A different perspective on the Minden siren

In response to the editorial board's opinion and Bill Driscoll's letter in the Sept. 20 edition, "Minden siren needs fair trial."

The Creator of all stood tall, feet firmly planted on both sides of the Sierra, straddling Da'ow aga and the rich lands surrounding it. The blue sky stretched to the horizon cradling the life - giving yellow sun as he cast his mighty arm out, sowing the land with pine nuts from which sprang the peoples of the earth. Time after time he threw huge handfuls all the while intoning those universal truths he wanted the people to live by ingraining into them the values that would ensure the longevity of this land and its people. When he came to the bottom of his pouch he saw a small hole in a corner through which pine nuts had spilled out and dropped to the ground.

Realizing he had not sown the lands beneath his feet he emptied the pouch of its remaining pine nuts combining them with those already on the ground and said, "You will not be many but you will be strong." And that's how the Washiw came to be here and claim this land as theirs.

Over countless millennia, through trial and error, the Washiw persevered in adapting to their environment. Their struggle was hard and costly but eventually, triumphantly, they took their rightful place at the top of the food chain alongside the silver bear, the lion and the wolf. The environment provided all the necessities of life- food, shelter, medicines- even their spiritual needs were met by interaction with their surroundings. Animals provided not only food but also clothing, tools and other necessities of life. The abundant waters provided fish and fowl while plants, tubers, and insects made up a balanced nutritious diet. The thick forest which covered their land provided shelter in the form of huge slabs of bark which when stood on end and lashed together with willow and hide strips protected them from the cold and wind. In the heat, open-walled shelters were roofed with leafy green willow tied together with willow "thread," providing shade from the hot sun. Medicines were procured from plants and animals for ailments ranging from colds to heart problems. Heeding their Creator's wishes they took only what was needed, always leaving something for the future and someone else. Their spirituality was grounded in the Creator's words which stressed the sanctity of life-all life- not just human. In the Washiw world everything had a purpose therefore, a life so all was respected and revered as equally worthy. The Washiw law was natural law - survival of the fittest.

Washiw land extended from the Feather River country in the north to Yosemite in the south dropping down from the spine of the Sierras to about the 4,000-foot level on both sides of the range.

Since all the major passes over this mighty mountain range, lay in their domain naturally, the Washiw controlled the trade between the coast and the interior of this vast land. Over the centuries their reputation for fair honest dealing grew as a direct result of a strong moral code which all Washiw lived by - some more so than others.

Traditional Washiw belief holds that when you are born, your first breath imbues you with certain inalienable rights granted by the Creator. First and foremost of them is that life is yours and you have the right to protect it in any way you see fit. All Washiw are individuals and as such are responsible only for you and yours. In return for these rights you are required to show respect to all those who are older than you. That respect must be acknowledged thus providing a basis for further interaction between individuals. To the Washiw all individuals are the same, no one is inherently "better" than someone else. You may be stronger, smarter or better-looking than the next guy but we're all human beings. Unlike some other tribes and most peoples from the other side of the Washiws world women were considered equal to men. Washiw women not only stood behind their men, they stood alongside them shoulder to shoulder if need be. Because of the moral code the Washiw lived by they enjoyed the respect and confidence of those who surrounded them. Although not all Washiw lived their lives to the highest standards of their values, enough did so that eventually the tribe as a whole was associated with higher than average standards that other people admired and respected. Their honesty, fairness and other character traits were such that they were often called upon to mediate disputes and broker settlements between contending factions, even among the tribes with which they warred. Their insistence that hard work and perseverance would allow them to succeed at whatever they did was enforced by their competitive nature and natural desire to excel, which is universal to peoples all over the globe.

While the Europeans were still wearing animal skins and living in caves the Washiw were here developing their culture. It was a culture based on natural law - survival of the fittest being a part of the environment, not destroying it to create something "better." Far from being the fearful, timid savages as depicted by Europeans, merely "hunter gatherers," the Washiw created willow basketry which was used for everything from storing food to transporting goods, even for cooking. Some were woven so tightly as to be water-tight and they had enough leisure time that eventually their expertise was surpassed by no one. Today, their efforts are recognized as the finest examples of their type the world has ever seen. Personified by the promotion of Dat-so-la-lee, she was only one of a great number of Washiw whose everyday utensils attained the status of high art.

