Protecting a sacred rite cont.

The Wintu have been inexplicably missing from the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ list of Native American tribes since 1985, Mulcahy said. Until then, they received all the benefits a federally recognized tribe would expect, like health care and scholarships. Mulcahy speculates a decades-old bureaucratic error is to blame.

The list, originally compiled in 1979, accounted for tribes with ratified treaties with the U.S. government and tribes with assets held in trust, he said. When Shasta Dam was constructed and Wintu tribal ground was flooded to create Shasta Lake, the Wintu were promised land and a cemetery in their name as compensation for their displacement.

“They made the cemetery, but they named it the Shasta Reservoir Indian Cemetery and they did not provide the lands,” Mulcahy said. “When the BIA went through making their list, there were no assets in the name of the Winnemem Wintu, so they just overlooked us.”

Mulcahy hopes the BIA will correct its mistake, much like it did earlier this year with the Tejon Indian Tribe in Kern County. The BIA conceded to omitting the Tejon Indians in error and granted them federal recognition in January.

“They have taken away our right to eagle feathers, our right to scholarships and our rights to protect sacred places and be Winnemem,” Chief Sisk said in a statement. “It’s time we take those rights back.”

Despite their ongoing struggle with the BIA, Mulcahy says relations between the Wintu and the Forest Service have improved dramatically over previous years, when the tribe felt its requests were falling on deaf ears.

“[Regional Forester] Randy Moore stepped up and did what was right,” Mulcahy said. “He saw what happened during the last two Coming of Age ceremonies. He saw the harassment, the threats and the possibility of some serious things. He did the right thing. He’s closing the river.”

Mulcahy credits the closure to the overwhelming public support the tribe has received in the weeks leading up to the ceremony. One such supporter is Heidi Silva-Strand of Whitmore, who met members of the Wintu tribe through a community breakfast. When she became aware of their plight, she began reaching out to officials at the Forest Service.
“It’s the right thing to do,” she said of her efforts. “This is where they have always lived. Not allowing them to hold their own private ceremony is offensive. They only ask this because they have been heckled and trashed.”

In the meantime, Chief Sisk and her nephew will continue fasting in hopes the BIA will rectify its decades-old error and her tribe will be able to celebrate Marisa’s Coming of Age without incident.

“We are fasting and praying because they need to come to the table and fix their mistake,” Chief Sisk said. “We are the indigenous people from here. Recognized or not, we have the right to hold our ceremony in privacy.”

Learn more:
Go online to www.winnememwintu.us for more information on the Winnemem Wintu tribe and their fight for federal recognition.

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