July 1, 2025 • 59 mins
This episode of Curry Café, hosted by Ray Gary and Rick McNamer, features an in-depth discussion with Katrina Thompson-Upton, founder of the Northwest American Indian Coalition, and Tabatha Rood, Rogue Basin Coordinator for the Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative, about the historical and ongoing struggles of Native American tribes in Curry County. The discussion explores […]
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Well, hello again, KCIW
listeners, and welcome to Curry Cafe.
I'm producer and volunteer Rick McNamer.
Every Sunday from three to 4PM, your host,
Ray Gary, famous radio announcer, puts together a
panel of guests to discuss topics of interest
in our community.
Listeners can participate
by texting questions or comments to (541)
(00:27):
661-4098.
Again, that's (541)
661-4098.
Now here's Ray to tell us about today's
show. Well, first, I'm gonna correct you. That's
famous radio personality,
not an announcer.
An announcer just reads copy and announces things.
I'll get it right next week. A personality
(00:47):
has a personality. Okay. And before we go
any further, I'd like to remind everybody that
that, these
shows are open to anybody. If you wanna
do a show about something,
especially, we would really like to find some
some Republicans or MAGA people that would like
to come on and talk to us.
But today, we're not doing anything like that.
(01:08):
We have two lovely guests here today,
and I will allow them now to go
around the table and introduce themselves
and
promote any merch they're selling or anything.
Jala, you see Katrina Thompson
Upton, the founder of Northwest American Indian Coalition,
and honored to be here today. I'm not
selling any merchandise,
(01:29):
at the moment. So
and I'm Tabitha Rood. I have been on
the show before. Thanks for having me again.
And,
definitely not a MAGA person, but certainly in
the middle. So a medical
radical centrist. Radical.
Wow.
You're you're you're the closest we ever had.
Well, yeah. Great. I can also phone a
(01:50):
friend or my father if we really need
input from that side on this side.
Awesome.
Okay.
Oh, before we get going, speaking of phone,
you can't call us, but you can text
us and join in the conversation.
(541)
661-4098.
(541)
661-4098.
(02:13):
Operators are standing by. Standing by.
Well, actually, it's sitting by. Right? But but
it's
So, anyway, let's get into the I guess,
the main topic that we have discussed in
that,
Tabith. Feel free to go ahead and introduce
all of that Sure. Stuff that's going on
up in Gold Beach. Yeah. Well, there's there's
a lot going on in Curry County. Perfect.
(02:34):
Yeah. I definitely have seen,
a lot of travelers on the road today.
So just wanna shout out to how beautiful
it is. And if you're enjoying the 101,
please drive safe and don't cause any accidents
at Secret Beach. There are other parking locations.
But maybe today, we can we've definitely got
a call to action for some local folks
on,
(02:54):
some issues of development happening in in Gold
Beach,
and also,
just a little maybe history lesson on Native
American culture in Curry County and why maybe
when you're driving up and down the coast
in our county, you don't see so much
of that and,
maybe some of the reasons why that's missing.
Yeah. I'll jump in there. This is,
(03:15):
a pretty significant month as well. I have
some dates I'd like to go over.
The rogue Indian wars,
in the mid eighteen fifties were pretty devastating
to the the tribal people here.
There was a a lot of, learning, shall
you say, as Westward
(03:35):
expansion
came,
to the West Coast here. And so things
were getting pretty brutal,
during the mid eighteen fifties. There was
genocidal
policies and practices
along the West Coast here.
In the 1853,
(03:55):
you may have heard of the Ontocket Massacre,
which was one of the, I think, the
second largest massacre on United States soil. It
was very devastating,
very large, and it's right here in in
our neighborhood.
And then as you move north a little
bit in the between Chekhou and,
the Rogue
Rivers, there was a lot of, brutal conflicts
(04:18):
and massacres,
that happened
that resulted in,
the majority of the survivors. What little survivors
were left were then
forced marched to force removed, forced relocated to
coast reservations,
which later became Sylhetes and Grande Ronde. So
the people of this area, the tribal people
of this area were forced removed
(04:41):
to
other areas, and that is why you don't
see a large tribal presence here in Curry
County.
Moving forward,
a little while, the tribal people try to,
you know,
reestablish themselves and,
heal and and grow from
what they had went through. And then again,
(05:02):
in nineteen fifties,
'19 August of nineteen fifty four,
we had the termination
Act, the Western Oregon Termination Act, which, again,
terminated
all of the, tribes that had reestablished themselves,
so,
found themselves again,
starting starting over.
In that termination act, there was over 60
(05:25):
tribes that were terminated in the Western Oregon
Termination Act, which
essentially was more than any other state in
The United States,
that that felt that.
And what we have now is nine tribes
that are fairly recognized in Oregon.
The majority of those are confederated tribes, meaning,
(05:45):
a lot of the the the the tribes
that survived are underneath of an umbrella of
a larger
federally recognized tribe. So they share
different cultures. They share,
languages
and and whatnot,
which makes,
Mooshe makes things
complicated
in and of itself, but, then having to
(06:07):
understand that the majority of the people that
are on these reservations, that were removed to
these reservations, this is their homeland. Curry County
is the homelands and will always be the
ancestral homelands.
But we have to
fight for that
participation,
because of these,
two major past
policies that happened here.
(06:28):
So
So so
the the was it the federal government that
just said these tribes don't exist? Or
Yeah. The Western Oregon Termination Act was the
federal
What was the justification for that?
Just because.
Just because? In other words, no justification
for that.
Little little was needed
(06:48):
back then. Why did they feel they needed
to do it? I mean, what
I would say it was probably related to
resources.
You look at fisheries, timber,
you know, gold, otters. That makes I'm sorry.
Can you repeat that again? That that happened,
in the mid eighteen fifties.
A couple important dates would be June ninth
(07:09):
of eighteen fifty one. That's when captain William
Titchener landed his steamship, the Seagull,
in Port Orford.
He kinda began
the colonial settlement of of the tribal lands
in this area.
That was Fort Orford,
and there's,
a Suriadan State Park outside of
the city of Port Orford that was used,
(07:32):
as a holding pen when,
the tribal people were being,
rounded up. We called them sweeps.
They'd be held there for transportation on steamships
up north or,
force marched on foot.
And that was in 1851.
You know, there's there's and then 1853, of
(07:52):
course, was Gontocket. There was several several different,
massacres in between then.
And just as a reference, the Coquille people,
the Coquille Restoration Act didn't didn't come again
until 1989,
so they just had their restoration celebration on
June 28.
They were restored in 1989,
(08:13):
and I like to point out that that's
1989,
not '8 1989.
So these are just recent,
restorations that tribe and tribal people have had
to fight for, for so long. And
You know, and this is where history
is very important. Now a lot of there's
a movement to try to erase a lot
of the stuff that was bad. But I
wanna do I I might have misheard you.
(08:34):
The Oregon,
act that you were talking about, you said
1954
or that was 1850? No. The Western Oregon
Termination Act came in August of nineteen fifty
four. 1954.
Mhmm.
Over 60 tribes, more than any other state
in in The United States. Recent history.
Mhmm. Wow. And then, you know, the the
(08:55):
marches, I know the one of the more
famous one, I am assuming, is the Trail
of Tears, but and you were talking about
the
there were so many nationwide
Mhmm. Of those marches that some we I'm
sure we've never even heard of. Mhmm. Yeah.
It was pretty devastating. People from their lands
and putting them
in,
I would call, concentration camps almost, maybe. Yeah.
(09:17):
Pretty pretty ugly stuff. Manifest Destiny. Yeah. Another
reported date. Alright.
Was his founding fathers.
Yeah. I'm yeah.
Manifest destiny. What a joke. Anyway, go ahead.
Another important date for June, and since we're
still almost just barely in June,
is 06/02/1924
is the American,
(09:38):
Indian,
Citizenship Act. So my grandma was born in
1920. She was not born a United States
citizen. That didn't come until 1924.
And then,
still, it took a couple years to actually,
enforce that, so that that's another June was
full of all kinds of historical important historical
dates. Okay. So until 1924,
(09:58):
the the native people were not considered citizens?
Correct.
A lot of our
our veterans that fought in, in wars were
were not considered citizens.
And, yeah, treated horribly and and
putting great sacrifice towards our country.
Can't get much worse than that.
(10:19):
Yeah. So I think that, you know, to
the point of, like, the significance of this
area to both the current federally recognized tribes
in Oregon
and just to the people that are still
here in terms of understanding the context of
what came before.
There's a lot of work to do, and
that's why Northwest American Indian Coalition, which Katrina
runs, is, such an important organization for
(10:41):
educating people that are new here, have lived
there their whole lives, and,
are interested in in how we can heal
together. Because it is not only
affecting the the Indian people and native people
that were here before, but it's also affecting
the current communities because we continue to allow,
development and kind of neo colonial exploitation
(11:02):
to occur in Curry County,
which is kind of, you know, the topic
that we came to discuss today. That's okay.
Because any topics we can discuss today. I
mean, it's it's just another example of resource
exploitation and really capitalizing on this beautiful area,
but really not doing any service for the
people that came before or currently live here.
(11:24):
So, you know, I'll just briefly mention that
we can get into the call of action
later, but there's a lot of examples of
large companies coming in or,
wealthy individuals coming in to buy a property
in Gold Beach or in Curry County more
generally,
either to extract resources, hold it as an
investment,
anything really but invest in the local community.
(11:45):
And so not only do we have, like,
an absence of,
acknowledgement
to tribal people in this area, but we
have a real absence of tribal ownership in
this area, which doesn't allow for,
people to really appreciate the culture, which we
see in other areas. You know, you take
a trip through California and you can take
almost like a cultural tour of the state
and really understand, like, who came before, what
(12:08):
resources were really utilized, and how California
developed through kind of a tragic history, but
has has worked with tribes to bring back
a lot of those really,
natural healing processes
of their ecosystem, but also their their culture.
And so we're kinda missing out on this
big opportunity also in in Curry County to,
(12:30):
economically and socially repair our systems,
with working with Native American culture. Yeah.
And you touch on that, and that's that's
correct. I read a couple of papers down
in, like, mostly Humboldt County area. From what
I've read I should have probably written this
down, but I didn't. But from what I've
read recently,
they've been
(12:50):
giving lands back
to some tribes down there. Or now maybe
there was some money involved. That one, I
don't know. But they were getting some lands
back. That's not happening in Oregon.
Not not so much. I I don't understand
the difference there. That's kinda kinda weird.
Well, I I think Oregon is behind the
curve,
on that just a little bit because it's
(13:11):
also happening in Washington.
You know,
it's happening more all around Oregon than it
is in in Oregon as a state. And
that that goes back to the the foundings
of Oregon were Okay. Actually much more racist
than any of the other Western states.
There was, you know, black people in Portland.
Black people weren't even allowed in in Oregon
for I can't recall the date now. But,
(13:34):
it continues to be an issue for people
of color, anyone who's really diverse to live
in this state.
Boy, that was that's a big thing. That's
ignorant of me that I didn't know. We
talked earlier about some of my some of
our all of our ignorance that we don't
know. And I did not know that about
Oregon. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Have a look at
the Oregon State Seal.
(13:55):
Deep roots in the KKK.
Well well, it's Is Oh, wonder if the
More shows on that, but go ahead.
