Tribal Leaders to Gather off Stewarts Point the Day before MLPA Closure

Tribal Leaders to Gather off Stewarts Point the Day before MLPA Closure

by Dan Bacher

Tribal leaders from throughout California will be gathering from noon to 2 pm on Friday, April 30 to bless the sacred land of the California coast in their native tongues in a ceremony at Stewarts Point (Danaka) in Sonoma County.

This purpose of the gathering is to bless an area where the Kashia Tribe of Pomo Indians has gathered seaweed, mussel, abalone, clams and fish for centuries. Danaka, an area that is sacred to the Tribe, will close to all take of seaweed, shellfish and fish the following day under new regulations implemented through Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.

The regulations for the controversial marine reserves between Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County to Pigeon Point in San Mateo County were adopted by the California Fish and Game Commission in August 2009 and approved by the Office of Administrative Law in April 2010. The new reserve network on the North Central Coast, stretching from the waters near Half Moon Bay to Point Arena, will close approximately 20 percent of the state waters in the region to seaweed gathering and fishing.

“What you are doing to us is taking the food out of our mouths,” said Lester Pinola, past chairman of the Kashia Pomo Tribe in a public hearing prior to the contentious vote. “When the first settlers came to the coast, they didn’t how to feed themselves. Our people showed them how to eat out of the ocean. In my opinion, this was a big mistake.”

More than 200 people are expected to come together in an effort to bless this spot for the food it has provided for centuries and what it has provided to their culture - and to defend the rights of California coastal tribes to gather seaweed, shellfish and fish as they have for thousands of years. It is with sadness in their hearts that they will lose this gathering spot, as it is part of their culture and religion.

"We weren't the cause of the raiding of the food that this ocean provides," said Violet Wilder, a member of the Kashia Pomo Tribe. "We do not take more than we can eat, we don't sell it, we use it to feed each other, not only our families but families who cannot gather their own. We spread the wealth. Why are we having to pay for others wrong doing?"

"The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) has not taken into account that which is most important to the indigenous people of the
land - our cultural landscape and what that is made from," said Meyo Marrufo, a member of the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California. "Our cultural landscape reaches beyond the grasp of our fingertips and possessions. It is all that makes up our culture - the way we live, the way we dance, the mates we choose, the children we have and the food we eat. By not 'allowing' us to harvest our traditional foods they are telling us to give part of ourselves up.  Haven't we given up enough?"

This is a historical event - one to be noted and remembered by all - as many tribes will be attending. The event will also include Native American dancing.

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in October 2009 passed a strongly worded resolution blasting the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process for failing to recognize the tribal subsistence, ceremonial and cultural rights of California Indian Tribes.

“The NCAI does hereby support the demand of the tribes of Northern California that the State of California enter into government to government consultations with these tribes; and that the State of California ensure the protection of tribal subsistence, ceremonial and cultural rights in the implementation of the state of Marine Life Protection Act,” the resolution stated.

The adoption of these new regulations off Stewarts Point, Point Arena and other areas without any respect to sovereign tribal subsistence and ceremonial rights points to a bigger issue.

"This issue is larger than the MLPA," said Troy Fletcher, Yurok Tribal member and natural resources consultant who spoke at the Annual Legislative Fisheries Forum at the State Capitol in Sacramento yesterday. "The state of California and tribes need to have a larger summit, initiative or effort to properly define and express the tribal-state relationship."

A series of marine protected areas are now being developed for the North Coast from Alder Creek to the Oregon border, the area north of the zone where the closed areas will go into effect on May 1. The Yurok Tribe is one of 25 tribes that are now attempting to get the State of California to address tribal subsistence and ceremonial rights in the MLPA process.

"As tribal members, our people will continue to conduct ceremonial and subsistence harvesting of seaweed, shellfish and surf fish in a responsible manner as we have always done in the intertidal and coastal zones," Fletcher affirmed.

"We have shown over ten thousand years of sustainable harvesting," said Marrufo. "And we will continue to do so."

There is a facebook page "KEEP THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACHES ACCESSIBLE FOR THE COASTAL TRIBES" (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105945012781743).

The gathering will take place 00.2 mile north of Stewarts Point - Beach Access Road – about mile marker 48.35. Look for the red/orange traffic cones. The gate will be open at 11:00 and the ceremony at NOON.

This gathering was the idea of Arch Richardson, the local landowner who is hosting the event. He and his family have shared ocean resources with the Kashia Tribe for 130 years. Richardson has been a familiar face at all MLPA and Fish and Game Commission meetings for the past 3 years

For more information, contact Arch Richardson, your host, 707-785-2687, or Violet Wilder, 707-508-5797.