Podcasts about pomo indians

The state of California has agreed to return 2,800 acres of land to the Shasta Indian Nation. It's not just any 2,800 acres. It was home to the Shasta people, but was flooded by a series of dams in a giant hydroelectric project more than a century ago. And Congress just approved a similar transfer of 1,600 acres of land along the Missouri River for the Winnebago Tribe that the federal government acquired through eminent domain in 1970. We'll hear about the latest transactions and other noteworthy progress in tribal land returns. GUESTS Chairwoman Victoria Kitcheyan (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska) Christina Snider-Ashtari (Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians), tribal affairs secretary to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and head of the Governor's Office of Tribal Affairs Cris Stainbrook (Lakota), president of the Indian Land Tenure Foundation

The state of California has agreed to return 2,800 acres of land to the Shasta Indian Nation. It's not just any 2,800 acres. It was home to the Shasta people, but was flooded by a series of dams in a giant hydroelectric project more than a century ago. And Congress just approved a similar transfer of 1,600 acres of land along the Missouri River for the Winnebago Tribe that the federal government acquired through eminent domain in 1970. We'll hear about the latest transactions and other noteworthy progress in tribal land returns. GUESTS Chairwoman Victoria Kitcheyan (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska) Christina Snider-Ashtari (Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians), tribal affairs secretary to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and head of the Governor's Office of Tribal Affairs Cris Stainbrook (Lakota), president of the Indian Land Tenure Foundation

Sat down Bernadette at the upcoming Dave Smith Park in Windsor California. We talked about caring the legacy of our fathers and keeping our traditions strong for our future generations. We also discuss MMIP/MMIR and loss of her sisters. I was lucky enough to have Bernadette sing a song for the closing of the episode. OH!

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds an oversight hearing on Lands eligible for gaming pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act The hearing took place on July 27, 2005, during the 109th Congress. WITNESS LIST Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-lllinois) Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) Panel I George Skibine, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy and Economic Development for Indian Affairs Penny Coleman, Acting General Counsel, National Indian Gaming Commission Panel II Walter Gray, Tribal Administrator, Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, Talmage, California Christine Norris, Principal Chief, Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, Jena, Louisiana John Barnett, Chairman, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Longview, Washington Charles D. Enyart, Chief, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Seneca, Missouri More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2005/07/27/listening_loung_9.asp

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds an oversight hearing on Lands eligible for gaming pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act The hearing took place on July 27, 2005, during the 109th Congress. WITNESS LIST Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-lllinois) Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) Panel I George Skibine, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy and Economic Development for Indian Affairs Penny Coleman, Acting General Counsel, National Indian Gaming Commission Panel II Walter Gray, Tribal Administrator, Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, Talmage, California Christine Norris, Principal Chief, Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, Jena, Louisiana John Barnett, Chairman, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Longview, Washington Charles D. Enyart, Chief, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Seneca, Missouri More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2005/07/27/listening_loung_9.asp

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds an oversight hearing on Lands eligible for gaming pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act The hearing took place on July 27, 2005, during the 109th Congress. WITNESS LIST Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-lllinois) Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) Panel I George Skibine, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy and Economic Development for Indian Affairs Penny Coleman, Acting General Counsel, National Indian Gaming Commission Panel II Walter Gray, Tribal Administrator, Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, Talmage, California Christine Norris, Principal Chief, Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, Jena, Louisiana John Barnett, Chairman, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Longview, Washington Charles D. Enyart, Chief, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Seneca, Missouri More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2005/07/27/listening_loung_9.asp

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds an oversight hearing on Lands eligible for gaming pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act The hearing took place on July 27, 2005, during the 109th Congress. WITNESS LIST Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-lllinois) Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) Panel I George Skibine, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy and Economic Development for Indian Affairs Penny Coleman, Acting General Counsel, National Indian Gaming Commission Panel II Walter Gray, Tribal Administrator, Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, Talmage, California Christine Norris, Principal Chief, Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, Jena, Louisiana John Barnett, Chairman, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Longview, Washington Charles D. Enyart, Chief, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Seneca, Missouri More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2005/07/27/listening_loung_9.asp

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds an oversight hearing on Lands eligible for gaming pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act The hearing took place on July 27, 2005, during the 109th Congress. WITNESS LIST Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-lllinois) Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) Panel I George Skibine, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy and Economic Development for Indian Affairs Penny Coleman, Acting General Counsel, National Indian Gaming Commission Panel II Walter Gray, Tribal Administrator, Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, Talmage, California Christine Norris, Principal Chief, Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, Jena, Louisiana John Barnett, Chairman, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Longview, Washington Charles D. Enyart, Chief, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Seneca, Missouri More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2005/07/27/listening_loung_9.asp

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds an oversight hearing on Lands eligible for gaming pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act The hearing took place on July 27, 2005, during the 109th Congress. WITNESS LIST Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-lllinois) Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) Panel I George Skibine, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy and Economic Development for Indian Affairs Penny Coleman, Acting General Counsel, National Indian Gaming Commission Panel II Walter Gray, Tribal Administrator, Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, Talmage, California Christine Norris, Principal Chief, Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, Jena, Louisiana John Barnett, Chairman, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Longview, Washington Charles D. Enyart, Chief, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Seneca, Missouri More on Indianz.Com: https://indianz.com/News/2005/07/27/listening_loung_9.asp

Welcome relatives and listeners to our “From Boys to Men, Healing the Patriarchy Within Series” Series, where our CAM Cohort interview and put praxis into action as they learn from men about their stories and experiences at the frontline of healing intergenerational roots as they address toxic masculinity and address patriarchal challenges. We recognize and celebrate that both the masculine and feminine should be celebrated and honored in harmony. In this Part 2, we continue to have healing conversation and teachings from J. Carlos Rivera around his experience with healing relationships, and how he applies his energy into healing our Indigenous relatives through his work, and with his organization Generation Red Road.  To learn more about Carlos, please read a brief bio below and visit the links at the bottom of this description.  Hosts: Alexis C. and Fondé J. Carlos Rivera is a member of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians and of Mexican descent. He is a dear friend and relative to HIR Wellness and our CEO and Founder, Lea Denny. He is a sensational human being, and we are grateful for his continued connection. Carlos completed his chemical dependency studies and Human Services at the American River College and is a graduate of the Duke University Non-profit management course. Previously, Carlos served as a substance abuse treatment provider for ten years at the Sacramento Native American Health and he was appointed to the State Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency by Governor Jerry Brown in 2011 and served the state for almost four years. Carlos was previously a trainer for the Wellbriety Training Institute, and later a former Executive Director of White Bison, Inc. in California for over 5 years. Currently, Carlos serves as the founder and CEO of Generation Red Road and South Dakota and Chief Cultural Officer at American Indian Health and Services in Santa Barbara, CA. He is one of the owners of JRiv Consulting, LLC and The Homies Taco Truck, a food truck that provides street tacos with a little California flavor.  If you are looking to engage in the conversation and reflect for yourself, come along with us as we free-think and activate our medicine together. Come as you are! Learn more about the non-profit ⁠Generation Red Road here,⁠ and more about ⁠CEO & Director Carlos here⁠. The Mission of Generation Red Road, Inc. is to revitalize and promote inter-generational healing by utilizing Indigenous teachings that provide harmony for individuals, families, and communities. Follow Generation Red Road on ⁠Instagram here⁠, and ⁠Facebook here⁠. ⁠Watch Carlos in this video⁠, as he shared some of his story in this teaching at Recovery Reinvented in 2017. Read a Personal Story here⁠, and more about the Red Road for Native Americans from Carlos. You can find ⁠Carlos on LinkedIn⁠ to follow and keep up with Generation Red Road and all things Carlos. 

Welcome relatives and listeners to our “From Boys to Men, Healing the Patriarchy Within Series” Series, where our CAM Cohort interviews and puts praxis into action as they learn from men about their stories and experiences at the frontline of healing intergenerational roots as they address toxic masculinity and address patriarchal challenges. We recognize and celebrate that both the masculine and feminine should be celebrated and honored in harmony. In this Part 1, we get introduced to Carlo's story and journey as a man of illness and recovery, his agreements, and we explore the intergenerational trauma impacts on Boys and Men of color today. To learn more about Carlos, please read a brief bio below and visit the links at the bottom of this description.  Hosts: Alexis C. and Fondé J. Carlos Rivera is a member of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians and Mexican descent. He is a dear friend and relative to HIR Wellness and our CEO and Founder, Lea Denny. He is sensational, and we are grateful for his continued connection. Carlos completed his chemical dependency studies and Human Services at the American River College and graduated from the Duke University Non-profit management course. Previously, Carlos served as a substance abuse treatment provider for ten years at the Sacramento Native American Health. Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the State Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency in 2011, and he served the state for almost four years. Carlos was previously a trainer for the Wellbriety Training Institute, and later a former Executive Director of White Bison, Inc. in California for over five years. Currently, Carlos serves as the founder and CEO of Generation Red Road and South Dakota and Chief Cultural Officer at American Indian Health and Services in Santa Barbara, CA. He co-owns JRiv Consulting, LLC, and The Homies Taco Truck, a food truck that provides street tacos with a little California flavor.  If you are looking to engage in the conversation and reflect for yourself, come along with us as we free-think and activate our medicine together. Come as you are!  Learn more about the non-profit ⁠⁠Generation Red Road here,⁠⁠ and more about ⁠⁠CEO & Director Carlos here⁠⁠. The Mission of Generation Red Road, Inc. is to revitalize and promote inter-generational healing by utilizing Indigenous teachings that provide harmony for individuals, families, and communities.  Follow Generation Red Road on ⁠⁠Instagram here⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Facebook here⁠⁠.  ⁠⁠Watch Carlos in this video⁠⁠, as he shared some of his story in this teaching at Recovery Reinvented in 2017.  ⁠Read a Personal Story here⁠⁠, and more about the Red Road for Native Americans from Carlos.  You can find ⁠⁠Carlos on LinkedIn⁠⁠ to follow and keep up with Generation Red Road and all things Carlos.

In this episode of Deserts to Mountaintops, Jessica interviews Shaina Philpot, author of the anthology chapter titled "Where Do I Belong?,"  where she details her desert to mountaintop experience of losing herself in an abusive relationship and the journey to finding her voice again.Deserts to Mountaintops is a limited series podcast created by Top 1% ranking podcast host, Jessica Kidwell, she lifts the author off the page as she holds conversations with co-authors of this inaugural anthology released in January 2023 by Soul Speak Press.This series is meant to give readers of DTM a deeper insight into the authors that brought their experiences to the page and hopes to inspire it's audience to a place of transformational healing.Deserts to Mountaintops: Our Collective Journey to (re)Claiming Our Voice is available now on Amazon.For more information on Deserts to Mountaintops, Soul Speak Press and upcoming anthologies, please visit www.desertstomountaintops.com.  For more information Jessica Buchanan, please visit www.jessbuchanan.com or follow her on instagram at @jessicacbuchananAbout Shaina:Shaina Philpot (she/her/hers) is an enrolled tribal member of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Native American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, her first Master's Degree in Public History with a subspeciality of Native American History from the University of California, Riverside and her second Master's Degree in Teaching from the Universityof Southern California. Shaina co-authored a chapter in the book titled, The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue: Voices and Images from Sherman Institute (OSU Press,2012), which focuses on the off-reservation boarding school experience at Sherman Institute in Riverside, CA. Shaina spent many years in various roles in the field of education, including teaching and working with tribal communities. She is also currently a doctoral candidate in the Ed.D in Leadership in Higher Education program at Northcentral University. Her research centers on American Indian students' sense of belonging in higher education, specifically comparing American Indian students' sense of belonging between predominantly White institutions (PWIs) andTribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). When Shaina is not working and researching, she is a dog mom and enjoys watching anime and traveling with her husband. Shainahopes her story will inspire other women to continue living. You can follow Shaina's journey on her Instagram: @s_philpot.The theme song is courtesy of the The Mystic Chics.Instagram @themysticchics

