30 Years After "Lyng v Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association"
FAIN: PY-258644-18
Cal Poly Humboldt Sponsored Programs Foundation (Arcata, CA 95521-8222)
Carly Marino (Project Director: May 2017 to March 2021)
Two digitization days and a public symposium to discuss Native American culture, land, and sovereignty. The project would solicit community materials relating to the history of Native American sovereignty and activism in Northern California on the 30-year anniversary of Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, a case that centered on land use and Native sovereignty in northern California. The applicant would seek to digitize historic images, objects, and documents related to tribal activism, sacred site protection, and indigenous land use and land rights from local tribes connected to the case, as well as non-Native community members. The project would add to historical materials available for the study of the grassroots efforts of the American Indian Movement and tribal communities with which Humboldt University Library has strong relationships. With donor permission, materials would be made publicly accessible through an Omeka-based website.
This project will explore the past, present and future of the 1988 Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association Supreme Court case to capture the community heritage of Native American sovereignty and self-determination demonstrated in Northwest California tribal activism. The goal of this project is to create dialogue between members of tribal communities to relay the history of indigenous activism in the region while educating the public in methods of preserving their unique family treasures. This project is a year-long program which will highlight the 30th anniversary of the Lyng Supreme Court case. We will use materials made available from California Indian activists and non-native allies, archival collections of Native American scholars, and will feature oral histories from the plaintiffs. This project includes a two day digitization event, symposium, oral history project and a public exhibition of the collected materials.
Associated Products
The Gasquet Orleans Road (Web Resource)Title: The Gasquet Orleans Road
Author: Cutcha Risling Baldy
Author: Kayla Begay
Author: Carly Marino
Author: Vicente Diaz
Author: Emily Ellis
Author: Jenifer Hailey
Abstract: The Lyng v Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) case made headlines in national and international arenas as several California Indian tribes were protesting the building of a road between Gasquet and Orleans in Northern California. The sacred spaces, geological and ecological formations and the ongoing practice of traditional ceremonies in the High Country were of little concern to the Forest Service. They had already built paved sections in the region and now all they needed to connect Gasquet to Orleans was to pave the six mile section which ran through the High Country. While the case culminated in the 1987 Supreme Court arguments, it had been fought for many years before through grassroots organizing and lower court cases which had all sided with Native tribes and upheld an injunction that stopped the building of the road.
Students at Humboldt State University have been working with Native American Studies Professors Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok, enrolled Hoopa Valley Tribe); Dr. Kayla Begay (Hoopa Valley Tribe); and Special Collections Librarian Carly Marino to document and create an online archive of materials about the G-O Road. These items will be publically available on a website to help people explore the history and continued impact of the case. The archive features documents like letters from Ceremonial Leaders, written by hand, that ask for protection of the High Country. It also features a journal kept by Karuk artist and activist Julian Lang, who participated in the protests and fight against the G-O Road. In one of his journal sketches he wrote: “Protect Indian Religion. NO-GO. Fix the Earth. NEVER SAY I’M NOTHING. If you fix the Earth you ARE somebody! Stop the Gasquet-Orleans Road in Northern California. STOP THE ROAD.”
Year: 2019
Primary URL:
https://goroad.omeka.net/Primary URL Description: Link to the open access database