Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Details Plans for 2012; Native Roll, Restoration of Lands Top List

A gathering Wednesday, December 14, 2011, drew hundreds to St. Andrew's Cathedral in Honolulu to hear the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ (OHA) plans for 2012. The agency hopes to celebrate the goals as accomplishments one year from now.

Click arrow below to view video here

OHA Chair urges unity
12.14.2011

By Jim Mendoza

"I stand here in front of you asking all of you to lay your weapons down. Lay your spears down and embrace with aloha," OHA chairperson Colette Machado said.

In her speech on the State of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Machado pointed to next year as a pivotal one for settling the dispute over ceded lands, now that Gov. Neil Abercrombie wants to give OHA 25 acres along the Kakaako waterfront.

"We must always be protective of the open space along the shoreline," she said. "I will support an open corridor for public access so people will have access to the area to gather as ohana, and to use that area to fish and also to bodysurf."

The deal needs legislative approval. Lawmakers plan to question how deep OHA searched for alternatives to the Abercrombie proposal, and if it could open the state to lawsuits.

"Once they explain that to us I think we'll get a better idea about where we want to go," said Sen. Brickwood Galuteria, chair of the Senate Hawaiian Affairs Committee.

"Hawaiians are no dummy when it comes to real estate. Land is our greatest asset. We know the value and situation of that place in particular," native Hawaiian political advisor Kealii Makekau said.

Former Gov. John D. Waihee is
Chair, Native Hawaiian Roll Commission

OHA will also concentrate on the Roll Call Commission, created to compile a list of native Hawaiians interested in self-determination.

"Our primary imperative as a commission is to re-unify the sovereign entity of native Hawaiians one by one, by the thousands," commission chair John Waihee said.

But some advocates for native Hawaiian sovereignty said the call for unity doesn't go far enough.

"We need to stand the nation back up again as an independent nation, not as a sub-group of the United States," said Leon Siu, of an organization called The Hawaiian Kingdom.

Former Los Coyotes Chairwoman Dies at Age 91; She Supported Barstow Casino Plans but Grew Intolerant of Detroiter Michael Malik

Los Coyotes Elder Katherine Siva Saubel
Keeper of Cahuilla Culture, Language

Katherine Siva Saubel, a former chairwoman of the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians has died at age 92.  She was one of the last fluent speakers of the Cahuilla (Kah-WEE'-yuh) Indian language, who helped document the lore of the Southern California tribe.

Her nephew, Kevin Siva, tells the Los Angeles Times she died Nov. 1 at her home on the Morongo reservation near Banning.

Saubel was born in 1920 on the Los Coyotes reservation in San Diego County and was the eighth of her parents’ eleven children.  When she was four, her family relocated to the Palm Springs area where it is believed she was the first Native American woman to graduate from Palm Springs High School.

She married Mariano Saubel, a resident of the Morongo Reservation, in 1940.  They were married 45 years and the parents of a son. 

Saubel worked with researchers to produce a Cahuilla dictionary and grammar book and preserved the songs and medicinal lore of the threatened culture. In 1964, she helped launch the Malki Museum near Banning, the first nonprofit museum found and managed by American Indians on a reservation.

The Cahuilla (pronounced ka-wee-yah), once one of the largest California Indian tribes, are concentrated in Riverside and San Diego counties. Among the more prominent Cahuilla bands are the Morongo and the Agua Caliente band in Palm Springs.

In 1998, as an activist, Saubel brought electricity to the Los Coyotes Reservation near Warner Springs in San Diego County. She would later be embroiled in a bitter fight to eject certain tribal members from the Reservation.

Then, for the better part of the first decade of the new millennium, Saubel served as Los Coyotes’ Chairwoman.  In partnership with Barwest LLC, a Detroit-based casino syndicate organized by Marian Ilitch and Michael Malik, she attempted to establish an off-reservation casino for the Los Coyotes Indians in Barstow (CA), midway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. 

After experiencing a string of failed schemes and disappointing setbacks, Saubel grew increasingly frustrated with and skeptical of Mike Malik.  When she could no longer take his bullying and intimidation she simply terminated Los Coyotes’ exclusivity agreement with Barwest.  Malik was furious.  Saubel told reporters Malik was ‘The Devil’ and alleged he was responsible for ‘seducing’ younger members of the Los Coyotes tribe. 

Subsequently, Malik and his operatives had Saubel removed as Los Coyotes’ chairwoman.  As her replacement he recruited the young and inexperienced Shane Chapparosa, one of the younger members of the tribe whom Saubel had accused Malik of seducing.

Saubel received an honorary PhD in philosophy from La Sierra University, Riverside, California, and was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest honor bestowed by theUniversity of California at the University of California, Riverside.

Funeral mass and burial for Dr. Saubel are scheduled for Nov. 8 at St. Mary’s Indian Mission and St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Banning.

