Cost of Occupation
Peters sees the tax as a means to begin re-connecting all people to the land. “Historically, for thousands of years, this was Wiyot territory and there is a presence on this land that folks need to be conscious of,” he says. “But that relationship with the land and spirit is broken now, and a step toward that re-connection —of all peoples — is first to acknowledge it’s broken. And we find that the best acknowledgment in American society is to reach in your pocket for a little bit of dollars. It may seem an easy way out, but at least it’s a conscious effort to say, ‘I understand now.’”
So who else has paid the tax? Well, Paul Pitino, a former Arcata City council member, paid about $60 last year and will pay the same this year. Pitino, who’s self-employed, figures he can afford to pay 5 percent of what he pays the federal government in income taxes. “To me,” he says, “it’s like a fee I’m paying to live on their property.”
The Green Party of Humboldt County paid $100 last year, says Dana Silvernale, the GPHC’s county council chair. “Since we are reaping the benefits of the beautiful land that we live on, which doesn’t really belong to us, that was taken from the Wiyot, we feel like we owe them something in return,” she says.
Humboldt State University Sociology Professor Jennifer Eichstedt says the honor tax is about “doing what’s right” — similar to how Eureka City Council members viewed returning some of sacred Duluwat (Indian Island) to the Wiyot several years ago. It’s a step toward mending the decades of accumulated slights and major traumas that manifest into what Eichstedt calls transgenerational grief.
“If you do not actively work to heal these things, they fester,” she says. “Some people will say, ‘Get over it, we won.’ To those people I say, what if somebody came into your house and colonized it, and they beat you and put you in a pen in the backyard? And said they could do that because ‘they won’?”
Wiyot Tribal Administrator Maura Eastman says the honor tax goes into the tribe’s general fund. She likes that it’s voluntary.
“I don’t think the tribe would ever go out and try and solicit taxes from people,” Eastman says. “For the tribe I think the value is more in the thought than in the actual dollars. The fact that someone would acknowledge the homeland of the Wiyot is the most important part … rather than trying to make reparation for a time none of us living now had a part of.”
Peters says Humboldt is the first place to initiate an honor tax, although he has heard from communities in Minnesota and Arizona who are interested in doing something similar.
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10 Comments
Comment / By Steve Lewis / Oct. 10, 2009, 5:43 a.m.
What is wrong with Chris Peters? Why does he disrespect the Bear River tribe? Why donate only to the Wiyots? And that map Chris provides that shows Wiyot territory going much farther inland than history records? Talk with Bear River old timers and you will learn that to them, Wiyots were always coastal ndns, e.g. there’s no recognition in Chris’ map for Nongatl or what were called “Eel River” tribal communities inland from the coast (Northern Sinkyone). I will always remember Chris Peters attempt to sabatoge the Bear River’s Heartlands Project to recover thousands of acres of lost ancestral lands owned by PL. He tried to take over the Heartlands project actually telling Bear River tribal leaders to their face that he didn’t think Bear River could handle the Heartlands Project but that his organization, 7th Generation could. He also told them Bear River was a “homeless tribe” and at that Bear River tribal members walked out on Chris Peters as they should have. The guy is another one of our local self-appointed perpetual head of another good-cause community non-profit organization where they sit like toads in their tiny ponds for decades overseeing their little capitalist enterprise running in stealth pattern as a non-profit. Chris has his counterpart in Hawk Rosales, another self-appointed perpetual head of another non-profit ndn organization who just recently used all his political clout to stop another local ndn tribe from governing their own local territory, i.e., Rosales orchestrated campaign to deny SoHum Walaikis their name on their tribal territory that includes the Bear Gulch bridge. What is going on with these ndns screwing over their fellow ndns? Wiyots don’t need your token monies. They are profiting off of all Californian casinos with a kick-back percentage that non-casino California tribes now get. If you really want to help a tribe, donate to the Walaikis of SoHum who have been organizing for the last several years to get official tribal status. They need your funds while what Chris is doing is absurd in the light of casino profits being shared by Wiyots.
Comment / By Chris Peters / Oct. 11, 2009, 12:40 p.m.
Sorry Steve, unfortunately you miss the point of the Honor Tax. It is about sovereignty. That’s the issue. Our choosing the Wiyot Tribe of Table Bluff, along with partners, was in no way intended to imply malice or disrespect for the Bear River or any other local tribal group in Humboldt County. By reading the Honor Tax material - please see the website, you will see that our paying the Honor Tax is a way to respect and recognize the Wiyot Traditional Territory - where our office is located.
It is also an effort to create a vehicle and process for non-Native people to acknowledge and honor Native homelands… whether in Humboldt County or wherever they are. For healing, reconciliation, honor.
It is distressing that you have taken this position against the Honor Tax, in a way that would appear to be in sabotage of a possible healing process and way to open understanding between peoples. Let me reiterate, the Wiyot Tribe never requested this “Honor Tax” - residents, businesses and organizations residing in their traditional territories have decided voluntarily, without being asked, to levy this tax against ourselves.
The Honor Tax follows a long line of activities and opportunities for local Humboldt County residents to recognize the sovereignty of the tribal lands they are on.
The annual Wiyot Memorial, in February, of the massacre on Indian Island, as well as the City of Eureka’s return of Wiyot land/sacred site, are only a couple of such efforts to make peace and reconcile between our many peoples.
I would encourage friends of Bear River to initiate a similar Honor Tax efforts in communities that lie within your tribal territory/jurisdiction. You are welcome to call our office or to our partners, to explore how we are proceeding with this effort.
