And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 19:21:31 -0400
From: Gwen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Bigger Role for Death Valley Tribe
By William Claiborne
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 6, 1999; Page A21
For years, Native Americans have had a token--some say
trivialized and humiliating--presence at some of the nation's most
majestic national parks, often sitting outside a tepee weaving blankets as a
stereotyped reminder of who originally inhabited the land.
However, as a result of a new agreement in principle
with the National Park Service, a tiny California Indian tribe has
tentatively been given broad responsibilities in running large parts of the
3.2-million-acre Death Valley National Park. The tribe will acquire 300
acres for
building a limited number of houses and the use of 1,000 acres for
resuming traditional harvesting activities, which will become part of a
cultural education program for visitors. The tribe also will share in the
management of a 300,000-acre expanse of parkland and will be given
ownership of more than 6,000 acres outside the park that now are
administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
The deal with the 300-member Timbi-Sha Shoshone Tribe,
which since1933 has been confined to 40 acres in one corner of
the austerely beautiful but scorching desert park, still must be approved by
Congress. But if ratified, it could pave the way for management-sharing
deals in other U.S. parks where Native Americans have long-standing claims
on land, park officials say.
"If the Miccosukee experience in Florida was an
example of how not to involve tribes in parklands, this is definitely an
example of how it should be done," said John Reynolds, director of the Park
Service's western regional office in San Francisco, who negotiated the deal
with
the Timbi-Sha.
Reynolds was referring to the Miccosukee Indians, who
after being blocked by the Park Service on environmental grounds
from building 65 homes on wetlands at the edge of the Everglades
National Park, won legislation overriding the ban last year. Indians have
asserted claims to land in a number of other U.S. parks, and the Death Valley
agreement is seen as a model for other compromise deals.
The Timbi-Sha agreement gives tribal members, most of
whom moved out of Death Valley after it was added to the park system
66 years ago, the right to build 50 homes, a tribal government complex,
a cultural center and a tourist inn at Furnace Creek, the park's center of
tourist activity.
Reynolds said the Timbi-Sha will conduct traditional
activities, including gathering pine nuts and collecting willow branches for
basketmaking.
"What the Park Service gains is official recognition
of incorporating the Timbi-Sha culture into the park in a way that the
public can learn about their traditions," Reynolds said.
"What they gain is a means to return to where they
used to be."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
