Dispute over road turns violent

Dana M. Nichols

Record Staff Writer

SAN ANDREAS - A dispute over a county road that passes through Indian Trust land is getting violent, and needs to be resolved soon, say residents and Calaveras County's top law enforcement officer.

Several people who live along the road near West Point came to the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday to say they don't support the posting of signs and the painting of a white line intended to discourage people from driving on the road. And they said that threats and rocks thrown at the cars of both whites and other Indians who try to drive the road make it more than just a bureaucratic dispute.

"We feel the ongoing and random acts of violence allegedly perpetrated against members of our community by these individuals is tragic and, in our opinion, illegal," said Joyce Rummerfield, a Miwuk Indian, reading from a statement signed by 35 people who live in the area.

Charlie Wilson, tribal chairman of the Calaveras County Miwuk Tribe, said his group posted signs and took control of the road in order to reduce the speed limit to 25 mph and improve safety.

"A lot of people are upset about the speed limit set," Wilson said. "That is what this whole thing is about. We have kids running around on this trust land."

Wilson acknowledged that his tribe's action to take control of the road has created tension. But he said the relatively small group with legal right to live on the trust land was not the source of any violence.

Calaveras County Sheriff Dennis Downum told supervisors that the signs, the line across the road and the rift among Miwuks living along Bald Mountain are big problems.

"We think it is absolutely ridiculous that that road be shut down in any fashion," Downum said. "We need to get this issue resolved. It is going to lead to significant violence up there."

Supervisor Steve Wilensky, who represents that West Point Area, said he and other county officials have been meeting with Wilson and others to resolve questions over the road. But Wilensky said time is passing without any answer from the tribe, or from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which some say has told the Indians that they had sovereignty over the road.

No one responded Monday to a message left at the BIA's media office in Washington.

Wilson said his group was still preparing a response to the county's most recent proposal for the road. And he said his group has no intention of shutting off access to the road.

Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 754-9534 or dnichols@recordnet.com.

"Nothing has changed except that (county government) quit sanding it," he said of the county road operations usually done this time of year to reduce the hazard from road ice.

The fact that snow plows, sanding trucks and possibly even emergency vehicles like ambulances no longer travel the upper sections of the road worries Vanessa Geto, 35, a Miwuk who lives there. "That road needs to stay open for our elders," Geto said.

Wilensky asked that county officials draft an ordinance that would assert the county's right to resume enforcing laws and maintaining Bald Mountain Road. He asked that it be placed on an agenda in two weeks if by then the Bureau of Indian Affairs still has not explained whether the tribe has the legal authority to close the road.