A Ponderosa pine tree in Potter Valley, and the decades' old bald eagle nest high in its branches, appear to be safe from PG&E crews that tried to remove them two years in a row due to their proximity to powerlines. Now, after protesters from all over the state joined local activists and a nearby tribe to ensure that the tree remained standing, PG&E has declared that its “preferred solution” is to bury the lines. That would obviate the utility's stated safety concerns about the tree possibly falling onto the line and sparking a fire. The pine, which is dying and shows damage from a beetle infestation, did not budge during the recent series of atmospheric rivers, though other trees went down all over the county. Joseph Seidell, a tenant on the property, grew to love the birds. Their nest is just a few yards from the driveway on one side, and a few more yards away from the public road on another, making them local celebrities in the bird-watching community. Seidell started a GoFundMe campaign to underground the lines last year, but it fizzled. “It made the most sense,” he said. “It was a very obvious solution because the nest was very happily sitting up there with plenty of years to go, according to the arborist. So we said, why should we take it down? It's provided all this habitat, and there's an obvious solution to put the lines underground. PG&E didn't want to burden the expense, so we started a fundraiser. And we weren't raising the money. It was a very large amount of money, close to a quarter million dollars…finally we found out recently that they said they were going to do it, through a lot of pressure…this would be the perfect win, win, win: win for the eagles, win for you, and win for us.” Polly Girvin is an environmental and social justice advocate who has long been affiliated with the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians. She marveled at the effectiveness of the seven activists who kept vigil at the tree for over a week, saying, “I really want to say, it was the seven valiant souls who endured an atmospheric river downpour for seven days to document that the nest was active, and to stay until the federal nesting protective period under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife regulations was activated, which was January 16th.” On January 11, activists rebuffed an attempt by PG&E crews to cut down the tree, just hours before the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, requesting government to government consultations. Congressman Jared Huffman also weighed in, telling us that he has “had deep concerns about Fish and Wildlife's ability to fulfill its mission with integrity for a number of years…If this was a permit U.S. Fish and Wildlife had to grant; if the law, facts and science compelled them,” he insisted; “They should have included tribal consultation. But they dropped the ball.” Some neighbors say they remember first seeing the nest, which is just across the Eel River from Cape Horn Dam, in the mid-eighties. It's consistently produced young, though not every year, and PG&E biologists believe that in some years, the pair has used an alternate nest site less than a mile away. But last year, the pair fledged at least one eaglet in the much-contested nest. This year, they returned, shortly after U.S. Fish and Wildlife issued the permit to take it down. But Peter Galvin, who is the director of programs and co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, as well as a member of EPIC, the Environmental Protection Information Center, wondered if the agency had satisfied all the requirements before giving PG&E the nod. “I suggested we look into whether the Section 106 Consultation under the National Historic Preservation Act had been done,” he recalled; “and because EPIC had been working closely with the Coyote Valley Band on the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, they already had good communications set up. And just maybe ten or fifteen minutes after the inquiry, the answer came back no. No, that didn't happen, and they're concerned about this and they're upset that that didn't happen. So we caucused further and by later that day, the tribe had sent in a letter of objection that they had not received the necessary and legally required government to government consultation. We found out further that the Fish and Wildlife Service had issued a permit in early January for this action, only days after sending a letter, asking if the Coyote Valley Band had any concerns, and that this letter was sent over the holidays, and they didn't wait for a response, and it turned out they did have concerns.” Linda Marlin, the owner of the property where the eagle tree resides, said last week that PG&E was preparing an easement document for her to sign, so that the work can commence. PG&E had shut off electric power to the property, and was supplying generators and fuel to the residents. A fuel delivery truck had damaged the driveway during one of the storms, and Marlin reported that the company was repairing the damage, “as we speak.” In a statement, PG&E spokesperson Megan McFarland confirmed that the company is “working with the property owner on options and next steps;” and wrote that Ron Richardson, PG&E's Vice President for the North Coast, had visited the site and spoken with community members and the company's tribal relations representative. Richardson is quoted in the statement saying, “Undergrounding is now PG&E's preferred solution for the lines on the Potter Valley property and we are working with the landowner in an attempt to secure the necessary land rights. This solution allows us to protect our hometowns while also taking into account the values of our local tribe, property owners and environmental advocates.” McFarland added that PG&E has also installed wildlife cameras on the site to monitor the nest, to “ensure that any current or planned PG&E work on the property is not disruptive.” Girvin summed it up: “So basically, this boils to a direct action, front line, a tribal assertion of sovereignty, legal assistance, and many, many concerned citizens expressing their desire to not see this tree come down. So I'll say, once again, it takes a village.”

January 24, 2023--Host Anna Halligan shares a couple interviews from 2020 about flood plains: First with fisheries biologist Dave Wright about floodplain and estuary restoration, then with Issac Rios of the Manchester Point Arena Band of Pomo Indians about restoration and stewardship of the Garcia River.

At a special meeting over the holiday weekend, the Fort Bragg City Council agreed to use $25,000 from a city fund to continue the emergency winter shelter program at the Motel 6. Weeks of heavy rain have led to more than a ten-fold increase in room rentals for homeless people each month since November. And a pair of bald eagles in Potter Valley have gotten another reprieve, with the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians calling for government-to-government consultations and Congressman Jared Huffman blasting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for granting a permit to remove the nest without engaging the tribe. At Monday's brief meeting of the Fort Bragg City Council, Police Chief Neil Cervenka reported that the city has spent all $36,000 the county has given the city to rent rooms for homeless people during inclement weather or on nights that extreme cold is expected. The city rented 11 rooms in November for 14 people. That number shot up to 130 rentals for 62 people in December, 12 of them children and nine of them elderly. The city has already paid for 101 rentals in January of this year for 65 people, 11 of them children and eight of them elderly. Cervenka reported that he's negotiated $50 off the nightly price of the rooms and that the city has found other solutions for homeless people who are not from the Fort Bragg area. Eight people who used the voucher program for one night last month were not from the coast, and four people this month were from elsewhere. Of those four out-of-towners, he said, three were reunited with family members in other parts of the state and other states. “And then the big win in November was, seven of the 62 unique individuals who were non-coastal were placed in Hospitality House,” Cervenka reported. “While we are getting some dry weather, the clear skies mean cold nights. So we are expecting more. Right now, we have used all $36,000 of the original grant amount, and we have no more funding in the extreme weather shelter. Long range forecasting, which is very imprecise, shows several more weeks of rain coming up, which is very good for our aquifers…but it's not good for those folks who don't have shelter. I re-negotiated the rate of the room last week to $99.99 plus tax per night,” which is the weekend rate. In addition to voting unanimously to approve the use of the $25,000 from the city's fund, the council expects an item on next week's Board of Supervisors agenda discussing a match from the county. Fort Bragg City Manager Peggy Ducey said she expects to be reimbursed from the state Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, once disaster declarations for the current emergency have been determined. The City Council agreed to fold the reimbursement monies back into the fund for housing the homeless. The city's emergency winter shelter program ends on April 30. *** And in Potter Valley, a Ponderosa pine tree containing a decades-old bald eagles' nest has been spared for another year. Earlier this month, U.S Fish & Wildlife granted PG&E a permit to remove the nest, giving the utility until February first, two weeks after the official start of the breeding season. But yesterday, U.S Fish & Wildlife wrote in an email that as of January 13, that permit is invalid, “and they are not presently authorized to remove the nest.” An agency spokesperson elaborated that, “The bald eagle pair is currently visiting and refurbishing the nest and the breeding season has begun. As such, the nest meets the definition of an ‘in-use' and active nest, thus the permit is no longer valid.” We documented one of the eagles landing on the tree near the nest on January 9. On January 11, after a brief confrontation between activists and a PG&E tree-cutting crew, Michael Hunter, the Chairman of the nearby Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, wrote to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, requesting government-to-government consultation with the agency. “We understand that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already issued the permit prior to initiating consultation and that there was a brief opportunity for “public comment” under the National Environmental Policy Act,” he wrote. However, “The Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians is a sovereign nation with a government-to government relationship with the United States and that relationship requires more substantial consultation than is awarded to “the public” under the National Environmental Policy Act. We also believe that agency duties and obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act are implicated and unfulfilled as well.” Congressman Jared Huffman agreed, saying he finds it “unacceptable” if the agency granted the permit without tribal consultation, and that he “share(s) the concern that a federal agency would not know better.” He blasted the agency, revealing that he has “had deep concerns about Fish and Wildlife's ability to fulfill its mission with integrity for a number of years…If this was a permit U.S. Fish and Wildlife had to grant; if the law, facts and science compelled them,” he insisted; “They should have included tribal consultation. But they dropped the ball.” He said he wrote a letter to USFWS on January 16, expressing his concerns. Peter Galvin, with the Center for Biological Diversity, is hoping for a long-term solution. The bald eagle breeding season ends in August, at which time PG&E could apply for another permit to take down the tree, arguing that it is threatening the line again. Currently, PG&E is providing generators and diesel fuel to residents on the property, leading to damage on the steep, unpaved driveway. Galvin said he is working hard to convince PG&E to underground the few hundred feet of line from the road to the homes on the property, and has offered his organization's help in fundraising to help pay for the effort. Huffman said he would try to help too, though he can't guarantee that there is a federal funding source for the project. But in his view, “PG&E ought to be able to solve this. It's not an overwhelmingly complex challenge.”

Today on Sojourner Truth what is the caretakers survey and how is it impacting the narrative around care-taking around the globe? We hear testimonials from caretakers in Myanmar, Scotland, Canada and the U.S. Our guest is Peggy O' Mara an independent journalist, and the editor and publisher of Mothering Magazine for over 30 years. Her work can be found at peggyomara.com. O'Mara joins us to delve into the importance of care-taking and viewing it as a global effort. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the bald eagle from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states. Populations continued to recover enough that, in 2007, the bald eagle was officially removed from the federal Endangered Species List. The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal.This majestic species of birds generally represent strength, pride, and courage. The fierce beauty And proud independence of this great bird was the reason it was selected as a symbol of the strength and freedom of America when European settlers first came across one. For indigenous people the bald eagle represents the strongest and bravest of all birds. For this reason, Native Americans have chosen the eagle and its feathers as a symbol of what is highest, bravest, strongest and holiest. The bald eagle is indigenous to North America. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico.It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting. And in Potter Valley, Mendocino CA, a 150 foot pine tree nesting bald eagles for the last 25 years is under threat of being cut down by PG&;E before the nesting season begins and it becomes illegal to cut the tree this week. PG&E contract workers showed up with wood chippers and County Sheriffs intimidating and shoving tree protectors who were lined up protecting the 150-foot tall pine tree harboring the eagles' nest.PG&E has refused to consider alternatives such as installing automatic shut-off switches on their antiquated lines or putting the lines underground. Eagle supporters have offered to raise the $200,000 estimated cost of removing the hazardous lines instead of the tree, and are continuing to be overlooked, our guest is Pauline Girvin, an elder married into the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, in whose ancestral territory the eagle tree stands. She is an Indian law attorney, a veteran of the 1990s northern California Timber Wars, a youth mentor and nonviolent warrior for the Earth. Finally we are joined by father and son duo David Trujillo and David E Reyes who will share details about the play they've directed and produced titled, "Vincent" that has just added a final week of shows due to its popularity. Breaking out of the norm, this play is staged inside Margaret Garcia's art studio. The play is a one man show on the the famous Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, their depiction of this renowned tortured artist touches on a side of van Gogh rarely discussed, the poverty that Vincent van Gogh endured in addition to his battle with depression and mental health, and the role of his brother Theo as his caretaker.

In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the bald eagle from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states. Populations continued to recover enough that, in 2007, the bald eagle was officially removed from the federal Endangered Species List. The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal. This majestic species of birds generally represent strength, pride, and courage. The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird was the reason it was selected as a symbol of the strength and freedom of America when European settlers first came across one. For indigenous people the bald eagle represents the strongest and bravest of all birds. For this reason, Native Americans have chosen the eagle and its feathers as a symbol of what is highest, bravest, strongest and holiest. The bald eagle is indigenous to North America. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting. And in Potter Valley, Mendocino CA, a 150 foot pine tree nesting bald eagles for the last 25 years is under threat of being cut down by PG&;E before the nesting season begins and it becomes illegal to cut the tree this week. PG&E contract workers showed up with wood chippers and County Sheriffs intimidating and shoving tree protectors who were lined up protecting the 150-foot tall pine tree harboring the eagles' nest. PG&E has refused to consider alternatives such as installing automatic shut-off switches on their antiquated lines or putting the lines underground. Eagle supporters have offered to raise the $200,000 estimated cost of removing the hazardous lines instead of the tree, and are continuing to be overlooked, our guest is Pauline Girvin, an elder married into the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, in whose ancestral territory the eagle tree stands. She is an Indian law attorney, a veteran of the 1990s northern California Timber Wars, a youth mentor and nonviolent warrior for the Earth.

Today on Sojourner Truth what is the caretakers survey and how is it impacting the narrative around care-taking around the globe? We hear testimonials from caretakers in Myanmar, Scotland, Canada and the U.S. Our guest is Peggy O' Mara an independent journalist, and the editor and publisher of Mothering Magazine for over 30 years. Her work can be found at peggyomara.com. O'Mara joins us to delve into the importance of care-taking and viewing it as a global effort. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the bald eagle from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states. Populations continued to recover enough that, in 2007, the bald eagle was officially removed from the federal Endangered Species List. The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal.This majestic species of birds generally represent strength, pride, and courage. The fierce beauty And proud independence of this great bird was the reason it was selected as a symbol of the strength and freedom of America when European settlers first came across one. For indigenous people the bald eagle represents the strongest and bravest of all birds. For this reason, Native Americans have chosen the eagle and its feathers as a symbol of what is highest, bravest, strongest and holiest. The bald eagle is indigenous to North America. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico.It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting. And in Potter Valley, Mendocino CA, a 150 foot pine tree nesting bald eagles for the last 25 years is under threat of being cut down by PG&;E before the nesting season begins and it becomes illegal to cut the tree this week. PG&E contract workers showed up with wood chippers and County Sheriffs intimidating and shoving tree protectors who were lined up protecting the 150-foot tall pine tree harboring the eagles' nest.PG&E has refused to consider alternatives such as installing automatic shut-off switches on their antiquated lines or putting the lines underground. Eagle supporters have offered to raise the $200,000 estimated cost of removing the hazardous lines instead of the tree, and are continuing to be overlooked, our guest is Pauline Girvin, an elder married into the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, in whose ancestral territory the eagle tree stands. She is an Indian law attorney, a veteran of the 1990s northern California Timber Wars, a youth mentor and nonviolent warrior for the Earth. Finally we are joined by father and son duo David Trujillo and David E Reyes who will share details about the play they've directed and produced titled, "Vincent" that has just added a final week of shows due to its popularity. Breaking out of the norm, this play is staged inside Margaret Garcia's art studio. The play is a one man show on the the famous Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, their depiction of this renowned tortured artist touches on a side of van Gogh rarely discussed, the poverty that Vincent van Gogh endured in addition to his battle with depression and mental health, and the role of his brother Theo as his caretaker.

In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the bald eagle from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states. Populations continued to recover enough that, in 2007, the bald eagle was officially removed from the federal Endangered Species List. The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal. This majestic species of birds generally represent strength, pride, and courage. The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird was the reason it was selected as a symbol of the strength and freedom of America when European settlers first came across one. For indigenous people the bald eagle represents the strongest and bravest of all birds. For this reason, Native Americans have chosen the eagle and its feathers as a symbol of what is highest, bravest, strongest and holiest. The bald eagle is indigenous to North America. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting. And in Potter Valley, Mendocino CA, a 150 foot pine tree nesting bald eagles for the last 25 years is under threat of being cut down by PG&;E before the nesting season begins and it becomes illegal to cut the tree this week. PG&E contract workers showed up with wood chippers and County Sheriffs intimidating and shoving tree protectors who were lined up protecting the 150-foot tall pine tree harboring the eagles' nest. PG&E has refused to consider alternatives such as installing automatic shut-off switches on their antiquated lines or putting the lines underground. Eagle supporters have offered to raise the $200,000 estimated cost of removing the hazardous lines instead of the tree, and are continuing to be overlooked, our guest is Pauline Girvin, an elder married into the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, in whose ancestral territory the eagle tree stands. She is an Indian law attorney, a veteran of the 1990s northern California Timber Wars, a youth mentor and nonviolent warrior for the Earth.