All this accomplishment is conveyed in a singular language that is so linguistically dissimilar to any other on the continent that some scholars feel it should be recognized as a separate, stand-alone language.

Into this world came Capt. John Frémont, in the early 1800s, who wrote - "they flitted ... like birds over the snow ... on their snowshoes" on his first sight of the Washiw. By the time of his arrival the Washoe had already been decimated by the diseases and colonialistic practices of the Spaniards in California which were sanctified by their church. The Washiw knew from their trading contacts of the coming of more Europeans from the east who soon entered Washiw lands in great numbers killing as they came. Written accounts of these contacts treat the killing of Indians as of no more consequence than the killing of vermin. Here in Carson Valley the first settlers were German and Scandinavian and when Gardnerville was established in a central part of the valley, a bell was rung at 6 p.m. ostensibly as a call to dinner. It also served as a warning that all Indians had one hour to get out of town. If an Indian was still in town after 7 p.m., whatever happened to him was his fault. A lot of Indians were beaten, raped, and murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. With the advance of technology the bell was eventually replaced with a fire siren, This practice was codified into law by Douglas County

Commissioners, C.O. Dangberg, C.L. Fulstone, and Mathias Hansen on April 5, 1917, as Ordinance No. 6. That is more substantial than merely an "urban myth." In 1850, California entered the Union as a slave-free state. Which was true, if you were black.

However, it was legal to own Indian slaves under "An Act for the Government and Protection of Indians of 1850. For a $2 fee and a declaration to a Justice of the Peace that the owner would" clothe, provide for, and protect; any white man could enslave any Indian for periods of 10-40 years. There are documented cases of entire villages being wiped out with only a few children as survivors. Girls and young women were especially valuable.

I have lived in this valley for most of my 57 years, attending Douglas Co. schools for 10 of 12 years graduating from Stewart Indian School in 1966. Of all the whites I've known here I know of only one who served in Vietnam and one conscientious objector, I personally know 15 Washoes who served and over 30 from other tribes who I met at Stewart. There's a flagpole in Minden Park near the old bandstand the base of which has a bronze plaque set into it. On that plaque are the names of 11 young men from this area who died in service to this nation in World War II. Three of those names are of Washoes. Those three men died wearing the military uniforms of a country where they couldn't even enter a restaurant, let alone sit down to have a meal. They had to go around back in the alley to eat. That lasted into the middle 1950s here in Carson Valley. We are not ashamed of our capacity for violence, and it's a part of our warrior creed and it is what has contributed greatly to our survival. It is the principal reason for our survival against seemingly overwhelming odds.

From our point of view, our beautiful valley has been defaced and destroyed by your "civilization," even to the point of climate change. In my lifetime the temperature here has risen 5 to 10 degrees over the course of a year. We know this because we're outside most of our lives and as observers of all around us we see the geese, the doves and the robins do not head south, they stay here year round now. Even the eagles that everyone's so enamored with use to head further south, following the easy pickings of their prey. When it was colder they didn't hang around even though there were the same amount of cattle here then, if not more. Ask any honest rancher he'll tell you it has warmed considerably and that's a direct result of paving over the land and putting up more hard surfaced roofs over the rest. The fact is your society is built at the expense of Washiw society - the natural world is raped for its resources to build your own personal environments.

By being forced onto reservations and colonies the Washoe have been isolated not only physically, but social, economically, and culturally as well. We are stuck economically with marginal ventures such as billboards and smoke shops as more diversity is denied us.

