Paying To Pray?

Potential beach access fees threaten tribal practices

Bottom Line: In Northern California, a battle is under way between tribes and state authorities over free access to Sonoma County beaches.

A controversial California State Parks proposal may force local tribes to pay to access traditional sites along the coast in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco.

The charges would be for parking and other amenities such as bathrooms, and not actual beach use. But because the coastal highway is so narrow, and there is virtually no place to park, visitors would in effect have to pay to use a resource that is technically free under state law.

“If the proposal goes through without any tribal consultation, it will mean we will have to pay to pray at sites we have had free access to for all these years,” Reno Franklin, tribal chairman of the Kashia Pomo at Stewart’s Point Rancheria, told ICTMN. “Five of the eight beaches slated for the new charges are within our aboriginal area. One of them is the center of our universe, and one of them has a burial [site].”

The proposed fees range from $3 an hour to $8 for the day. The proposal requires a permit to install automatic-pay parking fee collection self-pay devices—akin to meters—in an area that encompasses Sonoma Coast State Park, a 16-mile stretch of rugged coastline at the southern end of the proposed area, the traditional territory of the Kashia Band of Pomo.

The proposal has been hotly debated since it was originally proposed in 2012. Facing a stubborn budget crisis, the State Parks department has desperately sought new revenue sources for its general fund, in order to maintain a system that has been ailing ever since budget cuts in 2011 closed 70 parks.

The area in question overlaps with the aboriginal territory of the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria, a band of Coast Miwok peoples. It includes seven beaches that, with a few exceptions, have never charged fees. Farther north, one other beach in Salt Point State Park would be subject to the new fees.

The charging of fees for beach access is the jurisdiction of the California Coastal Commission (CCC), which alone has the authority to approve or deny those fees.

“Fees to park at beaches are basically about access,” said Sara Wan, former two-time chair of the Coastal Commission. “In Sonoma County in particular, parking and beach fees are one and the same.”

Little or no attention has been given to what such rules would mean to Native peoples, Wan said. “The Coastal Act is weak on Native American rights, and their protection really doesn’t exist,” she told ICTMN. “But the new fees would adversely impact low-income people and Native Americans.”

The 12 voting members of the CCC rely on the commission’s staff to advise them in their decision-making process. The staff compiled a 900-page report detailing its findings on the State Parks department’s beach fee proposal; on April 13, the report was presented at a public hearing held in Santa Rosa. It recommended that the CCC deny the permit for the State Parks plan, citing a bevy of concerns.

Among them was the lack of Native American consultation. The parks department claimed in its application to the CCC that “Native American consultation for the proposed project has failed to identify any previously recorded or identified tribal cultural resources within the project areas.” But it cited no actual references to consultations.

“The only consultation State Parks performed was related to the California Environmental Quality Act to identify tribal cultural resources,” Franklin told ICTMN. The department did not identify any previously recorded or identified tribal cultural resources, Franklin said, but “archeological evidence indicates Native American presence in the area at least 12,000 years.”

At the Santa Rosa hearing—which lasted 12 hours—Franklin rejected what he called a “pay to pray” policy. Only half in jest, he told the audience and the CCC that “in 12,500 years living along the coast, the Kashia have never once charged anyone to access it.”

Aside from tribal concerns, the fees would harm low-income families overall, meeting attendees said. The proposal is “cruel, in that it would limit who would have access to the parks on the ocean,” said Greg Sarris, chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, in a statement that was read by tribal vice chairwoman Lorelle Ross.

Sarris’s statement echoed the concerns of County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, who characterized limiting coastal access to low-income families as an issue of social justice.

Despite the recommendations in the staff report, the CCC failed to make a decision, postponing it to a future date. At press time, State Parks had not responded to ICTMN’s requests for comment.

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Defining Native Terms

“‘Reconciliation’ is the new word for ‘assimilation’”

Editor’s Note: Tamara Starblanket (Cree), from Ahtahkakoop First Nation in Treaty Six Territory, Canada, recently became co-chair of the North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus (NAIPC). She was nominated by indigenous participants from the U.S. and Canada who had gathered to discuss critical issues, find common ground, and create a collective platform in preparation for this month’s 15th Session of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Starblanket is the Instructor and Program Coordinator for the Aboriginal Justice Studies Certificate Program at Native Education College in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is also the author of the forthcoming book Suffer the Little Children—Genocide: Indigenous Nations in the Canadian State (Clarity Press). ICTMN spoke with her about her new role.