What more people don't know about this,
or about Oregon at all is because there
was never many John Wayne movies made here
or anything like that. No.
All we all know what happened in Texas
and California
and whatever because of the movies. But Yeah.
(14:19):
They were yeah. Oh, there's native people here.
Yeah. And that's I mean, that's the reality
is that Native American people were all over
America. And so there has been a land
back movement,
a, because it's, you know, maybe the morally
correct thing to do is to give something
back to these people that have been robbed
of their lands.
But also when you're thinking about, like, social
(14:40):
issues, a lot of reservation lands are some
of the most economically depressed areas
in the country. And so when you are
not only talking about having land back for
a healing purpose or some place to hold
your ceremonies,
you're also talking about a resource that's actually
viable to use for the sustainability of your
(15:00):
population and your people.
Most of the lands that were given to
tribes, even after some of them were given
reservations, and then they said, oh, wait a
second. We're gonna give you an even worse
land base because there's actually some minerals underground
here, or you could actually survive off of
this land. So we're gonna move you to
an area even worse than the first one
we gave you.
And that's that's too often what what has
(15:22):
been the case, but there's not a huge
fund for land back to tribes. So it
really takes individuals
who have maybe benefited from the current economic
system
and exploitation for the last two hundred years
to be giving back and foundations that are
working towards this. Yeah.
I think
a big example of that if, again, if
(15:44):
I have my history correct, were the Black
Hills in South Dakota where the
what is it? Mount what am I thinking
of? Mount is Mount Rushmore?
Not a fan either. But well, really, because
that was sacred land, and I thought that
was at one time given
to the whatever tribes were in that area
or tribe. Mhmm. And then the gold was
(16:05):
discovered.
Oh, no. We're gonna just Yeah. Yank that
rug right out from under you, and now
we want it back. Yeah. I mean, how
it's not even a I can't even give
a word. It's just terrible. One of one
of the tribes that live in the Everglades,
if I'm not mistaken,
didn't come from that kind of
area at all. They lived, like, in the
(16:25):
mountains or something, and then they were put
in a swamp. Oh, many many. I don't
there's two tribes there. Right? The Seminoles and
something else. Many, many tribes were removed
from their areas. A lot of the majority
of tribes throughout the eighteen hundreds were removed
for their from their homelands, from their areas,
and put on reservations.
And the
(16:45):
your homelands
that that land is in your DNA, and
you'll always feel that calling back to to
your homelands and, you know, ties into the
historical trauma. And the reason why
tribal people have some of the highest suicide
rates is that that scar. Yeah. Mhmm.
And a negative of California, in my opinion,
(17:05):
is the all the emissions that were put
up
along the mostly along the coast
and,
basically with built with enslaved,
Native American labor.
Well, our history our history is just rife
with this. I mean, in America domestically, but
also internationally, you know. Yes. I don't know
if you're familiar with Naomi Klein's shock doctrine,
(17:27):
but I've been rereading that lately because it's
very similar to what is happening here again
to our to our own people. But,
removing someone's history is one of the most,
demoralizing and dehumanizing things that you can do.
Right. And it is all in the,
kind of, guise to rewrite you as a
person. Yeah. And
(17:47):
that is the kind of best way to
do it is remove your history. And it
it really removes your sense of identity. It
makes you question your own worth,
versus having your community and your your,
knowing what is
what is your history. You know? Yeah. Yeah.
We're removing your language and removing you from
from your lands, from your homelands.
(18:09):
Oh, and that's a that's a hard one
too. Yeah. Placing,
the children in schools and taking their language
and,
their life, basically, away from them. Right? Thank
you. You're you're taking identity. Right? Their culture
Mhmm. And then replacing it with and a
a lot of that was religion based
(18:30):
and, pretty pretty ugly treatment
overall. And I think you still see that
in Creek County where people who are Native
American don't necessarily want to,
identify as Native American because it has been
suppressed for so long and has it was
such a bad,
potentially had such bad re repercussions for people
(18:50):
that did identify as Native Americans for a
long time. Mhmm. I still see that in
Curry County, other
worse than other places,
because there are a lot of organizations working
to heal communities
through Native American Land Back and,
also
respecting that culture, acknowledging that culture,
(19:11):
because it really was more, effective as an
ecological tool for the landscape Yeah. An appropriate
ecological tool
and and for the people that are still
here. You know,
I think it's it's interesting a lot. The
artifacts that do exist and are highlighted in
this area refer to Native American people as
if they were here, and they are still
(19:34):
here.
They are still alive, and
it it is it almost almost like we
have this narrative that they were exterminated, and
they're that's very much far from the truth.
Wow.
Now this again, a little aspect of that's
right down my way in California in the
Smith River area. Right now, the,
(19:55):
oh gosh, where the where the big ship
is. They're Mhmm. Doing a lot of reconstruction
there. Now that's Tallahualand, I'm pretty sure. Mhmm.
Yeah. Okay. Anyway, what they're doing is now
they're trying to
clean the whole area up and they're gonna
make it into a RV park themselves. But
there's a gentleman there from the tribe, I
believe, because I have friends that live in
(20:17):
there, that is
always on job site watching every little backhoe
and bulldozer and to making sure if there
are any artifacts that might be
dug up, you know, he's there to,
try to protect it or and let them
know what to do about it. Yeah. I
would call that a little bit of a
positive. I don't know how much good he
(20:38):
can do watching all these heavy all the
heavy equipment moving stuff around. But, you know,
it's a it's a thought that maybe
Yeah. It's a it's a good step. Do
you know about that? Yeah. It's a step
it's a step in the right direction to
have cultural monitors on-site Great. For any any
development. And that's a key point, about the,
the history of this area and,
(21:00):
not letting what happened define who we are.
We're,
you know, beautiful artists
and beautiful creators and
healing is really important
right now. And that was the reason for
starting our,
nonprofit, Northwest American Indian Coalition was to begin
doing some of that healing work in the
(21:20):
county,
at a tribal with the tribal members, you
know, bringing the people back together, bringing the
people back to the homeland, and doing a
lot of that healing work. And,
and And oftentimes in California, they they have
a requirement and especially with a federally recognized
tribe, which the Talawa are, they can require
a cultural monitor to be on-site to watch
(21:42):
out for those things versus just across the
border up in Gold Beach, there's new developments
going in
today,
where they're they're pulling up artifacts with almost
no requirement to notify
any tribe, or local people or certainly don't
have anyone on-site
ahead of the equipment monitoring for these things.
(22:02):
What would it take for the oh, it's
probably a hard no.
It blows my mind. Hard question. Well, what
would it take to, yeah, say, hey. We
need our tribal people represented here for what
you're doing
to our lands. Well, Kerry County is very
difficult in that situation
because
there's not a federally recognized tribe headquartered here,
(22:24):
and there's,
four or five
different
federally recognized tribes with overlapping
jurisdiction or overlapping,
territories, and it just gets very muddy, very
gray, very difficult, very challenging for
tribal people to navigate, let alone,
just, you know, people that are trying to
build a new house. They're not gonna understand
(22:45):
or know how to navigate that. It's just
very challenging, and it is a direct result.
It's, a great example of ongoing harm
of,
the removal that happened. We have made a
few recommendations,
at the state level. We've talked to several
representatives about Oregon state level statutes that would
require, you know, private land developments to at
least consider cultural resources,
(23:07):
to even think about it. Because at the
state level, we're missing a lot of policy
that would that would even suggest on private
land to have such a thing. And then,
locally, I think we just
we lack enforcement in Curry County in so
many different avenues.
We could certainly use someone
at the county who is aware of An
(23:29):
advocate. Tribal
Yeah. Tribal history Yeah. Or something. They have
a tribal historic preservation officer is often what
it's called a THPO.
And that could be someone that worked out
the county to at least be
monitoring
where we know there's a high probability
or known cultural resources,
to be notifying and working with private landowners
that that
(23:50):
otherwise would have no idea because they're new
to this area or,
you know, having them at least
consult with local native people.
So if there are artifacts or resources found,
there's some remediation done and mitigation done, and
they and those artifacts end up with the
people that they belong to. Gosh. You know,
(24:10):
we do have a text, and thank you,
for the text. And, again, our text line
is (541)
661-4098.
And it says, thank you, Katrina and Tabitha,
for sharing this vital
Native American history. So many of us haven't
heard this history, raising my hand. Art history
classes carefully ignored these stories, unfortunately.
(24:33):
Powerful. Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you for that comment. Yeah.
I think that's a a lot of the
ways that Northwest American Indian Coalition, you know,
we have such a daunting task in this
county.
It sounds like it. Trying to bring, you
know, there's a one side trying to bring
tribal cultures back together in their homelands. And
(24:54):
then also educating people, even if you grew
up here, you didn't learn this history. And
that is that is by design. You know,
we're we're seeing that happen in the public
education system.
And even growing up in a in an
area where,
Native American people
were a presence.
In Southern California, for instance, they have casinos
and are have successful,
(25:15):
you know, thriving communities.
We still weren't taught that history, and that
is, again, to the point of removing
people's identity, removing
kind of a general consensus that we should
do something different.
Yeah. You know, I was hoping in the
past,
I can't think of words today.
The the past presidential
(25:36):
group,
the Deb Haaland from I believe she was
a Cherokee
or
No. I don't I don't need her. Put
that on my head. I was hoping back
that sec was it here again, secretary of
the interior? Yes. I was thinking, man, thank
heavens. Now finally somebody's there that can help.
You know, it it it's too bad in
hindsight that maybe she wasn't
(25:58):
or she might have tried, but tried to
get Oregon to step in line more. I've
heard that she's gonna run for office in
in New Mexico, which is really exciting. Well,
that's
I I'll vote.
I moved to New Mexico wouldn't vote. No.
Well, good. I I really thought she was
great respected her. And finally, to get somebody
in there of Native American,
(26:19):
you know, lineage Mhmm. To help do what's
right. And it's just not happening now. And
but well, too often, unfortunately,
people,
get chosen for say, they're, like, the Native
American person to represent all tribes. And there
are so many tribes.
Uh-huh. Right. I I know that there were
issues, for instance, with offshore wind,
(26:40):
with Deb Haaland being in that position.
And it's almost like they get used as
a pawn,
to represent tribal communities and advance the administration's
agenda Okay. In those communities
versus representing
their identities first. The you know, their administration
come becomes before their identity.
(27:00):
Right. I It should be the opposite.
Yeah. I guess once you step into that
position, it things can change. Absolutely. And but
to your point, I think she did an
amazing job. She was the first Native American
woman ever to hold such a position.
And I think,
that really sets a precedent for the importance
of having someone who actually is Native American
in an administration
(27:21):
to address some of these concerns because
you just don't know all of the history.
And yeah. And we still don't know a
lot. Oh, it's hard to find it out.
Katrina, I wanna ask you. When did the
when did you start the North American Indian
Coalition? What year? How long has it been
around? I believe we filed in '21.
(27:41):
I was remembering right in since. Yeah. Right
in the middle of the pandemic because the
good time started on Bob Hill.
We and we've been growing,
quite a bit in the last few years
and have quite a few programs and,
very proud to to to bring some of
these healing programs forward. She has an amazing
website, nwaic.org.
(28:02):
That you know, I was that's where I
was going to go next. Okay.
