California Valley Miwok Tribe, California

Transcription

1 California Valley Miwok Tribe, California (formerly the Sheep Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California) Sheep Ranch Rd. (Sheep Ranch) - Mountain Ranch, California Administration: 1231 E. Hazelton Ave. - Stockton California { October 1, 2010 Bryan Newland, Policy Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary Indian Affairs United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs 1849 C Street, N.W. MS 4606-MIB Washington, D.C ) <Bryan.Newland@bia.gov> Mr. Newland: Chadd Everone, Deputy 2140 Shattuck Ave. #602 Berkeley, California We wish to convey our gratitude to you and Mr. Simermeyer for the meeting of September 7; and I am sending this same letter, addressed to him. Being that the office of the Assistant Secretary is new to the details of this situation, I have provided, enclosed, a review of the main events in the history of this Tribe. This may be of some assistance in your deliberations. The BIA has all of these documents; but its seems that they may not have them chronologically well ordered, which is really the best way to understand the context of events and causality. It should not take much more than about 15 minutes to read my Synopsis (pages 1-6); and then a more detailed reading of the history and documents can be done, if so desired. Again, there are no new documents here; and these are already a part of the BIA's existing file - it is mostly an ordering of events and documents and my comments that are provided. Also, for easier referral 1 From: Transcript of Motions Hearing; January 19, 2006 "THE COURT: Well, let me -- I'm trying to find out what happens if I dismiss this case. What does the BIA do if I dismiss this case? What do you next? Anything? Or just let the Miwok set there as unorganized and keep sending them money every year and..." California Valley Miwok (Burley) v. USA in case # CA ; Judge James Robertson, videlicit 15c.

2 to other interested parties, this has been posted in "pdf" format, with active links to the documents. See: My parting remark to you in the meeting of September 7 was that the Bureau has competent, honest, hardworking people at the Central California Agency and the Pacific Region, who want to get this Tribe properly organized. I sincerely mean that, having interacted and worked with a broad spectrum of your staff since the beginning of my involvement in Our hope is that the people at Central will allow them to do their job so that good government-togovernment relations can be established between the U.S. and the Tribal governments. Although the process has been very protracted and complex and deliberately confounded by the opposition's legal flimflammery (which is now exhausted) and her public campaign of libel and slander (which probably is inexhaustible), the BIA has made decisions which are proper to this particular situation and has steadfastly defended its stance in Court and Administrative review. The people in the Tribe have a saying, which seems to be common to various tribes and which admonishes to "plan for many generations". That seems to be the underlying tenor of the people; and they have demonstrated, what to me, has been exceptional patience and trust; and they have supported the Bureau through the entire ordeal over, 7+ years. I recall one particular instance, which now is discussed with some humor, but at the time, it was not. It was in March of this year and when Silvia Burley hired about 20 people to demonstrate against the BIA in front of the Agency's building in downtown Sacramento. With the exception of her aged and disabled mother (which shocked everyone because of Mildred's extreme duress in the cold), Silvia's group must have been professional demonstrators because none of them could be recognized as members of the Tribe, and one of the most vocal ones was not even Indian, being obviously Filipina. Burley's demonstration was an attempt to force the BIA to release the government's PL 638 money to save her real estate from foreclosure, a mansion, adjacent, which she audaciously claimed to be "tribal land"

3 Prominent at the demonstration in front of the Federal building was the poster, below, which was later used in some kind of a press release. When the Putative Members of the Tribe learned that there was to be such a demonstration, about 10 of them assembled and staged a quiet, counter demonstration on the corner, where they handed out information which explained that the BIA was doing the right thing and was advancing the interests of the authentic members of the Tribe by freezing grant money until the proper authority was established. Burley called the police (Homeland Security, in fact) and tried to have this counter demonstration evicted for lack of a permit. Rather than be intimidated and go away, the group stayed while two of the members went into the Federal building to get a permit. When Briana and Pete returned, waving the permit and giving it to the police, I recall one of them saying with a sense of irony: "I bet this is one of the only times Indians have demonstrated FOR the BIA". As I said, thus far, the Bureau has done the right thing - acting to the benefit of both the Federal government and the Tribe. Of course, everyone is somewhat paranoid given the claims of Mr. Rosette and his associate that they have "political influence at high places"; but we believe that right action will prevail. Besides, in 2004, another of Ms. Burley's attorneys (Philip Thompson) made the same assertion, to which one of your legal staff commented: "many people in this town claim to have political influence, but in truth, few really do; but what else do they have to sell". Silvia Burley's poster at her protest against the BIA on March 25, 2010 and as later published in her press release of the event - attempting to vilify the BIA. My only objection in all of these proceedings is that the Bureau does not make explicit what are its interests and issues that need to be resolved, so that reasoned and coherent

4 argument can be presented. We are left "shooting in the dark" much of the time. So, as we move into this final stage, if you can define exactly what the BIA's issues might be, then that would be of help in providing relevant exposition Sincerely, Authorized by: 4

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