Maya

Turn right at the fallen cottonwood,

where dry grass beckons in the autumn wind,

up the stony road to Maya’s house.

There, she is standing in front of it,

precariously perched,

a delicate grey crane that may

take flight at any time.

Her gaze settles, far away, on mountains

that have lived forever.

She has waded there, on slender legs of steel,

attended at the birth of uncertain streams,

and, with her soft cry, summoned

great rivers that wear away the rocks

with compelling currents

and the patience of centuries.

Wise and graceful spirit,

when you go,

take me with you.

--Donna Katzin

In Memoriam: Maya Miller

We shared only a few moments with her -- but it was enough to let us know what kind of person she was. She came into our world at what turned out to be a crucial moment for our organization of maquiladora workers, an organization that we have built from the grassroots. She was our guest of honor at the opening of the CFO's first office.

What a symbolic moment it turned out to be! With so many years behind her of fighting for women's rights, Maya joined us at the turning point when, after many years of working behind the scenes, we decided to raise our voice and establish our own space, our own center.

Most of us in the CFO are women, including most of those in leadership roles. We cannot think of anyone who would have been more worthy of honoring this occasion, an occasion that proved to be so important for the women of Mexico.

We remember Maya with great affection and tenderness. Even though she was our elder by many years, we all called her "Maya" - a token, perhaps, of the trust she inspired. Her simplicity, her evident sympathy for women and all people in need, made us see her as someone special. Someone who we will always remember.

Julia Quiñonez, Coordinator, Comité Fronterizo de Obreras
(Border Committee of Women Workers--CFO), Mexico

September 2006

Maya Miller

Pocos momentos compartidos con ella, suficientes para ver quien y como era. La conocimos en persona, en un momento crucial para la organización de base de trabajadoras de las maquiladoras. Ella inauguró la primera oficina del CFO.... ¡que momento tan simbólico! ella que a luchado por las mujeres vino a inaugurar una organización que después de muchos años de trabajar en el silencio, decidimos alzar nuestra voz,y tener nuestro centro, nuestro espacio. La mayoría somos mujeres y quienes tomamos las decisiones también, quien mejor que Maya para ser testiga de este momento tan importante para mujeres mexicanas.

La recordamos con mucha ternura y cariño, a pesar que era una mujer mayor todas la llamábamos "Maya" será que sentimos confianza. Su sencillez, su simpatía por las mujeres y los pobres hizo que la viéramos como alguien especial, por eso le vamos a recordar siempre...

Julia Quiñonez, Coordinadora, Comité Fronterizo de Obreras (CFO), México

Septiembre 2006

My time working with Maya was in the ‘60’s when we were on the board of the “League Ladies.” Nancy Gomes and I wrote the report for the Study “Equality of Oppurtunity for Education and Employment in Nevada.” I came to Washoe Pines frequently in those days to help put out the LWV Newsletter. Maya often baked bread before we got here.

Maya’s legacy is carried forth by all of us she inspired... including my children who were pre-schoolers then.

What a Treasure she has been in countless lives.

Bobbie Talso
Reno

Martha Gould
Reno

Marge Sill
Reno

I first met Maya when she greeted me and my husband Brian at the door of Orchard House in 1987 or so- we’d never been here before- we knocked on the door and Maya appeared- stark naked, poised, gracious as always.

I thought- I’m going to like this place! Maya has always represented to me someone who seemed to hold what was best in people and somehow recognize, nurture, and create that distilled love for humanity in political struggle. Thank you deeply, Maya, for showing so many how to fight a joyous, righteous fight.

Susanna Moore
Berkeley

Terry Ann Stone

I love you, Maya

Medea
San Francisco

Sally Denton
Santa Fe

Lisa Guzman
Reno

Helen Anderson Toland
Las Vegas

all my love, always,

Maggie Tracey

What Would Maya Do? That’s a watchword for me. Thanks to her family for such a great gathering of people whose lives Maya affected.

Brendan Riley

I learned some very useful political lessons from Maya, especially about the importance of building coalitions with people and organizations with whom we can find common ground on some issues and not on others. She was very proud of the coalition building work of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, which no doubt began with a discussion in the living room at her ranch. She helped launch the political careers of a number of progressive people. Though Maya once sought political office herself, she more often worked behind the scenes to quietly support local, tribal state and national candidates.

Maya also taught a very practical lesson to me. On a visit to the ranch, I noticed that she used the baskets in her Native American basket collection for every day tasks. They were not just displayed on a shelf. When I asked her about it, she said baskets were intended to be used, not just looked at. I went home and immediately put my own baskets to use.

I hope all of us who know Maya will be infused with just a little of her spirit and can continue to work on the issues she cared so much about. Someone once said that as long as we speak the names of the people who have walked on to the other world, the Earth will always remember them. All the people who loved Maya and everyone whose life was touched and changed by Maya will speak her name for a long, long time to come. I believe the Earth will always remember Maya.

Wilma Mankiller

Maya was always the woman who was ahead of the women – and men – who were ahead of their time.