You can check out our programs. We've been
on here to talk about Healing of the
Trail program, which is a youth,
curriculum culture based youth curriculum to get people
back on the land.
We've got some funding to do some,
fire restoration work, collecting native plants.
We also have this campaign against an RV
(28:24):
park in Gold Beach,
and would really love for people to, that
is nwaic.org
backslash tier. It's t e e r.
And that stands for Teotihuacultural
Restoration.
Okay. And people can go on these sites
and donate if they can or donate time
and Yeah. You can money and Yeah. We'd
(28:46):
we'd, be honored to have you join.
There's options to donate online and there's also
options to,
keep updated on our progress with the tier
property.
And then we also have, a caretakers alliance
where if, people folks out there would like
to join in some of the work that
we're doing,
as a caretaker,
(29:07):
we also have an advisory council. So there's
lots of ways for folks to get involved
and and do the work alongside with us
and and help us heal some of the
some of the issues here in Curry. Okay.
And, Tabitha, you mentioned the, RV park in
Gold Beach. I don't know how deep we
can go into that if we can, but
I was reading the Yeah. Appeal online. What
(29:28):
a lot of things struck me.
They're
it's proposed. Has it been passed that they
can start construction? Yes.
Wow. So yeah. Okay.
And I'm looking at, you know, being able
to Google a few things. It's built right
on the the north bank of the road,
right next to the river with Mhmm. I
would imagine it open to pollution.
(29:52):
Well, it had mentioned, you know, the traffic
the traffic noise Mhmm. Environmental
damage, and they didn't consider
any of that? No. So what what essentially,
what happened, we've been working on this property
acquisition for about two years now, I wanna
say. Oh,
wow. Essentially more. We've made several offers to
the the current landowners.
(30:12):
We have made several,
outreaches to landowners along Waterburn Loop. So it's
actually just north of the Gold Beach.
The bridge here. Gold Beach. Yeah, across the
bridge north on Waterburn Loop.
It is known as the old Sauce Brothers
building, which was an international,
well, I'm sorry. That was a marine repair
shop.
There was also an international lumber yard.
(30:35):
There is a lot of industrial debris kind
of in the estuary right on the shoreline
at this property.
It is five acres. There's a giant warehouse.
Basically, all that is left of all of
the industry that has been there is a
a 10,000 square foot white warehouse, and it
sits, you know, five acres right on the,
right in the Rogue Estuary. Yeah. None of
(30:57):
the industrial steel has been remediated from the
site.
There,
you know, are posts and poles and even,
a hoist that remains from the International Lumber
Days. And it's essentially been for sale for
the entire time. Yeah. The last Many, many
years. Five, six, seven years. And in our
research, we have,
(31:18):
there has never been an environmental assessment
conducted on this site.
And and on top of that, this this
is also
very close to, if not the center of,
a historic
a culturally significant,
area. A very, very significant area. To the
tribes there. Yes. The native people. Specifically to
the Chattootenay people, which is why, it's called
(31:40):
the Chattootenay Estuary Ecocultural Restoration.
So our dream for this this property has
been to have, a, a place for tribal
people of all tribes of Herbicourie County to
gather and celebrate together.
We also have a dream to restore the
estuary, the whole shoreline,
removing a lot of the riprap and the
(32:00):
steel
out of the river so that people are
able to access the river in a non
motorized fashion,
more easily
and really to prevent additional construction from happening
in this culturally significant area.
And,
I'll think of a little similar story
(32:20):
from where I came from in the Sacramento
area, the rail the old railroad yards. My
point is back in the day Mhmm. They
didn't care what they dumped in the ground
or in the river.
And the old Sacramento Railroad yards that are
that are now pretty much gone,
it took them it was what what was
that site? They used to call it a
site. It was Superfund site. Thank you. Yep.
(32:41):
It was a Superfund site,
where they had to go they they might
still be doing clean up because the railroad
at the time dumped diesel oil, paint
I'm sure. Name it. And that's just the
confluence of the American and the Sacramento Rivers.
Now that's down there, but that's back to
my point here at Gold Beach. You can
only imagine there's a lot of junk in
that that area.
(33:02):
Absolutely. I'm surprised that
nobody yet has tried
to see if they could clean that up.
Well, they want $1,800,000
for this five acre acre property with a
derelict warehouse. If you've seen it recently, there
are four
four giant panels missing from the side of
the warehouse.
It is, it's an eyesore for people that
(33:24):
live in Gold Beach, and it has a
lot of potential.
But the permit that was recently
allowed,
from the planning director in at Curry County,
was allowed an RV park to be sited
on this location,
without any
consultation
with drives, without any consultation with even the
(33:44):
people in Gold Beach.
There was just a notice to say that
this permit for a land use has been
has been authorized.
There are if you go on to currycounty.gov,
there is an appeal. We we filed an
appeal.
They give you ten days, which is a
great amount of time to raise $500 to
appeal such a decision
and give them some justification as to why
(34:06):
you are appealing the decision. But, if you
go online, there is, it's a d two
four zero two,
And they they have their staff notes
that apparently are conducted by a third party
consultant
that goes through the Curry County zoning ordinance
and gives,
whether they've met conditions of their current zoning.
(34:28):
And so this area is this property is
zoned for commercial use. It is zoned for
marine use.
And somehow,
an RV park is meeting the,
definition of water related activities, which I find
very difficult. Somebody waved the magic
wand over it and declared that's gonna be
okay. Well, and the the problem is it's,
you know, it's not a it there are
(34:48):
a lot of conditions in this permit, such
as, like, they will have a riparian restoration
plan at some point. They will have, you
know, a septic system that will be put
in at some point, even though I'm well
aware. Yeah. At some point. You know, I
I love when when you see these permits
happen where they're like, oh, this is just
a temporary it's a temporary use permit. But
we all know what happens once you have
(35:09):
your foot in the door, you've got something
set up, the the inertia is in place,
the ball keeps rolling. Yeah. And all of
those other promises that were made at the
inception of the permit
are not followed up,
especially with a lack of planning department that
we have at the county.
So, this was a huge blow to us,
especially because we have been
(35:30):
very vocal with the commissioners. We've been vocal
with the neighbors. We have been fundraising for
two years. We have some funding
actually to come up with the design for
the intertribal cultural center. I mean, we've started
to gather some momentum here because of the
significance of the estuary
and the culturally the cultural significance of this
area,
(35:50):
that it's just it's a huge bludgeon. So
Wednesday, July 16 at 01:00 in Gold Beach,
at the annex, there is a public hearing.
And I would highly encourage anyone who,
is interested in this and wants to see
a better Curry County,
come and support us. There's also, on this
notice of public hearing, a back page where
you can submit a comment. It is free.
(36:12):
We have submitted the $500 appeal fee. And
so the public can make comments about this
land use decision that would then be considered
by the the,
the land use commission.
It was July 16. What was the time?
1PM.
1PM. At?
The Curry County Annex Building. It's at 342
(36:33):
I'm sorry. 94235
Moore Street. 942
And we'll link all of this and have
all this information on the,
web address, nwaic.orgbackslashteer.
We'll put all of that details and updates
there. Okay. Thank you.
And is it funny, Oregon, all all around
the other parts of The United States,
(36:57):
Oregon's pretty well known for its beauty.
It's you know, whether you're in the the
by the ocean or in the mountains. And
it's a sounds like this spot along the
Rogue is a perfect spot to have peeped
for tourism.
It is. It's this beautiful spot that we've
rehabbed and back to what it should be.
But instead, I I just don't see an
(37:18):
RV park
as natural beauty. Do you? There's beauty and
there's beauty.
Well, people would like to see a Costco
there.
It's funny. In the permit, actually, it it
references the RV park as bringing tourists,
and building the tourism industry, which I would
argue Gold Beach has about 12 to 13
RV parks at present.
(37:40):
Yeah. And they're not all full. And
you're hiring as an RV park maybe two
people, a maintenance person and a front desk
person
to check people in. And and from there,
there's not a lot of employment for local
people. It's certainly not housing for anyone No.
Which we desperately need for the local economy.
And in terms of tourism,
(38:02):
what does Gold Beach have to offer for
people who actually come here,
besides fishing, which this project again isn't addressing
the health of our estuary for a robust
fish population.
Yeah. I would say that's a negative effect
in an estuary.
Absolutely.
And that's where, the Coastal Zone Management Act
comes into play. We've also been reaching out
(38:23):
to the department of
the DLCD. I can't even think of the
acronym right now. But, A lot of acronyms
out there. There are a lot of agencies
and a lot of policies in place that
should theoretically prevent this kind of development from
happening in the floodplain.
And yet, we have kind of this wild,
wild west autonomy in Curry County that continues
(38:45):
to just override
these issues and not make them
known to the public or give anyone
opportunity to comment.
I think I read somewhere where are you
you're trying to get a public hearing to
happen? So the hearing is scheduled.
The county responded to our appeal with a
hearing. Did I miss some was that the
(39:05):
July 16? Yes. That is correct. Okay. This
just happens to old people sometimes.
Okay. Thank you. It's been a rapid timeline,
you know. Oh, and then yeah. It's you
had the hodgepodge. You gotta throw stuff together
at the last minute.
It is. Yeah.
It's, but, again, once they have their foot
in the door to do this, it is
almost an irreversible
situation. You know,
(39:27):
an RV park being put in, you're gonna
have pads. They're gonna regrade
the whole property. They'll remove the warehouse, which
at this point is an eyesore. So nobody's
gonna really really fight that. But there isn't
even anything in this permit that dictates they're
gonna have an environmental assessment. So your point
to your point about all the crud that
is in the railroad system Yeah. Imagine a
(39:48):
marine repair shop, what might be there,
and an industrial lumber yard from the nineteen
hundreds. You know? Right. What like, again, like,
just that we they didn't care what they
threw in the water or the ground. Yeah.
All for profit.
You know? We don't know what's under the
ground there. Okay. And most importantly, it does
not honor any of the culture of Curry
(40:08):
County. It it is a missed opportunity,
economically and certainly socially,
to highlight even some of the industrial lumber,
like,
era is a very important period for Curry
County even existing today. Yeah. So I I
find it to be a very,
you know, in the scheme of all the
things that have coming out of the board
(40:29):
of commissioners to make money in Curry County,
this is a really
strange
permit
to allow,
for a huge opportunity to be missed to
heal socially and potentially have economic gain. If
if you've already said so, I missed it.
Who who is doing this? Just
some private individuals? Or
(40:49):
Yes.
These landowners, and I won't speak to anyone
on public radio, but they own five or
six properties in Curry County. They do not
live locally to my knowledge.
They are not interested in we have made
several attempts to either have them donate a
portion of the property to the nonprofit
and or we've made an offer of over
a million dollars for this property,
(41:10):
which they were not interested in even considering.
And and that's the issue with people.
And I, you know, I don't hate the
rich. That's not what I'm trying to get
at. I know. But there is a there
is a need, a huge need in Curry
County, which where it's so beautiful to support
the people that are here, that are trying
to live here. Right. Not just allow
(41:30):
foreign entities to come in and develop our
resources without any,
public feedback
to the local community. Right. Pretty callous about
the way this whole thing's been,
well, put down, I guess. I don't know.
