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Friday's Internet Edition, November 21, 2008.
Nottoli facilitates burial rights resolution
Hicksville dispute may soon be settled
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The Hicksville Cemetery was established in the late 1800s as a pioneer cemetery after the local Indians started burying there; a section on the east side is designated for Native American Indian burial.
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By Gwen Stevenson
Staff Writer
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A cemetery on Arno Road east of highway 99 north of Galt has been a point of contention between local Native American Indians and those who oversee the cemetery, the Galt-Arno Cemetery District Board of Sacramento County, for many years now.
This lovely place was once part of the William Hicks Estate, one of five of the largest estates in California. The cemetery was established in the late 1800s and was named after a native born Tennessean known by most as Uncle Billy Hicks. The pioneers created the cemetery after noticing that the Indians had used the high ground for burial for many years.
If you take a walk through this peaceful place, you will notice names on the headstones that are quite familiar. The Dillards, McGuirks, Davises, Putneys, Shellenbargers, Randolphs and Wades make up the Protestant genealogical history of the Arno-Hicksville area.
Not far from the pioneer ancestors of Galt lie the revered dead of another community, though. Part of the cemetery was designated for native Indian burial and includes those in the Miwok tribe, the ancestors of the Blue, McKean, Brown and Taylor families, to name a few.
Talks between the two factions have been a source of contention for more than 10 years and heated up recently when the cemetery district decided to change its policies related to native family burials and rights the Indians say they were given more than 100 years ago.
Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli facilitated a second meeting to seek an answer to an ongoing issue between the cemetery district and the Native American community.
The Galt-Arno Cemetery District board has five members and governs the use of the Hicksville Cemetery. Supervisor Nottoli appoints these board members, with Guy Rutter and Lynda Mendonca recently being appointed to the board; Billy Blue Elliston is the vice-chairman; Manuel Rocha is also a board member, along with Darlene Brown, board member.
Guy Rutter was recently appointed as the chairman of the board. Brown has been involved for so long because of family ties to the situation.
“The reason I joined the board and have been on it for over 14 years is because of the situation with the Galt-Arno Cemetery District and the Indian community,” said Brown. “Many of my family are buried out there. I was the first minority and the first woman to be on the district board.”
The main problem seemed to be that the Native Americans were getting charged for plots and burials, when the original agreement made between the Valensin family and the local Indian people was that they would only pay an endowment fee to the cemetery district.
The Blue family of the Miwok tribe once resided on Valensin Ranch, and the east side of Hicksville Cemetery was set aside for their family’s burial by a handshake agreement. The families have been frustrated that the district has not honored the burial arrangement.
“We got it all straightened out and agreed upon with an attorney, and then it was brought up again about six years ago and called reverse discrimination,” said Brown. “We are from one of the 35+ reservations terminated in the early 1950s; they have tried to melt us into the melting pot.”
Brown maintains that it didn’t matter what the name of the tribe was back then, just that the Indian community had an agreement with the owners of the land.
“My passion has been that the Indian people have what they originally had on a handshake,” said Brown. “That’s the way agreements used to be made, and it meant something.”
Linda Blue of the Wilton Miwok Tribal Council has been involved in fighting for her family’s burial rights for years. Her grandfather, Alec Blue, worked on the Valensin ranch as a young man.
“It’s the only burial place for our family,” said Blue. “When my father, William Blue, passed away, we started having to pay for burials. The price kept going up.”
Blue felt that the Native American families were not getting the respect they felt they should have and were outvoted every time they had a meeting with the cemetery district.
“It just wasn’t happening,” said Blue. “They were also starting to bury others on our side. We dedicate the ground to each person that passes.”
The first workshop/discussion was held in April with Nottoli facilitating the meeting.
After much discussion of the problems and issues, as well as the ideas and options being presented, they agreed to continue the discussion after looking into the possibilities for future solutions, culminating in the meeting this past week.
Since the April meeting, a walk-through had been conducted through the Hicksville cemetery with at least 30 concerned individuals and two board members. They looked at, mapped out and surveyed the area of available burial plots, noticing things that might infringe upon the area being used to its full advantage.
It was found that there is not enough space between graves, among other issues. Over the years, exactly who is buried where is sometimes in question, and there have been problems when a family member has gone to bury their dead, as discovered by Lisa Jimenez, the daughter of Linda Blue.
Jimenez explained that the tradition of burying their Native American family members includes hand digging the graves with picks and shovels, singing, dancing, and “no one leaves until they are put to rest.”
“We went to the office to voice our opinion on the issues,” said Jimenez, “… which leads us to the current meetings to resolve this problem for future burials and other matters on hand.”
Guy Rutter said that this issue has been going on for many years.
“The bottom line in addressing this issue is that there is validity in it,” Rutter said. “Based on all the facts, we can work to bring resolution. You want to make everyone that has a stake in it happy, and that’s hard to do. Hopefully, it’s going to work out great.”
At the discussion/workshop on Thursday, attorney Robert Hunt of Roseville was available to offer counsel on the situation. He explained some of the background on the laws governing the different types of, and regulations for, cemeteries in California.
Hunt explained some of the issues at hand, one of them being the need to obtain nonprofit 501C3 status.
“I will also volunteer my time to come to the next tribal meeting to answer any questions,” Hunt said.
The purpose of the nonprofit status would give the Indians the ability to oversee and maintain the Indian section of the cemetery.
“We would be a legal entity to be able to negotiate with the cemetery district board,” said Brown.
A recommendation was made that the tribe moves forward with that idea, and they also need to present a proposal of their desires to the district board for further consideration.
Don Nottoli was pleased with the way the discussion went.
“They worked in a very good spirit of cooperation,” said Nottoli. “The basis is here for putting things into play. I’m very optimistic.”
Linda Blue expressed that it takes the whole tribe to work out the issues.
“It doesn’t take just a few people,” said Blue. “It’s a whole tribal effort.”
The next meeting of the Galt-Arno Cemetery District board is June 25 at 3 p.m. at the Galt Cemetery District building, 14180 Joy Drive in Galt.
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