She understood Washington and created a Women’s Lobby even while many of her far-reaching and humane politics considered themselves too radical to vote.

She ran for the U.S. Senate before there was a base of women’s electoral groups to support her as she deserved.

She was a global feminist when many women in this and other countries hadn’t looked beyond their borders.

She saw the link and web and interdependence of all social justice and environmental and peace movements, even while many within them were still seeking independence.

She understood and used a kind of radical and transformational philanthropy, even while some women of means were still made uncomfortable by those means.

She was and is a lodestar, the kind of person about whom we can always ask, “What would Maya do?” The question alone will lead us into our best and wisest selves.

All of this would be incomplete without the quality that marked all her acts and worlds – her kindness.

I think the older I get – and perhaps you are finding this true, too – acts of loving kindness, toward others and toward ourselves, indeed, toward all that lives on this earth, are the only saving grace, literally. The only grace that can save us.

I thank Maya – and all the friends and family who supported her – for the kindness she has left in this world. It will be with us always.

Gloria Steinem

Maya,

Thanks for this great party and the opportunity to say thanks, dear friend, on behalf of the AFSC and on my own behalf.

From the AFSC I bring brief words from Saralee Hamilton (Director of the Women’s Program). Saralee is waging a valiant fight against cancer and can’t join us. She asked that I say that your long support and understanding of the strategic importance of the Women and Global Corporations Project in the global women’s movement as well as within the AFSC was extremely significant to its success and to her personally.

For over 30 years, you supported AFSC economic and social justice work primarily through the National Community Relations Committee. Your thinking and analysis, so grounded in the lives and experiences of poor women made our witness, our community organizing, and our capacity to influence the public and government officials strong far beyond what we could have done without you.

Comite Frontierizo de Obreras--Julia , Ricardo, and all the CFO members send their love and thanks for believing in their capacity, supporting and strengthening the women workers in their individual and collective struggles. They appreciate your financial support, of course, but they remember the time you spent with them when they opened their office as the best gift of all. Thank you for leading the AFSC delegation that celebrated the office opening. They were so proud to have your support and presence with them on that grand day. You told them and showed them during that visit how much you respected what they were trying to do and that you learned from them. I was at the ranch when you tried on the lovely dress they sent. It fit to a “T”. How happy they were to know that their gift was a success.

Your dear AFSC friends Barbara and Jane died before you, but I know that they loved you and appreciated your wise counsel on AFSC’s program and policy work on welfare reform, housing, and other economic justice work.

Now, dear Maya, I speak for myself as the inheritor of the mantle of leadership of the AFSC National Community Relations Unit. I recognized, as you did, that the women in Mexico were being held back by our paternalistic staff person. He began the work, but didn’t know how to let the women soar. It was a great relief and support to be able to share my concerns about his work with you and to know that you had not been unaware of the problems anyway, though no one had been as candid before. I think you were pleased that I saw you as a real partner who would appreciate my candor and my commitment to make the necessary changes.

The poor in West Virginia never knew you, but thanks to your financial support, AFSC was able to hire a staff person who made Clinton’s welfare “deform” understandable and who helped our lead organizer strengthen his organizing work. AFSC’s handbook on welfare “deform” was reprinted by the Charleston Gazette, enabling our two person staff to cover the entire state. West Virginia kids don’t know you, but they have eyeglasses and so many things this rich country couldn’t keep well guarded secrets.

AFSC’s Living Wage Campaign is the latest concrete result of your financial support. Holly Sklar has written a comprehensive report “A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business, and Our Future” to make the case for raising the minimum wage at the state and federal levels. Holly’s op ed pieces are making the need for increasing the minimum wage clear: A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it. We are seeing great organizing at the state level throughout the country.

A few personal words…

Maya, thanks for your belief in me. Your questions, sharp but gently raised, pulled from me a clarity and vision I didn’t know I had. Thanks for supporting me to take the helm after Barbara’s over forty years of leadership. There is no way that I brought those years of experience and wisdom. I had to be faithful to the mission and dare to make changes and mistakes. Knowing that you were “pulling for me” made the job easier, by far.

Thanks for believing that we can find practical ways to bring African Americans and immigrants into common cause and that AFSC can expand its support of African Americans. We didn’t have the opportunity to talk about this work. I guess you read about discussions and knew a bit of funding would help.

Maya—my partner and mentor—I loved you and thrived from your attention. My faith in people and the potential for good was nourished by your example.

Joyce Miller

September 2006

Maya—

If there are openings between

our separate worlds, perhaps

you’ll glimpse the high deck

and one hummingbird having

a late snack of pink honeysuckle.

Maybe you'll trail a finger through

the sweet breeze

moving dense summer leaves

on surrounding cottonwoods.

Maya, you gave us this

welcoming outside

for ones too shut-in.

Mother often rested here.

She said, “It’s like a nest.”

This room among the trees

under brightening stars…

a particle of your great heart

at homewith me

with you tonight.