Well, put down to a single the green
light. I haven't talked to a single person
in in Gold Beach or in Curry County
(41:52):
that thinks this is a good idea. Not
a single person.
And it's really sad to me that we
don't you know, there's a lot that we
can't control at the federal level. I get
it. But this is our local
community. Yeah. You know, what do we wanna
see? The people that have to see that
every day. Yeah.
And and and they have the permit. Is
that what
Yes. They already decided. So we appealed their
(42:14):
conversion. I think? No. But they have been
working with engineers for the last two years.
From what I understand, it is like an
inside deal. The current owners, they're they have
friends who are the ones who want the
RV park. If you look at the listing
of the property, it includes
plans for an RV park in the purchase
(42:35):
price.
So
that is the, you know, that is the
goal. That has been the goal for them
to make money off of this property in
the long term.
But the real unfortunate part is, again, it's
in the flood plain. It's on the Rogue
River Estuary.
It is in a place that used to
have eelgrass,
coral reefs. I mean,
(42:55):
there used to be a thriving
biodiverse ecosystem
there. And you can still find a lot
of the species,
both, freshwater and marine species that inhabit this
area. But we don't know to what extent
the the remaining steel in the estuary is
polluting
the whole system. Yeah. And we could respect
(43:16):
that and restore that to be functional not
only for the species that should be living
there, but also for people. Because if you've
noticed Gold Beach at the height of fishing,
there are 300 boats in the mouth of
the Rogue River.
You could barely swim there if you tried.
You know, there are conflicts with surfers even
at the mouth. Well, wait. That interrupts your,
(43:38):
lifestyle.
Not at present. But yes. I mean, sometimes.
Yeah. But, you know, the the fact of
the matter is people used to use non
motorized boats, and there's a lot of kayaking
and rafting
and non motorized
people that cannot use the Rogue River Estuary
due to the amount of traffic. And so
to add to that, you're gonna have fifty
(43:58):
fifty parking spaces
and potentially all of those watercraft
launching from
this area. It's just a it's a safety
hazard. It's an ecological
disaster. Yes. Yes. That's that's exactly what it
sounds like. And if it was
the other way around where magically
they did accept what you guys are proposing,
You could return that estuary
(44:20):
Mhmm. To what it really was and it
should be. Yeah. We'd probably lose some acreage.
Right? Like, you'd lose a portion of the
flat property that they've created because it should
be more of a natural estuary. Yeah.
But you'd have human
you'd have public access
to a beach
Right. On the Rogue and be able to
see, you know, the the beautiful
(44:41):
bridge
that is iconic of Gold Beach. You know?
But It is. At present, there's really nowhere
except for the North And South jetties, which
aren't the most beautiful or Yeah. Accessible places
for people to go to.
And and again, no history. There's no there's
nothing to be gained,
beyond the,
(45:01):
you know, the relics of,
yeah, development. Well and, unfortunately, this also
I'm gonna go into a place here where
it kinda smacks. So there's just a if
it goes through, there's just a few people
that are gonna
benefit financially
with this. Yeah. The not the community really
No. Or the people that even or they're
already there that live around it,
(45:23):
would love a little opening up of the
natural
Absolutely.
Estuary. Yeah. How beautiful it is. And to
me, any place along this Oregon and California,
any place where a river comes and meets
the ocean, that's a pretty special place. It
is. I think. Yeah. And,
Worth protecting.
Very yeah. Very much so. Wow. Especially when
(45:44):
your economy in a place like Gold Beach
functions
largely off of the fisheries.
Yeah. You would think that your number one
priority is protecting your, you know, your income,
your income source that already exists.
Yeah. I do have a friend that goes
there quite a lot to every time her
family comes up, not for fishing, but they
do the I don't know how big it
is, but the, jet boat that runs up
(46:06):
the Rogue River and It's huge. I mean,
she has some pretty cool stories. I didn't
there's This is just a little story, but
it's pleasant about how there's one house that
they'll stop at where the the person's dog
is still there, will come out and pick
up the mail and take stuff like that.
Local little,
wonderful stories.
And I guess there's eve is there an
(46:27):
overnight trip on the jet boat? I don't
think so. Okay. They do have you know,
the jet boats have a long history here.
A lot of people, say that the jet
boats were invented here. And I don't wanna
get into all the nuances of how the
jet boats are able to rock up the
river and how far up they go. But
I will say, I think they bring in
80,000 visitors a year. Wow. I mean, a
(46:47):
lot of people, when you mentioned Gold Beach,
that's the only thing they know that that
they know. Right. The signs are way down
in, you know You
know, they're like, wow. I had this amazing
experience on a jet boat going up the
Rogue River. And for a while, I think,
personally,
I I hated the idea. I really, to
be honest, did because of the fisheries impacts.
But then there's this whole aspect of
(47:08):
bringing people to this place. The opportunity they
do give a history lesson to some extent
of people that were here beforehand. Mhmm. They
talk about the Rogue River Indian wars. The
people that conducted jet Yes. Tours. Yeah. That's
what she said to you. And there is
there is an incredible opportunity there to get
people that would otherwise never make it up
the Rogue River Canyon Right. Into some of
(47:28):
the most willed like, wild and scenic areas,
in the country. And so it's a beautiful
thing It is. Despite some of the, you
know, some of the negative effects.
It's a huge opportunity. And it brings people
to Gold Beach, but then they come here.
And what and what's next? You bring a
family of four to Gold Beach to take
(47:48):
a jet boat ride. Or a school? A
classroom?
Yeah. And and then
the after steps,
you don't have somewhere to take them to
go to an aquarium. You don't have somewhere
to take them even, like, to a movie
theater in Gold Beach. You don't have,
Museum?
There yes. There there is a small museum
at the Jetbo. But in terms of family
(48:10):
activities,
this area is really lacking in that. K.
Where this, again, this intertribal cultural center would
have a huge amount of
possibility for ecocultural
education.
And you could bring classrooms of students there
to learn about the functions of an estuary
and learn about the history
of this life cycle of salmon. I mean
(48:31):
and there's a lot of examples of successful
Yeah. Tourism facilities like this Right. Especially in
the Northwest.
Yeah. Right. And salmon, what a big big
deal that is all along through here. Oh,
yeah.
Yeah. Like you said, attracting people. And when
I say jet boats, I I think that
they're not just screaming up and down the
(48:53):
river there. I think they take time to
kinda go a little slow and easy sometime.
I there's
supposedly a large bald eagle population
up along the
those are just magical to see in themselves.
They are. They they start to look at
animals if there's bears or something. Okay. Well,
that And they're good at pointing out bald
eagles, and that's Yeah. I think that's wonderful.
But it's also it's it's not just that.
(49:14):
It's also, there's some Well, I think there's
some excitement.
That jet boat connotes, you know, there's people
that's doing racing and spinning around. But anyway
Oh, yeah. I mean, the world class jet
boat races happen in you know, on the
Rogue River
every four years. Oh, I didn't know that.
So there you go. Yeah. And we have
once again, we just have this opportunity to
have the people that come to this area
(49:36):
learn not only
how beautiful it is and how many resources
and how untapped it is. I feel like
we have, like, a giant for sale sign
on Curry County when we should have, like,
hey, come learn about us. Well, come right.
Us, you know, make this place even better
by by highlighting
the people that came before us and and
how we can treat it better for the
(49:57):
future. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where I mean,
NWAIC,
your your slogan is, like, for future generations.
And that's really what we have to think
about is, like, this RV park isn't going
to be a pain in my butt only
for the next thirty years. But every other
generation
after us is not gonna know the significance
of this area. They're not gonna know,
(50:18):
what what should be happening in that estuary
unless we protect at least a small portion
of it. Yeah. And this is the only
undeveloped section
if, like, on the Lower Rogue.
Yeah. And you I I just couldn't think
of a more perfect
section or an area where,
the tribal
you called it something. Now I can't think
(50:39):
of it. Intertribal cultural center. That
would be located,
you know, in a in a peaceful city
with not a lot of machinery and
Mhmm. Traffic, but just a a place to
kinda reflect on what, you know People to
come back home to the homelands and have
a place to to gather.
That's that's huge. That's huge, Katrina.
Yeah. Yeah. We see a lot of potential
(50:59):
in it. And, I think more broadly, you
know, we wanted to come on and talk
about, please show up for this hearing or
donate or just know about the fact that
this is happening because there's not a lot
of,
you know, public involvement, which people get really
frustrated with the federal government for not having
federal, like Yeah. Public involvement. But this is
a local action that we should have a
(51:19):
say in, and I think that a lot
of people just would like to know that
this is this is on the table.
So thank you for listening to that. But
I think more broadly, you know,
we have kind of this huge task to
educate people
on
the cultural history of this area and figure
out what is a better solution
(51:39):
to heal from the past trauma and not
inflict more going forward,
which Couldn't say that any better. I think.
Right?
I'm gonna man, I wanna put that on
a t shirt.
I don't think we could assign two better
people to the task if we No. No.
No. I I don't either.
Well,
god, it's just it's so much to even
(52:02):
think about. I guess at one time, I
was thinking that this wasn't really set in
it sounds like it's set in stone right
now, and they're trying to ram it through
as fast as they can. They have approved
it. So I'm I'm not gonna pretend to
be an expert on Curry County zoning ordinance,
but I am getting up to speed very
quickly because I'm assuming this hearing will have
lawyers from the registered agent for these owners
(52:24):
who have not been doing any of this
permitting on their own. Yeah. And I don't
like to be in a place. You know,
we've been on this show a couple of
times. We don't wanna be in the place
of stopping
everything, you know, stopping all work and all
restoration.
We'd rather be in a place of collaboration
and planning together and coming up with a
positive solution. So So I don't like to
(52:44):
just be here, like, we're gonna fight you
on this forever.
But we are at this point because there
has been no public involvement.
There has been a huge effort on our
part to educate people and rally resources
on this property to date. And so we
are we are kind of at an impasse,
and a need for
a public outcry against actions like this to
(53:07):
continue to occur.
Well and on the past programs that both
of you have been on,
that is your kind of your thing, I
think, is trying to negotiate, navigate,
give a little, take a little. Mhmm. But
it sounds like well, I hope that's how
it works. I hope you are both successful
in this and,
(53:28):
because I think it's it's very important to
keep that
estuary
as what it should be. Mhmm.
Not not an RV park. I don't know.
I just don't see that as I see
that like putting up a rock or something.
RV parks there?
No. Yeah. Oh. No current. In Gold Beach.
Oh, in Gold Beach. Absolutely. Oh, gosh. Yes.
Yes. Right. I mean, your point about a
(53:49):
Superfund site, one of the the last ones
that they permitted is also on a Superfund
site. And they're to my knowledge, they're not
even allowed to have a sewer system there
because they would interrupt all of the contaminants
that currently exist there. And I don't know
to what extent they notify people staying there
that they're staying on a Superfund site. Right?
But we should know that as local people.
(54:11):
The people staying there might wanna know about
it too.
Now but refresh me again here. That is
a Superfund site where we're talking to the
RV? Know. So the the RV park with
the hearing on July 16, we,
we do not know because there's never been
an environmental assessment conducted on the property. And
there it is. That that should be one
of the first things that they that they
(54:31):
do. Or it has been done and secretively
put
away? I don't know. There's a small chance
that that has happened in past, like,
force when the property is sold in the
past, but I do not think so. I
mean, we've we've asked
the realtors we've we've talked to Okay. A
lot of people that would know.
