Help our tribe’s peaceful ceremony of resistance, our spiritual commitment to protect the Coming of Age ceremonies for our young women from public interference and harassment.
When: Thursday afternoon, May 24 – Sunday May 27, 2012
Bring: Camping gear, TP, food donations, first aid kits, canteens, inflatable boats,inner tubes, canoes, kayaks, and a peaceful, humble willingness to help.
If you have a pre-existing health issues (such as allergies to bee stings, pollen, etc.), remember to bring your own medications.
Remember: There is no cell phone service at the site. Also, try to car pool. Parking will be limited.
Directions to Kaibai (McCloud Bridge Campground)
From Interstate 5, take exit 698 for Gilman Road. Turn right on Gilman road. You will follow this windy road for about 12. 5 miles before crossing the McCloud Bridge. Once past the bridge, campground is on your right.
Because of water releases from the Shasta Dam, it is possible the dancegrounds at the site could be flooded. The alternative site will be Hirz Bay campground just south of McCloud Bridge. We will be ready for volunteers on Thursday afternoon.
Meals are an important part of our ceremonies, and it is our responsibility to feed all who attend, But as a small tribe with limited resources, we need assistance, especially it will be hard to estimate how many will attend. Please consider bringing food donations. Here is the list.
Meats (cooked for meals or cooked in stews and already frozen)
venison
salmon
beef roast stew
browned hamburger
chicken, precooked and frozen for dishes
Vegetarian stews (packaged and frozen)
Chili beans (packaged and frozen)
fresh vegetables like
summer squash
onions,
tomatoes,
corn,
chilies,
broccoli
eggplant
lettuce
any kind of veggies, but preferably those which can be used to make a meal with other things.
Fresh fruit and melons for breakfast
Lots of tortillas,
Potatoes for potato salad or breakfast already cooled and bagged up
macaroni already cooked and bagged up
eggs
bread and sandwich fixing.
If bringing cold cuts, they should be frozen and put into the cooler together.
We need mayonnaise,
spaghetti sauce,
salad dressings
Rice,
flour,
sugar
Rice milk,
almond milk. These are preferred over cow’s milk.
Thursday, May 31 & Friday, June 1. Two separate events in Oakland.
The Winnemem Dancers rush the fire at the end of H'up Chonas, or war dance.
A unique opportunity to learn about current struggles of Native peoples to protect sacred land in Northern California and ways that you can lend support.
FEATURED PRESENTERS:
Caleen Sisk (Winnemem Wintu)
Speaking about current Winnemem struggles
Jim Brown III (Elem Pomo)
Speaking about Rattlesnake Island
Corrina Gould (Chochenyo/Karkin Ohlone)
Speaking about Brushy Peak
Wounded Knee DeOcampo (Tuolumne Miwok)
Speaking about Sogorea Te/ Glen Cove
Only at Friday June 1st event:
Morning Star Gali (Achumawi Pit River)
Speaking about Medicine Lake
TWO DATES/LOCATIONS IN OAKLAND:
Thursday, May 31st
5:30pm @ INTERTRIBAL FRIENDSHIP HOUSE
523 International Boulevard, Oakland, CA
Friday, June 1st
7:00pm @ THE HOLD-OUT
2313 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA
Admission $5-$20 * No one turned away for lack of funds
A program of several short videos will precede the panel discussions, including:
“A River in their Veins”, on the Winnemem Wintu’s Coming of Age ceremony in 2010, a tradition that could be gone forever if the sacred sites necessary for the ceremony are permanently submerged by a raise of the Shasta Dam.
This Monday, we held a direct action at the U.S. Forest Service Office in Vallejo, challenging Regional Forester Randy Moore to implement a mandatory closure at our Coming of Age Ceremonies on the McCloud Arm of Shasta Lake. At our previous ceremonies, which are held at a traditional Winnemem village site within the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, recreational boaters have ignored the Forest Service’s voluntary closure and have heckled us, yelled racial slurs at us and even flashed us.
A mandatory closure is the only way to hold our ceremony in peace and dignity and to protect our young women from abuse. Watch this short video below by Will Doolittle about our Vallejo event and previous ceremonies.
This is our river, our ceremony, our right!
Why We Had to Go to Randy Moore
We have exhausted every diplomatic and legal means to achieve a mandatory closure from the Forest Service without sacrificing our sovereignty. We have met roadblocks down every path.
Here is why we have reached this point:
1) We have sent a letter from to Sharon Haywood, Shasta-Trinity Forest Supervisor, asking her to close 300 yards of the river for the four days based on our religious freedom guaranteed by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. This seemed to be the simplest route to take since she can use her professional discretion. Thus far, she has failed to provide a mandatory closure of the river for previous ceremonies despite evidence that a voluntary closures do not work.
2) We want to change the language in the Farm Bill, which states only federally recognized tribes can close National Forest land for ceremonial and traditional uses. Unfortunately, it got stalled in Congress, and inserting new language will not happen in time for this ceremony.
