As one of the surviving direct living descendents of the three Southeastern Pomo tribes (Elem), I was first very happy to hear about the acceptance of Borax Lake as a National Historical Landmark because this is one of my Tribe”s sacred sites that also includes Rattlesnake Island and Mt. Konocti . These lands were in my tribe”s aboriginal land base and Borax Lake is still used today by our people for medicinal purposes. Most importantly, the archeological sites discovered there in the early 1940s validates my tribes 10,000-year history as the Mesopotamia of all the Pomo Nations.
However, your story was somewhat misleading. For example, only 20 acres owned by the Archeological Conservancy was protected, which includes 20 archeological sites, and Borax Lake has around 800 total acres. The majority of the lands are not protected and my tribe over the years has experience with various unscrupulous land owners exploiting and desecrating native sites throughout the entire county. This current land owner has cut down hundreds of oak trees and continues to grade without proper permits. Thanks to the Internet, and if this information is accurate, it shows that this land-owner/contractor has had his contractor”s license revoked for life. We also found out in Forbes Magazine that he was involved in one of the top 100 savings and loan scandals of all time. I hope your office will correct your article because it appears that the entire Borax Lake is protected and it is not!
The other main issue is that the State of California approved S.B. 18, which requires the State, County, and City to comply with protecting tribal sacred sites and working directly with local tribes in advance to address these issues. Hopefully the County Planning Department should be able to answer a lot of these questions.
Jim Brown
Elem Tribe
