My Comment Concerning the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Environmental Educational Campus in Yosemite

Hey all,

Aside from working on my law review outline and working 40 hours a week at the U.S. Attorneys Office, I’ve been slaving away on my lunch breaks working on this comment.  The due date was this past Wednesday.

What was originally intended to be only five to seven pages ended up being twenty!  I’m very curious to know how my comment will be reviewed by the National Park Service.  I gave it a quick once-over around 12:02 a.m. that Wednesday morning as I wanted to have it all done on Wednesday, the day it was due.  I hope my research was thorough enough, my arguments persuasive, firm yet professional, and, hopefully, constructive.

I believe this issue is of importance to any lineal descendant of Chief Tenaya or the Yosemite Indian community.  The NPS preferred alternative for this plan was to demolish the dilapidated environmental educational campus jointly run by the NPS and Yosemite Institute at Crane Flat.  Alternative 3 (the preferred alternative) would have the Henness Ridge area (site plan, PDF) torn apart to make way for the new campus.  Alternative 2 (the alternative I reluctantly support) would keep Henness Ridge intact and update the existing structures at Crane Flat to bring them up to modern building standards and expand them to house more students.

My biggest concern are the Indian remains that may be housed underneath Henness Ridge and their unearthal by construction crews.  Neither the NPS nor myself know for sure what is below the ground, however the NPS knows that the area was once used as a trade route by my people.  It’s a logical conclusion that Indians may have been buried there given Yosemite’s historical use as a once-great nation and gathering area.  My ancestors are entitled to their proper resting place, especially those who have been dug by park archeologists for the past 50+ years.

Furthermore, the consultation process with park-affiliated tribes is deficient because at least one of the so-called “tribes” isn’t a tribe at all.  Technically, I have just as much standing to be a part of park-sanctioned consultation processes as this particular non-profit is concerned but the NPS thinks it can do whatever it wants.

My comment is available for you to download here: Comment re Environmental Campus Draft EIS

General info about the EEC: http://www.nps.gov/yose/parkmgmt/eecampus.htm