A small group of activists from across California has gathered in Potter Valley to protect a dying Ponderosa pine tree containing a decades-old bald eagles' nest. On January 5, the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued a permit to PG&E to remove the tree, on the grounds that it poses a hazard to a nearby power line. PG&E de-activated the line over the summer, and is providing generator power to residents on the property at no extra cost — on the condition that they do not support efforts to protect the nest. Tom Wheeler, Executive Director of EPIC, the Environmental Protection Information Center, said he's still “still investigating all potential opportunities” to keep the tree standing, but that “the ability to get into court to stop this is difficult,” in such a short time span. During the two-week public comment period on the permit, which ended on December 27, Wheeler complained that “scheduling a public comment deadline to fall squarely within the winter holiday season is dispiriting, especially as the Service has recognized that this nest removal is the subject of significant public controversy.” One can only assume that this was intentional to depress otherwise substantial and hostile comments.” Earlier this week, he expressed disgust with PG&E, saying, “This is what a multi-billion dollar industry invests in: to fight over a tree;” and added he was “impressed by the community that's worked to protest the removal.” Environmental indigenous activist Polly Girvin said Monday the group plans to defend the nest for the duration, and that she's there on behalf of her great-grandchildren. “I'm here because they massacred the oaks at Coyote Valley,” the home of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians in Redwood Valley, she said. “It was a very traumatic experience, and I heard the same thing happened at the Yokayo Rancheria. So I'm here in support and solidarity in this Potter Valley territory, just because they have been really decimating the oaks on two reservations that I know of. They went way overboard.” Breeding season officially starts on January 15. Last year, an eagle landed in the nest as a PG&E biologist and local bird-lovers looked on. Plans to cut the tree were called off, and the pair successfully raised a chick last year. A spokesperson for Fish and Wildlife said PG&E can cut the tree during the breeding season, “in the event the tree poses an emergency or hazard situation.” The Service's ordinance does not allow intentional, lethal take of eagles, but it is permissible to remove an in-use nest “to alleviate an existing emergency, or to prevent a rapidly developing safety emergency” that could harm humans or eagles. US Fish and Wildlife pointed out that “Eagle nests commonly blow out of trees during winter storms, and nest trees occasionally fall down.” But on Monday morning, after a series of atmospheric rivers and gale-force winds, the nest tree, which is just a few hundred yards from the Eel River, was still standing firm. An activist named Bat described what he saw during Sunday night's downpour. “Right across the street, that power line was all snapped up,” he said “And then they had to come out here and redo this whole line.” He added that crews made no attempt to come through the gate to cut down the eagle tree, but “We were here, trying to be in the way of them getting to this tree, so we were just standing by the gate and keeping watch.” The fallen tree, a moss-covered oak which was still cut up by the side of the road, had been marked with a yellow spray paint dot. A branch of poison oak twined around its trunk still bore a piece of red plastic tape. The marks do not comport with standard forestry markings, and their meaning has been known to change from year to year. PG&E did not provide an explanation for the meaning of the dot and the tape on the tree that fell Sunday. The eagles' nest is just inside the gate to the driveway of a private property off of a narrow, nominally paved public road. There is another dirt driveway across the road that leads to Cape Horn Dam, part of the hydropower facility that is owned by PG&E. The dam was briefly threatened in 2017, when a firestorm caused by PG&E tore through Potter Valley and Redwood Valley. The birds seem to have gotten used to curious humans, and they made several appearances as people talked and got in and out of cars and opened umbrellas and set up a canopy. One activist was especially moved by the sight of an eagle that perched in a nearby snag, taking her measure before flying off to roost in the Ponderosa pine again. Isabella Azizi is a member of Idle no More SF Bay, an environmental organization that started as an Indigenous women's prayer group focusing on Native American sovereignty, land and water protection. She left her home in Oakland early Monday morning to accompany activist and videographer Peter Menchini to the site. “It was such a blessing to be able to see the eagle this morning,” she recalled, noting that, as a city dweller, she hasn't had many opportunities to view the iconic bird. “It just felt like the eagle was paying attention to us,” she said, “almost like a sense of gratitude to us, being able to use our bodies and our voices to stand up for it and its family that it's created for over 25 years…my heart's pounding as I'm talking, just really blessed to have its presence.” Azizi requested ceremonial Indigenous prayer for the effort to prevent the removal, and Girvin assured the group that she would work to bring roundhouse elders to the site as soon as they feel safe about traveling from the coast. In the meantime, Larry Aguilera of Willits described a prayer circle that he led at the eagles' nest last week. “As soon as we pulled in, the eagle just landed, and we saw the eagle flying around, and then there was a second eagle,” he reported. “They just went right to their nest and made themselves at home, because it is their home…it's one of the things we can do, so we held a prayer circle and gathered around and just did that, and prayed for the eagle.” Aguilera was singing and praying again on Wednesday morning between seven and eight o'clock, when Mendocino County sheriff's deputies and PG&E crews arrived on the scene. No arrests were made, and PG&E crews retreated after a brief standoff, leaving the tree and nest intact. Activist and videographer Peter Menchini reflected on what he witnessed, as a chipper truck sat silently further down the road. “PG&E thought better of it, and decided that they would say that they are going to leave it and that we won, but that the people who had generators were losing,” he said. “I was raised Catholic, so I recognize the Catholic guilt trip when someone's pulling it on me.” Activists also allege that a PG&E crew member tried to shoulder his way between them as they blocked the gate. PG&E did not provide a comment about the allegation. Residents are unsure if PG&E will continue to supply courtesy generator power to the property. Tenant Joseph Seidell said in a phone interview that he and others are looking for ways to provide solar power if PG&E removes the generators and does not reactivate the line. The property relies on well water, which is powered by an electric pump. Domestic animals and at least one goat also live onsite, making it cumbersome to relocate if the cost of fuel for the generator becomes prohibitive. A PG&E spokesperson did not directly address our questions about whether or not crews plan to return, and if the generators would be removed, but did provide some hints in a sentence that reads, “Upon removal of the tree, PG&E plans to remove the temporary generation that we had been providing to the property and will safely restore electric service.”

November 17, 2022, Sarah Reith — The Fort Bragg City Council voted this week to carry out six recommendations by a citizens commission that was convened in 2020 to find out if changing the city's name was supported by its residents. Fort Bragg was named for Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general who never set foot in the town but was highly respected by a soldier who served with him in the U.S. Mexican war. Bragg also took part in the Second Seminole War against the indigenous people in what is now the state of Florida. In the summer of 2020, as the country entered a racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd's murder, the Fort Bragg City Council considered a ballot measure asking residents if they wanted to change the city's name. The question led to an in-person City Council meeting in the midst of the pandemic, where members of the public spoke for hours on a wide variety of opinions regarding the history of the city and the nation, and which aspects of it deserve what kind of emphasis. The council convened a citizens' commission to research the question and “the deeper systemic issue of racism.” The commission met for more than sixty hours over the course of a year and a half. Earlier this year, it came back to the City Council with six recommendations, not including a name change. The most complicated of those was to craft a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, between the Council, the school district, and local tribes, to present “a more complete and inclusive history of the local area,” according to a staff memo attached to this week's agenda. City Manager Peggy Ducey said she expected the negotiations around crafting the MOU would form the “backbone” of the city's approach to the rest of the recommendations. “I couldn't go into those meetings and sit and tell the tribal groups what's important to them and what's not important,” she told the Council. “But as we look into this MOU, we're needing something that's meaningful, not something that simply has words of, we're going to get along and play together nicely.” An ad hoc committee including two City Council members will get to work on the MOU in January. The makeup of the City Council is expected to change significantly in the new year.* Two more recommendations were creating a cultural center and appointing a local history working group to educate the community and its visitors about the role of indigenous people in the area. Mary Rose Kaczorowski, a candidate for City Council, spoke about her hopes for the cultural center. “I hope that the city recognizes that this should not just be us Europeans who have ideas, but the Native tribes be telling their own story without our interference, '' she said. “Because some of the archives that I have seen by cultural institutions are not accurate, and also have racist tones.” Council member Marcia Rafanan asked Cristal Muñoz, a city administrative analyst, to specify which tribes would be involved in making decisions, and alluded to the complexity of the task ahead. “It says tribes. Local tribes,” she noted. “Can you define that a little more, please?” Muñoz replied that the Sherwood Band of Pomo Indians have been involved with negotiations around the Blue Economy, “so I think that's where we would start, and then invite any other tribes that would be interested, in.” “Okay,” Rafanan said. “And that could get messy, too.” She noted that one inland tribe has gatherings on a local coastal property. “Thank you, Cristal,” she concluded. Muñoz expects some of the recommendations will tie in with one another. She outlined a scenario where the educational initiatives, including an outdoor public event, could lead to funding opportunities as state priorities begin to lean more favorably toward Native Americans, particularly AB 1703, the California Indian Education Act, which encourages local Indian Education Task Forces. “So the parallel plan, number two, will be the creation of a local working history group,” she explained. “The working history group will coordinate with the historical society to develop these activities, to create a meeting space, and to seek grant funding for historical plaques, trails, and other informational materials. The second part of that would be to organize the North Coast Day. This could be done with the Visit Fort Bragg to develop an inclusive and diverse community event on the coastal trail. This would be a kickoff for the fundraiser for a potential cultural center, and then also to seek grants to fund the cultural center.” A recommendation to create a policy that would prioritize returning lands to local coastal tribes does not seem to be fully fleshed out yet, according to Vice-Mayor Jessica Morsell Haye, who chaired the citizens commission. “It would basically be a policy that would cause city staff, whatever the project is, to stop and look and see if there is an opportunity to shift some of the property or give some land back to local tribes, '' she said. “In the conversations, we didn't discuss funding for direct acquisition to then pass over. It was more about adding it to the thinking so that it would just be intrinsic within city logic, looking for those opportunities. But I was the chair, not one of the decision makers. But that was my take.” Council member Tess Albin Smith alluded to the commission's year and a half of meetings as she voiced her concern. “I am still troubled by the lack of milestones,” she said. “I'm the kind of person, if you have an MOU, you have certain milestones you hope to have done. Otherwise the thing just flounders, you know, it's just a group getting together to talk about stuff.” The Council voted unanimously to get started on the recommendations, put out a notice that it is forming a historical committee, in addition to the ad hoc committee, and make the first order of the new mayor to appoint the committees in the new year. *This article has been edited to correct a misstatement about the number of incumbents running for re-election to the Fort Bragg City Council. Three incumbents, not two, ran in a race consisting of eleven candidates, not ten. According to the November 18 tally, incumbent Lindy Peters is in the lead, with 77.73% of the vote, followed by newcomers Jason Godeke, with 25.63%, and Alberto Aldaco, with 22.27%. Incumbent Marcia Rafanan received 16.39% of the vote, and incumbent Tess Albin-Smith garnered 11.03%. The final results will be available after the election is certified, within 30 days of the November 8 election.

October 17, 2022--Michael Hunter, Chairman of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, reflects on his two years hosting Pomo Perspective on KZYX, and how his point of view has changed. When he was growing up in Mendocino County he never felt the need to talk with the non-Native community. Now, as he is working to achieve tribal co-management for Jackson Demonstration State Forest and protection for sacred sites, radio has become an important tool for conversations about forests and our common future, across communities.

The family of private land-owners just donated a valuable piece of land in California to the state-recognized Gabrielino Tongva tribe. It will be a place of ceremonial gatherings and conservation. Another California tribe, the Esselen, also regained ownership of more than 1,000 acres of land for conservation. Land donations by both private individuals and government entities are putting pieces of ancestral land back into tribal hands. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce talks more about the importance of donations toward restoring culturally-important land with Cris Stainbrook (Lakota), president of the Indian Land Tenure Foundation; Hillary Renick (enrolled member of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians and descendant of the Hopland Shanel, Noyo River, and Ft. McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone communities), co-founder of the California Indian Land Institute; and David Weeden (Wampanoag), tribal council member and tribal historic preservation officer for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, chairman of the Mashpee Board of Selectmen, and a Cape Cod Commission member.

The family of private land-owners just donated a valuable piece of land in California to the state-recognized Gabrielino Tongva tribe. It will be a place of ceremonial gatherings and conservation. Another California tribe, the Esselen, also regained ownership of more than 1,000 acres of land for conservation. Land donations by both private individuals and government entities are putting pieces of ancestral land back into tribal hands. Today on Native America Calling, Shawn Spruce talks more about the importance of donations toward restoring culturally-important land with Cris Stainbrook (Lakota), president of the Indian Land Tenure Foundation; Hillary Renick (enrolled member of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians and descendant of the Hopland Shanel, Noyo River, and Ft. McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone communities), co-founder of the California Indian Land Institute; and David Weeden (Wampanoag), tribal council member and tribal historic preservation officer for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, chairman of the Mashpee Board of Selectmen, and a Cape Cod Commission member.

