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Thursday, May 14, 2020

Mendocino County, Ca Sheriff Vows to Continue to Focus on Cartel Grows on Tribal Lands

Yaqui for borderland Beat from: MCSO / YouTube/ GeoCurrents
               
Mendocino County Sheriff vows to continue to focus on illegal Cartel marijuana grows, especially on Native Lands. Sheriff Kendall served yet another warrant on a large grow near Covelo, Ca in Round Valley. Some interesting history on the next page.
Some History:
The struggles between indigenous peoples and the U.S. government and its citizens are now relatively well covered in the American school curriculum, which no longer ignores the atrocities committed by the victors. California, however, is often left out of the story. The only “Indian war” of note in the state was the Lava Beds Campaign of 1872-1873, during which Kintpuash (“Captain Jack”) and his fifty-three Modoc warriors kept the U.S. military at bay for almost a year. In standard histories of California, the bloody dispossession of the American Indian communities elsewhere in the state in the mid-1800s is given little attention. California’s native peoples have generally been construed as non-warlike, and the conflicts that ensued when their territories were overrun by white settlers deemed undramatic if not unimportant.
In actuality, the decimation of native Californians was plenty dramatic and shockingly cruel:

Consider, for example, the almost forgotten Mendocino War of 1859. The Wikipedia article on the conflict amounts to three terse sentences, noting only that “several hundred American Indians were killed,” and that “many young Indians were sold into servitude in the white settlements.” It does, however, link to historical documents that outline the conflict in some detail. Some of these reports recount outrages committed against the Indians, specifying that the main cause of the conflict was simple cattle theft. The “majority legislative report of 1860” is worth quoting:

“Indians continue to kill cattle as a means of subsistence, and the settlers in retaliation punish with death. Many of the most respectable citizens of Mendocino County have testified before your committee that they kill Indians, found in what they consider the hostile districts, whenever they lose cattle or horses; nor do they attempt to conceal or deny this fact. … The testimony shows that … in one instance, an expedition was marked by the most horrid atrocity …”

The report concluded with a simple question: “Shall the Indians be exterminated, or shall they be protected?” The decision went for protection, but by today’s standards, the “protection” afforded would itself be considered genocidal. In the end, most of the surviving native people of Mendocino were forced into the Round Valley Reservation in the remote northeastern corner of the county, one of the few large reservations in the state (36 sq mi [94 km²]). The Wikipedia’s description of the removal process is stark:

“Indians came to Round Valley as they did to other reservations — by force. The word “drive”, widely used at the time, is descriptive of the practice of “rounding up”       Indians and “driving” them like cattle to the reservation where they were “corralled” by high picket fences. Such drives took place in all weather and seasons, and the elderly and sick often did not survive.”

The deportees faced further travails as they settled in their new home. Round Valley was the designated refuge for a half dozen or more separate ethnolinguistic groups, several of which had long been bitter enemies. Establishing concord was not easy. And despite its reservation status, Round Valley attracted white settlers as well—many of whom proceeded to attack the Indians, requiring intervention by the U.S. army.

In time, the various tribes forced into Round Valley amalgamated into a new hybrid group. Numbers were small, intermarriage was necessary, and hostility from outsiders enhanced internal cohesion. Today the reservation’s official website specifies that it covers the “Round Valley Indian Tribes: A Sovereign Nation of Confederated Tribes.” As of 2000, this nation’s total population was 300.

By most definitions of the term, the Round Valley nation is not sovereign, but it does possess a degree of legal autonomy. How far such autonomy extends is much disputed. As is true elsewhere in Mendocino County, the most contentious issue is marijuana. In 2007, the tribal council voted to allow the growing of up to thirty-three plants per household while restricting the practice to specific areas. 

Limiting cultivation to particular parts of the reservation was designed to reduce participation by Mexican cartels, which have a reputation for both violence and environmentally destructive growing techniques. 

A 2010 Indianz.com article claimed, however, that much of the cultivation on the reservation was still being carried out by “the Mexican mafia.” The article also quoted tribal police chief Carlos Rabano as saying that although federal law prohibits the planting of marijuana in “Indian Country,” he still “tries not to interfere with tribal member’s yards.”

19 comments:

  1. Great post gurrrrrl! Tribal lands/reservations have been a tool used by cartels for years. If you take a look at a map of south west US you can see tribal lands that actually sit directly on the border, with no land buffer between US and Mx. In those cases cartels use those lands to transport drugs into the US. It is my understanding that the US has awarded indian jurisdiction of those lands so can do nothing without the request of tribal jurisdiction.

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    1. True.. but the FEDS would supercede/nullify any agreement if those lands were being trafficked and the Indians were involved and/or facilitating the illegal activity.

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    2. Plenty of atrocities by the indians!!! Not all indians were savages but MOST of them were. I'm a 1/16 Cherokee... son has a baby with an indian girl. His son has his card.

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    3. I will defer to your comment as being possible. What I can tell you 12 years ago using az tribal land as a drug corridor was knowledge in both gov and referred to by certain cartels.

      nothing has happened and my bet is 99.9 percent of people no nothing about this

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    4. Chivis I can tell you that in the 90's the tribes policed their reservations and turned you over to the feds to process your case.

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    5. @1:33 typical 2% "native" who feels entitled to comment as an actual native. I would be just as bad as you if i identified as a Scandinavian based on my 3% Scandinavian DNA

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  2. As much as Id like to root for this sheriff he's working in a state that seems to care more for its criminals than its law abiding population. When push comes to shove expect little backup from these Open borders loving Democrats

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    1. You should study the laws related to imagrants. You make it seem that if a Latino gets stopped for drugs, that they let him go free.
      Migrants not commiting are not bothered, but those that will be arrested will serve same due process, those with major felonies jail/prison time then get deported.

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  3. Don't forget national forests and parks. Cartels have always exploited them as well!

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    1. Now Now, there has been tremendous amount of improvement in illegal grows on NAT Forest land. They mostly got chased out and moved into Quasi - legal grows in more urban areas; why haul everything in on their backs , incl water in Augus when te outback goes dry ? They can produce much more per square yard etc in semi rural - urban areas.

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  4. I used to live in Covalo some 25 plus years ago and this is nothing new. The Cartels would go on their land heavily armed and either force them to grow or send one of their guys to be in charge of growing the plants.

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  5. So what you're saying 11:21 is all the folks coming across the "Open borders" are criminals?

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    1. Oh please........the mexi cartels have been alive and well for forever up here.

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  6. The sheriff is on his own think about all them politicians in Cali that support illegal immigration on the low you think theyre gonna authorize a law enforcement operation that targets people running all these Mj plantations? Highly unlikely

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    1. 4:37 You need to read more articles, he has reinforcements and DEA, it maybe a haven hideout for criminals from Mexico, but thanks to a kidnapping, Northern California is becoming a radar for Law Enforcement, DEA and FBI.

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    2. Don't forget usa undercover military.

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  7. I thought mota was legal?????

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    1. 5:06 owning grifa since it is a seed or as a grown ass cypress may have become decriminalized, but the ownership with commercial purposes is still what makes the money, just steal the yerbas and sell them cheap.

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  8. This guy and this county is a joke, haven't allowed law enforcement to work on these problems for years, now they suddenly are losing money due to the grows and they want to step in...

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