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What will be your priorities?

The NAIPC wants to raise awareness about state genocide against the Original Nations on Great Turtle Island. It is our responsibility and obligation to understand that our “original laws and instructions” protect our Mother Earth. The effects of the residential school and boarding school system forcibly indoctrinated our Original Nations and Peoples through colonial violence.

Our children were massively tortured for practicing their spiritual and cultural traditions. Examples of the torture include having needles through the tongue for a prolonged period of time, dry ice on the tongue, whippings, beatings, solitary confinement, starvation and many more other acts of genocide.

What we have today are people who make decisions on behalf of us that can have a detrimental impact. Examples include the land claims system or reconciliation process in Canada. Examples of this can be the people who continue to insist that “organizations” such as the AFN and the IITC can speak on behalf of our Original Nations.

We are referring here to the assimilation of our Nations into the settler state systems.

What issues were deemed the most critical for the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) this May?

The present theme, “Indigenous Peoples: Conflict, Peace and Resolution,” is missing a critical component of the experience of colonial invasion and domination. As one Elder noted at the caucus meeting, we cannot have peace and conflict in the same sentence.

Another integral aspect is the truth and as far as we can tell, there is no truth-taking place. Our treaties are being violated daily by the claiming of our lands and the forcible removal of our children into present times. Genocide in its various forms must be a discussion at this UNPFII.

The trend of the U.N. to acknowledge only state-recognized organizations to speak on behalf of the original nations and peoples on great Turtle Island and the world over is alarming. The Permanent Forum is increasingly becoming a state-controlled mechanism that is designed to silence the critical issues of our lands and the development that occurs in our territories around the world.

This colonial domination is supported by the continued claim that we are minorities. Indigenous Peoples have the right to self-determination in international law. Minorities do not have the rights of self-determination. My research on genocide shows that the minority human rights framework is destructive and conceals genocide.

What is the most pressing issue from the NAIPC’s perspective?

The United Nations must stop all forced assimilation measures being imposed against the Original Nations and Peoples through the UNDRIP and domestic state laws and policies.

What turned you into an activist?

My family of birth passed on from the effects of genocide in a short time span when they were very young. My mother attended Prince Albert Indian Residential School, her father attended residential Thunderchild Residential Schools, and my father’s mother attended Byrtle Indian School. The effects through the generations in my family are catastrophic. Today I am the last survivor.

More importantly, the Elders inspired me to take the path I am on by staying committed to our Mother Earth and our future generations. What I found in my legal research is that it is not only my family’s story but all of our stories across great Turtle Island.

We are living collectively the effects of genocide and this is manifested in suicides, drug and alcohol addictions, etc., and traumatized and dysfunctional parenting patterns that lead to the high rates of removal in the child welfare and foster care systems in both the United States and Canada and even globally.

The worst impact is the disconnection from the land. The state framework and system feeds off itself by the destruction it causes against peoples and nations in the colonization process.

How encouraged are you that Canada’s new Liberal government has said it will rebuild the relationships with First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples by including them in every decision that affects them and their land?

The problem here is the legal framework under which this ‘new relationship’ is being built.

The most recent announcement that the Canadian government would like to implement reconciliation as the way forward, and to begin to implement the UNDRIP, is cause for great concern. It is being touted as the way forward by other Indigenous Peoples, and the problem is the people speaking on behalf of us do not have our future generations in mind when making these decisions.

Reconciliation is the new word for assimilation and an extension of the myth that Canada has underlying title in our territories. A synonym for reconciliation is to pacify. The synonym for pacification is to vanquish, crush, subdue, extinguish, and tame. The problem with both mechanisms is that the premise is about the swallowing up or the domestication of our nations into the state framework.

How do we reconcile a genocidal past and present that is not acknowledged as the root cause of the problem? When you start to look at it this way, it begins to become contradictory. The solution is self-determination and to implement the Peace and Friendship Treaties.

Indigenous nations and peoples know what is best for our Mother Earth.

How satisfied are you with the government’s promised and actual actions into Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women?

The government’s response to the missing and murdered Indigenous women only addresses one side and ignores the Indigenous men and boys that go missing and murdered. Public inquiries do not address the root problem.