Among the various tributes to Dr. Saubel:

• Banning Beaumont Patch: Malki Museum Closed Tuesday to Honor Co-Founder, Katherine Siva Saubel, PhD
• Gannett:   Native American culture expert dies at 91
• Idyllwild Town Crier: Dr. Katherine Siva Saubel passed away Tuesday, Nov. 1
• Indianz.com:  Katherine Siva Saubel, Los Coyotes scholar, passes on at 91
• Los Angeles Times:  Katherine Siva Saubel, preserver of Cahuilla culture, dies at 91
• Malki Museum:  Memories Celebrating Dr. Katherine Siva Saubel
• Riverside P-E:  Katherine Siva Saubel remembered for her accomplishments
• Sacramento Bee:  So. Calif. Indian activist Katherine Saubel dies
• The Desert Sun: Cahuilla elder, icon Katherine Siva Saubel dies

National Women’s Hall of Fame

Wikipedia

Malki Museum History

New Bay Mills Chairman Plans to Wrestle Charlotte Beach Land Claims from Soo Tribe; Evict Current Residents

A Letter To Bay Mills Tribal Members

2.12.2011

As posted on Facebook at Kurt Perron For Tribal Chairman

* I will resolve our Charlotte Beach Land Claim which has been handed over to the Soo Tribe to use to obtain casinoes with. I will file a lawsuit against the Soo Tribe in federal court to have them kicked off our Charlotte Beach land claim using the Supreme Courts recent Carcieri decison as precedent. Once Soo Tribe is kicked off our claim, I will then issue an eviction notice to the current residents of Charlotte Beach. We can then use our claim ourselves to obtain several more casinoes in key areas, including Vanderbilt, without spending our Elders Fund in the process. We should have never given our Charlotte Beach Claim to the Soo Tribe to use for a casino in Romulus and now Lansing, this was our land and it was taken from us, not the Soo Tribe. If a casino ever opens in these areas it will be owned by Bay Mills, not Soo Tribe.

See also:

• President/Chairman Parker, Longtime Crony of Detroit Gambling Promoter Michael Malik, Tossed Out by Bay Mills Indian Community Voters
• Same 20-Year-Old Story, Bay Mills Chairman Teasing Business Leaders with Hopeless Casino Plans
• Scandal Continues to Plague Political and Lobbying Activities of Detroiters Bankrolling Casino Plans
• Michael Malik: The Latest Life & Times of a Detroit Casino Syndicator
• Four Charlotte Beach parcels purchased by Michael Malik or his associates since 2002
• Charlotte Beach real estate transactions involving Michael Malik haven't been impacted by any so-called "cloud" over title
• Michael Malik at epicenter; manufacturing behind the scenes drama in Michigan’s remote Charlotte Beach subdivision.
• Why would attorney for Tribe's Port Huron casino developer be acquiring property up north in Charlotte Beach?
• Is the Bay Mills Tribe using Charlotte Beach land claims solely to leverage developer's off-reservation casino plans?
• UPDATE: Posts set context and detail schemes, conflict$ behind Detroiters' off-reservation casino proposal
• Tribe to borrow $4 million to fund federal grant requirement, other investments in Malik’s Plastics venture 

On the Los Coyotes Reservation, There's a History of Dispute Resolution akin to the Wild West

Indians aim to drive family from tribe in vicious dispute

4.09.2000

By Chet Barfield

Staff Writer

LOS COYOTES INDIAN RESERVATION -- Cattleman Frank Taylor rips hay from a bale, tossing handfuls to a dozen cows & calves that came running like puppies at the toot of his pickup horn.

Cattle, he explains, "are very clannish." If one group strays into another's territory, "those cows will hook them & chase them out."

Taylor, 61, is learning about that firsthand. He & his extended family are the focus of a dispute that's tearing apart this remote reservation in the mountains above Warner Springs, 70 miles northeast of San Diego.

Tribal Chairwoman Catherine Saubel & her followers are trying to banish the Taylors from the tribe. They openly hate the family of 20, whose late patriarch, Banning Taylor, ran the reservation for almost 50 years before his death in 1998 at age 92.

The Taylors refuse to budge. They've hired a lawyer to plead their case to the Sheriff's Department, Congress & the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Tensions that have simmered for years are reaching the breaking point. A brawl erupted at the monthly tribal meeting in March when the Taylors defied an edict not to attend. Sheriff's deputies were called to break up the fight, which caused some cuts & bruises but prompted no arrests.

Many up here fear things could get worse. Hot-tempered foes of the Taylors are brandishing guns & making threats. Frank Taylor keeps a weapon of his own within reach -- "for shooting rattlesnakes," he says.

Each side points fingers at the other: "Two men in a white pickup (like Taylor's) tried to run over our kids." . . . "My dog was shot in the face." . . . "I've had two dogs poisoned in the past year. . . . "

And, from the Taylors: "Our cattle have been shot." . . . "My grandson was almost grabbed out of our car." . . . "My fences & corrals have been vandalized. . . . "

"When a dog gets shot, he (Taylor) gets blamed for it whether there's evidence or not," said sheriff's Deputy Scottie Dawson, who has been patrolling Los Coyotes & other North County reservations since 1991. "It's been going on since before I was a deputy out here."

How did it come to this? Much of the answer dates back to the 1930s, when Banning Taylor was adopted into the tribe.

Born in Warner Springs, Taylor, a cattleman, moved in the early 1900s onto a 157-acre homestead that juts into the southwestern border of the 25,000-acre reservation. He raised his two sons there. (One died in 1986.)