The "Mendocino War" was a bloody conflict between the Yuki tribe and white settlers in Northern California. White settlers raided and stole Yuki lands and massacring hundreds of Yuki in the process. The Yuki fled to "The Mountain" in what is now known as the Jackson Demonstration State Forest to escape the violence. Those villages in the forest are now sacred sites to the Coastal Yuki and Northern Pomo tribes. The state of California is allowing logging companies to log the 50,000 acre Jackson Forest for profit to finance CalFire's operations fighting wildfires. Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom's direction for California state agencies to co-manage state lands with local Native American tribes and seek opportunities to return State lands to Native American tribes, the Dept. of Natural Resources has only designated 75 acres as "sacred sites." Flying solo, Scott talks with Pricilla Hunter, Polly Girvin and Andy Wellspring with the Pomo Land Back (@PomoLandBack) campaign and the Coalition to Save Jackson Forest (@savejacksoncoalition) about the ongoing campaign to save the Jackson Forest and the sacred sites within it. The campaign has seen backcountry blockades and tree-sit action as well as rallies and marches in Mendocino County and Sacramento. The campaigners see this as potentially the next great environmental struggle. We discuss. Bios// Priscilla Hunter is a Tribal Elder of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, former Chairwoman of the Tribe, and currently the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer. Priscilla is working to protect the Sacred Sites of her Northern Pomo and Coast Yuki peoples that are threatened by logging, road building and pesticide operations in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, which is located in her homelands, also called Mendocino. Polly Girvin is a movement elder, Chicana activist, and civil rights and Federal Indian Law attorney graduated from the University of California Berkeley and Columbia University School of Law. Andy Wellspring is a member of Showing Up for Racial Justice, the Mendo Coast chapter. SURJ is white folks committed to racial justice nationally, and SURJ Mendo Coast is a member of the Coalition to Save Jackson State Forest and supporting the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians in this struggle to protect sacred sites and end commercial logging on Pomo Homelands. ----------------------------- Outro- Stuart James "NoDAPL" Links// Save Jackson Forest: https://savejackson.org/ Donate to support the tribe's legal strategy. (https://bit.ly/3yjiUZI) Links// Save Jackson Forest: https://savejackson.org/ Donate to support the tribe's legal strategy. (https://bit.ly/3yjiUZI) Follow Green and Red// G&R Linktree: https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast https://greenandredpodcast.org/ NEW LINK! Join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/Rg7H9A3X Support the Green and Red Podcast// Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast Or make a one time donation here: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR ** Our friends with Certain Days now have their 2023 calendar available for sale. Get your's now at https://www.certaindays.org/ This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). “Green and Red Blues" by Moody. Editing by Isaac.

August 29, 2022--Over 100 Forest Activists gathered in Caspar on the Mendocino Coast on Sunday, August 28, at a Youth Led Rally to protect Jackson Demonstration State Forest. The rally, called by youth climate activists, took on heightened significance after CalFire announced this week they would resume logging on four controversial Timber Harvest Plans that were shut down last year due to protests, including tree sits and road blockades. Trees could start falling as soon as today. CalFire's decision to re-start logging operations came as a shock to activists. This announcement came just two days after CalFire released what they called “A New Vision” for JDSF, describing CalFire's plans to Update the Management Plan to demonstrate forest restoration, expand the Jackson Advisory group, and establish some form of Tribal co-management. Government to government negotiations about the future of JDSF are ongoing between the State and the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, but the tribe was not consulted or informed about the resumption of logging. Chairman Michael Hunter said the news calls into question the state's seriousness about co-managing his tribe's ancestral lands. Sunday's Rally took place at the entrance to JDSF in Caspar, next to the Caspar 500 logging plan, home to large redwoods known as Mama Tree and the Gemini Tree. Buffie Schmidt of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo and Bernadette Smith of the Manchester/Point Arena Band of Pomo Indians welcomed the group with a prayer and songs. Her daughter Suzette Smith spoke at the rally about her people's connection to the forest and the pain of watching it be logged. Another rally organizer, Ravel Gauthier, expressed their frustration with Calfire. And Sara Rose, co-founder with Ravel Gauthier, of Mendocino Youth For Climate, made the connection between ecological and racial justice in the fight against climate change. Activists are calling for a number of rallies to protect the forests of Jackson State. They will gather Monday from 1-3pm at Camp 20 Recreation area out Hwy 20 west of Willits, near the entrance to the Chamberlain Creek THP, at 4pm they will rally at fort Bragg Town Hall and march to Cal Fire's headquarters on North Main Street. Tuesday there is a rally in Sacramento from 11-1 at the California Natural Resources Agency on P Street, followed by a legislative walk.

July 11, 2022 — The Middletown Art Center in Lake County was packed on Saturday night. Visitors from several counties were there to look at work by 31 Native American artists, including traditional baskets, digital art and paintings, woodcut prints, bobbleheads, and a short film about the historical context of Jules Tavernier's paintings. “Tonight, we are at the opening of Earth, Sky, and Everything in Between, which is actually the first time that a Native American has curated art by Native Americans. Ever,” said curator Corine Pearce, just as visitors began to arrive. She's from the Little River Band of Pomo Indians in Redwood Valley, but she also claims ancestry from people indigenous to Lake County. Pearce said the show is a culmination of a year-long project that involved teaching basket-making to Native and non-Native people as a way to build cultural bridges. She emphasized the variety of styles and approaches on display. “While we were setting this up, the owner of the gallery, Lisa Kaplan, said she'd never had as many mediums in at one time. So we have acrylic on canvas, we have three-dimensional baskets of lots of kinds, including electrical cable…if you are alive, and you are Indigenous, no matter what art you're making, it is contemporary art.” That includes commemorating recent achievements and memorializing ongoing tragedy. In one small room, there are a pair of mannequins in a mix of modern and traditional regalia, and a haunting empty skirt covered with red handprints. One piece celebrates a young woman's recent graduation, while the other is a reminder of how many Indigenous women are missing and murdered. According to statistics that are part of the installation, Indian women are murdered at a rate of ten times the national average, though only 2% of the known number are included in the Department of Justice database. The mannequins, notes Pearce, “are a cool thing.” A young woman from the Pinola family of Kashia graduated from school this year. “The school she goes to allows them to wear a traditional outfit to one graduation, and then a contemporary cap and gown. And she broke the mold. She made a little feather topknot. And the white beads that go down (across the forehead), that's a Pomo thing, representing wealth. So she brought both of them. Also, where that room is, there's a display for the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women that has statistics. Because that sad statistic is part of our culture.” Many of the artists are displaying their work for the first time, from twelve-year-old Sarah Franklin, who made a small red basket, to 75-year-old Wanda Quitiquit, who created a special technique for burning designs onto gourds. But some of the artwork has been on tour. The video about Jules Tavernier's paintings of the Elem people, which includes local experts discussing the mercury mining that began at that time, was recently at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. “It was actually at the Met first, and then it came to the De Young,” Pearce said. “When it came to the De Young Museum, they incorporated more representations of living artists. I happened to be one of those artists. So they had my baskets, they had baskets of Susan Billy, they had baskets of Clint McKay, and they had tule dolls made by Meyo Marruffo. That exhibit just ended, and they sent the stuff back to me, and then I brought that stuff here to exhibit here for a little while, and then it's going to go to the Grace Hudson Museum (in Ukiah). So we have some really ‘fine art' art here.” Wanda Quitiquit, who is Eastern Pomo from Robinson Rancheria, debuted her work at the Middletown Art Center, wearing a multi-strand shell necklace made by her late sister. She took a seat on a hay bale next to a garden full of basket-weaving plants to talk about her artistic approach. She is partly inspired by her own tradition, and partly by Indigenous Peruvian artists who carve elaborate designs onto tiny gourds. “What I like to do is I make big, large gourd bowls,” she said. “I have to draw the design first, and then I wood-burn the design in. And then I use dye for color. I only do Pomo basketry designs, old designs…But they all come out different on the gourd. It just depends on the gourd, and my feeling. I think the most important thing is that these designs that I use are gifts to us Pomos who use them in our artwork. I just stick with Pomo basket designs, because I'm a Pomo. It's done by a Pomo, and it's Pomo art.” Jacob Meders, who is Mechoopda Maidu, takes a different historical approach. In addition to making sculpture and woodcut prints, he is an associate professor of an interdisciplinary art and performance program at Arizona State University. He's also the founder of a printmaking company called War Bird Press. His woodcut, “Divided Lines,” is a mixture of Socratic line theory, illustrations from accounts of first contact between Indigenous and European people, and pop-culture satirical riffs. One design features a figure wearing a cross and a crown, sitting cross-legged on a tree stump. “I was thinking more of the British crown in that,” Meders said. “What he's sitting on is the largest stump in all of those woodcuts. It's this very large tree that was cut down, so he's using that as a throne in some way. And he's referencing Manifest Destiny…the idea that God has given him the right, as the king, and chose him to be royalty, but also the idea of Manifest Destiny, that God has given him the right to take from us, as Indigenous people. So there's that reference to that spiritual power that is a colonial spiritual power, that is used as a weapon, really.” Jacqueline Graumann, of the Redwood Valley Little River Band of Pomo Indians, melded a personal fascination with the “Everything” part of the exhibit's title. “During the pandemic, I got kind of a fixation on anatomical hearts,” she said. “So I have drawn probably 20 different anatomical hearts. I try to pull out, what people's hearts are about, what their lives are about. My sister is a basket-weaver, so I did a basket-weaver's heart. I was a traditional dancer when I was younger. I had a death in my family and I stopped dancing, so I try to find my way back to that by doing a dancer's heart.” As a labor and delivery nurse, Graumann brings a medical understanding of anatomical features to her artwork. “I'm there at the very beginning of life, and a lot of it starts with hearing the heartbeats of babies,” she said. “Hearing the heartbeats of mamas. So it's a connection throughout generations, and listening to the Earth. It's the beginning of everything.” As she spoke, an Elem elder inside the gallery clacked a stick sharply, twice. It was a call to go in and hear a blessing for a historical show, equal parts ancient, the first of its kind, and not necessarily confined to a gallery. “They are museum quality,” Pearce said of the pieces on display. “But we are not people who live in museums. So it's important for us to share, in community, that we're still here.”

July 4, 2022--Corine Pearce welcomes two special guests: family wellness advocate Katie Ray, an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, along with Priest Martinez, tribal council member, community organizer, and cultural educator member of the Little River Band of Pomo Indians in Redwood Valley.

Many years ago, when I was a Jesuit Volunteer in Montana, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit several reservations and learn about Native culture and traditions from some of the local tribal members. After a year in Great Falls, I went to work on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana.  The years there were a mixed blessing. Working with Native children who were victims of child abuse and neglect was not easy and I struggled to find my place amongst a people who have been historically violated by people who look like me.Still, I left those years with a profound reverence for the traditions and culture of the Native people. For their connection to their elders, to the generations that have come before. Theirs is a wisdom we would be wise to pay attention to, and It is with that intention I am thrilled to introduce you to Rose Hammock, a caring, compassionate and wise young member of the Pomo, Wailacki and Maidu tribes.We recorded this interview on May 5, the day of remembrance for missing and murdered Indigenous Women, a profound  historical trauma that continues to plague the Native people. Rose shares several resources to learn more about this issue, from MMIWUSA, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and the Sovereign Bodies Institute to the UIHI, The Urban Indian Health Initiative.Despite Rose's young age, she's only 26, she has already made a lasting mark on her community.  We talk about holding space, for welcoming voices and choosing the healing way. I can think of no better way to welcome her then to allow her to introduce herself to you.chiin tha ‘eh. (how are you?) My name is Rose Hammock. I am Pomo, Wailacki, and Maidu. My family comes from the Round Valley Indian Tribes and the Big Valley Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians. I also carry Indigenous roots from parts of Mexico and Nicaragua, from my mother. I am a recent graduate from the Santa Rosa Junior College. I have two Associates of Arts degrees; one being in Early Childhood Education and the other in Social and Behavioral Sciences. I serve many roles within my community, working with many groups and organizations. Some of those groups and organizations include: Pomo Project of Sonoma County, Big Picture Learning Native American Initiative, Redbud Resource Group, California Rural Indian Health Board, and California Indian Museum and Cultural Center. As a traditional dancer, I travel up and down California sharing songs, dance, and prayer. I have been a traditional dancer for the past thirteen years of my life. Through traditional dance, I have had the honor of learning many things from my elders. I have had the honor of learning how to basket weave, bead, sew, and learn about plants. With what I have learned, it's my turn to pass on the knowledge to the next generation. My hopes are that our young people will carry this on to their future generations. A majority of my work in the community is a reflection of the way I grew up. My community has always picked me up when I needed it. When working in “Indian County”, you treat all of your people like family. I have a lot of people in my community who are my aunties, uncles, and grandmas. Working in my community has shown me love, patience, motivation, and compassion. My community made me who I am today. yah.wii' (thank you) Rose Hammock Rose's places of work: The Redbud Resource Group Big Picture  

May 12, 2022--Host Jenn Procacci welcomes Mary Jane Oatman, Joe Montoya and Dan Turbyfill to discuss Native American cannabis culture and policy. Mary Jane Oatman is the founder of Indigenous Cannabis Coalition and publisher of THC (Tribal Hemp and Cannabis Magazine). Joe Montoya, known as Green Chief, is the tribal cannabis liaison and CEO of Green Chief Farms for the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians at Big Valley Rancheria. Dan Turbyfill is the founder of Turby + Co, a cannabis consulting, advocacy, management and policy organization.

May 2, 2022--Host Corine Pearce, Pomo Cultural Educator and Basket Weaver, talks with Martin Morgan of the Kaishia band of Pomo Indians about the Pomo Weavers Society.