Terms such as “savage” were invoked to justify the claiming of our lands. Theories of racial superiority were invoked to force the transferring of our children under a genocidal legal framework. The problem with this is the colonial society and people that created these laws, and policies have never addressed why they do such destructive things against other peoples and nations.

The denial that goes with the truth behind these destructive behaviors is paramount. The colonizer needs to look inward and examine its own conduct as to why these are catastrophic problems. When it gets real with itself, we can begin to build peace on our great Turtle Island and the world.

http://bit.ly/1UzQsZW

Nation Regains Authority

‘We’ve awaited this decision for years’

Bottom Line: In a long overdue legal transfer, power over many civil and criminal matters has been restored to the Yakama of Washington.

It was a return of authority that should never have been taken in the first place, some say. But the day was worth celebrating nonetheless.

On April 22, after decades of legal battle—including a case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1979—the Yakama Nation marked the return of large swaths of civil and criminal jurisdiction from the Washington State and federal governments.

Leaders in tribal regalia and civil dignitaries gathered at the Yakama Nation Cultural Heritage Center, among them tribal chairman JoDe Goudy and former chairmen Jerry Meninick and Harry Smiskin. Representing the Bureau of Indian Affairs was Darren A. Cruzan, deputy director of the Office of Justice Services.

“In 1855, our past leaders were promised powers over our lands by the federal government,” Goudy said in announcing the return of jurisdiction. “These promises were broken time and time again. It is a significant day in the lives of the Yakama people as the right to govern our lands and keep our people safe is finally realized.”

He added, “So many have fought for the return of greater self-governance for the Yakama people. Today, we can finally celebrate this historic victory.”

The Yakama are the second Native Nation in Washington State to ask the governor for a return of jurisdiction over certain civil and criminal matters, using a process established by a 2012 law authored by State Sen. John McCoy (D-Tulalip). (The Tulaliip Tribes, according to McCoy, were the first.)

The Interior Department’s Office of Justice Services ultimately determined in October that the Yakama Nation could handle the increased responsibilities associated with the return of civil and criminal jurisdiction. So now the Nation has the final say on such varied issues as adoption proceedings, compulsory school attendance, dependent children, domestic relations, juvenile delinquency, public assistance, and the operation of motor vehicles.

Washington State, however, retains jurisdiction over sexually violent predators. And the Yakama have jurisdiction over non-Natives only in certain cases, such as domestic violence, truancy and vehicle collisions.

“At the heart of sovereignty is the ability to govern on our own lands,” said Yakama Nation Vice Chairman Delano Saluskin. “We’ve awaited this decision for years.”

Yakama Nation attorney Dawn Vyvyan recently enumerated certain cultural and social benefits of retrocession. For example, she said, under state jurisdiction, a Native American juvenile offender found guilty of a crime would be sent to one of 21 state juvenile detention facilities.

But post-retrocession, the juvenile offender would be prosecuted by the justice system in his or her Native Nation and, if found guilty, be sent to a detention facility close to home—a better outcome for the individual, family, and relationships in general.

Retrocession also clears up much jurisdictional confusion. State jurisdiction over civil and criminal matters in Indian country is not uniform. Therefore, partial retrocession has led to “a complicated and inconsistent jurisdiction scheme,” wrote the law firm Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker.

But full retrocession “could potentially help create greater uniformity in jurisdiction across the different reservations in Washington.”

The 2012 retrocession law reverses a policy from the Termination Era. Public Law 83-280, enacted in 1953, transferred certain federal civil and criminal jurisdiction over Indian country to six states on a mandatory basis. It also allowed other states to assume complete or partial jurisdiction in the same manner—without the consent of the Native Nations involved.

Washington, which was not one of the mandatory states, assumed some jurisdiction in 1957, with consent; and again in 1963, without consent. (In 1968, the Indian Civil Rights Act amended PL 83-280 to require consent before any more states could assume federal jurisdiction, and also allowed Native nations to request retrocession.)

Seven Native nations in Washington sought and received retrocession for criminal cases. They are the Chehalis, Colville, Muckleshoot, Quileute, Skokomish, Swinomish, and Tulalip. But until McCoy’s law, there was never a clear process for how to retrocede.

Under McCoy’s law, the governing body of a Native Nation must submit a retrocession resolution and a plan for the exercise of jurisdiction to the governor. The law encourages Native nations to establish inter-local agreements with affected municipalities. Many already have inter-local and mutual aid agreements for law enforcement and fire protection service.