In 1934, Taylor was adopted by tribal vote into the Los Coyotes band, which consisted of a Cahuilla Indian village in the mountains overlooking the Anza-Borrego Desert, & some Cupeños occupying the foothills near Warner Springs.

The tribe now has 290 members, only about 40 of whom live on the reservation. Half of those residents are Taylors.

The late patriarch's Indian blood -- or lack of it -- has been an ongoing issue of contention.

"He's a white man," said the chairwoman's brother, Cahuilla elder Alvino Siva. "And all of his children, if you check their birth certificates, are all white."

Banning Taylor publicly claimed to be of mixed ancestry, Irish & Cupeño. Yet stories persist, passed down for generations, that he tricked his way into the tribe.

Some say he was a bootlegger who got the Indians drunk or did them other favors. Others say tribal members who spoke no English were told the adoption vote was only to grant Taylor a work permit.

"Banning Taylor has lied & lied & lied. He was a smart man, smart crook-wise," said Cupeño elder Ruth Cassell, 73, who left the reservation in her childhood but returned in the 1960s. "He was a white man. He could get jobs for the Indians. He got liquor for the Indians, too.

"He was the only one who had a truck. He used to go someplace & get fresh vegetables -- bananas, celery, sometimes lettuce & tomatoes. . . . He used to bring it, & we'd be glad to see him."

Frank Taylor says he has records proving his Cupeño lineage back to Juan Antonio Garra, leader of a notorious 1851 Indian uprising. He said he brought the documents to a tribal meeting last year, but Saubel wouldn't accept them.

Taylor also has copies of a 1978 U.S. Interior Department administrative ruling in which critics, including Saubel, tried & failed to have Banning Taylor's adoption declared invalid.

The department's Indian affairs bureau sent a letter March 30 to Rep. Ron Packard -- with a copy to Saubel -- stating it still stands by that ruling, & it would be "inappropriate (for the tribe) to raise the issue of the validity of the adoption of Banning Taylor Sr. or to attempt to disenroll his family upon these grounds his long tenure as chairman from the mid-1940s until 1996, when old age & ill health forced his retirement.

Critics say Taylor took care of his own & ignored the tribe's needs. One example was the power & phone lines, which until two years ago stopped at the Taylor ranch. His family lived in comfort while Indians on the other side of the hill lived in trailers & shacks with wood stoves & kerosene lamps.

Power lines were brought to the poor side in 1998; seven months after Saubel took office. But the project was started by Frank Taylor, who had been chairman the previous two years.

Frank Taylor says -- as his father did -- that tribal members themselves voted down the power extension in the 1970s because they distrusted government grants. He says his family members work & bought what they have with their own money.

Throughout Banning Taylor's years as chairman, Saubel & others accused him of taking government funds without putting them to use for the tribe. Now the Taylors are saying the same about Saubel.

The 80-year-old chairwoman dismisses these as white man's lies. She issued an edict -- backed by a vote at the March meeting -- giving the Taylors 60 days to document their enrollment or get out.

"We want them out, out of the reservation, because that reservation is for Indians, not blondes, blue-eyes & redheads," said Saubel, who left Los Coyotes as a youth & lives on the Morongo reservation near Palm Springs. "If I was white like them, I wouldn't want to be stuck in there with the Indians."

Tribal secretary Francine Kupsch said she & many others believe the Taylors are not legally enrolled & should have no rights in the tribe.

"It's all B.S.," she said of the 1978 ruling on Banning Taylor's adoption, "because nobody can decide our membership up here. Only we can."

Two Bills Allowing Gambling in Hawaii Fail; Detroiters Actively Lobbied for Passage

From the League of Women Voters May 2010 Newsletter | Anti-Gambling Update

Anti-Gambling Results

May 2010

In February, two bills [HB 2251 & HB 2759] strongly supported by gambling interests came up for public hearing at the Legislature. After lively testimony and discussion, both bills were deferred.

Along with the Hawaii Coalition Against Legalized Gambling and other community and native Hawaiian groups, LWV’s Jean Aoki testified against the measures. John Radcliffe, an industry spokesperson from Michigan, spoke in favor of the bills, saying the casinos would generate jobs and increased revenue for the state.

One bill would have permitted a single casino in a county with more than 500,000 residents. The second would have allowed casinos on Hawaiian Homelands. As it turned out, both bills were dead. Nor did other gambling bills come forward.

BIA issues rule limiting casino sites to within 25-miles of Reservations

7.19.08

BIA limits casino sites

SANTA FE — The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has published a rule that says casinos should be located within 25 miles of a reservation headquarters.

But the rule has exceptions. Tribes may seek reservation status and permission to operate casinos on newly acquired land away from a reservation if tribes can show that a significant number of tribal members live nearby, can demonstrate a current connection to the property or if other tribal government facilities have been located on the land for at least two years before an application is filed for new reservation land. (Complete Story)

Note: This is yet another indiciation that at least two of three off-reservation casino schemes being financed and pushed by Detroit casino syndicators Marian Ilitch and Michael Malik are dead -- (1) BarWest Casino Resort proposed for Barstow, CA, with the Los Coyotes Band of Indians; and (2) MJM Enterprises/Blue Water Casino Resort proposed for Port Huron, MI, with the Bay Mills Indian Community.

