereignty

The concept of bio-cultural sovereignty is drawn from Native American Studies scholar Stefano Varese who explores the daily forms of biological and cultural resistance and adaptation in South America. This article extends Varese’s notions by exploring biological and cultural resistance in Native California with a particular focus on the continuing cultural practice of gathering. This article provides a case study analysis of the Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) Supreme Court case and uses traditional ecological knowledge to evaluate how bio-cultural sovereignty is affected by federal land management policies and Western constructions of ecology and the law. The methods are based in an interdisciplinary approach that embraces theoretical notions from linguistics, cultural anthropology, law, environmental justice, history, ecology, and Native American Studies. As a practitioner of traditional ecological knowledge, I offer an analysis of ecological gathering practices to argue that policies, procedures, methodologies, or experiments should be designed in a way that acknowledges the indigenous bio-cultural sovereignty of the land space. Tribes have enacted and continue to enact bio-cultural sovereignty, which solidifies their relationship with the land. Written policies can be used to protect Native interests and to develop a relationship between Native peoples and other agencies. Federal agencies can benefit from these partnerships as tribes can offer assistance to care for these land spaces, state agencies can alleviate potential funding issues for maintaining these areas, and researchers and academics can construct knowledge that incorporates traditional ecological practices to build solid, informed best practices.

Effects of Brassica nigra and plant–fungi interactions on the arthropod community of Deinandra fasciculata

While invasive plants are widely studied for their effects on native plants, we questioned how plant invasions affect higher trophic levels. We investigated the effects of the invasive plant, Brassicanigra on the multi-trophic arthropod community residing on the native California annual Deinandra fasciculata. In a common garden experiment, we planted D. fasciculata without B. nigra or with one of 45 B. nigra half-sib genetic families. We in turn crossed this B. nigra treatment with the suppression of soil fungi to both test for effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on arthropods, and elucidate the mechanisms of B. nigra’s below ground effects. B. nigra had no effect on D. fasciculata traits (biomass, inflorescence number, root colonization by AMF), arthropod community composition or predator density, but increased herbivore density. While B. nigra families varied 18-fold in size, there was no genetic variation for effects on D. fasciculata or its arthropods. Soil fungi suppression had no effect on D. fasciculata traits, herbivore density or herbivore community composition, but increased predator density and altered predator community composition. While the exact mechanisms of B. nigra effects are unclear, they do not appear to have been mediated by altered plant performance or reductions in root colonization by AMF. Our experiment shows that invasive plants such as B. nigra may affect higher trophic levels even when they do not measurably affect native plant performance.

Short pond hydroperiod decreases fitness of nonnative hybrid salamanders in California

Human-facilitated introductions of nonnative taxa have changed species' geographic ranges and increased the prevalence of secondary contact and the potential for hybridization, with a host of effects on ecological systems. Land managers increasingly face these complex situations, tasked with developing strategies to preserve biodiversity in the face of such changes. We conducted a management-relevant experiment to inform the development of strategies for management of wild populations. We examined the fitness consequences of genetic admixture in a hybrid swarm between native California tiger salamanders and nonnative barred tiger salamanders. Variation in hydroperiod within the hybrid zone has previously been observed to affect landscape patterns of genetic introgression, with modified permanent ponds harboring salamanders with a greater proportion of nonnative genes. Our study experimentally examines the relationship between hydroperiod and fitness of three classes of salamanders: native, nonnative and hybrid. Using experimental pond mesocosms, we implemented three pond drying regimes and recorded survival and secondary determinants of salamander fitness. Our results indicate native-genotype advantages in rapidly drying mesocosms relative to other genetic classes. Furthermore, our results indicate that management of aquatic habitat to minimize the success of hybrid individuals may be a viable strategy to reduce the spread of nonnative genotypes. Overall, our approach demonstrates how controlled experiments can be designed to provide meaningful information for the development of real-world conservation strategies.

Benson Bertheau Roe, MD, July 7, 1918–August 6, 2012

"Ben" Roe was the eighth president of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He was a fourth-generation native Californian, a hall of fame athlete, a pioneer in the development of cardiac surgery, and a crusading reformer of professional standards, education, and ethics. Educated in both northern California and in Boston, his career reflected the influence of both cultures and his California heritage.

The Study of Indigenous Political Economies and Colonialism in Native California: Implications for Contemporary Tribal Groups and Federal Recognition

AbstractThis article advocates for a comparative approach to archaeological studies of colonialism that considers how Native American societies with divergent political economies may have influenced various kinds of processes and outcomes in their encounters with European colonists. Three dimensions of indigenous political economies (polity size, polity structure, and landscape management practices) are identified as critical variables in colonial research. The importance of considering these dimensions is exemplified in a case study from California, which shows how small-sized polities, weak to moderate political hierarchies, and regionally oriented pyrodiversity economies played significant roles in the kinds of colonial relationships that unfolded. The case study illustrates how the colonial experiences of Native Californians differed from those of other tribal groups that confronted similar kinds of colonial programs involving Franciscan missionaries elsewhere in North America. The article stresses that the archaeology of colonialism is not simply an arcane academic exercise but, rather, has real-life relevancy for people who remain haunted by the legacies of colonialism, such as those petitioning for federal recognition in California.