I agree the billboards are ugly but for us it's the only game in town. In this so-called land of opportunity the only way the Washoe can participate in this capitalist society is to offer something the local or state government cannot or will not. I served over four years on the Board of the Washoe Development Enterprise, the economic arm of the Washoe Tribe. When the tribe purchased the Chevron station at Indian Hills, the county assured the federal government that revenue lost from the sale would have little, if any, impact on the county's revenues but they protested the sale anyhow. Time after time we would entertain potential investors who came in all starry-eyed and full of enthusiasm, at the tribe's opportunities but quickly struck their tents and headed out after talking to appointed and elected county officials and local business people. On their way out, they told of hearing horror stories of political corruption, government by executive fiat, and that the tribe would take their money and hide behind sovereign immunity, robbing them of their investment. So we are stuck with ugly, under performing ventures which are made even more detrimental by self-serving racist employees who take our money with one hand and plunge the knife in even further.

In 1991 Donny Wright and Brad Harris killed my son, Dion James. Wright, 35 killed Dion, 21 after stalking him for over a year. The white, common-law husband of a tribal member even admitted to aiming a deer rifle at my son as he walked down a road in Dresslerville, all because Dion had gotten the best of him in a physical confrontation. One day Wright and his accomplice, Brad Harris lured Dion into Brads car under the pretext of resolving the issue with a beer party.

Several hours later as Dion lay passed out on the back seat Wright shot him in the head, killing him. They drove around for some time finally dumping Dion's body in an irrigation ditch near the end of Tillman Lane. A jury of his peers convicted Wright of second-degree murder. A couple of days after the trial concluded I stopped into District Judge Dave Gamble's office to commend him on his control and conduct of the trial and to express our dissatisfaction with the verdict. He listened politely and respectfully as I told him of our beliefs and our value system and why we were upset at this miscarriage of justice. When I finished he thanked me for my remarks on his conduct of the trial, saying it was uncommon for someone to come in after a trial, particularly one as volatile as this. As I turned to go I shook his hand and said, "But it's still OK to kill Indians in Douglas County." I didn't expect an answer and I didn't get one.

Last year Michael Ward killed (in my mind) Jeffrey John, a Washoe. In public accounts in The R-C, District Judge Michael Gibbons, "didn't want the issue of race to taint the judicial process."

To us Washoe a fair judge will look at all aspects of a case particularly a murder trial. He commented that an "obese" John's heart was enlarged and weakened by his "drinking and partying lifestyle." Conveniently dismissing evidence that Mr. Ward was in a physical confrontation with Mr. John who ran away to save himself.

Mr. Ward pursued him, armed with at least one knife, chased Jeff for over a block, then left him to die on someone's lawn. In sentencing Mr. Ward to five years in prison with credit for time already served in Douglas County jail, if he didn't cause any problems in prison he could be out in nine months. If Mr. Gibbons - I won't dignify him by calling "Judge" - was not aware of Ordinance No. 6, he certainly invoked the spirit of the law, if not the letter.

To put to rest another "urban myth" we pay all the taxes that everyone else does, with the exception of various special assessment taxes. Our property taxes are included in the Bureau of Indian Affairs portion of the federal governments annual "in-lieu of" tax payments to the state. In Nevada's case that money goes to the state education fund where the schools teach our kids they're descendants of savages and are less than the white students in their class. Even though they compete directly against their peers and know they are just as intelligent, as a whole the stereotypes are maintained by teachers and administrators.

International law, under which all nations are recognized, recognizes only two legal ways one sovereign nation can appropriate the resources of another sovereign nation. One nation must declare war on another and, through force of arms, prevail. The alternative is to have both nations ratify a negotiated treaty. Neither happened with the U.S. and the Washoe, nor for the vast majority of other Indian nations in this land. In addition the U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently as 2-3 years ago that no legal basis exists for a "taking" of land or property. This entire country was not won through glorious battle or brilliant statesmanship rather, it was stolen through lies, deceit, and biological warfare.

No, Mr. Driscoll, I for one respectfully decline your generous offer to "join, be a part of, and participate in" Douglas County.

n Carnegie Smokey is a member of the Washoe Tribe and has lived in Carson Valley all his life, been involved in tribal government 35 years.