Tribe continues to work on draft legislation; environmentalists weigh in
Donna Tam
Continuing its efforts to have the U.S. government transfer national park lands to Yurok management, the tribe will present its draft legislation to the county on Tuesday.
According to the tribe, the draft legislation -- which outlines the transfer of 1,204 acres of Redwood National Park land to the Yurok Tribal Park System -- is a part of the tribe's plans to reclaim ancestral territory. The tribe is scheduled to make a presentation on the matter to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday at 10 a.m.
The draft legislation also asks for an additional 285 acres of public lands and the inclusion of the California Coastal National Monument Redding Rock and would designate a conservation status to the Yurok Experimental Forest -- 1,198 acres that are north of the national park land.
In a public meeting in March, tribal leaders spoke about the importance of the lands to the tribe's culture, traditional hunting and gathering, and ceremonies. Environmentalists in attendance expressed concern over the precedent the legislation could set -- transferring already protected land to a sovereign nation -- particularly legislation that doesn't come with a finalized management plan.
Yurok Tribe Policy Analyst Troy Fletcher said last week that the tribe has been working with groups since the meeting to address concerns in order to improve its draft before submitting it for consideration. He said the change in management is not intended to affect public access or the park land's sustainability.
”It's stop and go, and a slow process -- something we're still working on, but we're moving forward,” he said, adding that the tribe is working on a question and answer sheet that would try to quell some of the concerns brought up, including those from the local Sierra Club.
At the March meeting, Sierra Club member Diane Beck stressed the importance of the park to her organization and to environmentalists in general.
She said the club worked hard to establish the park and would be afraid of what the legislation would do to public access.
Tribal leaders said the legacy of families within the tribe is reflected in the land, and the sale of land has been a sore point for many.
According to the national forest service, legislation converted most of the lands within what is now the Yurok Reservation to private property between 1864 and 1934. In 1968, Congress established Redwood National Park with a boundary that overlapped 1,360 acres of the Hoopa/Yurok Reservation near the mouth of the Klamath River. Between 1968 and 1988, the National Park Service purchased 1,160 acres of land within this overlap area from private landowners.
Jerry and Gisela Rohde, Redwood National Park enthusiasts and authors of the book “Best Short Hikes of Redwood National and State Parks,” said they were concerned about the vagueness of the legislation as well as the possibility of the boundaries crossing over into the ancestral land of other tribes.
The draft legislation allows tribal members to conduct “traditional subsistence and gathering activities within its ancestral territory,” limiting hunting and gathering to the national park lands. The legislation also has language allowing members to participate in “eeling, shellfish, seaweed gathering, surf fishing” and other traditional beach actives as well as capturing “surplus” elk within the park lands and moving them to other Yurok Tribal Park System lands.
”There's no language in this bill to spell out that you cannot do this for commercial interest,” Gisela Rohde said on Friday. “I think if the Yurok say, 'Oh, well we are only doing this for traditional purposes,' then they should not have a problem saying that in the language.”
She said she is also concerned that the Yurok's outline of ancestral territory is large, much larger than the few thousand acres being requested in the legislation, so she fears it is opening the door to more acquisitions.
Fletcher said this is not the first time a tribe has participated in a public land transfer, pointing to legislation dictating the transfer of National Forest Service land to the Hoopa Tribe in 1996. Additionally, he said the tribe will have a final management plan established separately, but the boundaries need to be set first.
”For a final management plan, we're looking for the legislation to establish the sideboard, and we're committed to a transparent and open process,” he said.
Fletcher said that while it's admirable that people are concerned about the other tribes, the legislation does not exclude other tribes; it just protects the Yurok.
”In ancestral land, there's always overlapping areas,” he said. “We're just trying to take care of Yurok.”
Donna Tam can be reached at 441-0532 or at dtam@times-standard.com.