The Barstow project has been previously denied by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and then by the California Legislature as well as the BIA; the Port Huron project was rejected by vote of the U.S. House of Representatives in June. A third casino proposal backed by the Detroit duo is contingent upon federal recognition of the Shinnecock Indian Nation located on Long Island, NY.

Shinnecock security guards going to extremes on Westwoods property

7.09.08

Trustees continue to investigate beach access issue
By Vera Chinese

Southampton Village resident Timothy Corwin is still awaiting an explanation as to why he was accosted—and allegedly threatened—by a security guard for the Shinnecock Indian Nation while walking along the beach last summer on the tribe’s Westwoods property, which overlooks Peconic Bay in Hampton Bays.

“They said they had the authority to drop me where I stood,” Mr. Corwin, who later reported the incident to the New York State Police and Southampton Town Trustees, said of the lone security guard. “I would take that as a physical threat, but I didn’t see any point in getting into fisticuffs with the guy.”

According to Mr. Corwin, he was walking on the beach below the high water mark—an area that is traditionally governed by the Southampton Town Trustees, in accordance with the Dongan Patent, and accessible to all town residents.

Mr. Corwin’s encounter was not an isolated incident. Last month, four people were injured in a brawl after authorities said two Shinnecock tribe members approached a group of young adults who were hanging out on the beach along the Westwoods property. State Police said the fight started after the two Shinnecocks told group members that they were trespassing on tribal property. One of the victims had to be airlifted to the hospital after being hit in the head with an unidentified object, and two other men suffered injuries after they were swatted with burning logs from a nearby bonfire. One of the Shinnecocks suffered a broken wrist during the melee, police said...

Undermining that argument is a ruling last year by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Bianco. He determined that the Westwoods property, which is located north of Newtown Road, cannot be considered sovereign tribal land. In his October 2007 ruling, Judge Bianco said the land cannot be sovereign because the tribe had relinquished its ownership for a time in the 1600s. Therefore, the judge said, a gaming facility cannot be built on the property once the Shinnecocks receive federal recognition.

According to the 130-page ruling, the Westwoods property is not exempt from Southampton Town zoning laws and must comply with residential zoning. That would mean that Southampton Town residents are allowed to be on the beach, below the high water mark, as is true throughout the town. If this is the case, then the Shinnecocks would not be within their rights to block people from walking below the high water mark... (Complete Story)

Bay Mills Indian Community is located 350+ miles from Port Huron, MI

According to Google, the existing reservation of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Brimley, MI) is located some 351 miles away from the proposed site of a Port Huron casino on property where the Thomas Edison Inn is currently located (H.R. 2176). The Port Huron site is outside the tribe's traditional ancestral territory.

View Larger Detailed Map

Barstow Museum's monument recognizes four Native American groups with ancestral ties to greater Barstow

A large permanent entry monument representative of an "open-book" marks the entrance to the Mojave River Valley Museum, located at 270 Virginia Way (just off Barstow Rd.) in Barstow, California. The monument represents that four Native American groups with ancestral ties in the greater Barstow area: Ute, Mojave, Chemehuevi & Paiute Indians.

Mojave River Valley Museum Monument

on the MONUMENT, MOJAVE RIVER VALLEY MUSEUM

THE STORY
of the MOJAVE RIVERBED TRAIL

You are now traveling the Old Mojave Trail, a natural riverbed highway. First used by Ute, Mojave, Chemehuevi & Paiute Indians on the move.

1776 - Padre Garces; Missionary, Explorer, Martyr
1826 - Jedediah Smith of Salt Lake City, Hunter, Trapper
1829 - William Wolfskill of New Mexico; First of the Annual Caravan Traders Bound for the Coast
1844 - Capt. John C. Fremont; Pathfinder & Mapmaker
1848 - Mormon Battalion disbanded in Los Angeles & bound for Utah
1849 - First Wagons of the Gold Seekers

Thereafter used continually by Mormons, Immigrants, Fortune Seekers, Firefighters, Military Expeditions and Sight-Seeing Tourists

Official Web site of San Bernardino County names five tribes with historical ties to the region

as presented on the "History" page of San Bernardino County's official Web site:

click thumbnail to go to official Web Page

from OFFICIAL WEB SITE of SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
San Bernardino County History
Paleo-Indian sites dating from c. 10,000 BC show that the San Bernardino county area has been inhabited for at least 12,000 years. Artifacts in the Calico area suggest much earlier human occupation, but this has not been confirmed. In the past three thousand years various Indian tribes flourished in the area: the Gabrielenos occupied the West Valley; the Serranos lived in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains; the Vanyumes lived along the Mojave River; the Mohave lived along the Colorado River; and in the 1500s the Chemehuevi moved into the Mojave Desert...

There is no mention of the Big Lagoon Rancheria (Humboldt County) or the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians(San Diego County); nor of the Cahuilla or Cupeno Indians who have ancestral lands primarily in modern day Riverside and San Diego Counties generally to the south of San Bernardino County and the coastal side of the San Bernardino Mountains range.

"Cheat Sheet" on Native American ancestral claims for Barstow's Mayor

Open letter to Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale

August 31, 2007

Mayor Lawrence Dale
City of Barstow
Barstow, CA 92311

RE: Your Recent Assault on the Ancestral Heritage of Local Native American Tribes

Dear Lawrence,

California's Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC) and the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as well as Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) are responsible for determining what Native American tribes have ancestral claims to Barstow.

