Opinion: Obama and liberals trying to give land to 'first' Americans

Friday, January 7, 2011  

"Another topic that I have been reading about that is equally stressful is the ongoing effort on the part of our president and his radical liberal cohorts to give land to people who claim to have been here on this continent first. While the land being considered is supposed to be federal land that we have all paid taxes to take care of and improve over the years, there is a complicated task ahead to determine who, what, where would be the recipient. Just waving one’s hand around saying that one’s ancestors used to live over these many thousands of acres cannot be taken seriously. Most indigenous people have been nomadic and move from one place to another for huntings, seasons or simply because the location was fouled or the food sources were depleted.

One such current effort is that of the Yurok tribe attempting to gain title and/or management authority over portions of the Redwood National Park, Six Rivers National Forest and marine sanctuary waters off Northern California including Redding Rock. This is all located where the Klamath River, a site of already heartbreaking public policy forcing lifelong farmers off their land due to artificial lack of water, meets the Pacific Ocean.

As if this was not complicated enough, the legislative bill also includes $50 million in federal funds to purchase nearby private lands for the tribe. The lobbyist for the tribe is, interestingly enough, a Clinton-era appointee to the Interior Department and the elder brother of the current director of the National Park Service (NPS). How does this even begin to be equitable, and is it justified to make a new generation pay for the natural if violent flow of previous generations?"

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ON THE RANCH by Nancy Crawford-Hall (The Santa Ynez Valley Journal 1/6)