April 20, 2022 — Attendance was low at the first hybrid in-person zoom Board of Supervisors meeting in two years yesterday. After public comment, which ranged from unresolved issues in the cannabis department to dissatisfaction with the covid response, the Board received an update from state officials on the scientific review of Jackson Demonstration State Forest, which the Board requested last year. At the close of the presentation, the board voted unanimously to request representation on the Jackson Advisory Group, or JAG, though it hasn't been determined if that means an appointed representative or a supervisorial liaison. The JAG advises CalFire and the Board of Forestry on the management of JDSF. Last month, two new members joined the group. Reno Franklin is the chairman of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians in Sonoma County, and has served on the National Indian Health Board and is a member of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Joanna Nelson, the director of science and conservation for the Save the Redwoods League, joined the JAG with the intent of advising “on the development of improved, science-based restoration management practices,” according to an announcement by the conservation group. There was no written material accompanying the presentation by Deputy Director of California Natural Resources Jessica Morse and Demonstration Forest Manager Kevin Conway, of CalFire. Morse spoke about who will be involved in the scientific review. Dr. Elizabeth Forsberg, who is a PhD scientist with the Nature Conservancy, was appointed to the Board of Forestry in September. She will be running the management sub-committee of the Board of Forestry. “As to this board's request specifically around reviewing the science, the forest and wildfire resilience task force at the state has a science advisory panel made up by PhD forest scientists from the UC's and other institutions, and we've asked them to do a scientific review of the Jackson,” Morse said. “That study is underway right now, and they'll be reporting back to us in the coming months.” Marie Jones, a member of the Mendocino County Climate Action Advisory Committee and a county planning commissioner, wanted more detail. “I would love to actually see what the proposal is for the scientific study of JDSF,” she said. “It sounds a little haphazard, and like the advisory group will actually be doing some of the work. Is it possible to provide us with an outline of the proposed study so that we can look at it and be sure that our issues will actually be looked at?” Morse reminded supervisors that the board of forestry voted last year to review the JDSF management plan with an eye toward tribal co-management. But David Martinez, a longtime activist with Winnemem Wintu heritage, said he hasn't seen evidence of it yet. “I've been out into the forest many times, especially in the Caspar 500 and Soda Gulch,” he said. “What I see is the road building and the destruction of sacred sites, cultural properties, and I see the proposed destruction of cultural gathering zones. And it's all been approved and okayed. It is not okay to destroy the historical properties of the Pomo people. And the Yuki peoples. Everything in their management plan says they can do these things because it is necessary for forest product production. This has to change,” he insisted. That might be possible, with a different funding stream. Morse said this year there is a $10 million budget for the demonstration forests, “so that there's not any pressure to be able to harvest trees. We've asked for additional funding in this year's current budget before the legislature so that these demonstration forests can just have a steady income, so that their costs are covered and that they can be these world-class forests that we need them to be.” She added that, “There are some studies happening on carbon sequestration and climate resilience that these new investments are going to be focused on.” Conway said Calfire plans to use some of the money for a fuels reduction project on road 408-409 near the Caspar scales; improve trail signage; and conduct fire resiliency work, like completing a long-planned fuel break along Three Chop Ridge, and re-introducing prescribed fire to the forest. “We're also going to be engaging with some scientists to try to answer some of the questions that the community has about our forest management and climate change,” he said. He also reported on CalFire's efforts to engage the community, including the activists who have brought the logging to a standstill. “We have not entered into any timber sales in 2022, in order to give us an opportunity to give a public tour of the sales prior to going out,” he said. “We have also been slowing down our submittal of new plans…we had three members of your climate action advisory committee come out and look at the forest. We've done five community tours.” But Jones remained dubious about what she called the mission of the forest. She said that, “The climate action committee was taken on tour of the site by the Mendocino Redwood Company,” a prominent lumber company in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. “The fact that CalFire notes this as a project that they did illustrates to me the lack of separation of the forest industry and CalFire's management of JDSF. A lot of the talk this morning was about, seems like CalFire thinks there's a problem in communication. And I don't really think that's the problem. I think the problem is much more fundamental than that. And it's the mission and the role of this publicly owned property that composes 50,000 acres in our county, and the value that it can provide in terms of addressing climate change, providing jobs in the tourism and recreation industry. And those things are negatively impacted by the relentless focus on cutting down trees.”

February 21, 2022--Host Michael Hunter, Tribal Chairman of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, discusses the latest developments in his efforts to protect his ancestral homelands in Jackson Demonstration State Forest from logging by CalFire.

February 10, 2022 — With the international movement to return tribal lands picking up steam, a local tribe is strategizing how to have more of a voice in the management decisions of Jackson Demonstration State Forest, which one ethnohistorian argues is an Indigenous cultural landscape in its entirety. “You have to get out of the mindset of just a site, and into understanding how the whole environment is a site,” said Victoria Patterson, who has filled several volumes with oral histories of local Native American people and curated an interactive exhibit at the county museum about tribes. The Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians has sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom's office requesting a moratorium on all timber harvest plans during tribal co-management and management plan revisions. The Board of Forestry decided last year to revisit the management plan to address Native American concerns about biological and cultural resources. Polly Girvin, who is authorized to represent Coyote Valley in government-to-government consultations, spoke earlier this month about the main disruption to tribal sites during logging operations. “All of the sacred sites at Jackson State Forest have been systematically and consistently damaged and re-damaged by road-building activity,” she explained. “Back in 1999 the state commissioned a report. The Betts Report had archeologists out here surveying for the sites. They were in such an appalling state that the archeologists working for the state said there should be no more cutting around these sacred sites until you re-survey their boundaries, and until you come up with a road maintenance plan that will protect them in the future.” JDSF is unceded tribal territory, associated with Pomo and coastal Yuki tribes. There are village sites and evidence of campsites throughout the forest. A waterfall known to have been used for purification has been compromised. But Patterson says the forest is more than just a few sites. “The area was used for literally thousands and thousands of years,” she said. “And it was used by hundreds of people walking back and forth to the coast, yearly or bi-annually or even more frequently, to gather resources that were available on the coast, or to trade inland resources to coastal resources. And as they traveled across, of course they're walking, and so they were camping, and they were spending the night, and they were gathering things as they walked around and then they went to the coast, where they had summer camps, drying seaweed and fish and so on, and then you had the return to the lowland villages in the wintertime, and so it's not just like, they would go to the coast for the weekend and then come back home. The whole thing was the home. The whole thing was part of a life cycle, a yearly seasonal round if you will, of gathering.” Girvin says that's significant, in light of policies stemming from a 2019 Governor's order. “Pursuant to a state policy edict that came out after the creation of the Truth and Healing Council, all state lands that are the ancestral territory of tribes can be co-managed by the tribes,” she noted. “And that is now in the Governor's 30x30 policy plan. It goes so far as not just co-management, but actual return of land to tribes.” Patterson hopes more historical understanding will lead to a wider variety of protections. She thinks the appropriate response to the knowledge about sites should be more archeology in JDSF, which she expects will lead to further knowledge. Even Three Chop Village, a well-known site, has not yet been fully investigated. “We're just discovering more, and as dating techniques become more technical and more accurate, we begin to see the record go back and back and back of when people lived in the forest,” she said. “The idea is to protect the forest. To protect not only the trees, but also the cultural resources. Which involve not just the plants and the animals and the basketry materials and the medicinal materials. But also the cultural connection to those places. The spiritual connection to those places. The mythological connection to those places. All of that has to be considered in a cultural landscape.” When it comes to using that knowledge to contribute to efforts toward tribal co-management and control over the land they historically used, she said, “The idea is to create a conversation between CalFire and the tribes to determine what activities should take place and how they should take place in the forest…what does it mean to run a bulldozer through a house site? What does it mean to destroy a so-called lithic scatter, which is of no merit monetarily, to take away that knowledge from the people whose people it was?” Patterson noted that this is a historic moment for tribes: “Indigenous land returns are happening everywhere, including on the Mendocino coast,” she pointed out. “You have the example of over 500 acres being added to the Sinkyone Intertribal Wilderness by the Save the Redwoods League, which just happened a couple weeks ago. You also have the new tribal non-profit being formed to manage Blues Beach (just outside Westport), from CalTrans. And it happened a number of years ago to Kashia (Band of Pomo Indians. The) Kashia tribe got back some of their land. So this is a movement going on everywhere because it's the right thing to do. The land was stolen from Native people.” Coyote Valley Chairman Michael Hunter is leading tours of JDSF at the end of the month, on Sunday the 27th and Monday the 28th.

January 25, 2022 — Activists held two days of public actions against logging in Jackson Demonstration State Forest on Sunday and Monday, starting with the first of a series of tours offered by a tribal leader. Michael Hunter, Chair of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, led about a hundred people through areas that are slated for logging as well as one that was logged four years ago near Caspar. The Board of Forestry is reviewing its management plan with an eye toward tribal co-management, and Hunter is working on building alliances in Indian country. Polly Girvin, who is authorized to represent Coyote Valley in government-to-government consultations, said road-building for logging has long threatened historical tribal sacred sites.

December 15, 2021 — About a dozen activists from a coalition that's been pushing for a moratorium on logging in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest held an impromptu meeting with Assembly member Wood and Senator Mike McGuire's field staff in downtown Ukiah Tuesday, asking them to convey their concerns to elected officials. Among them were Polly Girvin, an authorized representative of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians for government to government consultations with the state; and an activist who said he had been struck by a vehicle while blockading a road early Friday morning. “Vehicular attacks on protestors are very much in vogue,” said the protester, who goes by the name Mama Monkey. “Myself and other citizens were spread across Road 300, just east of the confluence of Roads 300, 350, and 360, near the egg-taking station,” said Mama Monkey. “We were preventing loggers from entering the Red Tail timber harvest plan, and a white four-door Toyota Tacoma with a camper shell and a heavy-looking black metal bully bar after-market front bumper came towards us (we were all wearing high visibility yellow safety vests and making our presence very obvious) and the truck came towards us really quickly, and kind of screeched to a halt just within a few feet of other folks in my group, then reversed direction and altered course to point towards myself…my suspicion is that the person driving miscalculated, expecting me to move out of the way, because I was a little bit more isolated on that side of the road, but I did not move, and I think when he realized that, he started to attempt to slow down, but he was not able to stop in time to prevent his bumper from hitting me in the chest.” In June, Sheriff Matt Kendall wrote a letter to then-CalFire Director Thomas Porter and the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, saying he was concerned about public safety issues arising from people blocking roads in the forest. He urged the state to take action “to secure a safe working environment,” writing that, “My office cannot take over issues which are the responsibility of the State of California.” In July, Anderson Logging, which was under CalFire orders to stop working in the Caspar 500 timber harvest plan, told Mendocino Unit Chief George Gonzalez that the company wanted to hire private security to protect its workers. CalFire Chief Legal Counsel Bruce Crane told Myles Anderson and his lawyer that according to the Public Resource Code, “CAL FIRE cannot cede control of activities on JDSF, for law enforcement and security purposes, to any person or entity at any time.” Mama Monkey tried to file a report with the Sheriff's office and California Highway Patrol over the weekend, then overcame initial reluctance and filed a report with CalFire Monday morning. Cal Fire confirmed as much, but did not provide details, as the investigation had just been opened. Mama Monkey provided details of the incident to Wood and McGuire's representatives. They did not go to the hospital after the encounter, and chose to keep their medical information about the aftermath private. “I'm there to protect the trees for the well-being of everyone, of the loggers just as much as myself, for their children just as much as my children,” they declared. “It's very sad that certain parties are acting violently, and I feel it's my duty to make sure they're held accountable, so they don't continue to escalate violence.” In his letter last summer, Kendall wrote that he fully supports the right to civil disobedience, but that safety cannot be ensured if activists continue to protest in an active timber sale. “We can see where this is leading, and the outcome will be tragic if action isn't taken,” he warned. As for Mama Monkey, “What I want is a moratorium on logging within Jackson Demonstration State Forest.”

December 6, 2021 — A local tribe learned last week that CalFire has decided to review its management plan of Jackson Demonstration State Forest, with an eye toward tribal co-management with the Sherwood Valley and Coyote Valley Bands of Pomo Indians. Polly Girvin, a longtime advocate for Coyote Valley, says the tribe is ready to get specific. “We have a plan in hand, at our fingertips,” she said. “A habitat management plan, crafted with the Save the Redwoods (League). We are going to be presenting amendments to the Forest Practice Act, amendments to the regulations of the Forest Practice act, and the habitat management plan.” The review is part of a lengthy process, which hasn't started yet. But last year, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order encouraging State agencies to move toward co-management of tribal ancestral lands that are under the ownership or control of the State. It's part of an acknowledgement of the violent dispossession of Indigenous people, and it emphasizes access to sacred sites and cultural resources. There are ongoing government-to-government consultations with the Tribe, but Priscilla Hunter, the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for Coyote Valley, says they haven't been transparent. “Especially regarding our sacred sites,” she said. “They only tell us so much, and then we come back a second time to review the site...the sites that we have visited have been driven through with trucks, tractors, and they want to use those same roads to continue to destroy our site.” The Tribe has asked for a moratorium on logging in JDSF while the management plan is being amended. The Governor issued his executive order about tribal co-management in September of last year. At this year's September meeting of the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as CalFire, outgoing director Thomas Porter recommended a review of the JDSF plan, years ahead of when it was originally going to take place. And Porter said there's money to carry out co-management and scientific management practices. “Co-management in the context that I am talking about means access to and ongoing dialogue of culturally important plants and animals, and how those can be managed in conjunction with each other's desires and needs on the landscape,” he told the Board during his Director's Report. “I think that under the current administration and the direction the State is going, related to tribal engagement, I think that it warrants a review before its regular time for renewal….in the Governor's budget, we the Department are going to see a $10 million placement of funds that is directed at Demonstration State Forest management, in science as well as increasing the staffing to get back to a place that we haven't seen since the 1900's.” Girvin says the tribes could use some staff, too, especially independent archeologists, “because each tribe on its own, they do not have archeologists, cultural resource protection staff,” she said. “What has happened to date is, Tribes have been inundated with THP's (Timber Harvest Plans), saying there are sites on them, with no ability to have staff to respond. So we're really going to be demanding some, I would say, reparations. If they're not going to give the land back, then at least give us some mechanism to help defend the cultural resources there.” Plans for the review of the plan are in the earliest stages, in a newly-created sub-committee to an advisory group that meets twice a year. Two months after the Board of Forestry accepted Director Porter's recommendation, the Jackson Advisory Group created a sub-committee consisting of JAG members Charlie Schneider and Amy Wynn to start the fact-finding process. State Forests Program Manager Kevin Conway said the sub-committee will bring its information back to the full advisory group at its next meeting in April or May, and, from there, the JAG will develop recommendations to take to the Board of Forestry. Girvin and Hunter said they learned about all this from a third party, in spite of the ongoing government-to-government consultations. Girvin wants those consultations to move beyond the JAG. “We have to go to the very top,” she declared. “To effectively look at changing legislation is on our agenda…we will not be the sub-committee of the Jackson Advisory Group...we'll soon have to establish a protocol for our government-to-government consultation expanding to include co-management.” Reached by phone on Friday, Keith Gilless, the Board of Forestry chair, said he has not yet received the materials for the review, but that it has been in the Board's work plan and that he himself has had a long interest in tribal co-management of public lands. He hadn't yet seen the November 15th resolution by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors to ask the Governor for a review of the plan for JDSF, but he expects the Governor's office will send it along. In September, he told Porter he thought the request for a review of the scientific management was entirely in order. “We have a lot of places where we can do various things,” he mused; “but we don't have any other place, from my point of view, as a forest scientist, that is really on a par with Jackson to inform our management on the North Coast. So it is a critical issue, and I'm quite responsive to your request.” But Girvin says tribal co-management and this view of scientific management are not exactly the same thing, which is why she's advocating for an independent archeologist. “Our protection mechanisms in the Forest Practice Act are whether the State historic preservation office's archeologists think a site is worthy of extracting information from,” she said. “Not protection. Scientific extraction. So we were not at the table in ‘73 when this bill was enacted, the Forest Practice Act. We're here today, we have a team, and we will probably have to augment our team with an independent archeologist. Not Cal Fire and the timber industry archeologist determining what is sacred. No. That has to stop.” At a recent sacred ceremony in JDSF, Hunter recalled, “We brought some singers in. When we got in, where we were going to start, it started raining. And it just poured. I was like, there it is, guys. Our prayer has been answered. And the prayer is going to carry it further, each time.”