(54:52):
So I I don't know exactly why that
hasn't occurred.
But I do know that if they do
an assessment
and they find
contaminants Yes. There is a significant impact to
the sale price
and potentially
development regulations, rightly so. All falling into place.
But it's funny. That should be maybe number
one thing that we've that somebody could find
(55:13):
out. Has there been
a Superfund
and environmental
study? I'm having trouble. Thank you, Ray. That's
why Ray is the host. An environmental study.
It should it that should be happening. Well,
I think that's that's something to bring up
at the hearing. Right? I I think we
can demand as as public citizens that,
some kind of assessment be done to know
(55:34):
that
continuing to grade this area and further use
of this embankment
is not going to further damage the estuary.
Yeah.
Boy, I can't see how
it would I mean, how it would not
damage the estuary. Yeah. Okay. Well, I hope
that that comes to that we find that
out before it all goes, if there has
been one or not. And for some reason,
(55:56):
I'm thinking there probably hasn't been. Yeah. Or
it was
penciled out. I I don't know. So I'm
I'm trying to picture the area you're talking
about. So this doesn't sound like a place
that's gonna be made more attractive by 50
RVs being parked. No. It's if you know
where the Coast Guard station in in Gold
Beach is, on on the north end, it's
the North Jetty.
(56:17):
Uh-huh. It's called Wedderburn. It's actually a separate
incorporated community. Oh, okay. And so, technically, like,
the Port Of Gold Beach is not involved
in this deal because it's not in Gold
Beach. It's technically in Wedderburn. And I don't
know the whole history between the Wedderburn and
Gold Beach Well
delineations.
But I know there is some history there
with possibly two different mailboat companies. But I
(56:39):
would just encourage you guys to join us,
July 16 if you're available in Pablo in
person in Gold Beach, 1PM
at the Annex Building.
And if you don't have time to be
there in person, totally understand there is a
comment form also online that you can send,
to the planning commission to have them,
consider your your opinion in this matter. Well
(57:01):
Yeah. I Well, I don't plan on being
there. Even though I'm in California, I don't
have to say that out loud.
Careful. And, again, we'll have all the updates
and information,
and links on our page nwaic.orgbackslashtier,t
e e r. I'm gonna put that backslash
tier. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And we,
definitely appreciate all the,
(57:23):
support we
can get from the community to join us.
Well, like I said, I certainly plan on
making the drive. Maybe I'll take Ray with
me. Yes. There.
We could take my car. It would be
a real adventure because I might not fit
in your car. Well, that's another thing, but
it's just about at the limit I have
for my electric car. Okay. Okay. Hey. I
(57:44):
we're almost to the end here. I can't
believe it. But I wanna thank you guys
again. This is just great info
and stuff that we all should be aware
of. What's going on right underneath our noses
and,
you know, people trying to cover a lot
of stuff up. Well, thank you guys very
much for allowing us the a platform to
talk to people about about
things that really matter to to us and
(58:05):
and to all of us. Matter to everybody.
Yeah. Right. We have a huge educational task,
and we appreciate you guys listening and offering
space. Again, we thank you guys for being
here. That's the purpose of this program.
You bet. Yeah. This is just exactly the
type of thing that we envisioned having. Awesome.
Yeah. It's perfect. Yeah. Thank you guys again.
So, yeah, we're down to thirty seconds.
(58:26):
Any last minute,
super things you have on your mind that
you wanna let folks know? Drive safely.
Yeah.
There's a lot of folks in there. There
is a lot of traffic out there. Right?
Alright. Cool. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thanks
for the listeners. Thanks to texter,
KCIW
LP
one hundred point seven FM
here in beautiful Brooklyn. Thank you so much.
(58:48):
Alright. Thank you, guys.
Well, hello again, KCIW
listeners, and welcome to Curry Cafe.
I'm producer and volunteer Rick McNamer.
Every Sunday from three to 4PM, your host,
Ray Gary, famous radio announcer, puts together a
panel of guests to discuss topics of interest
in our community.
Listeners can participate
by texting questions or comments to (541)
(00:27):
661-4098.
Again, that's (541)
661-4098.
Now here's Ray to tell us about today's
show. Well, first, I'm gonna correct you. That's
famous radio personality,
not an announcer.
An announcer just reads copy and announces things.
I'll get it right next week. A personality
(00:47):
has a personality. Okay. And before we go
any further, I'd like to remind everybody that
that, these
shows are open to anybody. If you wanna
do a show about something,
especially, we would really like to find some
some Republicans or MAGA people that would like
to come on and talk to us.
But today, we're not doing anything like that.
(01:08):
We have two lovely guests here today,
and I will allow them now to go
around the table and introduce themselves
and
promote any merch they're selling or anything.
Jala, you see Katrina Thompson
Upton, the founder of Northwest American Indian Coalition,
and honored to be here today. I'm not
selling any merchandise,
(01:29):
at the moment. So
and I'm Tabitha Rood. I have been on
the show before. Thanks for having me again.
And,
definitely not a MAGA person, but certainly in
the middle. So a medical
radical centrist. Radical.
Wow.
You're you're you're the closest we ever had.
Well, yeah. Great. I can also phone a
(01:50):
friend or my father if we really need
input from that side on this side.
Awesome.
Okay.
Oh, before we get going, speaking of phone,
you can't call us, but you can text
us and join in the conversation.
(541)
661-4098.
(541)
661-4098.
(02:13):
Operators are standing by. Standing by.
Well, actually, it's sitting by. Right? But but
it's
So, anyway, let's get into the I guess,
the main topic that we have discussed in
that,
Tabith. Feel free to go ahead and introduce
all of that Sure. Stuff that's going on
up in Gold Beach. Yeah. Well, there's there's
a lot going on in Curry County. Perfect.
(02:34):
Yeah. I definitely have seen,
a lot of travelers on the road today.
So just wanna shout out to how beautiful
it is. And if you're enjoying the 101,
please drive safe and don't cause any accidents
at Secret Beach. There are other parking locations.
But maybe today, we can we've definitely got
a call to action for some local folks
on,
(02:54):
some issues of development happening in in Gold
Beach,
and also,
just a little maybe history lesson on Native
American culture in Curry County and why maybe
when you're driving up and down the coast
in our county, you don't see so much
of that and,
maybe some of the reasons why that's missing.
Yeah. I'll jump in there. This is,
(03:15):
a pretty significant month as well. I have
some dates I'd like to go over.
The rogue Indian wars,
in the mid eighteen fifties were pretty devastating
to the the tribal people here.
There was a a lot of, learning, shall
you say, as Westward
(03:35):
expansion
came,
to the West Coast here. And so things
were getting pretty brutal,
during the mid eighteen fifties. There was
genocidal
policies and practices
along the West Coast here.
In the 1853,
(03:55):
you may have heard of the Ontocket Massacre,
which was one of the, I think, the
second largest massacre on United States soil. It
was very devastating,
very large, and it's right here in in
our neighborhood.
And then as you move north a little
bit in the between Chekhou and,
the Rogue
Rivers, there was a lot of, brutal conflicts
(04:18):
and massacres,
that happened
that resulted in,
the majority of the survivors. What little survivors
were left were then
forced marched to force removed, forced relocated to
coast reservations,
which later became Sylhetes and Grande Ronde. So
the people of this area, the tribal people
of this area were forced removed
(04:41):
to
other areas, and that is why you don't
see a large tribal presence here in Curry
County.
Moving forward,
a little while, the tribal people try to,
you know,
reestablish themselves and,
heal and and grow from
what they had went through. And then again,
(05:02):
in nineteen fifties,
'19 August of nineteen fifty four,
we had the termination
Act, the Western Oregon Termination Act, which, again,
terminated
all of the, tribes that had reestablished themselves,
so,
found themselves again,
starting starting over.
In that termination act, there was over 60
(05:25):
tribes that were terminated in the Western Oregon
Termination Act, which
essentially was more than any other state in
The United States,
that that felt that.
And what we have now is nine tribes
that are fairly recognized in Oregon.
The majority of those are confederated tribes, meaning,
(05:45):
a lot of the the the the tribes
that survived are underneath of an umbrella of
a larger
federally recognized tribe. So they share
different cultures. They share,
languages
and and whatnot,
which makes,
Mooshe makes things
complicated
in and of itself, but, then having to
(06:07):
understand that the majority of the people that
are on these reservations, that were removed to
these reservations, this is their homeland. Curry County
is the homelands and will always be the
ancestral homelands.
But we have to
fight for that
participation,
because of these,
two major past
policies that happened here.
(06:28):
So
So so
the the was it the federal government that
just said these tribes don't exist? Or
Yeah. The Western Oregon Termination Act was the
federal
What was the justification for that?
Just because.
Just because? In other words, no justification
for that.
Little little was needed
(06:48):
back then. Why did they feel they needed
to do it? I mean, what
I would say it was probably related to
resources.
You look at fisheries, timber,
you know, gold, otters. That makes I'm sorry.
Can you repeat that again? That that happened,
in the mid eighteen fifties.
A couple important dates would be June ninth
(07:09):
of eighteen fifty one. That's when captain William
Titchener landed his steamship, the Seagull,
in Port Orford.
He kinda began
the colonial settlement of of the tribal lands
in this area.
That was Fort Orford,
and there's,
a Suriadan State Park outside of
the city of Port Orford that was used,
(07:32):
as a holding pen when,
the tribal people were being,
rounded up. We called them sweeps.
They'd be held there for transportation on steamships
up north or,
force marched on foot.
And that was in 1851.
You know, there's there's and then 1853, of
(07:52):
course, was Gontocket. There was several several different,
massacres in between then.
And just as a reference, the Coquille people,
the Coquille Restoration Act didn't didn't come again
until 1989,
so they just had their restoration celebration on
June 28.
They were restored in 1989,
(08:13):
and I like to point out that that's
1989,
not '8 1989.
So these are just recent,
restorations that tribe and tribal people have had
to fight for, for so long. And
You know, and this is where history
is very important. Now a lot of there's
a movement to try to erase a lot
of the stuff that was bad. But I
wanna do I I might have misheard you.
(08:34):
The Oregon,
act that you were talking about, you said
1954
or that was 1850? No. The Western Oregon
Termination Act came in August of nineteen fifty
four. 1954.
Mhmm.
Over 60 tribes, more than any other state
in in The United States. Recent history.
Mhmm. Wow. And then, you know, the the
(08:55):
marches, I know the one of the more
famous one, I am assuming, is the Trail
of Tears, but and you were talking about
the
there were so many nationwide
Mhmm. Of those marches that some we I'm
sure we've never even heard of. Mhmm. Yeah.
It was pretty devastating. People from their lands
and putting them
in,
I would call, concentration camps almost, maybe. Yeah.
(09:17):
Pretty pretty ugly stuff. Manifest Destiny. Yeah. Another
reported date. Alright.
Was his founding fathers.
Yeah. I'm yeah.
Manifest destiny. What a joke. Anyway, go ahead.
Another important date for June, and since we're
still almost just barely in June,
is 06/02/1924
is the American,
(09:38):
Indian,
Citizenship Act. So my grandma was born in
1920. She was not born a United States
citizen. That didn't come until 1924.