3) We plan to submit a complaint to the U.N. CERD Committee because the U.S. is being reviewed by the Convention Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). However, the U.S. has not filed their report. We cannot submit a “shadow report” until they file.
4) We have requested that UN Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, James Anaya, visit our village to learn about the plight of federally unrecognized tribes in California. We believe governmental entities using the “unrecognized tribe” label is a form of racial discrimination against tribes like the Winnemem. Specifically, a prime example of this is the unwillingness of the Forest Service to close the river for a ceremony because we are a federally unrecognized tribe. We have not yet heard back from him but have heard he will visit Alaska.
5) We are still pursuing the possibility of an “urgent action” or “emergency intervention” from the U.N. CERD Committee.
Two short documentaries about our Tribe’s journey to justice and salmon return will be screened at the Indian Education Film Festival, which is being held at the Shasta Learning Center (Old Nova), Friday – Sunday, Nov. 4-6.
We’ll screen the 15-minute promotional short for Will Doolittle‘s upcoming feature documentary Dancing Salmon Home about our journey to New Zealand to sing and dance for our salmon as well as our efforts to bring them home.
We’ll also show Will’s 22-minute film, Ceremony Comes Home, about our 2006 Coming of Age ceremony for Marine Sisk, which was disrupted by recreational boaters who motored through the McCloud River site and heckled us and our guests.
The films will be followed by a question and answer forum with tribal members. Tickets can be brought for $1 at the door, and we will also have our jewelry and our Sacred Salmon Cards for sale.
All proceeds will go towards our efforts to return the salmon, protect our sacred sites and our fight for justice.
Location:
Shasta Learning Center, 2200 Eureka Way , Redding , 96001
The Human Right to Water, which would guarantee all people affordable access to clean water and sanitation, is an important cause to the Winnemem, as we believe the right must also include spiritual access to water.
More than 20 Winnemem, coincidentally, were at the state capitol Wednesday where we successfully helped lobby for the unanimous passage on the Senate floor of Assembly Bill 1221, which would help federally unrecognized tribes improve water quality and sanitation in their communities.
“Water is sacred, water is Life for all,” commented Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem. “Just as all need to breathe Air, so should be the waters be for all, not just those who market water and ruin the rest in poor planning.”
Traditional Hereditary Chief and Spiritual Leader Caleen Sisk-Franco arrives on the other side of river, ready to receive the girls when they swim across.
After printing a story about the postponement of our Bałas Chonas (Coming of Age Ceremony) because of the threat of public interference, the Record-Searchlight published two editorials supporting our fight to hold the ceremony in peace.
But simply as a matter of decency, the law ought to give federal officials the power to recognize bona-fide traditional ceremonies and make modest, occasional accommodations for them when appropriate. We’re not talking about closing down Lake Shasta here, but a 300-foot section of a lake that when full has 46 square miles available for boaters.
In the second “Hecklers need a rite of passage”, publisher Silas Lyons writes eloquently about his admiration of the ceremony and questions the integrity of the boaters who have intruded in past years.
These Winnemem Wintu girls have an opportunity to experience the rite of passage, and thousands of years of experience testifies to the truth that they’ll be better for it. So will their community. The tribe’s determination to try to have the ceremonies, and to do them right, is an inspiration.
We thank the Record-Searchlight for their coverage and support. We will need it as we continue to fight for a mandatory closure in 2012.
Sitting upon a rocky perch, high above the McCloud River canyon, Winnemem Wintu Tribal Member Michael Preston takes a GPS reading at the sacred Eagle Rock.
With help from the DataCenter, the Sacred Land Film Project and the Pacific Institute, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe was trained to use Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and software this past weekend for a new effort to use technology to protect and reclaim traditional lands and sacred places.
In addition to collecting geographic data and creating maps, the Tribe will also gather oral histories and personal memories of traditional sites. This will improve the cultural knowledge of the entire Tribe as well as build strong evidence for the Tribe’s cultural, spiritual and generational ties to their sacred places.
Collecting all this data will also help correct errors early “explorers” made in mapping Winnemem territory, errors that to this day are often used to hinder or obstruct the Winnemem’s voice in development projects within their homelands on the McCloud River (Winnemem Waywakit) watershed.
“It’s time to put the Winnemem back on the map,” said Traditional Hereditary Chief and Spiritual Leader Caleen Sisk-Franco.”We used to believe we had to keep these locations secret to protect them. But now houses are being built in places we’d never thought we see them. Development is coming, and I think we have to collect this information and decide what we need to share in order to protect our sacred places.”
War Dance (H’up Chonas)
From Interstate 5, take exit 698 for Gilman Road. Turn right on Gilman road. You will follow this windy road for about 12. 5 miles before crossing the McCloud Bridge. Once past the bridge, campground is on your right.
