Announcement: A final closing ceremony for the prayer vigil and
encampment at Sogorea Te will be held on Saturday, July 30th, starting at noon. During the ceremony, long-term participants and warriors will be honored and the sacred fire that has been continuously tended for over 100 days and nights will be allowed to burn out.
Bring chairs to sit in and food to share. We’ll be asking volunteers to take trash out with them as they leave. Also, on Sunday the 31st, we will work together to pack everything up and to thoroughly clean and restore the grounds. Extra hands will be very much appreciated.
On Monday the 25th, a representative of Yocha Dehe visited Sogorea Te and walked the grounds with Protect Glen Cove Committee members, who pointed out all the specific areas of cultural concern. He brought with him a letter from Marshall McKay, the Chairman of Yocha Dehe. A personal note from McKay accompanying the letter stated that “It is with heartfelt appreciation for your dedication to the preservation of the sacred burials and sites at Glen Cove that I send this message…Please know that while I cannot attend the closing ceremony, I will be with you in spirit.”
The open letter “to our friends at Glen Cove” states, “On behalf of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, I thank you for your efforts to protect the sacred sites here at Glen Cove in the City of Vallejo. With your help, we succeeded in securing a cultural easement that will forever ensure that Native Americans govern the protection of this area so cherished by those who gave us life… you have persevered through many difficulties and your willingness to support our efforts is so greatly appreciated.”
The Yocha Dehe representatives also brought with them the news that the “reduced” parking lot still planned by GVRD is a 2 space parking lot for the handicapped. Careful testing will be done to make certain that the area where they want to place this lot contains no cultural materials or human remains.
This past weekend was packed with special occasions and visitors, including a contingent of island indigenous people from the Oceania Coalition of Northern California (OCNC) that brought gifts and blessings, a delegation from “Free Peltier, Free Em All” with Fred Hampton Jr, and a group of Native Hawaiians who stayed late in to the evening, sharing songs and stories of Hawaiian struggles. The Vallejo Intertribal Council’s annual Pow-Wow was held in downtown Vallejo over the weekend, and on Sunday, warriors and supporters from Sogorea Te came out in strong numbers to sing the AIM honoring song and Sogorea Te song.
Photos and a more detailed report from this weekend’s events will be posted soon!
Recent articles & media
- Times-Herald editorial 7/27: We came together at Glen Cove
- Times-Herald editorial 7/26: Passion pays off by Kim DeOcampo
- Times-Herald editorial 7/26: Glen Cove lessons by Sean Maddox
- Photos via Facebook 7/26: Tapa Ceremony @ Glen Cove from the Oceania Coalition of Northern CA
- Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation 7/25: Open Letter to Our Friends at Glen Cove (PDF)
- Just out via WePay: Help Sogorea Te warriors travel to the San Francisco Peaks – Gas money!!
A few photos – more to be posted in forthcoming “weekend update”
Porta-potty mural… thanks, Clarice!
Singing the Sogorea Te song at the Vallejo Inter-tribal Council Pow-Wow in downtown Vallejo.
Prayer songs with elderberry clappers at the edge of the cove.
This is truly something to tell my grandchildren. I am so proud to know that this important and beautiful site is safe and so honored to be connected with your struggle in a small way.
Excellent start for Mother Earth!!!
Thank you all for your courage, your deep understanding of real life on Earth, your deeper spirituality.
As an ‘American’, I give you my blessing in your continuing struggle. Occupy every sacred site in this stolen land until you acheive the same result these brave warriors at Glen Cove did.
The US is dumping parkland and closing parks as fast as it can. Any land that America finds no public value in anymore should revert immediately to Native control, in my opinion, in addition to every sacred site.
I would posit that a gift of all Federal, State, and County land to the Native Americans would go a long way towards healing the wounds we cut into Native culture.
Stay strong, stay proud, stay healthy!!! I agree, take all the sacred sites back. As many as you can!
Prayers from Morgan Hill/San Jose.
Peace!
I’m writing from Lake County, where a place called Harbin Hot Springs exploits what I am told was a sacred place to the Pomo. So it has always been since my people invaded this native Manger and Eden, what is called Lake County now.
This ‘church’ at Harbin recently involved me, and a number of other citizens here, in secret recordings of confidential doctor/patient relationships, protected by law, last year when they called the Lake County Sheriff on me who then drageed me to the ER in handcuffs, and tried to have me locked up in a ansane asylum for three days.
I hope to have the biggest lawsuit Lake County has ever seen, to win, hands down, and take control of the land Harbin was built on for the damages I suffered at their hands, in a Church, on Sacred Native American land.
Should this future be realized, there is only one man I would give the land to, free.
My hero, Wounded Knee.
He knows the needs of the warriors that stood before, and with him in Glen Cove.
Thank you!