Love,

Virginia

My mainstay image of Maya is her jubilant optimism almost untouched by the considerable forces of opposition. The first time I met her, she and Nancy Gomes came over to the little apt my husband and I had rented; I don't think we'd been in town six months, and I don't remember how they'd found me. They wanted to involve me in the League of Women Voters. I suspect it was my outrage over the busing wars around school desegregation that landed me at a roaring school board meeting that sealed their interest. Television cameras were at the meeting and some of us who spoke--on either side of the issue--ended up on TV the next day. Anyway, from that visit with Maya and Nancy in my apt, I saw them almost every day for years as I was in and out of town. I was a green kid from NYU film school and delighted to be sucked into their plans to contest racism and sexism all over Nevada. She gave me the chance to make my first film, and she helped me by opening a way to make two more. Maya was generous in spirit as in fact, and she had high goals--for people and for issues. She set standards. She took her ideas seriously, then acted on them! Anyone, particularly someone young, was lucky to know her. I certainly was and that is why I think of her often.

Mollie Gregory

Here is a woman with the means to live lavishly, yet chose with intention and vision to live simply and humbly (symbolically wore jeans, Latino-peasant blouses; drove a small, less expensive car rather than a BMW; and
made her own bread and enough to share with her neighbors). She chose to dig with others in trenches as well as invested in others who could effect change.

In my mind, I remember her for authentic relationship with others, the sharing of the beautiful ranch with so many people, and working collectively for social justice, working tirelessly and continuously for the underdog. And, I remember her for the foresight and fight to preserve a natural piece of the shoreline of Lake Tahoe, Sand Harbor State Park--one of her many "living" legacies!

Greg Kniseley

We would wander down into the kitchen in some disarray, hair matted from last night's hot tub, and find that Maya had made bread and Peet's coffee. What a wonderful gift for us, to toast up the bread, spread it with any number of types of jam on hand, and then slowly come to consciousness as the sun rose in the sky. The paper would be there for us to read if we weren't completely comatose.

I realize that Maya had the money to build the kind of house most Americans dream about -- a sterile monument to one's wealth. But she kept the Orchard House as her home, added a big family room that encompassed the kitchen, dining and living space so all of us could be together if we wished.

In a corner, the round low table for the kids with plenty of toys and games and books. A nearby shelf of recipe books for any of us who felt like getting creative. A fading orange shag rug that let us know that if we wanted to get down on the floor and make a mess, it would probably be OK. Even spilled wine would precipitate no crisis for Maya. The fireplace making a cozy setting on a chilly day.

And around that round dining table Maya would invite us but also so many other amazing people. I remember meeting amazing African American, Native American and lesbian women -- the kind of women I would not meet where I lived and worked most of the time. Remarkable women who were stepping out to lead for social change.

I remember Maya's scrap books and pictures of her as a girl and young woman, a life I cound not imagine for her. I remember her book of Ansel Adams photos -- my God! And the amazement that she had actually worked for him at one point.

And then to top it off, I'd probably known Maya for a long time when I heard she'd run for U.S. Senate!! I saw the button! She never bragged about it. It was history by that time.

And then learning about her saving the western shore of Lake Tahoe for public access -- maybe one of her achievements that will have the longest lasting impact.

There were always a pile of books in the sitting room -- the latest and most stimulating titles available for anyone who wanted to read instead of hike or swim or do chores.

And speaking of chores -- doing these sorts of things at home could feel onerous. But chores at the ranch were fun -- even cleaning out the cabins which were moldy as hell, or fixing a roof, we weren't sure why. Or beating back the sand infiltrating the Lodge, or weed whacking an entire corral knowing full well the grass would grow back, or mending a fence here and there. These chores were fun because we did them together and we knew when we got pooped there would be food at Maya's and drinks and Mark could play blender sports and maybe make a pie.

I remember Karen's return from kayaking in Alaska and bringing blueberries she'd picked there. Maya make chicken and used the berries which dyed the chicken purple but it was soooo delicious.

That amazing photo of Maya and Coney in Vogue, of all magazines. Maya defied the American standards of beauty but I can't think of a more beautiful woman I have ever met.

So much more. Quails that would flutter out of their grassy nests when we'd walk from Maya's to Eric's. Waking up in a field after having fallen asleep watching the stars only to find ourselves surrounded by cows. Feeding Marla's horse an apple. Volleyball behind the Lodge. A tiring hike up the mountain but what an amazing view of the valleys! The fire that came so close to Maya's haven. Pulling up cattails from that little reservoir out back with Maya up to her chest in mucky water pulling at a furious pace.

Such generosity of spirit and soul.

Cindy Crowner
Stroudsberg, PA

Maya Miller

I came to know Maya in the most typical of ways—as a close friend of her children growing up, and only so because our parents were acquainted. In childhood, I spent many weekends visiting, and summers as a Washoe Pines Camper, too. As the years wore on and I kept coming back to visit, eventually bringing my own children along, I came to realize that Maya was not typical in any way. As anyone who has ever met Maya knows, despite her being one of the most interesting people on the planet herself, she was always interested in the other person--how many such people do we know?

