Urgent Call to Action for the Sinkyone

by Hawk Rosales, InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council

The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council is urgently requesting your help in returning a portion of the land originally inhabited by the Sinkyone people to Native American Stewardship. They are asking your support for the establishment of America's First InterTribal Wilderness Park, to be managed by California Indian tribes and open to the public. Re-establishment of the historic redwood forests, salmon runs, endangered native plant and animal communities, traditional Native American land uses and protection of Native cultural and sacred sites are projects already well underway at the Sinkyone.

By June, 1993, the State Coastal Conservancy will sell the 3,800 acre upland Sinkyone parcel, owned by the Trust for Public Lands and adjoining the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. Commercial logging interests have indicated a desire to harvest Sinkyone second-growth forests, and thus endanger this fragile coastal ecosystem once again. We must prevent a repeat of the destruction of Sinkyone forestlands!

What you can do

InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council(ITSWC) must raise $1.2 million to purchase these threatened lands and create a realistic model of Traditional Native American Multiple-Use Stewardship and Sustainability. Please contribute $10.00 or more by sending a check to ITSWC, 190 Ford Road, #333, Ukiah, CA 95482. Donations to the ITSWC are tax deductible. The ITSWC is a 501 (C) (3) non-profit organization. (707) 485-8744.

Also, please send a letter supporting the title transfer of the 3,800 acres to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council to the following people: California State Coastal Conservancy, Attn: Neal Fishman, 1330 Broadway, suite 1100, Oakland, CA 94612-2530; The Honorable Willie Brown, Speaker of the Assembly, 1338 Sutter St., Suite 1002, San Francisco, CA 94109; The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, 301 S. State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482.

Suggested wording for letter support:

Dear__________:

I am writing to you to express my full support for the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council in their efforts to create an InterTribal Park on ancestral Sinkyone lands. As you may know, the Council seeks ownership and/or management of 3,800 acres on the Lost Coast near the Humboldt/Mendocino County line. This land is owned by the Trust for Public Lands and will be sold by the California State Coastal Conservancy by June, 1993. The native people of Northern California have proven their record with thousands of years of responsible stewardship of this land. They are best prepared to manage it for historical reasons and because the Council has the most comprehensive and innovative plans for sustainable management of the land.

This is an historic opportunity both to restore the relationship between Native Northern Californians and their lands and to preserve and restore a valuable watershed and its' accompanying forest ecosystem. For the sake of Indian and non-Indian people, and of the Earth, please do all that you can to insure that the Inter-Tribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council is given the opportunity to implement its land management plans for the Sinkyone acreage in question. Thank you.

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Last Update: 6/27/04