Not You!

Not your friends at Detroit-based Barwest LLC!

And not their hired "experts" from Missoula, Montana!

It certainly must be embarassing to realize that after seven years as the Mayor of Barstow and now as president of SANBAG you didn't know this.

You really should familiarize yourself with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the CEQA Guidelines available from the the Governor's Office of Research and Planning; and certainly the City of Barstow's General Plan. It might be best to get some counsel on these matters from someone other than Barwest's Michigan lawyers.

Truly,
Your friends at TVT

P.S. Let us know if you find the Big Lagoon Rancheria or the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians on these lists.

* * *

Here's a little "cheat sheet" paragraph you may want to cut and tape on the inside cover of your day planner.

Barstow General Plan/Technical Report
IV.2 Cultural Resources Management Plan
Preface – Native American Concerns
(pages IV.2.6 – IV.2.7)

"Therefore, any project must involve consultation with and involvement from local and regional Native American cultural entities as listed by the Native American Heritage Commission. The local Barstow office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) maintains a listing of representatives of Native American groups who claim an association with the Barstow area; specifically the Serrano, Kaaiisu, Fort Mojave, and Chemehuevi."

Mayor's unauthorized letter to BIA could hurt Barstow's chances to establish Indian gaming

At the behest of a competing Detroit-based casino syndicate, Barstow Mayor sent unauthorized letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) attacking ancestral claims of a local Indian tribe with which the City of Barstow has previously entered into a contractual agreement to build a casino resort in Barstow.

Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale was chastised by colleagues and residents alike, during a special City Council meeting he scheduled this past week on other matters, for working against the City’s efforts to bring Indian gaming to Barstow; a concept reportedly endorsed by more than 75% of the local community and by various formal votes of the Barstow City Council in the last two years.

Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale chastised for unauthorized actions
that many believe may hurt city's chance to establish Indian gaming
8.28.07

TVT has obtained copies of letters referenced at a special afternoon meeting of the Barstow City Council held August 28, 2007. Mayor Dale without Council approval sent an unauthorized letter to Clay Gregory, the director of the Sacramento office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs using his title as "Mayor" and on city letterhead attacking the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe and making many representations on behalf of the City of Barstow.

The City Council has an agreement with the Chemehuevi Tribe that allows the tribe to develop a casino resort in Barstow.

At the Council meeting, Dale said he wrote the letter in response to a letter the Chemehuevi tribal chairman Charles Wood had written to a consultant managing an Environmental Impact Study that the BIA is conducting on another proposed dual Indian casino project identified for Barstow – a project that Detroit-based Barwest LLC has advanced. The chairman reportedly was encouraged to write the letter by the consultant managing the study.

Dale defended his action and the unauthorized letter he sent to the BIA by saying, “The Chemehuevi had made accusations about our city and about what our city had done.”

TVT has reviewed a copy of the letter from the Chemehuevi tribal chairman which Dale says prompted his letter to the BIA. There is absolutely nothing in the Chairman's letter representing accusations about the City of Barstow or actions taken by the City. The letter primarily addresses matters of ancestral heritage in the greater Barstow area and raises questions about a list of tribes maintained by California’s Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC) which are required to be included in early consultations on land use matters in the Barstow area under state law.

What would prompt Dale to provide such an unsupported explanation?

It's curious that there are no literal accusations in the Chemehuevi letter; but from Mayor Lawrence Dale’s perspective some sort of exposure is implied that required his urgent and unvetted response.

Oddly enough Dale’s letter to the BIA is more political attack intended to advantage his friends in Detroit rather than a letter that would foster the City Council’s objective to bring Indian gaming to Barstow. He addresses no "accusations" in letter; rather he makes uneducated and vicious accusations about the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe.

Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale isn't being honest with himself or the public. Mayor Dale's actions may cost Barstow the chance to establish Indian gaming; perhaps that's been the objective all along.

Barstow's Mayor isn't familiar with his City's General Plan; nor is he a scholar of Native American history or culture

Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale isn't a local historian nor scholar of Native Americans despite recent representations.

And it appears that Mayor Dale has failed to study and familiarize himself with his city's General Plan too.

Recently Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale, in his official capacity, has mistakenly written,

"To the contrary, the Barstow General Plan lists 15 tribal groups, including the Cahuilla and Cupeno, as having ties to Barstow…"

Mayor Dale misrepresents the truth for the benefit of Detroit casino syndicators.

First, the Barstow General plan does not provide a list of 15 different tribes that have ancestral claims to the modern-day Barstow area as Dale seems to imply. The General Plan mentions various Native American groups throughout its 54-page technical report on cultural resources management, but in no way does that report indicate each of those tribes had ancestral connections to Barstow.

The Barstow General Plan does, however, recognize that the California Native American Heritage Commission maintains a list of those tribes that have ancestral claims in the Barstow area. The General Plan also acknowledges that the Barstow office of the Bureau of Land Management recognizes four tribes specifically as having ancestral claims in Barstow.

Perhaps Lawrence Dale should familiarize himself with those official lists.