Here was someone you could talk to—converse with—explore—discover what is worthwhile and important in this life. I live in awe of Maya’s many achievements in the public arena, yet the personal side of her is equally impressive--I always came away from visits with Maya feeling stronger, believing in myself, and with an even greater appreciation of how truly special we all are.

Niki

Alex Angelo
Genoa, NV

Young Shin
Asian Immigrant Women Advocates
Oakland

Because of my time in Maya's campaign, I was able to then join Bob Rose's campaign for lieutenant governor, which proved successful. As the years went on, I managed or worked on many campaigns throughout the state, and this helped me build my advertising business in Las Vegas. I had many successes, a few failures, but always became involved only if I thought the candidate was worthy of the people's trust. I think that came from Maya. Ultimately I made a run myself for the California legislature in 2004. I didn't do very well, but again, the inspiration to take on that challenge came in no small measure from my time with Maya.

Maya and I later served together on the board of directors for Operation Life, again helping people in need. Maya's commitment never wavered, and I know she went on to many other challenges thereafter.

David Cooper
Los Angeles

I can't help but feel cheated out that I didn't get the chance to know Maya on the level that many have had the pleasure. The amount of people that came to say good-bye to her in the mere two days that I was there was amazing to see and was testimony to what a wonderful woman she was. The stories of Maya that you girls have shared with me and scanning through her books simply blew me away. She was the type of woman that I would have loved to have an endless conversation with. No, I didn't get to know Maya as well as I would have liked, but I got to know her through the people that mattered to her the most, you four girls. I wanted to thank you for welcoming me into her home the way I know she would have. You girls did a great job taking care of her. She felt your love and was at peace because she knew she wasn't alone. Out of the 2 yrs that I have been a PCA (personal care assistant) I have never seen so much support rom one family fleshly and extended. The lives that she brought together will continue from generation to generation. I am very thankful for having gotten to know her through you girls. Thank you so much. This was my shortest assignment but by far most memorable.

Lillian Barron, Carson City
One of Maya's night nurses

Roz Perry
Reno

Sen. Harry Reid
Washington, DC

Maya was a founding member of Stone Soup Society -- a small group of women who were active at the legislature and supported each other's efforts. She was our inspiration and a clever strategist. We loved her even as we looked up to her. Maya will be missed deeply and remembered.

Paula Berkley, Barbara Buckley, Maggie Carlton, Marcia deBraga, Suzan Gerhardt, Chris G, Marilyn Kirkpatrick, Jan Gilbert, Lindsey Jydstrup, Victoria Coolbraugh, Victoria Riley, Ellen Kourste, Sheila Leslie, Bonnie Parnell, Peggy Pierce, Debbie Smith, Dina Titus. Jan Evans was also a founding member.

Norm DeLorme
Reno

Maya was a feminist, humanist, and political ally, especially of women who were marginalized and dismissed by the larger system. She worked both in Nevada and nationally, even running for the US Senate in Nevada in an attempt to raise the profile of her progressive politics. She founded an environmental training center at her ranch before environmentalism was a movement. She was a pro-choice activist in an anti-choice stronghold, and her work for peace often involved placing herself on the ground where conflict was occurring.

Maya was a donor to Political Research Associates since our founding in 1981 in Chicago, providing consistent support for our work for 25 years. For me personally, she was both my beloved friend and my political mentor. Maya taught me, by example as much as by explicit guidance, how to channel profound rage and disgust into useful political work. When I visited her at “the ranch,” she always had a list of questions she was struggling to answer. This was true until the end of her life. I know that there are many of us across the country who share my wish to live a life that is fractionally as courageous and principled as was Maya’s.

Jean Hardisty
Cambridge, MA

The Nevada Women's Fund exists because Maya, Lynn Atcheson and Barbara Thornton had the vision and the passion to establish a community foundation designed to help educate and empower women. The past nearly 25 years we have been so fortunate to have had her support and to share her vision for stronger and more self-sufficient women and families in northern Nevada.

Janet Mello and Denise Yoxsimer
Nevada Women's Fund

I met Maya only about three years ago on a visit to Washoe Pines Ranch returning from Baja CA. I had heard much about her from my good friends Penny McClary and Don Carlon who live at the ranch. Don encouraged me to stop at the ranch even though he and Penny would not be there. Since I knew Michael and Jan who also live at WP I felt
comfortable enough to drop by and say hello. I was invited to dinner at the orchard house where I met Maya. Almost immediately, I felt like I wished I had met Maya years before. She was so interested in me and what I was doing, or where I was going. But I was interested in her and her life, and the long road which brought her to where she was at the time. I could tell by her house she had an artist eye.

She loved my note cards which are landscapes photographs. I was impressed when she told me that she used to sell Ansel Adams post cards when she worked at Yosemite as a young girl. I continued to visit Washoe Pines over the next three years and would always bring Maya my latest note cards which she seemed to give her great enjoy.