by Alicia Bales November 23, 2021--Jackson Demonstration State Forest is roughly 50,000 acres of public land in the heart of Mendocino County, managed by CalFire. Although these state-owned woods are enjoyed by hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians and foragers, JDSF is not a park. It was once industrial timber land, and continues to be logged by CalFire. A coalition of groups, including the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians and the Mendocino Trail Stewards, have called for a different plan for Jackson State. This summer, direct action protests including tree sits effectively shut down logging. And last week, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ask the governor to review the JDSF management plan in light of the most current science on climate change. Although Mendocino County has been drenched by winter storms in recent weeks, the start of the rainy season does not mean the end of the conflict in the woods. From November 15th to April 1st, winter restrictions are in place to limit, but not stop, the work Calfire can do Jackson State. Crews are not allowed to use ‘ground based equipment' like tractors or yarders, anywhere but on surfaced roads while soils are saturated from winter rains. Kevin Conway is the Demonstration State Forest Program Manager for CalFire, and Erik Wahl is the Road Manager at JDSF. Part of their plan for winter operations in to install a multi-use foot bridge over Blue Gum Creek, a small watercourse in the heart of the Caspar 500 that flows into Caspar Creek. Last week they took KZYX News on a tour of the site, to clarify when and how the new bridge would be installed. The Blue Gum Trail follows Road 669, and abandoned logging road that was built by CalFire around 50 years ago. The challenge for CalFire is how to deliver the two-ton new bridge to the Blue Gum Creek Crossing. Conway explained that crews can cut down trees and cable yard them under winter operations, and deliver the bridge to the crossing site at Blue Gum Creek. They can't, however, install the bridge until Winter Ops ends on April 1st, due to winter restrictions on work close to waterways meant to prevent erosion into the creek. It is unclear how logging crews will move the cable yarder into place this winter, since the landing area where they intend to locate the machine is covered with down trees, and they aren't allowed to take tractors into the area to clear the site during the winter. Wahl and Conway hope that if the community understands more about their recreational work, such as the Blue Gum Creek pedestrian bridge and other trail improvements, that are part of the Caspar 500 timber harvest plan, they might be more supportive of the overall logging plans and less likely to try to slow things down. That was the big message Kevin Conway took away from last Monday's Board of Supervisors vote for a scientific review of the Jackson Management plan. He looks forward to "re-educating" the Board of Supervisors in a future workshop about Jackson.

November 25, 2021--Host Jenn Procacci presents "Growing on the Rez", a piece about the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians and their journey to enter the legal cannabis cultivation space. Followed by two 2018 Emerald Cup Talks: the first with Sunshine Johnston, "Low Impact Winter Farming", and the second with Dan Mar, "Rainwater Catchment and Groundwater Recharge".

November 16, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Monday to pass a resolution asking for a scientific review of the management at Jackson Demonstration State Forest, with an eye toward meeting environmental goals laid out by the governor. County supervisors do not have jurisdiction in the forest, which is managed by Cal Fire under the authority of the state. A moratorium on all logging within JDSF, long a demand of activists, was not under consideration. Priscilla Hunter, former Chair of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians and current Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, opened public comment, with measured support. “This is a good first step,” she said; “however, there's a lot of concerns that we have regarding fire, water, and one of our main issues is regarding the restoring of our sacred sites. And if they keep continuing to cut those trees down by those sites, they are continuing to destroy our cultural sites. We can't even get in there to be able to go up and pray there and see where our ancestors held their ceremonies. It's very, very hurting.” Fifteen-year-old Sara Rose, a member of the Coalition to Save JDSF, spoke about the future, saying, “The climate crisis has been a huge part of my childhood. I knew from a very young age that it would be the biggest threat to my future...if we do nothing, the climate crisis will be the end of humanity...JDSF is home to thousands of acres of second-growth coast redwoods. These trees sequester more carbon than any other trees on earth. Cutting them down would release hundreds of thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, exacerbating the effects of climate change unbelievably. If cut down, they will not regrow in my lifetime.” Marie Jones, the chair of the Mendocino County Climate Action Committee, told the Board that a wide coalition of environmental organizations supports the resolution, and added a few requests about the science. “That research should be peer-reviewed, transparent, and credibly managed by an independent third party,” she declared. Michael Jones, the UC cooperative extension forestry advisor for Mendocino County, called in from where he was conducting research in JDSF on prescribed burns, to say the current management plan is already being used to inform the state's decisions on climate change. He said JDSF, and Parlin Fork in particular, is the only place where prescribed burns are taking place on a landscape level in the redwood forest. “For example, I have research ongoing here,” he said. “It's on climate change, it's on forest management, it's on wildfire risk, it's on prescribed fire, all these really high-priority topics. The narrative, and the way this resolution is framed, and the conversation we're having, is completely ignoring the fact that, as I've stated now, the forest is already moving into the research that is informing the statewide policy directives.” When Supervisor Ted Williams asked Dr. Jones if there were any findings in the resolution that he found inaccurate, he said, “I actually do. I disagree with some of the language used. I think that the reductionist argument that the forest is managed primarily for commercial applications is a hundred percent incorrect. I don't think there has been a THP (timber harvest plan) or a management plan that I have reviewed or been involved in that does not have an aspect of forest restoration, forest management, or research built into it.” But the majority of public comment was supportive of the resolution. William Lemos, co-chair of the Mendocino Trail Stewards, described some of what he's seen in JDSF, recalling that, “In 2018, just across Road 409 from us, a number of clear cuts took place all the way up to Observatory Hill, and if you want to take a walk and look at those clear cuts, you'll see slash piles remaining from that 2018 cut. And if you've looked at some of the research done by climatologist J.P O'Brien, he sent Google Earth pictures of what's going on in Parlin Fork, and on that tributary, it looks like dozens of clear cuts are either in the process of happening or have already happened.” Kevin Conway, the JDSF forest manager for CalFire, assured the Board that the forest is in much better shape than it was when his agency took it over, in the 1940s. “So we're concerned that adopting this resolution as written today will provide legitimacy to this false narrative,” he cautioned the Supervisors. And JDSF is the site of significant economic activity for some people. Bruce Burton, one of the co-founders of the Willits Redwood Company, told the Board that without logging in the Caspar 500 timber harvest plan, he's had to bring in logs from Santa Cruz and Humboldt Counties. “That represented close to 50% of our consumption for the year,” he said, adding that locally-owned Anderson Logging, which his company had contracted to perform the work, “immediately had to find other work for 40 employees they had assigned to that task.” Supervisor Glenn McGourty said he didn't want to stifle the timber industry or the science that's already being done in JDSF, but, “It seems kind of strange, at this late date, that CalFire would be okaying clear cuts. I mean, clear cuts are so out of date for a redwood forest type as a way of management, it just seems really strange that anybody would even contemplate that. If we're going to grow forests to grow quality timber and also sequester carbon, what we want to move towards is late seral stage forestry or something that mimics it, which is older trees.” The board voted 5-0 to ask the governor for a scientific review of the forest, but also committed to more meetings with the Jackson Advisory Group and CalFire.

Chairman Michael Hunter of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians joins Gang Green to talk about his tribe's work to protect the Jackson Demonstration State Forest. Chairman Hunter has been on the front lines of the struggle to protect sacred cultural resources and protect the redwood forest that his people have called home since time immemorial. The Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians' efforts to protect Jackson Demonstration State Forest is part of a larger story about how can America move towards reconciliation and reparation for lands stolen from native peoples.Required Reading (and Viewing):Tribal Chair Threatened in JDSFPomo Perspective: Priscilla Hunter and Polly Girvin on Jackson Demonstration State Forest LoggingPlease join our journey to save the redwoods in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest Protests in Jackson Demonstration State Forest Escalate in the Face of Unsafe Logging, Threats of Violence, and Harassment of Tribal leadersSupport the show (https://www.humboldtbaykeeper.org/get-involved/donate)

October 19, 2021 — As the difference between safety and security in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest is parsed with utmost refinement, one thing remains clear: the logging sites are dangerous. Two activists have complained of significant threats, one of them caught on video. EPIC, the Environmental Protection and Information Center, has sent a letter to Wade Crowfoot, the California Secretary of Natural Resources, asking him to restore peace. And, although Cal Fire's chief legal counsel Bruce Crane wrote on July 2nd that “The current JDSF closure order prohibits any private security, armed or unarmed, from entering JDSF,” two unarmed private security firms have been present in two sites. One was hired by a private company, while the other was paid upwards of $110,000 by Cal Fire for just over a month's work. Cal Fire, the Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention, manages JDSF, where protests against logging have been vigorous. Mendocino Forest Products, the sister company to Mendocino Redwood Company, purchased the contract to log Soda Gulch. They hired Two Brothers Logging to fall trees and Lear Asset Management for safety. In a press release, Mendocino Redwood Company described the contractors as “licensed and bonded Safety Specialists…(who) are simply filming and alerting trespassers to the active operations.” Lear is a private security company best known for armed raids on trespass grows. John Andersen, the public policy director for MRC, confirmed that the company had hired Lear as a safety contractor, but said Trouette and his staff are not carrying weapons on JDSF. Kevin Conway, the Cal Fire forest manager in JDSF, said safety managers are permitted on logging sites, but did not lay out the parameters of their duties, other than to specify that they must be unarmed. The presence of the safety manager, or the Safety Specialist, did not rule out the possibility of a non-accidental death, according to one unidentified logger in Soda Gulch on October 5th. Michael Hunter, the Chairman of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, described the encounter to KZYX and shared the video of the incident. Hunter said that as he stood near the loggers, “I recorded everything. I said hey. Please don't kill me by accident today. And the old man says, oh, it won't be by accident. I got that on recording, too, and I said, well, don't kill by purpose either, please, ‘cause I don't feel like dying today.” Last week, Matt Simmons, a lawyer with EPIC, wrote in his letter to Secretary Crowfoot that on the same day, U'i Wesley, an activist and Native Hawaiian singer and dancer, had a separate encounter. She was parked by a logging gate when two masked men pulled up in a large black truck with no license plates. “They didn't say who they were, they didn't say we're with the police, or we're with Cal Fire. They just came up to her and said, you need to leave. And when she said that she wouldn't, they responded by reaching into their pocket and throwing bullet casings at her face and saying, you know, it's dangerous in here. And I think any reasonable person would feel that that was a death threat.” Reflecting on the fact that both recipients of the threats were people of color, Simmons said, “The really sad truth is that Mendocino, just like all of America, has been a place of violence against people of color for a really long time. And Jackson itself is Northern Pomo and Coast Yuki territory. And there's a reason it's not anymore, right? It's because of violent acquisition by white settlers. And in some ways, it feels like we're just sort of seeing a continuation of that.” In a video he posted on Facebook, Hunter had a long verbal encounter with a man later identified as Paul Trouette, the head of Lear Asset Management. Simmons was skeptical about what he called a loophole allowing Trouette, a professional private security provider, to operate as a safety manager or Safety Specialist, in an area where private security is not allowed. “Now what it looks like is that MRC has hired Trouette and are calling him a safety manager in order to have a loophole in the rules that require them not to hire private security. I did a little bit of googling on Paul Trouette, and I don't think he's the guy you hire to be a safety manager.” Recently obtained documents show that Cal Fire itself hired a private security firm called Armorous to provide unarmed guards and a patrol car around the clock at the Caspar logging site from June 8th through July 5th. Payments for two guards overnight and three during the day came out to almost $111,000. Conway said that their presence did not violate the agency's chief legal counsel's opinion that “CAL FIRE cannot cede control of activities on JDSF, for law enforcement and security purposes, to any person or entity at any time as JDSF is required...to always be under the direction and control of CAL FIRE personnel.” Conway pointed out that this statement was part of a letter to the owner of a logging company who wanted to hire private security to protect his logging operations. In contrast, Armorous was hired by Cal Fire and was acting under control of the agency as what he called a “force extender.” He also emphasized that the guards were not acting in a law enforcement capacity. He said they wore uniforms and did not carry weapons, and that their vehicle was marked. He said at the moment, there are no plans to bring the guards back into JDSF. Usually, he said, the public respects forest closures, and the current situation, where some portion of the public wants to put themselves and workers in harm's way, is very new territory for the agency. He urged those who object to the logging to use the public process to express themselves.

