Tribes Faced With MLPA Closures Walk Traditional Route for Food Gathering

Tribes Faced With MLPA Closures Walk Traditional Route for Food Gathering

by Dan Bacher

Today at 9:00 a.m., Indian Tribes from Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma, and Humboldt counties met at Wilderness Rd. near Branscomb along the Northern California coast to take the traditional route for summer food gathering.

They ended their route at Howard Beach at 2:00 p.m. for traditional dance and food. Discussion took place regarding Governor MLPA Initiative closures and the issues the tribes are facing, according to a news release from the tribes. The public was invited to attend.

For thousands of years, tribes have gathered seaweed, mussels, abalone and fish from the inter-tidal zone for subsistence and ceremonial purposes. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process has shown no respect for the religious, subsistence and ceremonial rights of coastal tribes.

Beginning May 1, new closures imposed under the MLPA ban the Kashia Pomo Tribe from their traditional gathering and ceremonial site off Danaka (Stewarts Point) in Sonoma County, a site sacred to the tribe. “I don’t think the Fish and Game Commission would be allowed to close down a Catholic Church, would they?” said Violet Chappell, Kashia Pomo Tribe Elder at a blessing ceremony on April 30.

I will have a more detailed report on the event within the next couple of days.

The MLPA, a landmark law passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, has been hijacked by oil industry, real estate, marine development and other corporate interests under the Schwarzenegger administration. Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative has openly violated numerous state, federal and international laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

For more information about the violation of indigenous subsistence, cultural and religious rights under the MLPA, go to: http://www.fishsniffer.com/forums/content.php?r=221 and Violet Wilder's facebook page, "KEEP THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACHES ACCESSIBLE FOR THE COASTAL TRIBES" (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105945012781743).