Barstow General Plan/Technical Report
IV.2 Cultural Resources Management Plan
Preface – Native American Concerns
(pages IV.2.6 – IV.2.7)

"Therefore, any project must involve consultation with and involvement from local and regional Native American cultural entities as listed by the Native American Heritage Commission. The local Barstow office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) maintains a listing of representatives of Native American groups who claim an association with the Barstow area; specifically the Serrano, Kaaiisu, Fort Mojave, and Chemehuevi."

Contrary to Mayor Dale’s representations, the Barstow General Plan does not represent that the Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians have ancestral claims in the modern-day Barstow area. The General Plan’s Technical Report section provides a discussion that simply mentions the Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians were believed to have had relationships with the Serrano Indians (San Manuel Tribe). The Serrano are referenced for discussion because they are a Native American group most like the less understood Vanyume Indians who had ancestral lands including modern-day Barstow – but there are no representations that the Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians had ancestral lands in Barstow.

Barstow General Plan/Technical Report
IV.2 Cultural Resources Management Plan
Cultural/Historical Overview - Ethnography
(page IV.2.27)

"Since little is known about the Vanyume, and most existing information, though not universally accepted, suggests certain affinities to the Serrano, relevant behavioral information with applicability to the Vanyume was extrapolated from the Serrano..."

"Coalitions with other Serrano clans were based on reciprocal ceremonial, marital and economic relationships. They also established alliances with similarly organized Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Gabrielino, and Cupeno (Strong, 1929; Bean, 1972)."

Ironically, that very same section of the Barstow General Plan that mentions relationships between the Serrano and various other Indians, includes the following two references that seem to support representations by the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe that its ancestors included modern-day Barstow among their rightful homelands.

Barstow General Plan/Technical Report
IV.2 Cultural Resources Management Plan
Cultural/Historical Overview - Ethnography
(page IV.2.26 & IV.2.28)

"The Vanyume became extinct through missionization in the 1770s, with the Chemehuevi, Mojave, Serrano, and possibly Chumash moving into their area after contact (Greenwood and McIntyre, 1979:28); Forbes, 1963; and, Barker and Schlanger, 1974)." IV.2.26

"It is reported that during the 17th and 18th centuries, the central portion of the Mojave was abandoned by the Mojave Indians and the area was occupied by the Chemehuevi." IV.2.28

It seems that at the suggestion of those behind Detroit-based casino developer Barwest LLC, Mayor Dale disregards any such claims by the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe or any others; even when those claims are supported by language in his city's General Plan.

What or whom would compel Lawrence Dale to use the office bestowed upon him by the people of Barstow to make the false representations he has made about that city's history and its General Plan documents.

Don't expect the truth from Barwest on matters of Native American history or ancestral territories

The principals, partners and agents of Detroit-based Barwest LLC (including Marian Ilitch, Michael Malik, Tom Shields, Lance Boldrey, Virgil Moorehead, Katherine Saubel, Kevin Siva and Shane Chaparossa among others) have demonstrated time and time again that they can't be trusted when it comes to matters of Native American history in the Mojave Desert or ancestral ties to the greater Barstow area.

Consider the following example of sloppy disregard for the truth.

For more than a year, the official Barwest Web site barstowcasinosandresort.com has posted the following false "factoid" among others on its Barstow History page:

"The aboriginal territory of the Chemehuevi Indians (of which the membership of the modern Chemehuevi Tribe is composed) was located to the west of the Vanyume's territory."

from barstowcasinosandresort.com/history.html

The truth is, the Chemehuevi Indian Reservation is located on the California shore line of Lake Havasu and the Colorado River. Lake Havasu and the Colorado River are located east of Barstow and the area believed to be the ancestral lands of the Vanyume people.

And it's generally understood and accepted by all -- except apparently Barwest, LLC and its tribal partners -- that the bulk of the Chemehuevi ancestral territory is located to the east of Barstow/Mojave River; not the west.

The Antelope Valley Indian Museum indicates what is commonly understood by most:

"The Vanyume shared a territorial boundary with the Chemehuevi to the northeast."

You may want to review these related posts:

• Barstow official & Barwest attorney kept their knowledge of reported Chemehuevi campsite in City of Barstow hush-hush
• Tom Shields, Liar! Liar!
• Casino developer may have mislead Schwarzenegger's negotiator to get approvals for twin casinos
• Another tribe accomplishes what Marian Ilitch's Team (Barwest) says is 'impossible'
• Casino developer has track-record of dishonesty and deceipt
• Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians makes its home on the southernmost of Cahuilla Reservations
• Cahuilla traditional territory was south of the San Bernardino Mountains

Barstow official & Barwest attorney kept their knowledge of reported Chemehuevi campsite in City of Barstow hush-hush

Although publicly denying any awareness of a Chemehuevi archaeological site in Barstow at City Council meetings and in Sacramento, a string of 2005 e-mails obtained by TVT clearly indicate that Barstow Economic Development Director Ron Rector and Barwest attorney Lance Boldrey as well as others in the City of Barstow and associated with Barwest LLC were fully aware of the remains of a former Chemehuevi campsite within Barstow City limits -- less than one mile from the proposed Barwest/Big Lagoon Rancheria/Los Coyotes Band of Indians casinos and resorts.

Boldrey and others speaking on behalf of Barwest LLC and its tribal partners have repeatedly insisted in public testimony that no modern-day tribes have any ancestral histories in Barstow.

