The bill introduced by Doug La Malfa in the House that would put 440 acres outside of Etna, California into trust for the Ruffrey Rancheria has run into the problem that there is no public record that shows Indians ever living on that land.
HR-3535 would put the mountainous, forested land near in Northern California’s Siskiyou County into trust. There are no records that show the two families given the land in 1907 ever lived there. Eventually the land was sold to a timber company.
Because private land cannot be taken and given to the tribe, the bill would allow Taj Gomes, who claims to be descended from that family, the right to establish a similarly sized rancheria somewhere in that area. Since Congress dis-established the tribe, only Congress can reconstitute it, says LaMalfa. He says his bill is consistent with other actions that have restored California rancherias.
That doesn’t sit well with Joshua Saxon, executive director of the Karuk Tribe, who declared last week, “[I]t will completely disrupt present water rights that farmers have and irrigators have and they need in order to sustain their families and their economy,”
Tribal Scholar Steven Beckham, hired by the Karuk Tribe, told News 10, “When I reviewed the records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the national archives in San Bruno, California, I found virtually nothing to substantiate the record of a relationship between the tribe and the United States.”
Saxon says that makes the restoration bill “illegitimate.” The Karuk tribe and about 70 other tribes in the Golden State are calling on a rehearing on the bill.