Lee Goldberg joins us for a discussion about his perspective as outside general counsel. Lee shares decades of experience using litigators to solve business problems and offers advice for trial attorneys serving corporate clients. We talk about Lee's recent video series on LinkedIn and his website CalLawyers.com, and what a general counsel looks for when hiring trial and appellate counsel. Some of Lee's lessons: On litigation objectives: " My client is never principle over business. Ever."On the most common mistake litigators make: " [When] they think that they have the only answers. Sit back, listen to your client. That is the biggest error that I see." On hiring the right litigation team: "White shoe firms have their place. ... [But] all of it has to do with my relationship with the litigators and the litigation firm. Because I will tell you this if I have a good relationship with them, then we coordinate and work together, they understand where I'm coming from, I understand where they're coming from, and that best serves the client in the long run. So no, it's not always the Gibson Dunn's, okay. It's not always the Reed Smith's that I bring into these deals. All right? Local, smaller, dedicated, smart counsel is what I look for."On trial counsel handling appeals: "I will never have my trial lawyers handle my appeals. Ever, ever." On success: " The thing that people keep coming back to is success. Understand something, success is perception. Success is not a piece of paper. Success is an emotional feeling that you give to the client that they did the best they could in the situation that they had." Tim, Jeff, and Lee also cover recent cases discussing how to properly ask for discovery in response to a summary judgment, and applying the disentitlement doctrine to dismiss an appeal, including why it may be important to bring appellate counsel in to an appeal.Lee Goldberg's website, LinkedIn profile, and YouTube channel. Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube channel.Sign up for Tim Kowal's Weekly Legal Update, or view his blog of recent cases.Cases and other resources mentioned in this episode:Begley v. Delta Dental of Cal. (D1d3 Aug. 31, 2021) 2021 WL 3878844 no. A159983 (nonpub. opn.).Findleton v. Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, (Sep. 29, 2021, A158172) and Tim's write up of Findleton.Press release for LA Superior Court re Dress Code

October 8, 2021 — The debate about who is responsible for dangerous conditions in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest has heated up. Protestors insist that the logging is contributing to climate change while Cal Fire, which manages the forest, claims that protestors are endangering themselves and tree fallers by forcing loggers to stop working in the middle of a precarious task. Another concern that has been raised this week is the presence of a man who looks very much like Paul Trouette of Lear Asset Management in Soda Gulch on Monday. Mr. Trouette did not respond to an email from kzyx yesterday, asking him if he was providing private security on the site. In a long video that was live streamed on Facebook by Michael Hunter, the tribal chair of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, the man identified himself only as a “safety officer.” Lear is a private security contractor best known in Mendocino county for armed raids on illegal trespass cannabis grows in timberland. But private security, armed or unarmed, is not allowed in the state forest, according to Cal Fire chief legal counsel Bruce Crane. In a July 2 letter to Myles Anderson of Anderson Logging, Crane said “CAL FIRE will not allow private security, armed or unarmed, “protecting” Anderson Logging operations on the Caspar 500 THP,” or timber harvest plan. The Caspar 500 is a separate plan from the Soda Gulch area, which is not being logged by Anderson Logging. In an email yesterday, Anderson stated that his company is not affiliated with Soda Gulch and has no other contracts for logging on JDSF. He also said Anderson Logging has no contracts with Trouette or Lear Asset Management. But he has expressed an interest in hiring someone to provide security. On July 6, he wrote in a letter to Ronald Aruejo, the District Manager at the Department of Industrial Relations in the division of Occupational Safety and Health, that he was willing to hire a private security firm if Cal Fire could not or would not secure the Caspar 500 against protestors. He was responding to a Cal OSHA complaint that his employees “were falling trees towards other employees and other people in the woods...causing an unsafe work environment.” He argued that “When people approached the area in which we were working we stopped therefore we did not create an unsafe condition.” Kzyx program director Alicia Bales was in the forest on June 15 and recorded a variety of responses on the part of the loggers. She described one group of loggers who stopped what they were doing when activists approached. Moments later, she could be heard saying, “We are right here,” as chainsaw blared and trees cracked. Kevin Conway, the Cal Fire forest manager for JDSF, confirmed that Anderson Logging is not currently doing any work in the state forest. He said that Mendocino Forest Products has purchased the contract to log Soda Gulch, but he did not know which logging contractor that company was employing. Mendocino Forest Products is the sawmill for Mendocino Redwood Company, which owns 350 square miles of timberlands in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. An email to John Andersen, MRC's director of forest policy, about who was logging Soda Gulch, and if the company had hired Trouette, elicited an automatic reply saying he would be out of the office until Monday. Conway confirmed that CalFire's stance “across the landscape” is that the agency does not want private security on JDSF. But he said CalFire does allow contract purchasers to hire safety observers, whose job is to document possibly unsafe conditions on behalf of the contractor. There are no specific parameters for the safety observer's duties, but Conway did confirm that they are not supposed to be armed. The man interacting with Hunter in the Facebook video was also filming with a cell phone, but was not visibly armed. When Conway was asked about images of trees that are still standing and have had deep wedges cut into them, he suggested that protestors behave less recklessly and added that he was “disappointed that loggers have to walk away before finishing tree-felling operations.” He did not know who was providing safety observer services in Soda Gulch. The man who was counter-filming Hunter was not wearing any safety gear. Tom Wheeler, the director of EPIC, the Environmental Protection Information Center, says it's important for protesters to document what they see in the forest. He classifies environmentalists like the Mendocino Trail Stewards, who create highly produced YouTube videos in the state forest, as citizen journalists, documenting hazards that it's in the public interest to know about. “They're going into the forest and they're showing that Cal Fire is not cleaning up the slash after logging,” he said. “They're leaving large slash piles which can serve as jackpots of fuel in the event of a forest fire, and really cause high-severity fire behavior if the fire were to hit them. The Mendocino Trail Stewards are showing the road construction work, which is going to bleed sediment into salmon-bearing streams. They're showing that Cal Fire is marking these trees. These massive huge trees that are six feet in diameter, wider than I am tall. And that Cal Fire is claiming that they are cutting these for carbon sequestration. So it is perfectly within their right to document abuses by the government.”

October 5, 2021 — Protesters in the Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF), which is managed by CalFire, are facing increased hostility as the end of logging season approaches. Threats of legal action and at least one instance of what sounds very much like a casual death threat have emerged in the past few days. And a fight about activists' First Amendment rights to document political activity is already underway. Michael Hunter is the chairman of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, one of several entities calling for a moratorium on logging in the state forest. On Monday morning, he was in Soda Gulch with about ten other activists, filming an interaction with loggers and another man, also filming, who identified himself as a safety officer. Hunter described the exchange a few hours later on a phone call from the forest. “They started up the chainsaws,” he recalled, “revved them up, revved them up. A couple hours later, they came back to the same spot, and we were still here, waiting. And they walked down there and did the same thing, again, acted like they were going to cut those redwoods, and I said, hey, ah, please don't kill me by accident today. And the old man says, oh, it won't be by accident.” Hunter shared the video with kzyx shortly after our interview. The logger's response is off-mic, but clearly audible. “What these folks are doing when they go out into the forest is very brave,” says Tom Wheeler, the Executive Director of EPIC, the Environmental Protection Information Center, “because they are going out peacefully, they are asking the loggers to stop and they are being met with hostility and threats.” In addition to threats from loggers, Wheeler says protesters are facing CalFire's mis-use of the law to quash their First Amendment rights. Last week, he sent a stern letter to CalFire Director Thomas Porter, detailing some examples. That was in response to a letter from Jackson State Forest program manager Kevin Conway, to the president of the Mendocino Trail Stewards, a group that uses social media to drum up support for anti-logging activities. In his letter, Conway told the Mendocino Trail Stewards president, Chad Swimmer, that he had been conducting activities in the state forest that require a special use permit. Swimmer has made several short YouTube videos about the beauty of the state forest and why he believes the trees should remain standing. They feature sweeping views of the forest, an action sequence with a couple of guys on mountain bikes and their dogs speeding along a trail, and a cellist playing a tune called “Requiem for a Fallen Tree,” while seated on a redwood stump the size of a small raised stage. Most of them appear to have been filmed with a drone. This, according to Conway's letter, is an “unauthorized special use, (which) is a violation of State law and continuing to do so will result in criminal and civil action by the Department.” Wheeler argues that the permit requirement for filming is unconstitutional. “The pretext of a need for a special permit to stop their recording is obnoxious to the First Amendment,” he stated. “This is something that is just weaponizing these permits to silence critics of the Jackson. And so that is a clear violation of the First Amendment. The First Amendment does allow for something called time, place and manner restrictions. What you can't do, though, is you can't use these time, place, and manner restrictions as a way to covertly regulate the content of speech. ” Conway claims the protests can be hazardous, and that a contractor was injured last week after protesters came into the area that was being logged. But Hunter says the area is dangerous because loggers are cutting deeply into trees and letting them stand for an unknown length of time before felling them completely. In a video he live streamed on Facebook yesterday, he filmed his efforts to get the safety officer to inspect a tree that had a deep wedge cut in it. “So it puts us at risk as we're out here,” he explained. “And then they can turn around and say that we're trying to prevent them from fixing that. They're trying to play that game...the wedge was here before we got here. I wonder how long it's been there.” Wheeler identifies filming in the forest as journalism, a category of speech that enjoys extra protection. “Journalism is obviously changing,” he noted. “Local print media has significantly declined in the last two decades. And in its place we have citizen journalists that are starting to record and to document government abuses...and this is an important form of journalism...it is perfectly within their right to document abuses by the government.” A few minutes after he was informed that his death in the forest would not be accidental, Hunter learned that he was unauthorized to document in the area. In the video he sent kzyx yesterday, the safety officer who is filming Hunter as he films him can be heard saying, “You are in an unauthorized area, recording something...document.” Hunter is talking over him, saying, “unauthorized in a state forest. So they can do what they want to do behind the scenes.” To Hunter, the tribal chair, the idea that he would require authorization is especially galling, on grounds that are much older than the Constitution. “We're Pomo,” he said. “This is our homeland. This is where we're from. So the safety guy with the logging came up and said, you have to leave. How ironic is that? I have to leave this forest so he can continue to destruct it, to industrialize it.” Hunter's video ends with the three loggers shouldering their chainsaws and walking away with the safety officer, up a hill and out of sight.

August 20, 2021 — Hundreds of thousands of acres are on fire in the state of California. There's been one or more fires every day in Mendocino County this week, and the Cache Fire has destroyed dozens of homes in Lake County. The topic of how to make a home resistant to fire, or hardening it, is timely. On Wednesday morning, Scott Cratty stood in a light rain of ash from the Dixie or the Monument or maybe the Caldor fire, overlooking what's left of Lake Mendocino. Cratty is the Executive Director of the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, and he was there, at a private home with a film crew and fire experts and a representative from Assemblyman Jim Wood's office, to showcase a home hardening project. The Fire Safe Council is working with a crew from the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians and grant funding to clean up roofs and vegetation around the homes of people who are low income and senior citizens or disabled. Cratty estimates there are about 2,500 such homes in the wildland urban interface in Mendocino County. Cratty stepped behind a brand new trailer to talk about what else is new with the Fire Safe Council as Yana Valochovic, a foremost authority on fire behavior, led a pair of CalFire inspectors around the home to explain how resistant it was.

August 16, 2021--Firefighter and EMT Reno Keoni Franklin, Chairman Emeritus of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, returns to Pomo Perspective to talk about fires, firefighting, and the urgent need for planning to keep Native Communities safe.

July 7, 2021 — The current governor declared the latest California drought from the cracked, dry basin of Lake Mendocino, which is generally believed to provide some portion of water to 600,000 people from Coyote Valley Dam to Marin County. As per the original arrangement, Mendocino County is entitled to 11.3% of the water. The dam was dedicated on June 6, 1959. The ceremony included a beauty contest, speeches, and a strawberry festival, according to a history written by local scholar Victoria Patterson (nee Kaplan).. If the man-made body of water were a human, it would be barely old enough to collect social security. Before building the dam, the Army Corps of Engineers bought a piece of property near the East Fork of the Russian River. That's where seven Shodokai Pomo families had settled when they returned to the valley after their families had been forcibly removed in the mid-19th century. Among them was Priscilla Hunter, former Chair of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians and mother of Michael Hunter, the tribe's current Chairman. “When we say ancestors, people think hundreds of years ago,” Hunter noted. “I think about that often when I'm out there.” He thinks the people who were displaced by the dam should have first dibs on the water. Like everyone else, they're now dependent on it. Hunter has sixty households under his purview, as well as a casino and gas station that do a brisk business. A hundred-room hotel and recycled water project are under construction. Water is tight in Redwood Valley, with each person only receiving 55 gallons per day for all domestic water services. This does not include the 200 or so agricultural connections in the valley that were shut off in mid-April. “And yet you see vineyards keep expanding,” Hunter observed. “It seems to be that this county put vineyards before they put Native Americans...we should have first rights to that water, which we don't.” Hunter says his fellow elected representatives at the county level haven't invited him to take part in decisions about water and land use. Partly he stays away because he doesn't agree with a vision that includes continuing to deplete environmental resources. And he doesn't want his presence to provide a diversity endorsement to decisions he doesn't agree with. If the tribes are involved in deliberations, but in such small numbers that their votes can't possibly affect the outcome, he doesn't really see the point. “It's hard to sit at tables where people look similar to me, even though I've never met them before, and I have to assume that if it wasn't you, it was your father or your mother who participated in removing my people,” he explained. That's not to say that he doesn't have an opinion. “It's a lot of irony for me, a lot of mixed emotion, where Coyote Valley stands right now. I personally would like to see a cap, a moratorium if you will, on acres of vineyards. It's hard to ask a resident to cut back and limit your showers, or put a bucket under your shower while the water gets warm, to water your plants, when they keep expanding agriculture, whether it be vineyards or marijuana.” Hunter says the tribe's sense of responsibility has led it to decide to build a recycled water system for the 100-room hotel that he expects to open sometime next year. He plans to connect the homes and most of the tribe's businesses to it, as well. “It didn't feel right doing the hotel without doing that purple piping (recycled water),” he said. “We started this process about three years ago before the drought was here, just because we've been here. We live here. It's nothing new. The drought's not new. It's just getting worse. So we feel as if we're having some responsibility amongst our reservation...we feel like a sovereign nation. We feel isolated. In good ways and bad ways.” In the end, he feels like his tribe paid a high price for a bum deal. “You made my people leave for 11 percent?” he exclaimed. “What?”

July 8, 2021 — A new law that transfers coastal property from the State of California to Native Americans will be a historic first. Mendocino tribes could take possession within a year, creating an 172 acre natural preserve south of Westport. An interview with Melanie Rafanan, the Chair of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians explains the process, obstacles and traditional uses of the land.