They may have kept this information from Governor Schwarzenegger's representatives as well while they were negotiating agreements in 2005 that would give Detroit-based Barwest LLC the right to develop and manage two side by side casino resorts in Barstow and earn up to 30% of the net proceeds of the two Indian casinos.

Curiously, The City of Barstow has been delaying public participation in the legally mandated update of its ten year old General Plan, last updated in 1997.

* * *

FROM: Ron Rector (Barstow Economic Development Director)
SENT: February 23, 2005
RE: HCED Listserve Draft Tribal Consultation Guidelines Regarding Local Land Use Planning

Lance:
Looks like the Chemehuvis’ [sic] may get a shot at you yet.

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FROM: Boldrey, Lance R. (attorney, Barwest LLC)
SENT: February 23, 2005
RE: HCED Listserve Draft Tribal Consultation Guidelines Regarding Local Land Use Planning

I would not necessarily jump to that conclusion, although I’d be interested to get Scott’s [Priester, then-Barstow Planning Director] perspective after he’s reviewed the materials and gone through the workshop (if he’s going).

First, these appear to be triggered only upon adoption or amendment of “general” or “specific” plans. I defer to you guys and the CEQA experts as to whether that is required by our development and a new MSA.

Second, and more to the point, these require consultation only when a tribe has a “cultural place” within the city’s limits. As I read the definitions and examples of such sites (page 4 of the supplement document), the asserted Chemehuevi “place” does not appear to fit. “Cultural place” appears to be intended to capture those sites of either permanent habitation or of particular religious significance, with the caveat that the term also includes sites listed or eligible for listing in the CA Register of Historic Places. The Chemehuevi “site” within the city’s limits was only a campground on a trading route from, I believe the late 1800’s. We also do not know if any historical evidence has actually established it as such. (All we know is someone from the City contacted the tribe several years ago to see if this campground was linked to them, and they of course agreed that it was.)

As you know the historical research we commissioned from experts in the field shows that the Barstow area was inhabited historically by a band that is now extinct. Any other tribal ties to the area would have been tenuous ties from tribes essentially just passing through. Accordingly, I would not conclude that the Chemehuevi will have standing to weigh in even if a new or amended “general” or “specific” plan is required.

(From an outside perspective, I think this bill is likely to lead to real chaos, as many tribes will undoubtedly “overclaim” the protections of the act to demonstrate power over larger areas of territory. If there is no real independent check to determine if a site is, in fact, a “cultural place” expect a nightmare.)

Finally, this issue does present one potential problem with moving the site for the gaming development, if, in fact, the parcel that Argovitz is pursuing is the same parcel that the Chemehuevi had optioned, the Chemehuevi’s fee-to-trust applications asserts that the so-called Chemehuevi campsite is actually located ON THIS PARCEL. This could complicate matters if different tribes seek to have the land placed into trust ...

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FROM: Scott Priester (Barstow Planning Director)
SENT: March 03, 2005
RE: Lance Boldrey Comments

Thoughts/comments on Lance Boldrey’s comments

1) I am not attending the workshop – it’ll likely be in northern California;
2) The destination resort project is located in the adopted Lenwood Specific Plan area. Depending on the details of the development that will be off federal lands, an amendment to the specific plan may be needed to carry out the project (the devil’s in the details).
3) It doesn’t appear to matter if there is a “cultural place” in the City – if their name is on the Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC) list, we’re subject to it. I have requested a list from the NAHC of the tribes with whom the City will have to consult. It was faxed to NAHC in Sacramento today, so stay tuned.

All in all, I don’t necessarily think this will be a way to tube a project, but it could cause delay, mitigation negotiations, etc. on certain projects.

WheatGR has re-assigned nearly a decade of financial disclosure records filed for the Bay Mills Indians to the Shinnecock Indians

UPDATE: Within 48 hours of this original blog post, corrections were made to filings with the U.S. Senate Office of Public Records by Wheat Government Relations regarding its longtime client the Bay Mills Indian Community.

Wheat Government Relations (WheatGR), a D.C. lobbying firm headed by former Rep. Alan Wheat, has apparently either confused its two clients The Shinnecock Indian Nation (New York) and Bay Mills Indian Community (Michigan) or in fact, has intentionally masked (or merged) all the records regarding Wheat GR's nearly 10-year engagement with the Bay Mills Indian Community available on the Secretary of the Senate's Office of Public Records lobbying disclosure Web site (select "Registrant Name" and holding down the control key select "Client Name," then click "Go;" in Registrant type "Wheat Government Relations" and in Client type "Shinnecock")

Records for the Bay Mills Indian Community, a significant client of Wheat Government Relations from 1998 through 2006 are now found under the client name "Shinnecock Indian Nation" for those years 1998 - 2006.

Records for the Shinnecock Indian Nation, also a Wheat client, are now found under the client name "Shinnecock Indian Nation of New York" for the years 2004 - 2006.

It's unclear why this has happened, but the staff in the Secretary of the Senate's office has indicated they plan to look into the matter and follow up with Wheat GR.

Disclosure records filed August 2004 by Kessler & Associates Business Services regarding its client Wheat Government Relations indicate oddly that Kessler was representing WheatGR on the following specific lobbying issues: "Bay Mills/Shinnecock Land Swap." The two tribes are located in Michigan and New York respectively and there is nothing to suggest the tribes share common history or ancestral territories.