With regard to the more than 30 year history of the community based work of the Seventh Generation Fund, please visit our website at www.7genfund.org and view the impact of our work, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Our record speaks clearly for itself.
Now let’s set the record straight regarding the Bear River’s Heartland Project / Headwaters Forest. When this took place, several years ago, I personally, and Seventh Generation Fund, were the only Native people aggressively advocating for the involvement and return of oldgrowth forests to traditional Native community ownership. I never called anyone a “homeless Indian” - - that term is not in my vocabulary, because every Indian has home, that’s their ancestral territory, whether it is held by their tribe or not.
Finally, thank you for your response to this very exciting initiative that has been launched in Humboldt County — the Honor Tax. This is an honorable and hopeful strategy for tribal sovereignty, healing, reconciliation, and continuity.
Comment / By norcalguy / Oct. 11, 2009, 1:18 p.m.
Chriss Peters,
You’re an embarassment to Native Peoples everywhere.
End the victim label. You can either be limited by your limited past or unlimited by your unlimited future.
It’s your choice.
Comment / By Local / Oct. 11, 2009, 2:36 p.m.
It is obvious that some of the above comments have been made by people who are lacking in education of local politics, as well as lacking in respect for one another. It is easy to criticize and blame others when you are sitting around and doing nothing for your people.
Comment / By Stephen / Oct. 11, 2009, 10:04 p.m.
“I never called anyone a “homeless Indian” - - that term is not in my vocabulary, because every Indian has home, that’s their ancestral territory, whether it is held by their tribe or not.”
Sorry, Chris, but you did say that to Bear River Tribal Council members when we were in talks with 7th Generation. Ask former B.R. Vice Chair Wayne Moon and current B.R. T.C. member Carol Reeves. They were there and so was I and I don’t think any of us as forgotten you lousy actions that day. You tried to pull a power trip on the Bear River tribe by attempting to steal their Heartlands Project away from them. You even had the audacity to show B.R. a “new” Heartlands proposal with 7th Generation in charge completely disrespecting tribal territory and the persons who put their time and energy into the Bear River Heartlands Project. That’s why we walked out on you. Perhaps your ego was offended by the fact that Bear River had initiated a land recovery plan on their own without your organization’s help as this comment of yours implies as it does your mistaken belief only 7th Generation was the only Native American group advocating return of old growth forests to tribal stewardship.
“Now let’s set the record straight regarding the Bear River’s Heartland Project / Headwaters Forest. When this took place, several years ago, I personally, and Seventh Generation Fund, were the only Native people aggressively advocating for the involvement and return of oldgrowth forests to traditional Native community ownership.”
As for your Honor Tax, with you at the helm of the project and given your past record it really does appear that you have little or no regard for Bear River tribal territory as that very false Wiyot territory map shows in gobbling up Bear River’s ancestral tribal land and assigning it to Wiyots. The Honor Tax is absurd and only a token nod to existing tribes apparently to boost 7th Generation’s image with white environmentalists and Progressive activists, you know like the ones giving your cues to stop or takeover Bear River’s Heartlands Project because white enviros believed Headwaters belonged to them alone.
Comment / By Realist / Oct. 12, 2009, 8:22 a.m.
If Professor Jennifer Eichstedt really believes Indian/everyone else relations are as simple as her “pen in the backyard” analogy why doesn’t she do a little more than push a morsel through the bars. The right thing to do would be to let them out, give them their stuff back, apologize and leave. The professor should at a minimum give the Wiyots all her money and her home, it’s the least she could do. That is if she really believed what she said.
Comment / By we are here, now / Oct. 15, 2009, 12:42 p.m.
The honor tax does not impose values on any nor does it seek to prescribe that one tribe is more deserving than another. it, to me, is something that sparks dialogue and is a jump off point to discover the past of the area in which one lives and works. if someone is concerned about the land, or the money for that matter, then find a way a make it right. its personal. there is no room for slander upon the organizations that are helping spread the word, as its not about them or who runs the show, but the idea itself. paying an honor tax is about showing the tribe whose land you occupy that you understand where you are and honor that which is not yours, its personal so make it work for you.
Comment / By Rose / Oct. 15, 2009, 3:11 p.m.
Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County
That tells you everything you need to know about this. The crackpots are involved. And there’s something in it for them (grant money, grant money, grant money). Maybe they can peddle some of that phony currency to the unsuspecting tribes.
there’s no honor in this “honor tax.”
Comment / By Thirdeye / Oct. 15, 2009, 5:57 p.m.
Scamming the white liberal guilt complex for dollars again. This one is so blatant and in-your-face it’s actually funny.
Comment / By brokenarrow / April 2, 8:57 a.m.
When I first heard about the honor tax I was intrigued with the idea, but since: 1. I already pay federal and state taxes which a portion of are returned to tribal peoples in myriad ways, and 2. the place I was born and raised is being consumed by casinos which raise plenty of money (usually addicts’ money), I don’t really see the point of the tax.
To honor someone does not require a cash transaction, it’s a state of being and living. People today idealize that it was all so much better before white people arrived, but they don’t realize that tribes didn’t always get along in a utopia. There is no perfect culture. Land and resource squabbles are common in every society. Until the area tribes can honor one another, and can come up with a map that they can agree on (since where I live I’ve heard opposite tribal viewpoints) I think we’re all just a bunch of broken arrows.
May we put down our bows and really listen to one another. Then we need to learn to forgive each other, really forgive, and then find ways to move on in support of one another. Great Spirit help us all!