Tribal Leaders Mark MLPA Closure of Sacred Site with Historic Ceremony

Tribal Leaders Mark MLPA Closure of Sacred Site with Historic Ceremony

By Dan Bacher

Members of the Kashia Pomo Tribe and other tribes are now banned from their traditional seaweed, abalone and mussel harvesting grounds by the creation of a massive new no-take marine reserve off Stewarts Point in Sonoma County.

The reserve is the largest in a network of 21 marine protected areas (MPAs) that took effect on May 1 along California's north central coast under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.

To mark the final day before the unprecedented closure, tribal leaders held a historic ceremony to bless an area where the Kashia Tribe of Pomo Indians has gathered seaweed, mussel, abalone, clams and fish for centuries. Stewarts Point, called “Danaka” by the tribe, is sacred to the tribe since it is regarded in their creation story as the place where the tribe first stepped on land, according to Eric Wilder, former chair of the Kashia Pomo.

The gathering on a bluff overlooking the ocean drew 145 people, including members of the Kashia Pomo and other California Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, seaweed harvesters and environmental justice advocates to thank and bless the ocean for the food it has provided to native peoples for thousands of years.

“We are here today to talk about what the Fish and Game Commission is doing to us,” said tribal elder Violet Chappell. “They’re interfering with our religion, the food that we lived off before the white man came.”

Attired in a buckskin dress decorated with abalone shells that her mother, spiritual leader Essie Parish, gave her, she emphasized that the tribe has used ocean food for subsistence and ceremonies for centuries. She spoke in the native Pomo language while her sister, Vivian Wilder, translated as she blessed seaweed and an ancient notched round rock used as a fishing sinker by the Pomo.

“We used this food every day – we call it health food,” Chappell stated. “The food was created by our creator - we treated it with care and respect. We are here to say respect us for our food - don’t close this area down because its part of our religion. I don’t think the Fish and Game would be allowed to close down a Catholic Church, would they?”

The event was the idea of Arch Richardson, the landowner and avid recreational angler who hosted the event. Richardson, whose 891 acre ranch is now in escrow, and his family have shared ocean resources with the Kashia Tribe for 130 years. Richardson has attended MLPA and Fish and Game Commission meetings over the past 3 years in defense of the rights of tribal fishermen and other fishermen.

“This is not a protest,” Richardson told the crowd as an icy northwest wind swept off the churning waters of the Pacific. “It is a blessing and ceremony of a sacred area that has provided food, culture and religion for the Kashia Tribe since the beginning of their culture here on earth.”

After Chappell delivered her blessing, Eric Wilder threw the sinker into the surging surf off Stewarts Point. Richardson found the sinker 10 years ago at the same site – and gave it back to the tribe to throw back into the ocean.

The Fish and Game Commission voted 3 to 2 in their meeting on August 5, 2009 to close “Danaka,” in spite of moving testimony by Lester Pinola, past chairman of the Kashia Tribe, to not close it because the tribe has used the area for centuries.

“Our people have been here for over 300 years,“ Pinola told me at the gathering. “Now we are being told that we can’t come here anymore. The Fish and Game Commission has no right to tell that we can’t gather seaweed, mussels, abalone and cabezon. It is not right to have our food supply taken away from us.”

Pinola said the tribe has tried to contact Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger regarding the closure, but they haven’t responded to date.

“We as coastal tribal people have always been caretakers of the land,” said Eric Wilder. “It is hard to see that this is happening. I think of coming here with my dad and grandfather to fish and pick seaweed and abalone. It’s hard to think that my kids won’t be able to do this now that these reserves will go into effect. To allow this to happen here at Danaka will be the destruction of everybody.”

Recreational anglers and seaweed harvesters showed up in solidarity with the Kashia Pomo and other tribes that are being denied their fishing and gathering rights.

“It was inspiring to see so many people come together,” said Jim Martin, West Coast Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. “The significant thing is that this was all easily avoidable, since there was a proposal that would have met all of the science guidelines but not closed this area to fishing and seaweed gathering.”

A few days before the gathering, MLPA Initiative advocates sent out a news release portraying the closures as “visionary” actions that would “protect” the ocean.

“We need a healthy ocean for a healthy economy and environment, but our coastal waters face threats that require visionary action,” gushed Karen Garrison of Natural Resources Defense Council. “The Marine Life Protection Act allows us to create a legacy of healthy, resilient oceans for our kids and grandkids.”

“A decade ago we had a vision to create the nation’s first state-wide network of marine protected areas here in California,” said Samantha Murray of the Ocean Conservancy. “These new protections extend our stewardship of California’s land to its sea.”

However, Nelson Pinola, chair of Point Arena Pomo Rancheria, disputed the claims of Garrison, Murray and others that this process, which has discarded the input and rights of native people and other fishermen, is “visionary.”

“It is ironic that some of the people for responsible for the destruction of ocean resources are the ones that are now telling us that we need to be stewards, even though we have been the stewards of the ocean for centuries,” said Nelson Pinola, chair of the Point Arena Pomo Rancheria. “We need to change this law.”

Pinola's statement is backed up by John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, who attended the ceremony, and other North Coast environmentalists and fishermen. They charge that the MLPA Initiative has been hijacked by “marine guardians” representing oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests and agency officials that have presided over the destruction of California fisheries and the environment.

“To us, this is not just a resource, but a way of life, a religion,” said Pinola. “Each year the government has eroded more and more of our rights until we have nothing. This is a loss for all of us, not just our tribe. I will look to getting this overturned or modified so it makes sense for everybody.”

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 larger issue.

"This issue is larger than the MLPA," said Troy Fletcher, Yurok Tribe policy analyst, who spoke at the Annual Legislative Fisheries Forum at the State Capitol in Sacramento on April 26. "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 went into effect on May 1. The Yurok Tribe is one of 25 tribes that are now attempting to pressure 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.

"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," summed up Meyo Marrufo, a member of the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians. “We have shown over ten thousand years of sustainable harvesting and we will continue to do so."

For more information and to view photos of the event, go to Violet Wilder's facebook page, "KEEP THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACHES ACCESSIBLE FOR THE COASTAL TRIBES" (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105945012781743).