New wilderness area managed by American Indians opens
Story-Date: 06:36 p.m. PST Friday   , October 10, 1997

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New wilderness area managed by American Indians opens



USAL, Calif. (AP)-- Far in the northern reaches of California, where the
redwoods meet the sea, a cooperative experiment has given birth to the
nation's first American Indian-owned wilderness park.

The Intertribal Sinkyone Wilderness Park is a joint project of 11 tribes --
including the Pomo, Wailaki and Yuki people -- The Trust For Public Land
and the California State Coastal Conservancy, among others.

The park, about 200 miles north of San Francisco on the Mendocino coast,
was to have been dedicated Friday, but the ceremonies were canceled because
this week's bad weather made roads into the area dangerous.

The creation of the 3,900-acre park in an area known as the "Lost Coast" is
seen as a breakthrough in effort to return traditional native lands to
their original inhabitants. Its creators also hope it will become a model
for returning an abused landscape to its pristine state.

After more than a century of logging and ecological damage, American
Indian groups are eager to show how their traditional ways can heal the
land.

They also hope the project will provide an example of how returning to the
old ways can provide a better way to live for thousands of
reservation-bound young American Indians living in poverty and abusing
drugs or alcohol.

For five years, members of an inter-tribal council have been recontouring
old logging roads and trails cut through the steep hillside by
logging.

They also are planting new trees and grasses, fixing damaged watersheds
and repairing salmon jumps and spawning pools for the coho salmon and
steelhead trout that once were abundant in the area.

The preserve, which measures more than 6 square miles and includes numerous
burial grounds or other ceremonial sites, once was inhabited by the
Sinkyone people, who lived each winter along the South Fork of the Eel
River. Many of them died after the Gold Rush at the hands of the military
or were enslaved or dragged off to reservations.

Eventually, the Georgia-Pacific Corp. bought the land and began harvesting
its timber.

But in 1983, environmentalists and American Indians protested the
logging activities and filed suit, halting any work. So Georgia Pacific
sold more than 7,100 acres to the Trust for Public Land and the California
State Coastal Conservancy.

A little less than half of that became part of the existing Sinkyone
Wilderness State Park, which contains the Coastal Trail.

The rest is now part of the new Sinkyone Wilderness Park. It will be used
by an estimated 7,000 members of Northern California tribes for retreats
and other cultural revival activities.



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