Both the Shinnecock and Bay Mills Indians have pursued schemes for off-reservation Indian casinos backed by Mrs. Marian Ilitch and Michael J. Malik, Sr., Detroit casino syndicators.

KGO ABC7 Video: Indian Tribe Battles To Build Casino (7/24)

Indian Tribe Battles To Build Casino (7/24) There is a battle taking place over a pristine aquatic sanctuary on the california north coast. it's a place called Big Lagoon, north of Eureka, and it's home to small tribe of native americans who want to build a casino and the clock is ticking. what's holding up the protection of one of california's coastal treasures. You'll need a version of Windows Media Player 7 or higher to view the video. If you need to download it, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/en/default.asptarget=_blank The video player is supported by Microsoft IE 5.0 and above.

Smithsonian national land survey shows U.S. indigenous languages and maps tribes

This graphic was originally produced by William Sturtevant for the Smithsonian Institution in 1967 and also used by the U.S. Geological Services in an attempt to map 18 U.S. indigenous languages and the general ancestral territories of tribes associated with those languages.

Click for larger view

Descendants of Chemehuevi basket weaver return to site of her Victorville grave and the village where she lived for 104 years

7.14.07

Descendants of ‘Indian Maria’ revive history of their people

By TATIANA PROPHET Staff Writer

VICTORVILLE — Over the centuries, the Mojave Narrows has been a crossroads — for the Indians, then for the Spanish, then for American ranchers and settlers.

But there was one person who stayed there the longest of anyone — dwelling in Victorville all her 104 years. She is Maria Chapula, known as Indian Maria, Indian Marie, or even Victorville Maria.

On Monday, the day before the 47th anniversary of her death, Chapula’s granddaughter came to Old Town to visit her grave and rediscover memories of her visits here as a child.

When Chapula died on July 10, 1960, she was the last member of a Chemehuevi village near the Narrows. But she was not the last of her tribe.

Her descendant, Ernestine Paddock Sharpe, drove from Parker, Ariz., to bring the history of her people out of obscurity.

“We want to preserve it,” she said. “It’s being lost right now as it is.”

Though many in Victorville would not know it, Indian Maria lives on through her works of art, housed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Chapula was a master basket weaver.

“My grandmother always said the Chemehuevi baskets are the hardest baskets to make in the United States,” said Weegie Claw, a cousin of Sharpe’s whose grandmother used to weave with Chapula.

Claw now teaches the art of basket weaving in Tehachapi, continuing the tradition of a basket woven so well that it is more like a bowl.

“The weave is so tight they can hold water,” she said.

It takes six to eight weeks to make a Chemehuevi basket, working 10 to 12 hours a day, Claw said.

Phil Wyman, a former California Assemblyman whose great grandparents started the cement plant in Oro Grande, met Chapula’s descendants through their mutual interest in native culture and accompanied them to Victorville.

“The friendship’s been renewed,” said Wyman, whose great grandmother used to go to the village to buy baskets from Chapula.

The Chemehuevi are related to the Paiute nation. A nomadic people, they wandered through the High Desert from the Colorado River on the east to the Tehachapi Mountains on the west and from Las Vegas and Death Valley on the north to the San Bernardino and San
Gabriel mountains on the south.

In the town of Victor, as it was once called, the village settled along the Mojave River where Victor Valley Memorial Park now is.

In 1867, when Maria was 11, a massacre at Chimney Rock — in retaliation for an earlier murder of three farm hands — thinned the ranks of her tribe. But she and her parents survived, according to a scholarly study of Indians in Victorville.

She married Manuel Chapula, who died in about 1932, according to a census by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Though she lived in poverty most of her life, dwelling in a temporary “brush arbor” built to shield her from sun, Chapula’s sense of home was a permanent one. She lived on a lot that stands empty today at the northwest corner of 10th and C streets.

“Maria was the only one that stayed,” Sharpe said. “This was home.”

Throughout her long life, she cleaned and cared for Victorville households and wove baskets out of native desert willow and devil’s claw, always wearing the Chemehuevi style of floor-length cotton skirt, blouse tucked in, white apron and white head scarf. She spoke a few words in Spanish, fewer in English, and the Chemehuevi dialect.

When her granddaughter used to come visit with their aunt, Chapula had retired and was weaving baskets full time — hosting her kinsmen as they would travel on their way somewhere.
At that time, Chapula’s companion was a dog named Sam.

Once when Chapula was shopping at Safeway, she bought too many things to carry, she told her granddaughter. When she came out of the store, Sam was already in the back of a taxi.

“The dog went around the corner and got in the taxi,” Sharpe said. “The driver knew her and circled around.”

Chapula’s grave is labeled as “Marie Chapuli,” a member of the Paiute tribe, at the Victor Valley cemetery, and is marked by a Victorville historic sign.

Ernestine Sharpe, Weegie Claw and Phil Wyman, bonded by their love of Indian culture, hope to bring some of Maria’s baskets back to the Victor Valley for display — a fitting monument to the place she so loved.

Tatiana Prophet may be reached at 951-6222 or at tprophet@vvdailypress.com