We Threw a Party and Some People Came……….They Were IMPORTANT People
All right. It wasn’t really a party. It was a “Listening Round Table”.
The speaker was the daughter of a chief! Her name is Coyote Woman, and you’ll find links to videos here, of her talking to a room full of people, about how (contrary to what many Californians believe) Native Americans would actually LOVE to have some land returned to them that used to belong to them, before we invaded from Europe.
We’re not talking about the land under or around your house, so don’t panic.
Are you done panicking? Okay, good.
We’re only talking, about Federal land. Right now there’s nothing on Federal Land, and it’s being slowly stolen and nibbled away for oil drilling by the current administration, where the Obama Administration had protected that land with environmentally friendly policies.
We also talked about other simpler solutions, that could be enacted by kind individuals in their own homes and communities. ……THIS MEANS YOU, because I KNOW that you are a kind, caring and thoughtful individual, wherever you happen to be living.
One of those solutions involves willing individuals signing onto a registry of people offering hospitality to Native Americans passing through their cities, as they travel to events, far from their homes. Like us, they sometimes just need a bathroom, along the way, or a cup of coffee or tea. Some could really use a couch to crash on for a couple of days.
Here is a link to the Listening Round Table (which was in Grass Valley) where you will find videos with more such solutions. You can be sure of more Listening Round Tables in the future. I am actually in charge or organizing the next one, which will be right here in Santa Rosa, at the Peace and Non- Violence Center.
STAY TUNED:
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Note that Governor Gavin Newsom recently issued a formal apology for the state’s “dark history” to California’s indigenous peoples.
HE ACTUALLY SAID, “It’s called a genocide,” during a ceremony announcing the executive order of apology. “No other way to describe it… I’m sorry on behalf of the state of California.”
Note also that Angela Mooney D’Arcy’s Juaneño Band of Mission Indians said non-federally recognized tribes were not invited to the formal apology ceremony.
That last note bears repeating, so I’ll repeat it:
FIFTY- FIVE non fed recognized Indigenous California Nations were BANNED FROM ATTENDING THE GOVERNOR’S APOLOGY. So no need to congratulate ourselves or our governor, too heartily, yet.
Basically without Fed recognition — you get no rights in CA and…
no access to land, and this cuts off FIFTY-FIVE tribes.
A FEW more facts about our relationship with Native Americans, here in CA, and how they’ve been MIStreated by the US AND California government:
Assemblyman James Ramos, a Highland Democrat and the first California Indian to be elected to the state Assembly says:
I introduced the bill because of the disrespect for tribal elders during the repatriation process that has taken place in the state of California,” said “For all the Indian people in the state, we’re taught that (when) those bones are exposed, you do a proper reburial. But it does bring forward an issue that needs to be addressed…….”
Ramos used a legal definition for “tribe” outlined in the 2001 California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which states a “California Indian Tribe” must be federally recognized. If it’s not, the tribe must be in the petitioning process for recognition or be eligible to apply for the status.
A state can extend protections to tribes without federal status, as California has done. But formal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs affords tribes additional rights over their land,
There are only 109 federally recognized tribes in California, with another 55 without the status,
The Return California group can help California begin to make amends, by leading the way to a better understanding of our Indigenous brothers and sisters and how we can help them get back on their feet, again. After all, Germany made over SIXTY years of reparations to help to create a new nation for Jewish Holocaust survivors. That nation became known as Israel.
Please enjoy the videos, and………….
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