LAKEPORT — The Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) may hear testimony on 6,000 years of history on Tuesday.
Jim Brown, tribal historian for the Elem Band of Pomo Indians, is petitioning the BOS for permission to present a PowerPoint presentation on the history of Rattlesnake Island.
The presentation claims that the 56-acre island, which is located approximately 200 meters off the coast of Clearlake Oaks, is owned by the Elem tribe by right of “nearly 10,000 years of aboriginal title.”
“This is our most important sacred site,” Brown said. “It”s actually the ancient village site of our people.”
The island is currently owned by John Nady, founder and CEO of wireless microphone manufacturing corporation Nady Systems.
At the BOS meeting, Nady will appeal a decision made by the Lake County Planning Commission in May 2010 to deny him a grading permit to build a residence, caretaker”s cabin and stand-alone bathroom on Rattlesnake Island.
At the end of the meeting, it was ordered that a Focused Environmental Impact Report (EIR) be completed to access the potential environmental impact of the proposed grading and construction. The decision was reached after several community members testified that the island is historically significant.
Nady and his wife Toby both read statements into the record expressing their love for the island and Nady said that the additional year it would take to develop an EIR infringed upon his ability to exercise property rights.
John Nady could not be reached for comment on this story.
Registered professional archaeologist John Parker spoke at the 2010 Planning Commission meeting against Nady”s proposed construction on the grounds that it has the potential to destroy historical artifacts that would otherwise be preserved in the soil.
“There”s a whole chapter of Lake County history that we don”t even know about on that island,” Parker said in a recent interview.
Parker”s archaeological research on the Elem Tribe culminated in a 54-page nomination to register Rattlesnake Island as a nationally recognized historic place. According to his research, the island was established as the religious and cultural capital of the Elem tribe 6000 years ago, long before Mexican commandant Salvador Vallejo was given the land currently known as Lake County in 1844.
In addition to being an ancient cultural center, Rattlesnake Island has served as a rallying point for American Indians in the last 150 years, Parker said.
American Indians from all over California gathered on the island in 1872 for the Ghost Dance ceremony, which was an attempt to resurrect deceased Indians who could help weaken the white man”s grasp on American territory, Parker said.
In the 1970s, many members of the Elem tribe occupied Rattlesnake Island to non-violently assert their claim over the privately-owned property. Jim Brown, who was a teenager at the time, occupied both Alcatraz and Rattlesnake Islands with his father, who was the religious leader of the Elem tribe for many years.
“I was 16,” Brown recalled.”I knew nothing about the political side at all.”
Brown”s 26-slide PowerPoint presentation is the condensed version of a 104-page study prepared by real estate attorney Liam Griffin, who became interested in Rattlesnake Island after he visited a lush patch of vegetation on the island called the “garden spot” as a young man.
“It”s just gorgeous,” Griffin said. “It”s overgrown with wild grape and the smell of bay laurel and pepperwood.”
One year later, during his first semester at the University of California at Berkeley, Griffin spent his free time perusing the archaeological records in Berkeley”s Bancroft Library, trying to determine whether or not the Elem tribe had a legitimate legal claim to the island.
Griffin said he was motivated to tackle the research project in addition to his duties as a full-time college freshman and naval ROTC candidate by “a sense of justice” toward the Elem students who were living on “less than tolerable land” near a sulfur mine.
“I thought, wait a minute, that”s not right,” Griffin said.
Griffin”s study claims that the Elem tribe has a stronger claim to Rattlesnake Island than John Nady, who bases his claim of ownership on a chain of titles dating back to the patenting of the island by Richard Floyd and Thomas Madden in 1877. Floyd and Madden never had the right to patent the land on Rattlesnake Island because federal laws at the time prevented the pre-emption of native land, according to the study.
BOS guidelines specify that presentations exceeding the two minutes allowed for public comment must be submitted to the BOS a month in advance of the meeting. Though Brown”s PowerPoint presentation was submitted just a week in advance of the meeting, he is still hopeful that it may be added onto the agenda. The BOS meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport in the BOS chambers.
