Northern California tribe fights to access traditional land for ceremony

In the Northern California mountains, The Winnemum Wintu tribe has revived an ancient ceremony for young women.  But the federally unrecognized tribe is having difficulties accessing their ancestral lands, which are held in public trust today and have become a popular site for water recreation. FSRN's Christina Aanestad files this report:

TRANSCRIPT:

Along the McCloud River, a scenic tributary of the Mount Shasta Dam, the Winnemum Wintu tribe gather for a traditional ceremony. Men dance and sing around a sacred fire that will burn for four days and nights. This is a puberty ceremony, and it honors a girl's transition into womanhood.

Caleen Sisk-Franco is chief and spiritual leader of the Winnemum Wintu:

"We call it  Balas Chonas, which means that we are bringing our girls into a culture that  really demands that they be connected.  They're all waiting for the girls to come back as young women, and when they do, there is a place for them- and there is a belonging that happens."

This is the second time in more than eight decades the Winnemum Wintu have returned to their ancestral land to hold the ceremony. In the 1940s, during World War II, Congress removed the Wintu from the land, to build the Mount Shasta Dam. In the process, most of their villages were flooded.

Now the area is open to recreational boating and fishing.

Sisk-Franco says holding a ceremony on their sacred land is a challenge, since boaters now use the waterways:

"We should have an indigenous right to have and hold our ceremony in privacy.  it's not on display. It's not a show for people to come and look at."

Sisk-Franco says the recreational users of the area often consume alcohol, which is disruptive to their ceremony:

"There's 375 miles of lake. So let them vacation somewhere else."

Because the Winnemum Wintu are unrecognized by the federal government, the U.S. Forest Service refuses to close the waterway to recreational boaters. Instead, they're issuing a voluntary river closure.

While most boaters appear to honor the request, there are some onlookers that speed by in their motorized boats,watching as two young girls make the transition from pubescence into adulthood on the banks of the river.

Marc Franco is war chief of the Winnemum Wintu tribe:

"We're out here trying to maintain our life way in the best way that we know how, as humbly as we can, and doing that in a  society that surrounds us and doesn't really understand what ceremony means.  What does it mean to have your young women go through this change and how do you honor them?  You need to honor your women."

Franco says in 2004 the tribe declared war on the U.S. because of the U.S. government's continued cultural genocide. A federal proposal to raise the Shasta Dam would flood the Wintu's remaining sacred sites along the McCloud River. Although the U.S. Forest Service has refused to close the recreational area during their ceremony, the tribe says they'll continue to pressure the government to protect their land and ceremonies.

Christina Aanestad, FSRN, Northern California.

Photo: Winnemem Wintu dancers

Photo credit: marmarou