Buying back part of their original homeland, 11
tribes in California have established the first Native
American-owned park, located 200 miles north of San Francisco along
the California coast.
The 3,900-acre InterTribal
Sinkyone (pronounced sinky-own) Wilderness Park will be managed
differently than Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, however, because
the tribes, including descendants of the Pomo, Wailaki, Cahto and
Yuki people, want the land to remain as wild as
possible.
“There will be very
limited public access to the park,” said InterTribal Council
executive director Hawk Rosales, with entry via three hiking
trails. But first, the tribes will complete a management plan and
inventory which could take three years.
The
tribes’ plan must mesh with a conservation easement, managed by the
nonprofit Pacific Forest Trust. The easement says the park may be
used for tourism, traditional tribal hunting and gathering, and
forest management which would result in mature, old-growth coastal
redwood-fir forest.
The tribes, with the help of
a $1.3 million Lannan Foundation grant, bought the land from The
Trust for Public Land for $1.4 million last August. Georgia-Pacific
Corp. sold the land to the Trust in 1986 after environmentalists
sued the company to stop clear-cut logging.
Because much of the land has been heavily logged and crisscrossed
by roads, Rosales said, the tribes will work to restore salmon
habitat and redwood forests. Another goal is to allow the tribes’
7,500 members access to traditional hunting and
gathering.
The tribes also plan to use the park
for retreats, and as a place to rebuild cultural identity. The U.S.
Army and settlers wiped out most of the area’s Native Americans in
the mid-1800s, Rosales said, but descendants of the survivors have
returned to the area annually to hunt, fish and
pray.
Rosales hopes the park will set an example
to other native peoples. “This is the first time,” he said, “that a
significant portion of land has been returned to Indian people with
a focus on traditional cultural uses.”
For more
information, contact the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council at
707/463-6745, or write them at 190 Ford Road, No. 333, Ukiah, CA
95482.
*Jason Lenderman
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Tribes create a wilderness park.
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