Shasta County
Shasta County (), officially the County of Shasta, is a county in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is 182,155 as of the 2020 census, up from 177,223 from the 2010 census. The county seat is Redding.
Shasta ...
, Northern California. It is a leader in the development of their people in their traditional homelands. Redding Rancheria /ref> The Bureau of Indian Affairs purchased the land that is now considered the Redding Rancheria in 1922, in order to provide Indigenous peoples with a place to camp and live. They had been made landless by European-American settlers in the area. Three groups of Native Americans in the area organized as a tribe and were recognized in 1979.
Description
The Redding Rancheria consists of
Wintu
The Wintu (also Northern Wintun) are Native Americans who live in what is now Northern California. They are part of a loose association of peoples known collectively as the Wintun (or Wintuan). Others are the Nomlaki and the Patwin. The Wintu ...
,
Achomawi
Achomawi (also Achumawi, Ajumawi and Ahjumawi), are the northerly nine (out of eleven) bands of the Pit River tribe of Palaihnihan Native Americans who live in what is now northeastern California in the United States. These 5 autonomous ban ...
(Pit River), and
Yana
Yana may refer to:
Locations
*Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma
*Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India
* Yana, Nigeria, an administrative ca ...
Indians. Redding Rancheria was recognized as a tribe following a four-year lawsuit filed by Tillie Hardwick in 1979. It is located in the northern Sacramento Valley, near Redding.
Government
The Redding Rancheria has a constitution, adopted in 1989, signed by Bob Foreman the First tribal chairman. It is governed by seven Councilors and three Alternate Councilors, elected by the membership. The current tribal administration is as follows.
* Tribal Chairman – Jack Potter, Jr.
* Vice Chairman – Michelle Hayward
* Secretary – Patty Spaulding
* Treasurer – Hope Wilkes
* Council Member – Jason Hayward, Jr.
* Council Member – Tony Hayward, Sr.
* Council Member – Laine Hayward
* 1st Alternate – Nicole Wilkes
* 2nd Alternate – Jason Hayward, Sr.
* 3rd Alternate – Miranda Edwards
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...
between Redding and Anderson.Win-River Resort & Casino /ref> It has produced significant revenue for the tribe, enabling capital payments to each member.
Membership dispute
The Redding Rancheria's 1989 constitution states that it shall consist of all lineal descents of the 17 original distributees, who are listed on the plan of distribution dated October 8, 1959. This established the land as a reservation.
In 2002 an elder wrote a letter questioning the lineage of the Foreman family, as she said its claimed ancestor, the late Virginia Timmons, had no children. This challenged the enrollment of Lorena Foreman, once a member of the tribal council, along with the descendants. In September of 2003, the tribe held an evidentiary hearing and later an anonymous vote on disenrollment by all adult members of the tribe. The constitution states, "All members of the Redding Rancheria who are eighteen (18) years of age or older shall be qualified voters in elections and General Meetings." But the Timmons' descendants were not allowed to vote on the issue.
The family had provided documentation and noted that birth records (which the tribe had asked for) were rare for Native Americans at that time. The Foreman family was supported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which wrote to the tribe and tribal chair Tracy Edwards. The Redding Rancheria was still requiring DNA.
The Foremans presented family records, witnesses, testimony from two anthropologists specializing in California Native Americans, and proof that their family members' names were listed as related on the 1928 California Judgement roll (a state census that recorded all Native people). The family contacted a world-renowned DNA scientist, known for helping to identify victims of the 9/11 terror attacks at the World Trade Center.
Virginia Timmons, the family’s matriarch whose membership in the tribe was undisputed, was the first to be exhumed. She had been buried so long that the team was unsure if a DNA sample could be obtained, but a bone sample yielded some. Virginia’s DNA was compared to a living descendant. The results came back 99.9% positive. The DNA results were presented to the tribe. The Foremans thought it was bulletproof. But after two years of fighting, the family was notified that they would officially be disenrolled following a vote from the general tribe.
Education
The ranchería is served by the
Cascade Union Elementary School District
Cascade Union Elementary School District is a public school district based in Shasta County, California
Shasta County (), officially the County of Shasta, is a county in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is ...
and
Anderson Union High School District
Anderson or Andersson may refer to:
Companies
* Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910
* Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car
* Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer
* Anderson R ...
.
See also
*
Indigenous peoples of California
The indigenous peoples of California (known as Native Californians) are the indigenous inhabitants who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. ...