Last summer, my sweetheart Mitzi and I stopped by the ranch on our way back from Utah. After a swim in the pool, Mitzi sat down at the piano and began to play. When she stopped, I can still hear Maya's sweet voice, "oh....., please don't stop".

Oh Maya, sweet lover of life and defender of human rights, we will miss you dearly. I feel blessed to have known you. Thank you for enriching my life!

Happy Trails.......Sam
Camp Photo
Wilderness and Travel Photography

One evening Maya along with her gaggle of gals, Cynthia Cunningham, myself, Rene Diamond to say a few, went off to dinner at a charming place that was half library and half restaurant. We were engaged in intense conversation. Of course what we were doing was the most important thing on earth. Suddenly we noticed a very dapper gentleman walking over to our table. He stopped, looked at Maya and said, "Excuse me Madam if I may interrupt." I recall we all stopped our chatter. "May I say you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen?" And she was equally gracious in her reply telling him (words to this effect) that she thanked him for the compliment and he was most kind. He said "good night ladies" and walked off. It was the only time I ever saw her blush.

That gentleman was almost right. Maya was not the most beautiful woman; she was the most beautiful person. Maya could walk into a room and command everyone's attention. Maya could shine because she carried the light.

I am personally grateful to her for her no nonsense way of stating an opinion. When I told her I could not take on the responsibility of the Campaign for Choice because we were about to start construction on a house, she said, "You can always build a house." One could not argue with such simple logic. And so thanks to her, the Campaign for Choice was won and Ashton and I were save from building the wrong kind of house.

I will miss the fire that you could catch in her eyes, the way she smiled and her laugh and how her face was when puzzling on something. I will miss her wit, wisdom and good council. Like so many I will always be grateful for her tireless work for the greater heart and the greater good.

Mylan Hawkins
Reno

We share the sense of loss at Maya's passing. But we celebrate her generous productive life with all of those whose lives she enriched.

As you may know, she was a dear friend of my mother, Berene Hulse, many years ago, when they served on the State Park Commission. Maya remembered fondly their times together 40 years or so ago.

Maya inspired and prodded those of us who worked on civil rights in the early days.

And she was most generous in helping the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship get on its feet and construct our new building. Some of us will be planting a tree in her memory -- perhaps near the Jean Ford tree -- on the Fellowship grounds.

Love,

Betty and Jim Hulse
Reno

Maya was unique. She knew so much - did so much - shared so much. Enjoyed her many friends. Treated those of us who could be "outsiders" as family. Thanks to each of you who made me feel a part of that circle.

It is sad to say "Good Bye" but a blessing if you can know Maya is no longer suffering. The Blessings of Happy Memories to each one of you.

From Jon's Grandmother, Kathrine Kroll, in Dallas

Elli Hays, Reno

Thanks for your encouraging words, meantime, I'm grateful that Maya's website is wholly accessible. The photos and testimonials coming up THERE are exCEPTional. So totally - wow - complete, heartfelt and with locked-on memory about facts and folks and the politics!

I confess that I'm still searching for a couple of sentences that describe to my satisfaction the intense connecting points between Maya and me. We shared a desperate determination to erase arbitrary color lines, to expose and refute race injustice, not just intellectually, but in the way we lived and related to every individual. That personal and political struggle defined our friendship from the Washoe Pines "campership" beginnings right through the raw organizing days with Welfare Rights, the thrilling community development thrust of Operation Life, travels together to Cuba, China, South Africa and Namibia, countless campaign forays into electoral politics, not least her valiant senate race, and precious, priceless early morning conversations. The campaign leap into politics for Maya might have seemed anomalous to those who knew her behind-the-scenes ways. But for Maya, it was not about her, it was history even as it was happening. Ego and convention did not cloud Maya's analysis of right and wrong, justice and necessity. She simply "went" to the struggle, whether that meant going herself, physically, or sending money, or both. She was the fiercest of allies.

I recall when George Wiley was escorted off the airplane at the Reno airport during Operation Nevada, ostensibly to get a phone call. Maya scrambled over a railing to stand up against the phone booth where George stood talking, her body the intentional foil in case the government's antipathy to the Welfare Rights cause might embolden the FBI to attempt anything shady. (We had been pinpointing the plainclothes FBI just a few minutes earlier, planted in their new blue jeans and plaid shirt costumes all around the airport.)

Maya dared to challenge what many refuse even to see in our some ways bloated democracy: big trampling small, overstuffed stealing from starved. She used her wealth to turn the tables, and that was part of her genius. She saw big political wrongs in their smallest units of impact: A welfare mother in dire need of child care so she could start a job; a need to send poor women to apprenticeships and non-traditional, good-paying jobs--like washing huge semi-tractor-trailer tires.... She allied herself with the people against whom the odds were stacked: Black families in the de facto segregated outlying communities of Reno; Pyramid Lake Paiutes trying to keep water and their way of life; women struggling in the maquildoras at the US-Mexico border; and women trying to ascend politically, whether in Bluefields, Nicaragua or Washington, D.C.. She often supported women because issues of poverty and justice drove them to struggle, and Maya knew that politics motivated by love -- love of children, love of justice -- is not corruptible in the same way as that motivated by power. Long shots were always worth it, in her view, to make the point of possibility.

