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InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council
190 Ford Rd., #333
Ukaih, CA 94582
(707) 485-8744
(707) 485-1247 (fax)
 
SINKYONE INTERTRIBAL INDIAN PARK FACT SHEET
 
1. The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a 
non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) tax exempt 
status, is a consortium of ten federally recognized 
California Indian Tribes: Coyote Valley, Hopland, 
Pinoleville, Redwood Valley, Round Valley, Sherwood 
Valley, Potter Valley, Robinson, Hoopa, and Yurok. 
This InterTribal organization is in the process of 
creating America's first-ever InterTribal Indian 
Park.
 
2. The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council's 
mandate is to protect, preserve, and restore the 
ancestral Sinkyone homelands, both for Indian and 
non-Indian people, for today and for all 
generations to come. This project will create a 
living model that incorporates traditional Indian 
land use practices with modern approaches to 
environmental restoration.
 
3. Currently, our Council is faced with the task of 
acquiring the aboriginal Sinkyone lands. Through 
Indian and non-Indian involvement and a subsequent 
legal case, 7,100 acres of Sinkyone lands were 
saved from further logging by the timber industry. 
The case, known as EPIC vs. Johnson, is now used as 
a legal precedent by California environmentalists. 
Currently, we are working on contracts with the 
U.S. Forest Service for Sinkyone watershed 
stewardship planning and with the California Dept. 
of Parks and Recreation for cultural site 
protection monitoring.
 
4. In 1987, these 7,100 acres were purchased from 
the Georgia-Pacific Corporation by a consortium 
comprised of the California Parks and Recreation 
Commission, Trust for Public Land, the State 
Coastal Conservancy, and Save the Redwoods League. 
Of those acres, 3,300 were added to the existing 
Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, while 3,800 were 
designated as "multiple use" (i.e., commercial 
timber harvesting to be resold in the future). The 
Trust for Public Lands, via the State Coastal 
Conservancy, is slated to sell the 3,800 acres by 
January 1, 1995
 
5. These 3,800 acres contain numerous burial, 
cultural, and archaeological sites that are sacred 
to the Native peoples of this region. Native 
peoples are still connected to this land where they 
gather food, medicine, and spiritual sustenance.
 
6. The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council is 
developing a Land Use Management Plan and a 
Restoration Plan for these 3,800 acres of upland 
forest. These plans outline an approach that 
ensures the protection, preservation, and 
management of this land in perpetuity.
 
7. The Council's plans include restoration of the 
rainforests, coastal stream corridors, and marine 
areas. The plans also focus on management of 
indigenous plant and animal communities to sustain 
natural processes, assuring that levels of human 
use are compatible with, rather than detrimental 
to, the environment. Special emphasis is placed on 
preserving endangered and threatened species.
 
8. An educational center will be built adjacent to 
the InterTribal Indian Park where visitors can 
learn about Sinkyone and other Northern California 
Indian cultures and traditions; their food 
gathering methods, plant usage, basket making, and 
ecological relationship with the land.

InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council
190 Ford Rd., #333
Ukaih, CA 94582
(707) 485-8744
(707) 485-1247 (fax)
 
THE NOTION OF AN INTERTRIBAL PARK
 
The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council 
(ITSWC), a consortium of 10 federally-recognized 
Indian Tribes, invites you to help in the creation 
of America's first ever InterTribal Park, to be 
open to the public and managed by local Indian 
peoples. Sinkyone is located in the northwestern 
part of Mendocino County, along the "Lost Coast" of 
northern California, and its once-lush rainforests 
supported large populations of Native Sinkyone 
peoples. Studies indicate that Sinkyone peoples 
inhabited this region for at least 8,000 years.
 
The area's unique, dramatic landscape is due to its 
terrain and old-growth Redwood forests, which have 
been largely destroyed by the timber industry. 
Additionally, Sinkyone contains many sacred sites 
that remain culturally significant to our people. 
Native peoples are still connected to this land 
where they gather food, medicine and spiritual 
sustenance. We seek to preserve and restore this 
formerly pristine wilderness area, and to nurture 
it for our animal, bird, fish, and plant relations, 
as well as for the future human generations. In 
establishing the InterTribal Park, our dream is 
that all people can enjoy the Sinkyone wilderness 
area through the California Indian perspective.
 
Some people and public entities are of the opinion 
that the Sinkyone, Wailaki-speaking peoples have 
vanished. In the first half of the 19th century the 
U.S. and California State governments paid their 
citizens to kill Indians. The Sinkyone peoples were 
victims of this genocide. They were wantonly 
massacred, and survivors were removed to other 
areas where they died of exposure, starvation, 
foreign diseases, and despair. The land's natural 
resources were exploited without restraint. Some of 
the Sinkyone were forced to live in the hills like 
hunted animals until they were no longer perceived 
as a threat. However, we are honored and proud to 
say that, contrary to popular belief, Sinkyone 
descendants are among us today.
 