SERIES: Role of the Tribal Leader   “The policies that you make should reflect your love for the community... If you can't do that, then you need to take a step back and go talk to your elders again.” -Reno Franklin   Episode Description:  Did you know? - The first inhabitants of coastal Sonoma County were the Kashia/Kashaya Band of Pomo Indians!    In this episode, Jennifer sits with Reno Franklin, Chairman Emeritus of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians. He is also a longtime Board Member of Rebuild NorthBay. Reno will take you back in time to see what's here and what's coming in terms of disasters. He also shares priceless wisdom and values critical in serving others during a crisis. Being a trusted resource, Reno also talks about how to help tribal communities be more resilient, advocate for equity, make community-centered policies, and democratize information. There is a reason why tribal knowledge and practices worked effectively to avoid wildfires. As the saying goes, Think Like an Indian! Tune in as Reno shares what that means for us who are living in the present and the future generation.  Connect with After The Fire:  Website Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn YouTube Highlights: 05:58: Invasive Species and Their Part in the Rise of Wildfires 11:01: The Kashia Pomo Tribe 15:50: How to React to Fire 22:05: Be a Trusted Resource 26:58: Air Quality and Equity 31:17: Tools For Achieving Equity  36:57: Democratize Information 39:39: Think Like an Indian 41:36: Acknowledge Your Worker Bees 

Join Michael Hunter, Tribal Chairman of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, for Pomo Perspective, every 3rd Monday at 9am, right here on KZYX and Z.

The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians doesn't have its own reservation. Like many Native communities, many members also struggle with poverty and homelessness. But recently, using funds from California's ‘Project Homekey,' the tribe bought an apartment building in Lake County to house members most in need. And leaders are also hoping it'll be the start of a new community hub for the tribe. Guest: Molly Solomon, KQED housing affordability reporter Read the transcript here. Subscribe to our newsletter here.

May 17, 2021--Coyote Valley Tribal Chairman Michael Hunter and Sunny Elliot of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians talk about their journey together through higher education, and their graduation ceremony at Sonoma State University this weekend.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments in Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians v. Department of the Interior, No. 21-5009, on May 11, 2021. At issue in the appeal is whether the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation can intervene in a lawsuit filed by the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians against the Department of the Interior. The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation was denied intervention by a federal judge. Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case: https://turtletalk.blog/2020/12/07/update-in-scotts-valley-band-of-pomo-indians-v-dept-of-the-interior/ https://turtletalk.blog/2020/09/29/federal-court-rejects-yocha-dehe-wintun-nation-intervention-in-scotts-valley-band-pomo-indian-lands-case/ The Scotts Valley Band filed the lawsuit in 2019 as part of a long-running quest to have land taken into trust for a potential gaming facility in northern California. Turtle Talk posted the complaint: https://turtletalk.blog/2019/05/31/scotts-valley-band-of-pomo-indians-v-dept-of-interior-complaint/

April 19, 2021--Pomo Perspective features Priscilla Hunter, Pomo Elder and former Chairwoman of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, and Polly Girvin, Environmental activist and Indigenous Rights Attorney. The Coyote Valley Band of Pomo has recently requested Government to Government Consultation with the State of California to discuss their opposition to the timber operations proposed in their ancestral Northern Pomo and Coast Yuki territory which is now Jackson Demonstration State Forest. There are at least 22 cultural sites in the State Forest that have been identified, many of which have been destroyed by road building and other industrial activity. Currently 500 acres of mature second growth redwood are approved for logging by Cal Fire (the California Department of Forestry).

April 13, 2021--Mendocino County Fire Safe Radio host Scott Cratty talks with representatives of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, including Chairman Sonny Elliot, covering the cultural uses of fire, the numerous current wildfire mitigation programs currently under way, and the Tribe's partnership with the Fire Safe Council on Defensible Space and Chipper Day programs.

On February 16, the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians requested a government-to-government consultation with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, better known as Cal Fire, to discuss the Tribes concern over the cumulative impact of around nine timber harvest projects lined up to take place in Jackson Demonstration State Forest over the next half decade. Jackson Demonstration, a 50,000 acre parcel of land, is the ancestral territory of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo, along with other tribes.

Pomo Perspective is hosted by Michael Hunter, Tribal Chairman of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians. This episode explores the perils and power of finding one's voice, sports team mascots, the nomination of Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior, and much more. Pomo Perspective airs live on KZYX the third Monday of every month at 9am.

The Cannabis Hour is bi weekly radio program that covers all things cannabis. Host Jenn Procacci offers a special Thanksgiving episode to learn about the journey of the local Hopland Band of Pomo Indians to enter the legal cannabis cultivation space. We also hear from Sogorea Te' Land Trust Co-Founder/Co-Director Corrina Gould as she discusses returning Indigenous land to Indigenous people. The Cannabis Hour airs on KZYX + Z every other Thursday from 9am to 10am.

J. Carlos Rivera is a tribal member of the Sherwood Band of Pomo Indians and also of Mexican descent. When it comes to healing, he follows the guidance of Wallace Black Elk, of the Lakota tribe.

On this episode of The Ecology Hour, host Hannah Bird talks with Meyo Marrufo, Eastern Pomo of the Robinson Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, about the complex relationship humans have with fire. She also spoke with Lindsay Dailey of the Oak Granary about a volunteer opportunity to collect acorns for planting in the burned areas of Redwood Valley. Broadcast on October 6, 2020.

The Sherwood Valley Casino is a small casino in Northern California owned by the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians. Unlike its Southern California cousins, the Sherwood Valley casino has not reopened and is taking abundant care in planning the reopening, according Michael Broderick, the general manager.

Corine Pearce (Redwood Valley Rancheria Little River Band of Pomo Indians) weaves traditional Pomo baskets and cradleboards. But many of the grasses, ferns and trees she uses to practice her tradition burned in the California fires, so she is replanting and teaching others to ensure a future for her craft. She is among the 2020 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards honorees. We’ll talk with her and others about their work and efforts to pass on the tradition of making art.

In Part 1 of a special-edition series on the closure of the red abalone fishery in California, I explore the history of this iconic and important species, and what the December 2017 decision to close this fishery means. I first interview Katie Sowul, a scientist from CA Fish and Wildlife, who discusses how she and her colleagues assess wild red abalone populations, and what the ongoing threats to this species are. I also explore the cultural importance of these animals in an interview with Aryana Henthorne of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians. She discusses the ongoing colonization of this fishery, challenges for Native people who depend on this resource, and the cultural importance of red abalone. This is Part 1 of a series on red abalone. The series will continue to explore how science and communities can embrace multiple knowledge and value systems to move toward a more sustainable future while preserving human rights and culture.

  “And I think it saved the day, because we didn't have any money.” —Captain Rainbow     About: No place has tested the currents of change more than the Anderson Valley, a Gaza Strip-sized setting hidden in the hills of Northern California. Home to the language of Boontling, a fast fading past prose of the old frontier, the fate of the area’s kitschy tongue relies not on whether the valley will change, but how. And why.   Show Notes: [00:40] “Curious” by Blue Dot Sessions Related: A short video profile of O’Kane busking in New York City [03:10] “Time” by Morgan O’Kane [04:30] Light reading on Wes Smoot (The Anderson Valley Advertiser) [05:35] An alternate definition for the origin of the “buckey walter” [06:00] “Town Market” by Blue Dot Sessions [06:20]  Light reading on the discovery of the Anderson Valley And a step back (Walt Wines) [06:30] A close look at where valley is located (Cleveland State University) [07:05] Boontling: An American Lingo by Charles C. Adams ...in The Atlas Obscura ...in TIME ...in The Daily Mail ...in The Paris Review ...in The A.V. Club ...in Crave [09:20] Some neat articles that dive into the boontling dictionary [11:50] “Lemon and Melon” by Blue Dot Sessions [13:00] Boontling and the Anderson Valley Brewing Company [14:45] Light reading on Bobby “Chimpunk” Glover (The Anderson Valley Advertiser) [15:15] The New York Times’ review of “Bulrusher” by Eisa Davis [16:35] “Milkwood” by Blue Dot Sessions [17:30] Light reading on the Pomo Indians [18:00] Audio from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fireside chat about the Dust Bowl [18:15] Audio from a newsreel depicting sights and sounds from Victory in Europe Day in 1945 [19:00] Light reading on Danny Kuny [22:20] “Ve Main Chori Chori” by Reshma [23:20] “Sunday Lights” by Blue Dot Sessions [23:40] Highly recommend listening to this podcast interview between Russell Brand and Adam Curtis about individualism [31:00] “Don’t Fear the Reaper” cover by the Vitamin String Quartet [31:05] Light reading on Jim Jones (The Atlantic) [31:10] KGO News report of the the massacre at Jonestown [31:50] Light reading on Charles Manson (Wikipedia) [35:05] The Grange [36:15] “Midnight Rider” by the Allman Brothers [36:20] “Fishing in the Dark” by the Nitty Gritty Band [39:30] “Which Side Are You On” performed by Darryl Cherney [40:40] Light reading on the impacts of clear-cutting [40:45] “Algae Tender” by Blue Dot Sessions [43:40] “Brimevil” by Blue Dot Sessions [43:55] Light reading on the Spotted Owl (National Geographic). Audio from xeno-canto.org [44:00] A timeline of the Spotted Owl’s effect on timber and impact on price [44:15] What cutting a redwood looks and sounds like [44:30] An overview of Mendocino County’s timber harvesting [44:34] A deep read on the more recent state of the redwood [45:50] Lousiana Pacific celebrates 40th Anniversary at New York Stock Exchange [46:40] More on Sherry Glaser [47:40] “Earth First” by Darryl Cherney [49:25] Light reading on Redwood Summer and the Cointelpro (The Nation) Related: Trailer to “Who Bombed Judi Bari?”‚ a documentary that explores the title prompt [49:50] “Who Bombed Judi Bari” performed by Darryl Cherney [49:55] KTVU News report related to Judi Bari bombing [50:20] “Algae Trio” by Blue Dot Sessions [50:35] Related: Judi Bari’s obituary in the New York Times [51:05] Light reading on selling logs to Mexico (Los Angeles Times) [53:35] Lousiana Pacific sells its California assets (CNN Money) [53:40] [56:00] “Felt Lining” by Blue Dot Sessions More at thisissomenoise.com

“Look for those opportunities that may not be obvious to you.” Gabe Galanda is a member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. Galanda is also a partner at the law firm Galanda Broadman. He joined NextGen Native previously to share his personal journey. If you haven’t heard his story, I recommend listening to his personal journey. It’s a perfect example of how one can overcome challenges to succeed in your own personal way, at a high level. His personal journey is prologue to his work for clients facing disenrollment. Through his law practice, Galanda emerged as one of the most vocal critics of disenrollment. For several years, he has represented clients fighting disenrollment. During that time he experienced many trying moments and challenges in his fight for his clients. At the time, not many people in Indian Country were openly discussing disenrollment, let alone fighting against the movement. But the tide may be turning. We spoke not too long after a #stopdisenrollment day of action and also following the decision by the tribal council for the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians to re-enroll members that were previously disenrolled. Now, you’re seeing people speaking out against disenrollment, and taking action against it, in larger numbers. Much of that can be attributed to the work of Galanda and others who took on the fight several years ago. We discussed the fight against disenrollment, how Gabe managed the challenging battles on a personal and professional front, and what’s next in the fight. This includes an upcoming symposium called “Who Belongs” at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law. The event includes a list of heavy hitters that will attend including tribal leaders and leading legal minds. This is a huge topic of the moment for Indian Country, and it’s one of the most heavy and intense topics, too. But this podcast creates space to discuss these issues in an in-depth, nuanced fashion, even if the fire still burns hot. This is one of those conversations, and I hope it sparks more across Indian Country.  

“The most important thing is to be open minded to allow forgiveness...some of the horrible things that were done to us, we know our story. We know the horrible things. We don’t let that define who we are. Those horrible things that were done to Kashia are not who Kashia are. We’ll never forget it. We’ll always remember it. We’ll honor those that was done to, but we won’t let that define us. And we will be open to forgiveness....I would challenge everyone to find it.” Reno Franklin is Chairman of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians. This episode is a bit different because i) I usually do not have tribal leaders on the show. This is not for negative reasons, but instead I want to highlight the work of others not in leadership positions to show how much amazing work is being done in Indian Country. It’s also different because while we discuss Reno’s life, we also discuss his work as a tribal leader, projects he’s working on, approaches to being a leader. It’s definitely a fun conversation, and that’s before we even get to his story. Reno’s story: I first met Reno through the National Indian Health Board. I worked there and Reno was Chairman of the the organization. He also chaired the California Rural Indian Health Board, and the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. This is not to mention the work he’s done with other associations and working groups. Although his resume reads like one of grand ambition, his beginnings in tribal leadership tell a different story. It tells a story of service. Reno moved back to the reservation after he was asked to help with some wildfire work for the tribe. Reno was a firefighter and EMT at the time. Reno said that since he was asked, he moved home. He wasn’t far away, but this was his time to come home. His firefighting work led him to historic preservation work. Like other NextGen Natives, one project led to another, which eventually opened new doors and challenges. His work in healthcare started with a personal story he shared. To hear it, you’re going to have to listen to the show. But suffice it to say, when he started, he didn’t have any experience in the field. He learned through service and eventually his work rose to the national level. We discussed what it was like for him to be a tribal leader at a young age, in particular one at the national level where politics is intense. He shared stories about how he earned the respect of his colleagues and peers. Over time, they looked to him more and more for leadership. I shared Reno’s challenge to NextGen Natives above, and I think it is some of the most powerful words I’ve heard in awhile. It reminds me of Wab Kinew’s book The Reason You Walk and the theme of forgiveness. It’s not an easy discussion, but I think we need to be vulnerable and open to the idea of forgiveness.  Thanks for sharing, Reno!

The grassroots wellbriety movement is grounded in the healing power of Native American cultural values. Through recovery trainings and support groups that incorporate the teachings of the Medicine Wheel, the Cycle of Life, and the Four Laws of Change, the White Bison organization supports indigenous communities in reestablishing strong foundations for well-being.   Special guest J. Carlos Rivera, CADC-II, ICADC, executive director of White Bison, Inc., shares what makes the wellbriety approach so successful and how it is expanding into urban Indian communities. Carlos is an enrolled tribal member with the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians from Northern California. He has experience in the substance abuse field as well as participation as a board member for the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency State Committee in California, appointed by Governor Jerry Brown. Carlos has been a trainer for the Wellbriety Training Institute since 2010 and Keeper of the International Wellbriety Drum since 2012. Learn more at whitebison.org.