Residents of the 18 units of the
Aiy-yu-kwee Mobile Home Park
on the territory of the Blue Lake Rancheria received letters yesterday from the rancheria announcing that there may be potential buyers for their trailers.
Home owner Susie Holderman talked to Blue Lake Rancheria Tribal Administrator Arla Ramsey this morning and, though interactions with the tribe have been tense in recent weeks, Holderman described her conversation with Ramsey as a “nice peaceful talk.”
Susie Holderman and her husband Corey are hoping to get market-value for their double wide trailer (about $120,000), but that’s a best-case scenario. She told Ramsey this morning that they would be willing to sell for $80,000.
Still, Holderman said she worries that potential buyers may just be trying to take advantage of a bad situation by making lowball offers.
Corey Holderman, who was the first trailer park resident to speak out publicly against the evictions at a Blue Lake City Council meeting last December, is optimistic about this latest development.
“I believe that they’re actually trying to do something to help us out,” he said when reached by telephone earlier today. “They’re seeing our point about what our problem is. For now we’ll take it as a step in the right direction.”
This article appears in Unlike Mike.
why would a seller reveal his/her lowest acceptable price and then complain about lowball offers? i can bet that the sellers will not recieve an offer over $80ooo now that they have stated that they will sell that low…
It was a great article, Japhet. I do believe you have helped these people, whether or not that was your intent. It looks pretty bad for the tribe, and they will need to do the right thing to fix it.
Big old corporation ripping off the low income/low cost home dwellers. Very bad but where’s Humboldts golden boy of smart growth. Little mark is off fighting windmills and picking up a fat check and future perks from the nature conservancy.
How about the two tenants they have that employees? They got advanced notice and financial reimbursement to move at their own pace. Not to be shoved out.
Good story, but the real facts remain hidden… The Blue Lake Rancheria was established in 1994 for the sole purpose of building a gambling Casino. The orginal BL Reservation was terminated by the U.S. Gov. during the 50s and most the Indians from there joined other (reservations) tribes in the area. This new group came in and wrote a new Constitution (see on line) allowing anyone approved by the BIA as a descendant of any Indian in the United States going back hundreds of years, to join this new Reservation, that is, if they lived there during the writing of this new Constitution. To keep the orginal BL Indians from returning, they prohibited any Indian who belonged to another tribe from joining. With about 50 “Indians,” they were ready to build their Casino.
The deception exposed in your article by Ms. Ramsey and Holliday regarding the real use of that land is amazing. Especially when it has been known along that they had aquired that land for one purpose; to expand their Casino.
One last thing; a law called Public Law 280 was passed in 1953 mandating a transfer of Federal Law Enforcement authority on certain Federally recgonized Indian Reservations over to the states. 6 states were affected and California was one of them. Since no money went along with the Act, states are sometimes reluctant to enforce certain laws on Reservations, hence, some state or county departments will say (as stated in your article) that the tribes have jurisdiction, when they really don’t have it. So it appears that the BL Rancheria has got a bluff job going on with its supposed jurisdiaction. why do you think they lost their fight over not having to abide with the states workers Comp. laws? The same would probably happen if those people in the trailer park got a good Federal Indian Law attorney to represent them.
It’s interesting that a few people will not have homes while Ramsey builds new homes in France and Japan. Poor casino just trying to make their land payment. This whole deal stinks.
Thank you for shedding some light on this situation.
This whole casino is a total farce. It is owned and operated by and for white people who clearly feel no obligaton whatsoever to anyone but themselves. There is no Blue Lake tribe, hasn’t been for nearly a century. The Wiyots who used to live here were all murdered long ago, except for one little baby who lived. This so-called tribe was always a fiction created in modern times for the sole purpose of getting free money.