And then,
still, it took a couple years to actually,
enforce that, so that that's another June was
full of all kinds of historical important historical
dates. Okay. So until 1924,
(09:58):
the the native people were not considered citizens?
Correct.
A lot of our
our veterans that fought in, in wars were
were not considered citizens.
And, yeah, treated horribly and and
putting great sacrifice towards our country.
Can't get much worse than that.
(10:19):
Yeah. So I think that, you know, to
the point of, like, the significance of this
area to both the current federally recognized tribes
in Oregon
and just to the people that are still
here in terms of understanding the context of
what came before.
There's a lot of work to do, and
that's why Northwest American Indian Coalition, which Katrina
runs, is, such an important organization for
(10:41):
educating people that are new here, have lived
there their whole lives, and,
are interested in in how we can heal
together. Because it is not only
affecting the the Indian people and native people
that were here before, but it's also affecting
the current communities because we continue to allow,
development and kind of neo colonial exploitation
(11:02):
to occur in Curry County,
which is kind of, you know, the topic
that we came to discuss today. That's okay.
Because any topics we can discuss today. I
mean, it's it's just another example of resource
exploitation and really capitalizing on this beautiful area,
but really not doing any service for the
people that came before or currently live here.
(11:24):
So, you know, I'll just briefly mention that
we can get into the call of action
later, but there's a lot of examples of
large companies coming in or,
wealthy individuals coming in to buy a property
in Gold Beach or in Curry County more
generally,
either to extract resources, hold it as an
investment,
anything really but invest in the local community.
(11:45):
And so not only do we have, like,
an absence of,
acknowledgement
to tribal people in this area, but we
have a real absence of tribal ownership in
this area, which doesn't allow for,
people to really appreciate the culture, which we
see in other areas. You know, you take
a trip through California and you can take
almost like a cultural tour of the state
and really understand, like, who came before, what
(12:08):
resources were really utilized, and how California
developed through kind of a tragic history, but
has has worked with tribes to bring back
a lot of those really,
natural healing processes
of their ecosystem, but also their their culture.
And so we're kinda missing out on this
big opportunity also in in Curry County to,
(12:30):
economically and socially repair our systems,
with working with Native American culture. Yeah.
And you touch on that, and that's that's
correct. I read a couple of papers down
in, like, mostly Humboldt County area. From what
I've read I should have probably written this
down, but I didn't. But from what I've
read recently,
they've been
(12:50):
giving lands back
to some tribes down there. Or now maybe
there was some money involved. That one, I
don't know. But they were getting some lands
back. That's not happening in Oregon.
Not not so much. I I don't understand
the difference there. That's kinda kinda weird.
Well, I I think Oregon is behind the
curve,
on that just a little bit because it's
(13:11):
also happening in Washington.
You know,
it's happening more all around Oregon than it
is in in Oregon as a state. And
that that goes back to the the foundings
of Oregon were Okay. Actually much more racist
than any of the other Western states.
There was, you know, black people in Portland.
Black people weren't even allowed in in Oregon
for I can't recall the date now. But,
(13:34):
it continues to be an issue for people
of color, anyone who's really diverse to live
in this state.
Boy, that was that's a big thing. That's
ignorant of me that I didn't know. We
talked earlier about some of my some of
our all of our ignorance that we don't
know. And I did not know that about
Oregon. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Have a look at
the Oregon State Seal.
(13:55):
Deep roots in the KKK.
Well well, it's Is Oh, wonder if the
More shows on that, but go ahead.
What more people don't know about this,
or about Oregon at all is because there
was never many John Wayne movies made here
or anything like that. No.
All we all know what happened in Texas
and California
and whatever because of the movies. But Yeah.
(14:19):
They were yeah. Oh, there's native people here.
Yeah. And that's I mean, that's the reality
is that Native American people were all over
America. And so there has been a land
back movement,
a, because it's, you know, maybe the morally
correct thing to do is to give something
back to these people that have been robbed
of their lands.
But also when you're thinking about, like, social
(14:40):
issues, a lot of reservation lands are some
of the most economically depressed areas
in the country. And so when you are
not only talking about having land back for
a healing purpose or some place to hold
your ceremonies,
you're also talking about a resource that's actually
viable to use for the sustainability of your
(15:00):
population and your people.
Most of the lands that were given to
tribes, even after some of them were given
reservations, and then they said, oh, wait a
second. We're gonna give you an even worse
land base because there's actually some minerals underground
here, or you could actually survive off of
this land. So we're gonna move you to
an area even worse than the first one
we gave you.
And that's that's too often what what has
(15:22):
been the case, but there's not a huge
fund for land back to tribes. So it
really takes individuals
who have maybe benefited from the current economic
system
and exploitation for the last two hundred years
to be giving back and foundations that are
working towards this. Yeah.
I think
a big example of that if, again, if
(15:44):
I have my history correct, were the Black
Hills in South Dakota where the
what is it? Mount what am I thinking
of? Mount is Mount Rushmore?
Not a fan either. But well, really, because
that was sacred land, and I thought that
was at one time given
to the whatever tribes were in that area
or tribe. Mhmm. And then the gold was
(16:05):
discovered.
Oh, no. We're gonna just Yeah. Yank that
rug right out from under you, and now
we want it back. Yeah. I mean, how
it's not even a I can't even give
a word. It's just terrible. One of one
of the tribes that live in the Everglades,
if I'm not mistaken,
didn't come from that kind of
area at all. They lived, like, in the
(16:25):
mountains or something, and then they were put
in a swamp. Oh, many many. I don't
there's two tribes there. Right? The Seminoles and
something else. Many, many tribes were removed
from their areas. A lot of the majority
of tribes throughout the eighteen hundreds were removed
for their from their homelands, from their areas,
and put on reservations.
And the
(16:45):
your homelands
that that land is in your DNA, and
you'll always feel that calling back to to
your homelands and, you know, ties into the
historical trauma. And the reason why
tribal people have some of the highest suicide
rates is that that scar. Yeah. Mhmm.
And a negative of California, in my opinion,
(17:05):
is the all the emissions that were put
up
along the mostly along the coast
and,
basically with built with enslaved,
Native American labor.
Well, our history our history is just rife
with this. I mean, in America domestically, but
also internationally, you know. Yes. I don't know
if you're familiar with Naomi Klein's shock doctrine,
(17:27):
but I've been rereading that lately because it's
very similar to what is happening here again
to our to our own people. But,
removing someone's history is one of the most,
demoralizing and dehumanizing things that you can do.
Right. And it is all in the,
kind of, guise to rewrite you as a
person. Yeah. And
(17:47):
that is the kind of best way to
do it is remove your history. And it
it really removes your sense of identity. It
makes you question your own worth,
versus having your community and your your,
knowing what is
what is your history. You know? Yeah. Yeah.
We're removing your language and removing you from
from your lands, from your homelands.
(18:09):
Oh, and that's a that's a hard one
too. Yeah. Placing,
the children in schools and taking their language
and,
their life, basically, away from them. Right? Thank
you. You're you're taking identity. Right? Their culture
Mhmm. And then replacing it with and a
a lot of that was religion based
(18:30):
and, pretty pretty ugly treatment
overall. And I think you still see that
in Creek County where people who are Native
American don't necessarily want to,
identify as Native American because it has been
suppressed for so long and has it was
such a bad,
potentially had such bad re repercussions for people
(18:50):
that did identify as Native Americans for a
long time. Mhmm. I still see that in
Curry County, other
worse than other places,
because there are a lot of organizations working
to heal communities
through Native American Land Back and,
also
respecting that culture, acknowledging that culture,
(19:11):
because it really was more, effective as an
ecological tool for the landscape Yeah. An appropriate
ecological tool
and and for the people that are still
here. You know,
I think it's it's interesting a lot. The
artifacts that do exist and are highlighted in
this area refer to Native American people as
if they were here, and they are still
(19:34):
here.
They are still alive, and
it it is it almost almost like we
have this narrative that they were exterminated, and
they're that's very much far from the truth.
Wow.
Now this again, a little aspect of that's
right down my way in California in the
Smith River area. Right now, the,
(19:55):
oh gosh, where the where the big ship
is. They're Mhmm. Doing a lot of reconstruction
there. Now that's Tallahualand, I'm pretty sure. Mhmm.
Yeah. Okay. Anyway, what they're doing is now
they're trying to
clean the whole area up and they're gonna
make it into a RV park themselves. But
there's a gentleman there from the tribe, I
believe, because I have friends that live in
(20:17):
there, that is
always on job site watching every little backhoe
and bulldozer and to making sure if there
are any artifacts that might be
dug up, you know, he's there to,
try to protect it or and let them
know what to do about it. Yeah. I
would call that a little bit of a
positive. I don't know how much good he
(20:38):
can do watching all these heavy all the
heavy equipment moving stuff around. But, you know,
it's a it's a thought that maybe
Yeah. It's a it's a good step. Do
you know about that? Yeah. It's a step
it's a step in the right direction to
have cultural monitors on-site Great. For any any
development. And that's a key point, about the,
the history of this area and,
(21:00):
not letting what happened define who we are.
We're,
you know, beautiful artists
and beautiful creators and
healing is really important
right now. And that was the reason for
starting our,
nonprofit, Northwest American Indian Coalition was to begin
doing some of that healing work in the
(21:20):
county,
at a tribal with the tribal members, you
know, bringing the people back together, bringing the
people back to the homeland, and doing a
lot of that healing work. And,
and And oftentimes in California, they they have
a requirement and especially with a federally recognized
tribe, which the Talawa are, they can require
a cultural monitor to be on-site to watch
(21:42):
out for those things versus just across the
border up in Gold Beach, there's new developments
going in
today,
where they're they're pulling up artifacts with almost
no requirement to notify
any tribe, or local people or certainly don't
have anyone on-site
ahead of the equipment monitoring for these things.
(22:02):
What would it take for the oh, it's
probably a hard no.
It blows my mind. Hard question. Well, what
would it take to, yeah, say, hey. We
need our tribal people represented here for what
you're doing
to our lands. Well, Kerry County is very
difficult in that situation
because
there's not a federally recognized tribe headquartered here,
(22:24):
and there's,
four or five
different
federally recognized tribes with overlapping
jurisdiction or overlapping,
territories, and it just gets very muddy, very
gray, very difficult, very challenging for
tribal people to navigate, let alone,
just, you know, people that are trying to
build a new house. They're not gonna understand
(22:45):
or know how to navigate that. It's just
very challenging, and it is a direct result.
It's, a great example of ongoing harm
of,
the removal that happened. We have made a
few recommendations,
at the state level. We've talked to several
representatives about Oregon state level statutes that would
require, you know, private land developments to at
least consider cultural resources,
(23:07):
to even think about it. Because at the
state level, we're missing a lot of policy
that would that would even suggest on private
land to have such a thing. And then,
locally, I think we just
we lack enforcement in Curry County in so
many different avenues.
We could certainly use someone
at the county who is aware of An
(23:29):
advocate. Tribal
Yeah. Tribal history Yeah. Or something. They have
a tribal historic preservation officer is often what
it's called a THPO.
And that could be someone that worked out
the county to at least be
monitoring
where we know there's a high probability
or known cultural resources,
to be notifying and working with private landowners
that that
(23:50):
otherwise would have no idea because they're new
to this area or,
you know, having them at least
consult with local native people.
