Washoe plans for land use long in the works

Tahoe Daily Tribune

July 29, 1997
By Jenifer Ragland
Tribune Staff Writer

Jean McNicoll is still walking on air.

Three days after an agreement dedicated 400 acres of land in the Tahoe Basin to the Washoe people, the tribe elder can't control her elation.

Known to most children in the basin as "Yetta," McNicoll said the access to Lake Tahoe means a new era for the Washoe.

"All of our people have been saddened because they couldn't go to the lake, when the fences came up and the 'no trespassing' signs," she said Monday. "Now we are all ecstatic. Friday was just great."

She said the tribe plans to begin immediately to establish a presence in the basin. Its chairman, Brian Wallace, was at the lake Monday to do just that, she said. The contract between the U.S. Forest Service and Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California was signed Friday following Vice President Gore's forum, and announced Saturday by President Clinton at the Lake Tahoe summit.

The agreement specifically states the Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit intends to issue a 30-year special use permit to build a Washoe Cultural Center along Taylor Creek, on 45 acres of land stretching to the shore of the lake.

The parcel of land was studied in 1985 and an environmental impact review, commissioned by the tribe, has been completed. However, the tribe and the Forest Service have agreed to provide a new environmental document incorporating some additional information, for which the agency will seek funding.

Wallace said the center is 20 years in the making, with the building plans and most permits in place.

"The cultural center gives us the opportunity to work on the land, the opportunity to share with others, gives us a presence and maybe some economic opportunity - although that's not the focus," he said.

Another 30-year special use permit will allow the Washoe to manage a 350-acre meadow near Meeks Creek, in order to revive heritage and cultural knowledge.

According to the agreement, Meeks Creek Meadow is a contained landscape where important traditional plants grow and are accessible to tribal elders. "Through the special use permit, the Washoe people would be provided an established area to gather plants, reinforce tradition and educate their youth and the general public," the document reads.

Prior to President Clinton's announcement of the deal, Wallace spoke extensively about the tribe's need for a reattachment with the land.

"It's so central to everything. It's how we teach our children, how we return home - it's everything," he said. "There are elders discovering threatened plant populations. The more they get to work with the land, the more they're remembering. It reminds us of the burning urgency of today, because these very same people won't be here forever."

He said the historical United States policy related to Native Americans has been to access lands and develop them, which has been devastating to tribes everywhere. "Native people of this hemisphere have cosmology that is land based, and I feel that some of the hardship they have had to endure is the loss of that relationship to the land," Wallace said. "It's been so destructive to our society and our culture, what little we've been able to have has helped us to survive and avoid extinction."

In addition to the land dedication, the agreement mentions future commercial opportunities for the tribe, including the possible operation of the Meeks Bay Resort and Marina, for which the special use permits expire at the end of 1997.

The agency will accept an application from the tribe, taking into special consideration the unique cultural contribution that the tribe would provide to the Lake Tahoe community, according to the agreement.

The type of action taken by the Forest Service is few and far between in American history.

Native American tribes, subject to a long history of mistreatment, have been trying for centuries to regain homelands lost to American settlers during the Gold Rush of the 18th and 19th centuries, Wallace said.

"This is somewhat of a significant departure from historic federal policy, particularly in basin federal policy," he said. "It's not radical to us - we think it's a small step. But for many people, in an institutional way, it's a radical departure from status quo business.

"No one imagined land transfer issues and Washoe Indians until now."