Through the concerted efforts of Indians and non-
Indians, much of the Sinkyone ancestral land has 
been protected from further destruction by the 
timber industry. In the lawsuit that saved 
Sinkyone, known as EPIC vs. Johnson (1985) the 
Appellate Court held that the California Department 
of Forestry (CDF) had failed, on several counts, to 
adhere to its own procedural guidelines necessary 
for the approval of Timber Harvest Plans. The case 
set a legal precedent, and CDF had to revamp the 
mandated procedures for timber harvesting.
While our efforts were successful in saving 7,100 
Sinkyone acres (later purchased by the State and 
non-profit corporations), less than half of the 
land (3,300 acres) was added to the State Park 
System, with the remainder subject to be sold in 
the near future. Currently, we are negotiating with 
the State Coastal Conservancy for the ultimate 
transfer of title to our Council of the remaining 
3,800 acres, now owned by the Trust for Public 
Lands (TPL). We are investigating how the 
InterTribal Park will address economic and land use 
concerns of the State and County, and at the same 
time re-establish the Native American land 
stewardship ethic on the TPL 3,800 acre parcel.
 
For more information on the InterTribal Park, and 
on getting involved with support efforts in the Bay 
Area, call Bay Area Friends of Sinkyone at (510) 
486-8939.

InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council
190 Ford Rd., #333
Ukaih, CA 94582
(707) 485-8744
(707) 485-1247 (fax)
 
INTERTRIBAL SINKYONE WILDERNESS COUNCIL GOALS
 
1. Acquire 3,800 acres of ancestral Sinkyone land 
on the Lost Coast of California in northern 
Mendocino County.
 
2. Create the InterTribal Park at Sinkyone, where 
visitors can learn about California Indian 
traditional land stewardship.
 
3. Implement a sustainable land stewardship plan 
based on indigenous knowledge of the area and 
emphasizing traditional Indian uses.
 
4. Provide access for Indian people to sacred sites 
and traditional food sources. Benefit Indian people 
by providing employment opportunities in land 
restoration and presentation. 
 
5. Protect and preserve Sinkyone cultural and 
natural resources.
 
HIST0RY OF THE LAND AND PEOPLE
 
The Sinkyone Wilderness is located in the Northwest 
corner of Mendocino County, California. Before 
European settlement, this area was inhabited by 
communities of Sinkyone people  who lived on the 
abundant fish, game, and plant life found  in this 
mild climate. In the 19th century, settlers 
massacred the Sinkyone people in a state-supported 
land grab, leaving  local tribes decimated. In the 
century that followed virtually all of old growth 
redwoods in the region were logged, devastating 
Sinkyone ecosystems. Today, descendants of the 
Sinkyone and other California Coastal peoples have 
joined forces to reclaim a portion of the Sinkyone 
lands. 
 
RECENT HISTORY
 
The ITSWC, a 501(c)(3) non-profit consortium formed 
in 1986, now includes ten tribes: Coyote Valley, 
Hopland, Pinoleville, Potter Valley, Redwood 
Valley, Round Valley, Robinson, Sherwood Valley, 
Hoopa, and Trinidad. The 3,800 acres sought by the 
Council were saved from Georgia-Pacific's chainsaws 
in the mid-eighties; and are now owned by the Trust 
for Public Land (TPL) and managed by the California 
State Coastal Conservancy (SCC).
 
The Council has received grants and contracts for 
tree-planting, creek restoration, brush clearing, 
Native American forest stewardship planning, and 
cultural site protection on the land from numerous 
public and private funding sources, proving its 
commitment to stewarding this land. As a result, 
the Council has won the respect and support of the 
SCC, but one more barrier remains: $1.2 million 
must be raised by December 31, 1994, to recoup the 
SCCs costs. If this deadline is not met in one of 
the ways outlined below, timber interests may again 
rear their heads in the guise of "sustainable" 
logging and attempt to buy the land.
 
Bay Area Friends of Sinkyone
 
BAFS is a support group for the ITSWC which formed 
in 1991 at UC Berkeley and has been involved in a 
number of fundraising, public awareness, 
educational, and academic projects. These include:
 
East Bay benefit concerts at Ashkenaz and La Pena; 
three student-initiated classes at UCB on the 
Sinkyone issue; student projects on GIS computer 
mapping, forest growth monitoring, and other issues 
to assist the Council; a Bike-A-thon from San 
Francisco to Sinkyone; an exhibit in local cafes of 
photos taken by Berkeley High School students at 
Sinkyone; an herbarium, which will include 
preserved specimens of plant species at Sinkyone; 
and tabling and letter-writing campaigns at events 
and on Sproul Plaza at UCB. 
 
Current projects include:
 
* the herbarium, collecting, identifying, and 
preserving Sinkyone flora
* the second annual Sinkyone Bike-A-thon
* Student-initiated (D-cal class on Sinkyone at Cal 
(Restoring Native Californian Land and Culture)
* Sinkyone youth Outings, trips for Native American 
youth to Sinkyone
* tabling and letter-writing
* Berkeley High Sinkyone Photo Show (Looking for a 
home)
 
To got involved, please call (510) 486-8939 for 
info on meeting times and dates.