Though she would often claim to feel muddled, her actions came from crystal clarity or just determination that something deserved a chance. She relished notions that challenged her own thinking, that pulled her to deeper understanding. She was such a pragmatist, yet I watched and listened as she continually challenged herself to go beyond the obvious, to act on faith. She relished taking leaps with the potential to make the world more of what humanity at its best can be. Why the hell couldn't a group of bright, plucky, mad-as-hell welfare mothers run social programs and businesses?

Maya was a nurturer of people and their long shots for social justice; remote possibilities with intrinsic importance; small steps that could make a huge difference, by example. She was in it for the quality of the fight -- that made her Nixon's enemy, but she was in it with all her heart. And she responded to others like her in that way. The powers that be don't know what to do with people of Maya's compassion, courage and conviction. But those of us fortunate to have had her in our lives know -- we love her still.

love,
Marty Makower, Monterey

Maya was such a remarkable woman in so many different ways. One of her traits that I most admired was her amazing ability to convey to whoever she was with that whatever they had to say was more important to her at that moment than anything else. It always seemed as though she didn't want to miss one word that you had to say and never did you get the impression that she was just waiting to jump in and have her turn. She focused so intently on whatever anyone was saying. The first time we met her was in 1965 when we were all at Big Sur for the Review. Grant was housesitting for Clem and Emile and we were staying up there, but after the Saturday night performance we were all invited to the Big Sur house. Kit and Eric were still very young and I remember how attentively Maya listened to them. Through the years it became apparent that everyone got the same full attention.

When Grant moved back down from the mountain top and HM and Kayo allowed him to invite us to Big Sur, we began to hear many stories about Maya, Dick, and her parents -- always with much joking about the Olivia Paine/ Payne sweaters that HM wore, having to reach down to her knees to retrieve things from the sweater pockets. And, of course, there was always the marvel at how completely unpretentious Maya was. "C'est le costume, madame" and "Would that be fun, Maya?" became part of our most loved phrases.

And in addition, there was her generosity and her passion and her commitment to individuals and to all the causes that she believed in. I don't think I've ever known anyone more highly principled than Maya. We feel so privileged to have shared some wonderful moments with her.

Duane Wakeham
Dick Sutherland
San Francisco

As with many others, Maya gave me my early start in a lifetime of activism as one of the first supporters of my work. I'm eternally grateful.

I'll look forward to seeing you on Sept 3rd. My brother Norm would probably want to attend as well, and Caley, if he is around. If Caley comes, I'll ask him to sing an honor song. He's become quite a singer of traditional and ceremony songs.

Debra Harry
Pyramid Lake, NV

Dear Kit,

The newspaper articles can do so little to encompass the many years and expansive lives that your mother and your father have lived. Many of the issues they invested so much of themselves in during the l960-l980’s have now come to pass. More visible and more current contributors have succeeded their earlier efforts. The knowledge of their contribution may be lost.

In fact it would be very difficult for those of us who have been touched by their presence and influence to put into words their impact on us. Their interests were given life and magnified certainly by the funds they contributed but equally by their own personal commitment. They both developed and maintained a cadre of disciples whose lives have been shaped by the Miller presence. I know that in my case, working at Foresta resulted in a lifetime commitment to endangered species, endemic fish, water sources, and range. There has been no time since I left Foresta, that I have not been involved with conservation. In effect the Foresta philosophy shaped a lifetime second career in conservation. In that sense, I, like many other graduates of the Miller household, mostly women, have continued the Foresta/Miller investment in environmental and social policy. If there is to be an addendum to Maya's oral history or the Foresta record it may lie in stories of the Foresta and Washoe Pines graduates and staff and the staff in those nonprofit organizations that benefited from Maya's contributions.

I think of Maya and Dick, less as ranchers as you called yourselves in your very nice announcement, and more as part of the "Valley" people. The l940's newcomers, like the Bundy’s and the Miller’s, did not live off the land like the Sauers, Winters, Cliffs, and Heidenreich's. I recollect at least one Christmas party at Bower's Mansion where we all sang Christmas carols, the many picnics and dinners. Every time I drive up to your home I remember my father backing up and running over Nifty, your black 30-pound dog, who was getting on in years and was grizzled around the muzzle.

When I last visited Maya, the long table, which now houses recent magazines and books, was once the center of food, conversation, and policy development. I remember meals there when I was young and meals with the League of Women Voter members later on. I remember visiting Dick in his then tiny laboratory to identify the fish I caught in the Carson River, a question which eventually led to his asking me to help him start up the Nevada endangered species program.

