The Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, represented by Scott Williams, successfully confirmed its rights to fish and gather on its ancestral lands along the Sonoma Coast in California. On June 24, 2010, the California Fish and Game Commission agreed to the Tribe’s proposal to amend regulations under the Marine Life Protection Act to authorize ongoing Tribal fishing, gathering, and ceremonial activities.
The Commission had issued a regulation prohibiting all take of all living resources in an area of the coast known as “Danáka” in the Kashia language, and which the Commission called the Stewarts Point Marine Reserve. The Reserve included the homelands of the Kashia people. Kashia activities on that coastal area had not been considered by the Commission when it deliberated and adopted its regulation. The Tribe proposed an emergency amendment, to restore its authority to continue its subsistence and ceremonial practices. A Tribal member testified at the hearing before the Commission: “The Kashia began on the coast. Danáka is the place where we believe the tribe first stepped on the earth. It has tremendous significance for our tribe. We are a very traditional tribe that still speaks our language, follows our culture and respects our elders and follows their direction.”
Though Danáka is outside the boundaries of the Kashia Reservation, it is unquestionably within the ancestral lands of Kashia people and in continuous use by Tribal members since the beginning of time. The State’s recognition of the necessity of acknowledging and accommodating Kashia traditional practices bodes well for the Indian tribes of the Northern California Coast where the Marine Life Protection Act regulatory process is still underway.
The Tribe’s ability to retain the firm and protect its ancestral rights was supported by a substantial contribution from the Lannan Foundation, and by additional contributions from The Impact Fund.
The regulation and a video of the hearing are available on the Fish and Game Commission’s web site