Within 90 days of receipt, the governor must convene a government-to-government meeting with the governing body of the Native nation and consult with elected officials from counties, cities and towns in the area of the proposed retrocession. If the governor approves the retrocession request, the proclamation is submitted to the federal government. Retrocession is effective following Interior Department approval.

“It took an intense education,” the Nation told ICTMN, “to state, federal and other people that the Yakama Nation is competent to govern. … We will continue to educate in order to maintain the public health and safety of all persons—just as any other competent government does.”

http://bit.ly/1VLmGmn

How Did I Miss That?

Germs on your money, JFK conspiracy theories and concrete galoshes

New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport is installing a “pet relief area.” This is a euphemism for toilet facilities for traveling animals—usually dogs and quite often service dogs—who are not exactly “pets.”

The New York facility joins those at Dulles in Washington, O’Hare in Chicago and Seattle-Tacoma. A federal regulation requires such facilities in all airports serving more than 10,000 passengers per year, but the rule will not be in place until August.

My cousin Ray Sixkiller reminded me that we’ve never visited the VA Hospital without seeing several service dogs. Then he asked me to speculate on what the potty police in North Carolina would do.

* * *

What could be crazier than the current rule in the Tar Heel State that requires a person wearing male clothes, who may be sprouting a beard from hormone treatments, to go in a ladies room, while a person wearing female clothes with noticeable breasts from the same treatments must go in the men’s room? After some alleged “investigation,” the Justice Department found that the North Carolina law contained civil rights violations.

Cousin Ray wondered how you investigate something that is crazy on its face.

“Did they just count the number of trans people beaten up,” he asked, “trying to comply with both the law and doctor’s orders?”

* * *

NBC 6 in South Florida reported that Zoo Miami is losing animals to toxoplasmosis, a disease carried in cat feces. Cats have been observed entering the zoo from the surrounding park and using the sand in holding areas, since there are no litter boxes. Having lost a red kangaroo and three squirrel monkeys to toxoplasmosis, the zoo has started trapping the cats to put the healthy ones up for adoption and put the unhealthy ones down for euthanizing.

Cat advocates in the community are protesting. One of them emailed, “This zoo should have never been built near our homes in the first place. So you and the zoo are the ones invading and should be trapped and euthanized.”

Ron Magill, a Zoo Miami spokesman, told NBC 6, “This is Pine Rockland, the most endangered natural habitat in South Florida. There are endangered species that live in here. It’s against the law for free roaming cats to be in this property.”

“There ya go,” Cousin Ray hooted. “Damn cats can’t read the signs!”

* * *

Turning to fashion news, The New York Times reported that Peter “Petey Crack” Martinez washed up near Manhattan Beach in what the newspaper called “the unicorn of true crime”—cement shoes. The report detailed how to fit a victim for cement shoes, and it was complicated. This information was offered to explain why Petey Crack was apparently the first corpse to turn up wearing concrete on his feet outside of crime fiction.

My Republican Cousin Ray remarked that concrete footwear was the preferred attire for GOP primary candidates.

* * *

Donald Trump insinuated that the father of Ted Cruz, recently departed from the presidential race, was involved in the JFK assassination. That bit of dirty pool was based on a photo published by the National Enquirer. Experts said that an unidentified man in an old picture of Lee Harvey Oswald could have been the elder Cruz.

The Enquirer has fired several volleys against Cruz, perhaps because of Trump’s long friendship with the publisher, the aptly named David Pecker. Of his father, Cruz said sarcastically, “He killed JFK, he’s really Elvis, and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his back yard.”

Pointing out a report in Article 107 News, Cousin Ray ventured, “Speaking of satire, I understand there’s no truth to the rumor that Trump wants to appoint Dylan Howard to head the CIA.”

Dylan Howard is the editor of the Enquirer. So maybe The Donald is not above poaching employees from his pal Pecker.

* * *

The Wall Street Journal reported on a New York University study that used DNA technology to examine the microbes on U.S. $1 bills. The researchers were able to identify 3,000 types of bacteria but could not identify about 20 per cent of the non-human DNA.

Pretty scary, but maybe not as scary as a 2012 study at Queen Mary University of London that found “about six percent of English bank notes tested had levels of E. coli bacteria comparable to a toilet seat.”

Cousin Ray wanted to know if that’s what is meant by “filthy lucre.”

http://bit.ly/1Xe1chv