This spring I reviewed a proposed book by Jim Hulse on a history of Nevada's natural resources. Jim Hulse, a retired history professor, is now in his 70's. In the last chapter, he briefly discusses the conservation organizations. The League of Women Voters, a change agent, was missing from his text, although the 60's and 70's were critical environmentally and figured prominently in his book. Maya was a central figure in that organization during its premiere time, which probably was in the late '60's through the 70's. Maya's kitchen with its welcoming wafting smell of homemade bread and soup was the central gathering place for Reno and Carson LWV members plotting strategy on Nevada's air pollution laws, the creation of a state parks agency, Lake Tahoe State Park, the bi-state agreement, water quality, and a Pyramid Lake position. The last was my first foray into the legislative process and development of a League position. Maya, Jean Ford, Daisy Talvitie, and Esther Nicholson were responsible for knowing and contributing to all the league positions even though they might personally adopt a specific issue. I remember that no one knew more than Daisy Talvitie about air pollution. As I recollect my responsibility at the legislature was to testify against a proposed bi-state compact because the Pyramid Lake Tribe was specifically included.

Maya contributed to the first legal representation for the Pyramid Lake Tribe. I can't remember whether Robert Leland or Robert Stitser was the beneficiary. Look where the Pyramid Lake Tribe is now in the negotiations! Would this have happened if Maya had not initiated the effort?

Maya helped to create the Reno Race Relations center. When I first went to work at CETA in 1976, we were providing grants to staff RRR. I am not sure that Eddie Scott, the director, ever developed as a leader, but the creation of RRR must have been an inspiration to the struggling black community. I am sure that Maya was a bridging influence between white and black.

I don't know why or how I lost touch with both of them when I left Foresta. It seems to me there was almost a 30-year gap in my seeing them. I do remember that Maya was exceptional with my mother. When my father became ill in the spring of l984, Maya would drive into Carson, picked up my mother, and took her to Washoe Med.

I will never forget, Kit, and you probably don't know this, but when I was in high school, I was so shy and introverted that that my mother told me years later, she feared for my future. One day in the mail a letter from Maya arrived. It contained some stocks, worth $3,000 when I sold them for a down payment on a house in l974. The note accompanying the gift only contained one sentence. I still have the letter. To this day, I can remember the surprise even shock I experienced that someone acknowledged my existence and cared about me. My parents were wonderful but had little time to spend with us. They worked from early morning until late at night maintaining the guest ranch and entertaining the divorcees. More recently, as I became eligible for social security and then for Medicare, I wrote Maya a thank you letter for following the rules regarding salaries and benefits. When I was younger I cared less about senior status, but now that I am there, Maya’s and Dick’s attention to these details makes a real difference to me.

Over the last few years, I became intermittently reconnected with both of them and regret those lost years. They both have a dry sense of humor, a continued interest in life about them, and an alertness surprising in people much younger. Maya’s home with its richness of art and books functions as museum and library while exuding tremendous warmth. Each visit has been memorable.

Tina Nappe
Reno

Maya, the Orchard House and Washoe Valley Ranch are all one in my mind. I would arrive and deposit my worn out and tattered body in the Orchard House for healing. I would immediately become a sponge to Maya’s gentle healing through conversations, attention to my needs for nurturing and quiet space to think and clear my head. After a couple of days, the conversations would become more frequent, spliced with visits from all manner of activists over lunch.

There were so many discoveries from my visits with Maya. Having first met Maya on the MS. Foundation Board, I was so proud of myself for having cultivated my very first individual supporter of FOCAL’s work. It was during one of my visits at the Ranch that Maya shared gently, that she had observed my developing into a leader, since first learning of my family through her support of the American Friends Service Committee in the sixties. Seeing that I was a bit crest fallen, she hastened to add, building relationships and making the ask were key in getting one to invest in your work, and that I had done both with her. On another visit I was concerned about my daughter’s lack of interest in going to college and lamented how I wished I had spent more time with my children when they were younger. Maya’s response was one of the firmest that I’ve experienced from her, and one I shall never forget. Stop wallowing in self pity! That’s what looking back is. You made the best decision you could at the time, so move forward and make the best decision you can in the present! Another memory from an earlier visit was Maya’s chastising her dog. She was feeding her two dogs, and one was being very aggressive in eating the food. In a firm, but un-raised voice, Maya chided the dog to stop taking all the food from the other. To my amazement, the dog slowed his eating and the food was shared between both. I remembered thinking, my God, her values and principles for the world have even been taught to the animals here at Washoe Valley.

Maya’s valuing and acceptance of people was so evident by her very being. Her way of living: simple, organic, raw, real, no frills and no bull, caused me to connect with my inner core, and peel off the trappings of politically correct, what’s appropriate and what somebody else thinks. Maya’s life exemplified doing what was right and just even in the face of danger, without thought of what might happen to her.

Friends and family were important to Maya and she had an uncanny sense of knowing when they were in need. She made an annual contribution to FOCAL. And as with most non-profits, there are times when there is little or no money. On more times than I can count over these past 18 years, when we were counting our pennies trying to make payroll, we would open the mail and have an unexpected check from Maya. I would get on the phone and say Maya, how did you know? Her answer was always the same, you were just on my mind and I thought you could use a little extra help. With the number of friends that I met while visiting the Ranch, I am certain this type generosity was offered to many.

