Winnemem Wintu Nation at Risk

SHASTA LAKE
Tribe sees dam plan as cultural genocide
Raising lake level would drown sites sacred to the Winnemem Wintu

Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer
Sunday, February 27, 2005

A plan to raise Shasta Dam could help ease California's water crisis, but a band of California Indians says the project will obliterate their culture and way of life.

The dam proposal is a centerpiece strategy of CalFed, the joint federal and state agency empowered to distribute the state's water to its various stakeholders.

The idea is to raise the dam 16 feet or more, vastly increasing the holding capacity of Shasta Lake -- and the state's water supply -- for a relatively small investment. Raising the dam by even 16 feet could boost Shasta's storage capacity by 300,000 acre-feet -- enough to supply 900,000 families with water for a year.

Agriculture and municipalities are bullish on the proposal. California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who was instrumental in securing recent key authorizing legislation for CalFed, is supporting feasibility studies for the plan.

But fisheries advocates and environmentalists generally are opposed to the project, saying it would provide no benefit for downstream fisheries and wildlife.

And for the Winnemem Wintu -- a tribe of about 125 members that historically occupied the McCloud River drainage -- a higher dam would be an unmitigated catastrophe.

Raising the dam would submerge several sacred sites permanently, tribal members say. And because these sites are essential to the tribe's religious ceremonies, the project, they say, amounts to cultural genocide.

"We feel like Catholics would feel if it was decided that flooding the Sistine Chapel was a good public works project," said Caleen Sisk-Franco, the tribe's leader. "To us, the project would be the worst kind of sacrilege."

Sisk-Franco made her comments at Kaibai, an ancient Winnemem village site on the McCloud River arm of Shasta Lake. According to a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist in the area, the Winnemem may have lived here for more than 2, 000 years.

Typically, Kaibai is underwater for much of the year, appearing only after the reservoir has been drawn down in the summer. But due to unusually heavy releases from Shasta Dam, the tribe has had access to Kaibai for months. The McCloud is running free and clear past the ancient village site.

If Shasta Lake is raised by 16 feet, Kaibai probably will disappear forever.

Sisk-Franco gently placed her hand on a large rock cratered with numerous mortar holes for grinding.

"We hold the puberty rites for our kids here," Sisk-Franco said. "We use this rock every year for grinding medicinal plants -- just as our ancestors have done, for hundreds of years."

She pointed to a huge boulder across the river and downstream from the grinding rocks.

"That's Children's Rock," she said. "Our children are taught to climb there in our initiation ceremonies, to gain confidence for later observances, when they have to climb -- that."

She turned, and nodded at a steep, rocky peak looming over Kaibai.

"That's Hamaleokus," she said. "Our boys are taken up there to fast when they come of age. When the white men came into the McCloud drainage, we flew a flag at the top of Hamaleokus, to say, 'We're still here.' "

Mark Franco, a tribal member and Sisk-Franco's husband, said the tribe has tried to contact CalFed, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Feinstein about its concerns, but have received little substantive feedback.

"It's clear they don't really want to be bothered with us," Franco said.

But representatives of the agencies involved in the dam proposal say they have no intention of ignoring the Winnemem.

Keith Coolidge, a spokesman for CalFed, said raising Shasta Dam is one of five new surface water storage projects contemplated for the state.

"The participating agencies will look at the comparative merits (of the different projects) and should arrive at a decision by the end of 2006," Coolidge said. "I'm sure the concerns of the Winnemem will be addressed as the Shasta Dam proposal goes through the process."

Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that administers the Shasta Dam and reservoir, said all stakeholders will be heard before a decision is made.

"Where the Winnemem are concerned, we will do cultural surveys and look at the impacts that could arise," McCracken said. "This isn't 50 years ago, when whole towns were moved for water projects without a second thought."

But Franco said the Winnemem generally have found government agencies unresponsive to their concerns over sacred sites -- not just the Bureau of Reclamation and CalFed, but also the U.S. Forest Service.

He cited one recent point of conflict: Dekkas, a steep hillside site near the McCloud River used by the tribe for a variety of rites, including a spring ceremony honoring Winnemem elders who have survived the winter.

On a tour of Dekkas, Franco and Sisk-Franco pointed out a large number of brush piles that had been stacked recently, a fuel reduction effort carried out by the Forest Service. The brush was all old-growth manzanita, Franco noted, and had been part of a grove sacred to the tribe.

"This is where we get our wood for our ceremonial fires," he said. "Now - - it's all gone."

Franco shook his head, visibly upset. "This has completely desecrated Dekkas," he said. "We had explicit agreements with the Forest Service that they would stay away from this site."

Next to a gate blocking a rutted road that led to Dekkas, Sisk-Franco pointed out a rock that had been covered by manzanita, and was now ringed by stumps.

"There was a rattlesnake that lived there," she said, "the guardian to Dekkas. I doubt he's there now -- it's too exposed. Dekkas is unprotected."

Jennings Sharon Heywood, the supervisor for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, said contract crews working for the agency cut the brush around Dekkas.

"Our original information told us those bushes were far enough away from the ceremonial site to have no impact," Heywood said. "That said, it seems to me this was an obvious error, and I don't know why the tribe wasn't contacted, but we intend to get out there and work this out with them."

Some government representatives suggest the tribe's problems could be solved if members were more responsive to federal procedure. Most significantly, they say, the tribe has refused to pursue official recognition from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal agency that deals with tribal issues.

Howard Gantman, a spokesman for Feinstein, said the senator's office has written to the bureau seeking a clarification of the Winnemem's status.

"They informed us the tribe had provided insufficient documentation for recognition," said Gantman, who added that Feinstein understands the concerns of the Winnemem and wants to help.

Franco said the tribe is not actively seeking recognition from the bureau. The federal government, he said, recognized the tribe in 1851, when Winnemem representatives signed the Cottonwood Treaty, an agreement that granted the tribe a 35-square-mile reservation on their traditional lands. Federal Indian agent O.M. Wozencraft, representing the United States, also signed the treaty.

But the treaty was left unratified by Congress at the behest of the California delegation, Franco said.

Tribal members ultimately received some land allotments in the McCloud River area, Franco said, but the holdings were condemned under later legislation that ultimately allowed for the construction of Shasta Lake.

"We can document a history of federal recognition followed by broken promises," Franco said, "so we're standing by the original 1851 treaty. It's a valid document, and it's unrealistic to think we would get through any new process before our sacred sites go underwater forever."

E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin@sfchronicle.com