news story / By Heidi Walters

Damages

Byron Nelson Jr., the Hoopa Tribe’s historian, said last week by telephone that he’d heard some strange things, too, about the decision. “It seems to be tied right to the White House,” Nelson said. “There was some pretty sleazy stuff going on … a real bad mix of characters connected with cabinet members … I just heard these rumors that there was all kinds of deal-making.”

On Tuesday, Special Trustee Ross Swimmer sent his comments to the Journal by fax: “It’s my belief that the funds were distributed appropriately between the Hoopa and Yurok Tribes,” he wrote. “I respect the right of the Hoopa Tribe to disagree.” Swimmer added that he was disappointed at the way the Yurok had decided to use the funds. “Distributing the money per capita to tribal members instead of investing for the future of the Tribe, I believe, is unfortunate. However, I understand the Tribe’s choice.”

Nelson said that, despite what he’d heard about the decision-making, if he were on the council — he’s served off and on over the decades, and is running again this year — he’d have voted against filing the lawsuit. It will cost yet more money, he said. He added that he doesn’t begrudge the Yuroks’ getting the money — both tribes are suffering economically.

“Let’s move on,” he said. Between the latest money battle and a previous fight over rights to the Square, which have torn at Hoopa-Yurok relations, the tribal communities are worn from bickering, he said. “There’s people still alive that are really resentful” of how that old battle played out. “And the Hoopa community is in one of the worst shapes ever — the drug problem, the economy. Since the ‘60s we’ve been spending a million dollars a year on litigation. And we only make $4 million a year in timber. It’s going to take some rebuilding of relationships. My hope is the Yurok Tribe and Hoopa Tribe, and the Karuk Tribe, will get together on some economic development projects. I think it will happen.”

On Tuesday, by phone, Yurok Tribal Chairwoman Maria Tripp seemed indifferent to the Hoopa’s lawsuit. “For us, it’s winding down,” she said. “Our part of it is over. We have other things on the agenda, things we work together on like the fishery. I would say that we did have the right to the fund … and it couldn’t have come at a better time because of the economy.”

Some tribal members in the Hoopa Valley say the money decision has caused fistfights to break out in the high school and grumblings to be heard around town about Yurok people driving around in “new Corvettes” and such.

But others seem sick of the ill will and can see both sides. They have to. Serena Masten, for instance, who works at the Lucky Bear Casino as secretary to the CEO, is Hupa and Yurok. She belongs to the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Her fiance is with the Yurok Tribe. Her cousin Leonard Masten Jr., who’s on the Hoopa Tribal Council, is married to Sue Masten who was chair of the Yurok Tribe and helped argue for its right to the settlement fund. Her dad was on the Hoopa Council back in 1986, just before the reservations were split. And so on.

Serena Masten said she doesn’t think it was fair that the fund was given to the Yurok. “It should’ve been split 50-50,” she said. But then again, she isn’t mad that her fiance got his check from the fund. “It’s ridiculous to be fighting,” she said. “We should be coming together as one. But it’s just been ‚ÄòI want more, I want more’ on both sides.”

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