So if there are artifacts or resources found,
there's some remediation done and mitigation done, and
they and those artifacts end up with the
people that they belong to. Gosh. You know,
(24:10):
we do have a text, and thank you,
for the text. And, again, our text line
is (541)
661-4098.
And it says, thank you, Katrina and Tabitha,
for sharing this vital
Native American history. So many of us haven't
heard this history, raising my hand. Art history
classes carefully ignored these stories, unfortunately.
(24:33):
Powerful. Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you for that comment. Yeah.
I think that's a a lot of the
ways that Northwest American Indian Coalition, you know,
we have such a daunting task in this
county.
It sounds like it. Trying to bring, you
know, there's a one side trying to bring
tribal cultures back together in their homelands. And
(24:54):
then also educating people, even if you grew
up here, you didn't learn this history. And
that is that is by design. You know,
we're we're seeing that happen in the public
education system.
And even growing up in a in an
area where,
Native American people
were a presence.
In Southern California, for instance, they have casinos
and are have successful,
(25:15):
you know, thriving communities.
We still weren't taught that history, and that
is, again, to the point of removing
people's identity, removing
kind of a general consensus that we should
do something different.
Yeah. You know, I was hoping in the
past,
I can't think of words today.
The the past presidential
(25:36):
group,
the Deb Haaland from I believe she was
a Cherokee
or
No. I don't I don't need her. Put
that on my head. I was hoping back
that sec was it here again, secretary of
the interior? Yes. I was thinking, man, thank
heavens. Now finally somebody's there that can help.
You know, it it it's too bad in
hindsight that maybe she wasn't
(25:58):
or she might have tried, but tried to
get Oregon to step in line more. I've
heard that she's gonna run for office in
in New Mexico, which is really exciting. Well,
that's
I I'll vote.
I moved to New Mexico wouldn't vote. No.
Well, good. I I really thought she was
great respected her. And finally, to get somebody
in there of Native American,
(26:19):
you know, lineage Mhmm. To help do what's
right. And it's just not happening now. And
but well, too often, unfortunately,
people,
get chosen for say, they're, like, the Native
American person to represent all tribes. And there
are so many tribes.
Uh-huh. Right. I I know that there were
issues, for instance, with offshore wind,
(26:40):
with Deb Haaland being in that position.
And it's almost like they get used as
a pawn,
to represent tribal communities and advance the administration's
agenda Okay. In those communities
versus representing
their identities first. The you know, their administration
come becomes before their identity.
(27:00):
Right. I It should be the opposite.
Yeah. I guess once you step into that
position, it things can change. Absolutely. And but
to your point, I think she did an
amazing job. She was the first Native American
woman ever to hold such a position.
And I think,
that really sets a precedent for the importance
of having someone who actually is Native American
in an administration
(27:21):
to address some of these concerns because
you just don't know all of the history.
And yeah. And we still don't know a
lot. Oh, it's hard to find it out.
Katrina, I wanna ask you. When did the
when did you start the North American Indian
Coalition? What year? How long has it been
around? I believe we filed in '21.
(27:41):
I was remembering right in since. Yeah. Right
in the middle of the pandemic because the
good time started on Bob Hill.
We and we've been growing,
quite a bit in the last few years
and have quite a few programs and,
very proud to to to bring some of
these healing programs forward. She has an amazing
website, nwaic.org.
(28:02):
That you know, I was that's where I
was going to go next. Okay.
You can check out our programs. We've been
on here to talk about Healing of the
Trail program, which is a youth,
curriculum culture based youth curriculum to get people
back on the land.
We've got some funding to do some,
fire restoration work, collecting native plants.
We also have this campaign against an RV
(28:24):
park in Gold Beach,
and would really love for people to, that
is nwaic.org
backslash tier. It's t e e r.
And that stands for Teotihuacultural
Restoration.
Okay. And people can go on these sites
and donate if they can or donate time
and Yeah. You can money and Yeah. We'd
(28:46):
we'd, be honored to have you join.
There's options to donate online and there's also
options to,
keep updated on our progress with the tier
property.
And then we also have, a caretakers alliance
where if, people folks out there would like
to join in some of the work that
we're doing,
as a caretaker,
(29:07):
we also have an advisory council. So there's
lots of ways for folks to get involved
and and do the work alongside with us
and and help us heal some of the
some of the issues here in Curry. Okay.
And, Tabitha, you mentioned the, RV park in
Gold Beach. I don't know how deep we
can go into that if we can, but
I was reading the Yeah. Appeal online. What
(29:28):
a lot of things struck me.
They're
it's proposed. Has it been passed that they
can start construction? Yes.
Wow. So yeah. Okay.
And I'm looking at, you know, being able
to Google a few things. It's built right
on the the north bank of the road,
right next to the river with Mhmm. I
would imagine it open to pollution.
(29:52):
Well, it had mentioned, you know, the traffic
the traffic noise Mhmm. Environmental
damage, and they didn't consider
any of that? No. So what what essentially,
what happened, we've been working on this property
acquisition for about two years now, I wanna
say. Oh,
wow. Essentially more. We've made several offers to
the the current landowners.
(30:12):
We have made several,
outreaches to landowners along Waterburn Loop. So it's
actually just north of the Gold Beach.
The bridge here. Gold Beach. Yeah, across the
bridge north on Waterburn Loop.
It is known as the old Sauce Brothers
building, which was an international,
well, I'm sorry. That was a marine repair
shop.
There was also an international lumber yard.
(30:35):
There is a lot of industrial debris kind
of in the estuary right on the shoreline
at this property.
It is five acres. There's a giant warehouse.
Basically, all that is left of all of
the industry that has been there is a
a 10,000 square foot white warehouse, and it
sits, you know, five acres right on the,
right in the Rogue Estuary. Yeah. None of
(30:57):
the industrial steel has been remediated from the
site.
There,
you know, are posts and poles and even,
a hoist that remains from the International Lumber
Days. And it's essentially been for sale for
the entire time. Yeah. The last Many, many
years. Five, six, seven years. And in our
research, we have,
(31:18):
there has never been an environmental assessment
conducted on this site.
And and on top of that, this this
is also
very close to, if not the center of,
a historic
a culturally significant,
area. A very, very significant area. To the
tribes there. Yes. The native people. Specifically to
the Chattootenay people, which is why, it's called
(31:40):
the Chattootenay Estuary Ecocultural Restoration.
So our dream for this this property has
been to have, a, a place for tribal
people of all tribes of Herbicourie County to
gather and celebrate together.
We also have a dream to restore the
estuary, the whole shoreline,
removing a lot of the riprap and the
(32:00):
steel
out of the river so that people are
able to access the river in a non
motorized fashion,
more easily
and really to prevent additional construction from happening
in this culturally significant area.
And,
I'll think of a little similar story
(32:20):
from where I came from in the Sacramento
area, the rail the old railroad yards. My
point is back in the day Mhmm. They
didn't care what they dumped in the ground
or in the river.
And the old Sacramento Railroad yards that are
that are now pretty much gone,
it took them it was what what was
that site? They used to call it a
site. It was Superfund site. Thank you. Yep.
(32:41):
It was a Superfund site,
where they had to go they they might
still be doing clean up because the railroad
at the time dumped diesel oil, paint
I'm sure. Name it. And that's just the
confluence of the American and the Sacramento Rivers.
Now that's down there, but that's back to
my point here at Gold Beach. You can
only imagine there's a lot of junk in
that that area.
(33:02):
Absolutely. I'm surprised that
nobody yet has tried
to see if they could clean that up.
Well, they want $1,800,000
for this five acre acre property with a
derelict warehouse. If you've seen it recently, there
are four
four giant panels missing from the side of
the warehouse.
It is, it's an eyesore for people that
(33:24):
live in Gold Beach, and it has a
lot of potential.
But the permit that was recently
allowed,
from the planning director in at Curry County,
was allowed an RV park to be sited
on this location,
without any
consultation
with drives, without any consultation with even the
(33:44):
people in Gold Beach.
There was just a notice to say that
this permit for a land use has been
has been authorized.
There are if you go on to currycounty.gov,
there is an appeal. We we filed an
appeal.
They give you ten days, which is a
great amount of time to raise $500 to
appeal such a decision
and give them some justification as to why
(34:06):
you are appealing the decision. But, if you
go online, there is, it's a d two
four zero two,
And they they have their staff notes
that apparently are conducted by a third party
consultant
that goes through the Curry County zoning ordinance
and gives,
whether they've met conditions of their current zoning.
(34:28):
And so this area is this property is
zoned for commercial use. It is zoned for
marine use.
And somehow,
an RV park is meeting the,
definition of water related activities, which I find
very difficult. Somebody waved the magic
wand over it and declared that's gonna be
okay. Well, and the the problem is it's,
you know, it's not a it there are
(34:48):
a lot of conditions in this permit, such
as, like, they will have a riparian restoration
plan at some point. They will have, you
know, a septic system that will be put
in at some point, even though I'm well
aware. Yeah. At some point. You know, I
I love when when you see these permits
happen where they're like, oh, this is just
a temporary it's a temporary use permit. But
we all know what happens once you have
(35:09):
your foot in the door, you've got something
set up, the the inertia is in place,
the ball keeps rolling. Yeah. And all of
those other promises that were made at the
inception of the permit
are not followed up,
especially with a lack of planning department that
we have at the county.
So, this was a huge blow to us,
especially because we have been
(35:30):
very vocal with the commissioners. We've been vocal
with the neighbors. We have been fundraising for
two years. We have some funding
actually to come up with the design for
the intertribal cultural center. I mean, we've started
to gather some momentum here because of the
significance of the estuary
and the culturally the cultural significance of this
area,
(35:50):
that it's just it's a huge bludgeon. So
Wednesday, July 16 at 01:00 in Gold Beach,
at the annex, there is a public hearing.
And I would highly encourage anyone who,
is interested in this and wants to see
a better Curry County,
come and support us. There's also, on this
notice of public hearing, a back page where
you can submit a comment. It is free.
(36:12):
We have submitted the $500 appeal fee. And
so the public can make comments about this
land use decision that would then be considered
by the the,
the land use commission.
It was July 16. What was the time?
1PM.
1PM. At?
The Curry County Annex Building. It's at 342
(36:33):
I'm sorry. 94235
Moore Street. 942
And we'll link all of this and have
all this information on the,
web address, nwaic.orgbackslashteer.
We'll put all of that details and updates
there. Okay. Thank you.
And is it funny, Oregon, all all around
the other parts of The United States,
(36:57):
Oregon's pretty well known for its beauty.
It's you know, whether you're in the the
by the ocean or in the mountains. And
it's a sounds like this spot along the
Rogue is a perfect spot to have peeped
for tourism.
It is. It's this beautiful spot that we've
rehabbed and back to what it should be.
But instead, I I just don't see an
(37:18):
RV park
as natural beauty. Do you? There's beauty and
there's beauty.
Well, people would like to see a Costco
there.
It's funny. In the permit, actually, it it
references the RV park as bringing tourists,
and building the tourism industry, which I would
argue Gold Beach has about 12 to 13
RV parks at present.
