As many people have watched the movie “Billy Jack” We saw how greed and one person changed a whole town with a casino. Many tribes have went the way of a casino to help support the tribe and many times the casino owners made all the money and left the tribes with little or nothing. Native American people are loosing who they are and in times like now when it is getting harder to make “the ends meet” what are Native people suppose to do. There is still a silent war that rage against Native people and the following story tells of just one battle that is being fought now.
THUNDERSTORM
THE BEGINNING AND ENDING OF A TRAGEDY
The story of the California Valley Miwok Tribe
The hand-game or "hiding the bones." The booming sound takes your breath away,
squeezing out every last bit of courage, for I do not know the outcome of our
fate, of our days left in this world, or of the days left of our Tribe's
sovereignty.
Off in the distance rolling thunderclouds are rapidly approaching. We warn
others of the immediate danger but they don't take notice, they are deaf to our
words. We yell louder of the approaching storm that is closing in, vastly
approaching, to engulf us all. We yell till our voices go quiet. My body is
weak, but I gather up what strength I can to face the wind. As the storm grows
in size, my soul shudders with fear, the end is never as one expects it to be.
Tears flood forward stinging my eyes like the heat of the lightning. The ground
shakes, the wind blows, I find myself standing alone. Memories flash though my
mind so fast that I can barely decipher them through the flashes of the
lightening that is zigzagging across the sky.
The music, I can hear the music of the old hand-game songs. I can see the rows
of teams, the showing of the hand-game bones, the old songs pound louder and
louder causing the rhythm of my heart to beat with the song, I become one with
the music, my body becomes part of the song. I look with pride at my Grandfather
for he is so crafty at the game and such a powerful singer. My Grandmother
smiles and laughs as the hands are now stretched out, it's time to choose, which
hand hold the bones and which is empty?
OHHHHH!!! HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!
You loose, the hand is empty! The winning team keeps the stick and the bones are
hidden again. The song becomes more intense. BOOM!!!!! More thunder. The storm
is menacing. Darkness falls. The wind howls and lightening pierces the awesome
picture that is developing in front of me. The music reenters my mind, the
hand-game. Our ancestors would know what to do. Think! Think! Although they have
passed over, they are still near. They comfort us in sorrow and in fear.
Please Grandmother and Grandfather hear me now. The storm is upon us and I am
standing alone with nowhere safe to go.
I am facing my worst fears by standing here looking
straight into the eye of the storm. How does such a storm happen, one may ask.
The storm started with two people getting together to find an investment and
when Prop I-A passed in California, the media started reporting how Indian
Tribes can make a lot of money by now being given an opportunity to own Vegas
styled casinos to create revenue to improve the lives of the their people. The
two individuals (non-Indian) in this particular storm approached one of our
tribal members and signed a casino deal (unbeknownst to the Tribe), and when
they did their due diligence, they found out the individual tribal member
possessed no official
authority to sign any contracts and/or agreements on behalf of the Tribe.
Instead of letting the matter go and/or approaching the Tribe, these two
individuals hired another non-Indian from Berkeley, California to create havoc
in order to destroy the rightful tribal members and legitimate Tribe.
The storm begins to take shape, for now an ill wind begins
to blow onward towards the
California Valley Miwok Tribe. The Tribe tells others that a storm is
approaching and what is causing it, but others are too busy with their own lives
and their own problems, they do not believe that such a storm would overtake
them as it is about to hit the California Valley Miwok Tribe head on. The
Updrafts and the Downdrafts. First a group of individuals were put together who
claim themselves to be putative members (false claim) misleading the local
Bureau to believe that it can force these people into our tribe. We will call
this the updraft (the transporting of enormous amounts of false information to
officials). Secondly, there is the downdraft (the officials in the local Bureau
who abuse their powers and give preference to the non-Indian developers with
their phony group of people who are trying to steal our tribe). The updraft and
the downdraft combined, creates a turbulent environment and the people who
suffer from this violent storm are
the California Valley Miwok tribal members and the duly elected tribal
government.
Because the updraft and downdraft has been able to freely interfere into our
internal tribal affairs, the total destruction of our Tribe is what is being
allowed to take place. The message is this is not a one-time phenomenon. If we
are left to stand alone, to fight this storm, the storm will rise again to
devour more Tribes and innocent tribal members.
We are in possession of Bureau archival letters by officials, of which our Tribe
has been
determined to have-never been terminated, so we are not a Tillie Hardwick tribe.
We have always been a small tribe. We officially organized in 1998, ratified our
tribal constitution on March 6, 2000, have policies, procedures, ordinances,
resolutions, a financial management system, etc.... We have continued to
successfully pass our annual federal audits without ever having even one
finding, yet the greedy developer "group" and the one local Bureau official have
managed to work together to stop our RSTF monies and our PL-93 Mature Status 638
Contract. Now that they have strangled our Tribe financially, they are going to
unilaterally try to force a re-organization upon our tribe.
The phony group submitted their phony Miwok lineage/ancestry and forwarded it to
the Bureau, and without giving us due process, the local Bureau official and a
couple of his official friends in DOl will finally destroy what is left of us.
We have no resources to fight for our rights or our sovereignty. The lies that
are being told are too overwhelming since they have the backing of a casino
owner to finance them to steal our tribe.
Their “ so called chief” is as we speak, serving a three
year sentence in Folsom prison, California. My tears mix with the rain. My cries
echo like the thunder. My blood is as thick as the mud and my anger is as hot as
lightening.
OHHHHH!!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!!l!!!!!
CHOOSE which hand????
Do you not see the storm? Hear the thunder or see the flashes of lightening?
The storm engulfs us. We pray for relief. We pray for courage and strength to
make it through the storm alive. I am asking that if you cannot see the storm,
then please listen. HELP US!!
Help us find shelter for the storm is taking everything we own. All we have left
is our very lives, our memories, the injustices, and the Indian blood which
pumps through our veins. Remember, the storm dissipates from the bottom up and
the up draft is what caused this storm to begin. We must stop the updraft and
the downdraft will stop itself.
Please Grandmothers, Grandfathers, Brothers, Sisters; Cousins, Mothers, and
Fathers, we need your assistance. Our Tribe has been here for centuries but can
easily disappear in the blink of an eye and what will be left is just an image
pretending to be real. The individuals who will steal our image will be
soulless, no true Miwok blood, no true history or ancestry. The phony group will
have disgraced our people who have passed over to the spirit world. Our culture,
traditions, memories and stories forever lost. Our Tribe is seeking shelter from
this storm and is pleading for those of you who have heart, to please not turn
us away. Please don't close your ears to our sobs or our pain, for once we are
gone, we may never cross this path again.
AHO!
This story is written by
Silvia Burley, Chairperson
Silvia
burley@californiavalleymiwoktribe-nsn.gov
California Valley Miwok Tribe
(209) 931-4567
© May 28,