In the mid nineties, I asked Maya about her travels out of the country, and she replied, I am not doing much of that anymore, it’s important for me to spend time with and get to know my grandbabies. As I become a grandmother this summer, I am still learning from Maya’s life lessons. She was my friend, my mentor, and someone whose impact, teaching by example, and spirit will be a lasting testament to her legacy.

With much love and prayers,

Sophia Bracy Harris
Federation of Childcare Centers of Alabama

Maya's generosity was certainly magnificent but in a unique way. She was pleased that she had the resources to be able to give to people and fund valuable work and she didn't give because "that's just what you are supposed to do." I saw her thrill people who unexpectedly were able to do things that they had not thought they ever could. I was one of those people many times. And I saw her turn down people when it was better for them to find other avenues for support or who thought that she was an easy mark. She kept the NV Nuclear Waste Task Force alive many times and her checks were always just sort of out of the blue and a delightful surprise. Getting a check meant being able to pay bills of course but honestly, the real thrill was knowing that Maya believed in what I was doing and realized that some battles seem to take forever no matter how hard you fight.

Judy Treichel
Las Vegas

Maya was a role model for many women of my generation and gave us the courage to stand up and fight for what we believed was right.  At 75 I am one generation behind Maya but her courage certainly gave me the courage to run for office in 1995. To this day I can remember sitting in her kitchen stuffing envelopes, for what reason I do not recall.  Now that I am retired from the US National Commission, and as a widow have the time and inclination, I hope I can be of some help in lobbying efforts in this coming Legislature.

—Martha Gould

I first knew of Maya from my sister Barbara who worked on her senate campaign. But sharing an office with her and learning from her at  the Women's Lobby was a great and rare experience and unforgettable.  She was extraordinary, one of a kind.  It was a gift to have known her.

—Carolyn Bode

Sometimes I wish I had known Maya when her politics were more public; I see through your understanding and appreciation of her public life that she was a great woman warrior; steady, purposeful, making a real impact on the lives of women and children. I am in awe of her experiences learning and sharing while traveling, and I percieve her to have been a very purposeful political  leader in her own quiet right. So much stamina came out of such an unimposing, cheery individual.

Mostly, though, i'm happy to have known Maya as Maya; the not at all sour, sourdough spirit at the ranch!  The first to greet us as we drove up the gravel; the first to slip into the hot tub in the early morning; a genius in the kitchen (though not possessive at all, in fact, quite willing to give up the reins & thus help develop her companions), so encouraging of experimenting (be it in the kitchen, the pool, the cabins, art, technology); musically inspired -- be it youngsters banging out moraccas & tamborines, or cds playing throughout the house; up for a card game, a book, a dip in the pool; welcoming whatever the occasion, the weather, the size of the crowd; nuts for nuts.  Natural.

Maya understood what matters in life; I couldn't believe how unattached she came across as we left her home and belongings (other than a fully loaded picnic basket & a couple of photos) behind to the possible ravages of forest fire.  The movie I used to watch over and over and over again at the ranch as a child speaks wonders to her character:she encouraged all her friends and family to be "free to be you and me."

I just wanted to share with you a snippit of what was going through my head after I lost connection with you.  I was literally standing at the kitchen counter whisking brownie batter into a pan, tears swelling and mind racing, all I could think to do was write. For a few minutes writing helped me to fill a void; a void that will only be filled by our memories of Maya.  Hope it helps you to temporarily fill that void.  Living our lives the way she lived hers will help too.

—Cody Keffer

I know she would want us to go out and do something meaningful to remember her by. I will never forget going to the ranch for a mentoring session when I was trying to make up my mind about running the first time. What impressed me so much was the strength of the women gathered there, and how the party they belonged to didn't seem to matter that much. It was the fact that we were all women headed in the same general direction that mattered, and that we had issues we needed to join forces on together. Maya was the great facillitator, the person with the way to make things
happen. I have always admired her incredible strength and insight. She seemed like a leftover from a byegone era, an incredibly strong woman of the early west, who would survive no matter what.

—Courtney Swain

What a good idea to start a website for Maya. I just glanced through it, saw the photos of Maya where she was so full of positive energy and surrounded by family and friends. It is really interesting for us, on the other side of the globe, to read what has been written about Maya and get a more complete picture of her importance for so many people. We will visit the website regularly.

More than a hundred years ago your grandmother and my grandmother made a long journey through Europe down to North Africa under the supervision of an elderly relative. Almost eighty years ago my mother spent a year with your family in California, accompanied by the same relative. And then, in the late fifties, the four Millers came to Europe and Sweden. Ten years later it was my turn to get to know the States, Nevada and you all. It is great that the chain is not broken. I am so happy that Magdalena and our children all got to know Maya.

Warm summer greetings from Bjursås.

Love,

Johan and Magdalena Flodstrom
Sweden