From the Sacramento Bee

Protecting Yosemite

Re “Judge halts raft of Yosemite upgrade projects/Park officials scolded and told to work on river management,” Nov. 7: As a Paiute who is a direct descendent of the Indians of Yosemite, I am pleased to read that environmental groups protected the Merced River. There is more to this story.
Yosemite National Park uses a nonprofit Indian group to OK many of its excavation plans. The group, called the Southern Sierra Miwoks, has a leadership made up of former and current employees of Yosemite Park itself, which is a conflict of interest. They endorse many projects the park wants. This conflict of interest is against the Department of the Interior personnel policy, which Yosemite National Park is not following.
Many Paiute descendents of Yosemite Native Americans complained about the park digging up our ancestors’ graves, and the park paraded this non-profit and another Miwok group in front of the government. The only problem is that many buried at the site were known Paiutes and not Miwoks.
Recently, Yosemite National Park was successful in covering one of Chief Tenaya’s villages with a large restroom. That is why we Yosemite Indians, who care, are glad that these environmental groups stopped another travesty from happening.

- Jean Smith, Sacramento

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From the Fresno Bee

Indians overlooked

11/20/06 06:59:47

[National Park Service spokesman] Scott Gediman (story Nov. 7) is sad that a few people have stymied recent efforts by the Park Service to go through with their plans. He also stated: “There very well could be problems without some of this work.”

One major problem not stated in the article was the fact that there are possible human remains at one proposed construction site. The people buried there were family members and there was no adequate concessions made to the lineal descendants as to their treatment and proper repatriation. Nor were the descendants contacted about any disturbance until the plaintiffs in the case did so.

In his injunction, Judge Anthony Ishii ruled that the Park Service’s efforts to revitalize the area of the human remains “involves neither routine maintenance nor health and safety issues likely to affect the public.” With so little to lose, the Park Service should have obliged the descendants of the Native Americans interned there on the grounds of polite decency. The only Native American peoples counseled in this matter were not representative of the masses of native peoples who call Yosemite their ancestral home.

Erick Regalado, Fresno