Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
Cover Story
The Beat Goes On Michael Geniesse finds himself inexplicably drawn back to the city of his birth By Jesse Ducker The chanchega drum is important to Michael Geniesse. "In all things, my greatest love is the drum," he says, with great conviction. Geniesse beats the chanchega when he takes part in his prayer circle. He is a Lakota Sioux, and for nearly every week for the past 10 years, he has joined his prayer circle to worship and pay respect to his ancestors. Geniesse, 32, helps care for the chanchega, and he takes his task seriously. On the day when the prayer circle meets, Geniesse takes extra time to make sure the drum is ready by tightening up its hide. He says the best way is to leave it out in the sun. "If it's not right, it can sound hollow and flat," he says. "But when it's properly tuned, it has this beautiful, resonant tone." It's not easy for Geniesse to talk about his involvement in his prayer circle. He often seems uncomfortable using words to describe the experience. "Many of the words having to do with the Lakota faith use the word 'chan' or 'heart,' " he explains. "This is all very close to my heart." As is the city of Sunnyvale, where Geniesse grew up and lived for most of his life. He has taken a few brief leaves of the "city of destiny," to such places as Los Angeles or Toronto, but he says he always finds himself drawn back. Even now, as he lives in Campbell with his fiancee, Tara McCullough, he yearns to return to the city where his mother still lives. Perhaps Sunnyvale is his personal destiny. Geniesse grew up in the Lakewood neighborhood of Sunnyvale and has watched the area change and evolve throughout his life. "At one point, it was the ideal neighborhood to live in," he recalls. "In the mid-1970s, it became populated with families of refugees from Asian countries. My neighbors were Laotian and Vietnamese." He adds that in the 1980s, things in the neighborhood took a turn for the worse, as the Lakewood area became "pretty rough" and racked with crime and drugs. Fortunately, in the 1990s, things turned back around, and Lakewood has again become a nice place to raise a family. Much of what draws Geniesse to Sunnyvale is his heritage, and consequently his family. Balancing family has become important to Geniesse, especially with his pending marriage. He met McCullough through the Lakota circle, and they're planning their wedding for October. Their ceremony won't follow the conventional wedding plan. This is mostly because there isn't a "traditional" wedding in the Sioux culture, according to Geniesse. Geniesse says, "We looked into it, and we found that when people wanted to get married, they were brought together and pronounced married. Then there would be a large feast. So it gave us a lot of leeway." Geniesse says the wedding will be a combination of traditional and modern conventions. His fiancee is part Irish, so a Celtic band will perform. Geniesse is also gathering some other Lakota friends, both local and from out of state, for the wedding; they'll perform traditional celebratory songs. And unlike most conventional weddings, in which the bride and groom are the focus, Geniesse says that much of the ceremony will be devoted to celebrating his elders and parents. "If it wasn't for both of our parents, we wouldn't be able to do any of this," he says. "They've given us a lot of support, both morally and financially." The reverence for elders is firmly ingrained in Lakota culture, Geniesse says. He adds that for a while he wasn't aware of his Lakota heritage, but his interest blossomed 10 years ago. His grandfather's death served as one of the catalysts that set Geniesse onto the Lakota spiritual path. "When my grandfather died, I realized I had a lot questions," he says. "And I thought, with him gone, it would be difficult to get the answers." A chance meeting his sister-in-law had at her job eventually led Geniesse to the prayer circle and also to John Goodvoice, who Geniesse considers a good friend and teacher. "On the obvious level, he taught me about the singing," Geniesse explains. "But on the subtle level, he taught me how to be myself, which was so hard for me to do at a younger age." Now Geniesse says he's found many of the answers to the questions he had for his grandfather. Ironically enough, he found many of the answers by not asking. "With the Lakota, you find it's best not to ask too many questions," he says. "I've learned to be patient. I sit and pray and the question's answer comes to me." Geniesse says that during the past 10 years, the number of people in the prayer circle has varied from anywhere between 10 and 25 people. He adds that the majority of the participants are not Native Americans. "What is taught is that to be involved you only have to be sincere in wanting to walk the 'chankuluta' or the 'red road,' " he explains. Geniesse says that above all, the circle has taught him the importance of knowing himself. "An individual who is aware of himself is extremely powerful," he says. "You have to become aware of yourself and aspire to go further. When you've been there and done that, there's always more." Geniesse realized a bit of that power a couple of years ago when he became president of the Lakewood Neighborhood Association. As he tells it, there was an accident outside his mother's house, and the neighborhood newsletter implied that it was caused by his brother's truck blocking the view of the intersection. Geniesse went to the next neighborhood association meeting to speak in his brother's defense, then returned a few weeks later to ask how he could further help the neighborhood, and the association gave him some opportunities for volunteer work. Months later, in 2000, after the position became open, he was asked up if we was interested in becoming president of the association, and he jumped at the opportunity. Geniesse calls his experience as association president "incredible," having opened up many doors and opportunities to him. In working to prevent speeding down his mother's streetÑthe cause that originally brought him to the neighborhood associationÑhe has also gotten connected with many people on the local political scene. He got involved with Leadership Sunnyvale and the Sunnyvale Community Academy, which teaches community members emergency-assistance skills used by officers in the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. "It was a great opportunity to meet and interact with people who were part of the news," Geniesse says. "I met local assembly people. I met Mike Honda. It was neat to engage with these people and participate in discussions with them. I got to know more deeply the issues facing the community." Geniesse says that another positive aspect of being president of the neighborhood association was just getting to know his neighbors in Lakewood. There was an influx of young couples moving into the neighborhood, and through his position in the association, he became acquainted with many of them. All of this from a man who has spent the last few years as a limosuine driver. Geniesse works full time for Ishi Limousines. Actually, "full time" may be a bit misleading. That would imply a set 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday schedule, which Geniesse says hardly applies in his line of work. "When I first started working, there was a period where I worked for 20 straight days," he remembers. "It was just ridiculous." The erratic schedule of a limo driver can be exhausting, Geniesse says. Sometimes he'll be driving from when he wakes up in the morning until he lies down to go to sleep. Then, sometimes, he'll have a 5 a.m. appointment, then a 9 a.m. appointment, and then the next one won't be until late afternoon, making living what one would call a normal life difficult. Geniesse started working for Ishi having lost his previous job at Centrix Pharmaceuticals in Toronto when the company went under. He returned to California and found that his mother needed his help, much of it financial. "I didn't want to go back to school and don't have a broad skill base," Geniesse said. "So I decided this was the right job for me." However, it seems like he spends most of his time driving to the San Jose airport. As a limo driver in Silicon Valley, many of his clients work for large tech companies. So much of their travel is international, it's more cost-effective for the company to rent a limousine than to pay for long-term parking. What Geniesse says has kept him at Ishi is his love of driving. That, and he hasn't found any other paying job wants to put his energy into. "Maybe I'm in a kind of limbo," he says. According to Geniesse, the most interesting person he's ever driven is a CEO from one of the local companies. "He's an interesting study as a person," Geniesse says. "He's got some qualities I really enjoy. It's interesting how he balances his family and business life. He always separates them. He does all his work and makes his phone calls in the car, so when he gets to the airport he can relax. ... When he's home, he only deals with his family." Geniesse says he'd love to come back to Sunnyvale, adding, "Campbell seems temporary." If he does return, he says, he'll become active in his neighborhood and possibly even local politics. "If I lived there, there wouldn't be any doubt about it," he says. "I wouldn't able to help myself. I'd start poking around." |
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