Bureau of Reclamation Limits Access to Winnemem Wintu Ceremonial Site (Revised Release)

Media Advisory: For Immediate Release, June 30, 2006

CONTACTS
Mark Franco (530) 510-0944
Gary Mulcahy (916) 214-8493

Bureau of Reclamation Limits Access to Winnemem Wintu Ceremonial Site

Join the Winnemem Wintu Tribe to celebrate a Balas Chonas Winyupnus, or Coming of Age Ceremony for the first time in 85 years. The Ceremony celebrates the coming of age for the young women from the Tribe and sets the Tribal foundation of existence. The ceremony will highlight the failure of the Bureau of Reclamation to protect the religious freedoms of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.

What: Coming of Age Ceremony

When: July 8th – 11th

Where: McCloud Bridge Campground, Shasta Recreation Area
Approximately 20 miles northeast of I-5 on Gilman Road

Why: The Balas Chonas is a cornerstone of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe’s culture and sets the Tribal foundation of existence. After several years of fruitless negotiations with the Bureau of Reclamation the Winnemem has been unable to ensure Tribal access to one of the most sacred ceremonial sites, Puberty Rock. Due to Bureau of Reclamation management of the Shasta Reservoir, Puberty Rock may be underwater during the time of the ceremony.

The Winnemem will attempt to hold this vital ceremony despite their inability to ensure their religious freedoms. The Winnemem face additional intrusions because the U.S. Forest Service has handed over management of the campground adjacent to the ceremonial site to a private concessionaire, the Shasta Recreation Company. This has prevented the U.S. Forest Service from guaranteeing the privacy and safety of the Winnemem throughout the ceremony. The Winnemem have scheduled a traditional ceremony, which includes tribal dancing and swimming, but it will be complicated by campers and boaters who may interfere with the ceremony and endanger the swimmers.

The US Bureau of Reclamation has consistently disregarded the religious rights, historic treaties and cultural sovereignty of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. While over 90 percent of the Tribe’s ancestral lands lie beneath the Shasta Reservoir, the US Bureau of Reclamation has yet to fulfill the original promises made to the Winnemem Wintu Tribe when the Shasta Dam was constructed. The Balas Chonas ceremony is yet another example of the Bureau of Reclamation’s unwillingness to honor the rights of the Winnemem Wintu.