Exorcising the siren's ghosts

The discussion about Minden's 6 p.m. siren and the ordinances requiring Indians to be out of town by 6:30 p.m. has taught us about the way people make connections.

People in Minden associate the siren with a variety of things. Dinner, time to come home, time to start the meeting, time to stop working and the reassurance that the hierarchy designed to keep them safe is in place.

But for the Washoe, the siren had another, darker association.

It was associated with official racism and the chance that they would be arrested not because of something they'd done, but because of the color of their skin and their parentage, because they were standing someplace that someone decided they shouldn't.

We agree with Nevada Archivist Guy Rocha that there may have never been an official connection between the siren and the ordinance requiring the Washoe to be out of Minden or Gardnerville by 6:30 p.m.

But the connection in the minds of the people who would be subject to arrest if they didn't start making their way out of town is very real.

When the ordinance was repealed in 1974, it was pushed into a mass grave with a number of other leftovers from a bygone age without giving the people it hurt a chance to put a stake through its evil heart. Then the siren could have blown in celebration of the ordinance's public execution and we would not have had to wait 32 years to lance this boil.

Perhaps the price for keeping the siren should be a vehement and public disavowal of the things associated with it in the minds of the Washoe. Only then will we be able to lay this issue to rest once and for all.