Lethal Effects of Water Quality on Threatened California Salamanders but Not on Co‐Occurring Hybrid Salamanders

Biological invasions and habitat alteration are often detrimental to native species, but their interactions are difficult to predict. Interbreeding between native and introduced species generates novel genotypes and phenotypes, and human land use alters habitat structure and chemistry. Both invasions and habitat alteration create new biological challenges and opportunities. In the intensively farmed Salinas Valley, California (U.S.A.), threatened California tiger salamanders (Ambystoma californiense) have been replaced by hybrids between California tiger salamander and introduced barred tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium). We conducted an enclosure experiment to examine the effects habitat modification and relative frequency of hybrid and native California tiger salamanders have on recruitment of salamanders and their prey, Pacific chorus frogs (Pseudacris regilla). We tested whether recruitment differed among genetic classes of tiger salamanders (hybrid or native) and pond hydroperiod (seasonal or perennial). Roughly 6 weeks into the experiment, 70% (of 378 total) of salamander larvae died in 4 out of 6 ponds. Native salamanders survived (n = 12) in these ponds only if they had metamorphosed prior to the die-offs. During die-offs, all larvae of native salamanders died, whereas 56% of hybrid larvae died. We necropsied native and hybrid salamanders, tested water quality, and queried the California Department of Pesticide Regulation database to investigate possible causes of the die-offs. Salamander die-offs, changes in the abundance of other community members (invertebrates, algae, and cyanobacteria), shifts in salamander sex ratio, and patterns of pesticide application in adjacent fields suggest that pesticide use may have contributed to die-offs. That all survivors were hybrids suggests that environmental stress may promote rapid displacement of native genotypes.

Language revitalization and the (re)constituting of gender

While many authors have investigated the processes by which children are socialized into gender roles within their communities of practice, and others have taken up an examination of the ways in which gender is a consideration in language endangerment and revitalization, the process of gender socialization in communities working towards language revitalization has been less well examined. The purpose of this paper is to examine gender role socialization in the context of Native California language endangerment and revitalization. The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the ideologies linked to gender roles in the traditional cultures associated with endangered Native California languages of heritage are expressed and understood, particularly as they interact with gender ideologies from a surrounding, dominant society. The particular focus of this paper is an examination of the impact of those ideologies on the deployment of silence as a salient attribute of women’s speech in contexts which are framed as traditional and closely tied to Native California languages of heritage.

Table of Contents

Abstract NEWS Groups identify key steps to successful pro bono projects HSBC launches 5‐year, $100 million water/sanitation initiative SCUTTLEBUTT SPOTLIGHT Utilities industry Exelon Corporation Florida Power & Light Company Southern California Edison Company NV Energy Inc. Natural resources industry International Paper Company Shell Oil Company Louisiana‐Pacific Corp. Alpha Natural Resources Inc. GRANT ALERTS Arts and Culture Endangered Language Fund grants for tribal programs New England Native Arts grants California playwright grants Education Meemic Foundation grants for classroom projects Kauffman Dissertation Fellowships Class project grants for North Carolina teachers Environment Green Communities grants for green building design Patagonia environmental activism grants Health Shared Services Learning Community grants Religion Louisville Institute's Pastoral Study Project grants Social Science New York Community Trust's Social Work grants

More Roundabouts and Reduced Vehicle Emissions?

As a native Californian with approximately 10 years of European living and driving experience, I write on that personal favorite of British inventionsthe roundaboutand what it might do for reduced vehicle emissions (e.g., CO2 and other greenhouse gases). While the merits of installing roundabouts at intersections dominated by stop signs and traffic lights might be clear in terms of traffic flow efficiency, it is also worth highlighting from the more global perspective of potential emissions reductions. We are all aware of the benefits of reduced vehicle emissions, from the standpoint of either lowering the impacts or extending the lifespan of available fossil fuel resources, or both, but how many consider potential gains by simple traffic engineering adjustments with proven merit? Several European cities are increasing roundabout installations presumably with reduced congestion as the main motive, which is justified considering the growing and increasingly urbanized population. I would like to see this addressed in terms of global emissions as well, however. With no data, I aim to prompt a comparative and quantitative investigation on whether simple traffic-engineering adjustments might reduce emissions on the large-scale. I suspect the results may be encouraging and actually move policymakers (e.g., urban planners and traffic engineers) to act faster to install more roundabouts where they are needed most. While I have long pondered this, my recent California return and earning of a citation for not stopping at a stop-signed intersection has prompted renewed thought. Many intersections in California (and the U.S.) are dominated by stop signs, and under circumstances I suspect unwarranted by virtue of safety or traffic flow. I encourage the investigation of increased roundabouts, and whether fuel consumption and emissions decreases might both occur while also reducing congestion. Perhaps the results would quicken progressive change on a major modern issue.

Characterization of 36 additional microsatellite loci in splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus) and cross-amplification in five other native Californian cyprinid species

We characterized 36 new microsatellite markers for splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus), an estuarine fish species endemic to the San Francisco Estuary. Genetic variation was assessed using 25 individuals from the Sacramento River and 16 individuals from the Petaluma River. Number of alleles per locus varies considerably, ranging from 3 to 19. One locus deviated significantly from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and a single pair of loci was found to be in linkage disequilibrium. Twenty-four markers successfully cross-amplified and were polymorphic in at least one of the five additional California cyprinid species (Ptychocheilus grandis, Siphateles bicolor, Lavinia exilicauda, Orthodon microlepidotus & Mylopharodon conocephalus) examined in this study.

Chylothorax Caused by Paragonimus westermani in a Native Californian

Paragonimiasis is a parasitic infection endemic in Asia but uncommon in the United States. It presents most frequently with cough and hemoptysis. Pleural effusions are common and can manifest occasionally as a pseudochylothorax, but a true chylothorax has, to our knowledge, never been reported. We report a case of a chylothorax from infection with Paragonimus westermani. The case is also unique because it occurred in a native Californian who had not traveled to Asia and was infected by eating raw crabs at a local sushi restaurant. The freshwater crabs had been imported from Asia.