(37:40):
Yeah. And they're not all full. And
you're hiring as an RV park maybe two
people, a maintenance person and a front desk
person
to check people in. And and from there,
there's not a lot of employment for local
people. It's certainly not housing for anyone No.
Which we desperately need for the local economy.
And in terms of tourism,
(38:02):
what does Gold Beach have to offer for
people who actually come here,
besides fishing, which this project again isn't addressing
the health of our estuary for a robust
fish population.
Yeah. I would say that's a negative effect
in an estuary.
Absolutely.
And that's where, the Coastal Zone Management Act
comes into play. We've also been reaching out
(38:23):
to the department of
the DLCD. I can't even think of the
acronym right now. But, A lot of acronyms
out there. There are a lot of agencies
and a lot of policies in place that
should theoretically prevent this kind of development from
happening in the floodplain.
And yet, we have kind of this wild,
wild west autonomy in Curry County that continues
(38:45):
to just override
these issues and not make them
known to the public or give anyone
opportunity to comment.
I think I read somewhere where are you
you're trying to get a public hearing to
happen? So the hearing is scheduled.
The county responded to our appeal with a
hearing. Did I miss some was that the
(39:05):
July 16? Yes. That is correct. Okay. This
just happens to old people sometimes.
Okay. Thank you. It's been a rapid timeline,
you know. Oh, and then yeah. It's you
had the hodgepodge. You gotta throw stuff together
at the last minute.
It is. Yeah.
It's, but, again, once they have their foot
in the door to do this, it is
almost an irreversible
situation. You know,
(39:27):
an RV park being put in, you're gonna
have pads. They're gonna regrade
the whole property. They'll remove the warehouse, which
at this point is an eyesore. So nobody's
gonna really really fight that. But there isn't
even anything in this permit that dictates they're
gonna have an environmental assessment. So your point
to your point about all the crud that
is in the railroad system Yeah. Imagine a
(39:48):
marine repair shop, what might be there,
and an industrial lumber yard from the nineteen
hundreds. You know? Right. What like, again, like,
just that we they didn't care what they
threw in the water or the ground. Yeah.
All for profit.
You know? We don't know what's under the
ground there. Okay. And most importantly, it does
not honor any of the culture of Curry
(40:08):
County. It it is a missed opportunity,
economically and certainly socially,
to highlight even some of the industrial lumber,
like,
era is a very important period for Curry
County even existing today. Yeah. So I I
find it to be a very,
you know, in the scheme of all the
things that have coming out of the board
(40:29):
of commissioners to make money in Curry County,
this is a really
strange
permit
to allow,
for a huge opportunity to be missed to
heal socially and potentially have economic gain. If
if you've already said so, I missed it.
Who who is doing this? Just
some private individuals? Or
(40:49):
Yes.
These landowners, and I won't speak to anyone
on public radio, but they own five or
six properties in Curry County. They do not
live locally to my knowledge.
They are not interested in we have made
several attempts to either have them donate a
portion of the property to the nonprofit
and or we've made an offer of over
a million dollars for this property,
(41:10):
which they were not interested in even considering.
And and that's the issue with people.
And I, you know, I don't hate the
rich. That's not what I'm trying to get
at. I know. But there is a there
is a need, a huge need in Curry
County, which where it's so beautiful to support
the people that are here, that are trying
to live here. Right. Not just allow
(41:30):
foreign entities to come in and develop our
resources without any,
public feedback
to the local community. Right. Pretty callous about
the way this whole thing's been,
well, put down, I guess. I don't know.
Well, put down to a single the green
light. I haven't talked to a single person
in in Gold Beach or in Curry County
(41:52):
that thinks this is a good idea. Not
a single person.
And it's really sad to me that we
don't you know, there's a lot that we
can't control at the federal level. I get
it. But this is our local
community. Yeah. You know, what do we wanna
see? The people that have to see that
every day. Yeah.
And and and they have the permit. Is
that what
Yes. They already decided. So we appealed their
(42:14):
conversion. I think? No. But they have been
working with engineers for the last two years.
From what I understand, it is like an
inside deal. The current owners, they're they have
friends who are the ones who want the
RV park. If you look at the listing
of the property, it includes
plans for an RV park in the purchase
(42:35):
price.
So
that is the, you know, that is the
goal. That has been the goal for them
to make money off of this property in
the long term.
But the real unfortunate part is, again, it's
in the flood plain. It's on the Rogue
River Estuary.
It is in a place that used to
have eelgrass,
coral reefs. I mean,
(42:55):
there used to be a thriving
biodiverse ecosystem
there. And you can still find a lot
of the species,
both, freshwater and marine species that inhabit this
area. But we don't know to what extent
the the remaining steel in the estuary is
polluting
the whole system. Yeah. And we could respect
(43:16):
that and restore that to be functional not
only for the species that should be living
there, but also for people. Because if you've
noticed Gold Beach at the height of fishing,
there are 300 boats in the mouth of
the Rogue River.
You could barely swim there if you tried.
You know, there are conflicts with surfers even
at the mouth. Well, wait. That interrupts your,
(43:38):
lifestyle.
Not at present. But yes. I mean, sometimes.
Yeah. But, you know, the the fact of
the matter is people used to use non
motorized boats, and there's a lot of kayaking
and rafting
and non motorized
people that cannot use the Rogue River Estuary
due to the amount of traffic. And so
to add to that, you're gonna have fifty
(43:58):
fifty parking spaces
and potentially all of those watercraft
launching from
this area. It's just a it's a safety
hazard. It's an ecological
disaster. Yes. Yes. That's that's exactly what it
sounds like. And if it was
the other way around where magically
they did accept what you guys are proposing,
You could return that estuary
(44:20):
Mhmm. To what it really was and it
should be. Yeah. We'd probably lose some acreage.
Right? Like, you'd lose a portion of the
flat property that they've created because it should
be more of a natural estuary. Yeah.
But you'd have human
you'd have public access
to a beach
Right. On the Rogue and be able to
see, you know, the the beautiful
(44:41):
bridge
that is iconic of Gold Beach. You know?
But It is. At present, there's really nowhere
except for the North And South jetties, which
aren't the most beautiful or Yeah. Accessible places
for people to go to.
And and again, no history. There's no there's
nothing to be gained,
beyond the,
(45:01):
you know, the relics of,
yeah, development. Well and, unfortunately, this also
I'm gonna go into a place here where
it kinda smacks. So there's just a if
it goes through, there's just a few people
that are gonna
benefit financially
with this. Yeah. The not the community really
No. Or the people that even or they're
already there that live around it,
(45:23):
would love a little opening up of the
natural
Absolutely.
Estuary. Yeah. How beautiful it is. And to
me, any place along this Oregon and California,
any place where a river comes and meets
the ocean, that's a pretty special place. It
is. I think. Yeah. And,
Worth protecting.
Very yeah. Very much so. Wow. Especially when
(45:44):
your economy in a place like Gold Beach
functions
largely off of the fisheries.
Yeah. You would think that your number one
priority is protecting your, you know, your income,
your income source that already exists.
Yeah. I do have a friend that goes
there quite a lot to every time her
family comes up, not for fishing, but they
do the I don't know how big it
is, but the, jet boat that runs up
(46:06):
the Rogue River and It's huge. I mean,
she has some pretty cool stories. I didn't
there's This is just a little story, but
it's pleasant about how there's one house that
they'll stop at where the the person's dog
is still there, will come out and pick
up the mail and take stuff like that.
Local little,
wonderful stories.
And I guess there's eve is there an
(46:27):
overnight trip on the jet boat? I don't
think so. Okay. They do have you know,
the jet boats have a long history here.
A lot of people, say that the jet
boats were invented here. And I don't wanna
get into all the nuances of how the
jet boats are able to rock up the
river and how far up they go. But
I will say, I think they bring in
80,000 visitors a year. Wow. I mean, a
(46:47):
lot of people, when you mentioned Gold Beach,
that's the only thing they know that that
they know. Right. The signs are way down
in, you know You
know, they're like, wow. I had this amazing
experience on a jet boat going up the
Rogue River. And for a while, I think,
personally,
I I hated the idea. I really, to
be honest, did because of the fisheries impacts.
But then there's this whole aspect of
(47:08):
bringing people to this place. The opportunity they
do give a history lesson to some extent
of people that were here beforehand. Mhmm. They
talk about the Rogue River Indian wars. The
people that conducted jet Yes. Tours. Yeah. That's
what she said to you. And there is
there is an incredible opportunity there to get
people that would otherwise never make it up
the Rogue River Canyon Right. Into some of
(47:28):
the most willed like, wild and scenic areas,
in the country. And so it's a beautiful
thing It is. Despite some of the, you
know, some of the negative effects.
It's a huge opportunity. And it brings people
to Gold Beach, but then they come here.
And what and what's next? You bring a
family of four to Gold Beach to take
(47:48):
a jet boat ride. Or a school? A
classroom?
Yeah. And and then
the after steps,
you don't have somewhere to take them to
go to an aquarium. You don't have somewhere
to take them even, like, to a movie
theater in Gold Beach. You don't have,
Museum?
There yes. There there is a small museum
at the Jetbo. But in terms of family
(48:10):
activities,
this area is really lacking in that. K.
Where this, again, this intertribal cultural center would
have a huge amount of
possibility for ecocultural
education.
And you could bring classrooms of students there
to learn about the functions of an estuary
and learn about the history
of this life cycle of salmon. I mean
(48:31):
and there's a lot of examples of successful
Yeah. Tourism facilities like this Right. Especially in
the Northwest.
Yeah. Right. And salmon, what a big big
deal that is all along through here. Oh,
yeah.
Yeah. Like you said, attracting people. And when
I say jet boats, I I think that
they're not just screaming up and down the
(48:53):
river there. I think they take time to
kinda go a little slow and easy sometime.
I there's
supposedly a large bald eagle population
up along the
those are just magical to see in themselves.
They are. They they start to look at
animals if there's bears or something. Okay. Well,
that And they're good at pointing out bald
eagles, and that's Yeah. I think that's wonderful.
But it's also it's it's not just that.
(49:14):
It's also, there's some Well, I think there's
some excitement.
That jet boat connotes, you know, there's people
that's doing racing and spinning around. But anyway
Oh, yeah. I mean, the world class jet
boat races happen in you know, on the
Rogue River
every four years. Oh, I didn't know that.
So there you go. Yeah. And we have
once again, we just have this opportunity to
have the people that come to this area
(49:36):
learn not only
how beautiful it is and how many resources
and how untapped it is. I feel like
we have, like, a giant for sale sign
on Curry County when we should have, like,
hey, come learn about us. Well, come right.
Us, you know, make this place even better
by by highlighting
the people that came before us and and
how we can treat it better for the
(49:57):
future. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where I mean,
NWAIC,
your your slogan is, like, for future generations.
And that's really what we have to think
about is, like, this RV park isn't going
to be a pain in my butt only
for the next thirty years. But every other
generation
after us is not gonna know the significance
of this area. They're not gonna know,
(50:18):
what what should be happening in that estuary
unless we protect at least a small portion
of it. Yeah. And this is the only
undeveloped section
if, like, on the Lower Rogue.
Yeah. And you I I just couldn't think
of a more perfect
section or an area where,
the tribal
you called it something. Now I can't think
(50:39):
of it. Intertribal cultural center. That
would be located,
you know, in a in a peaceful city
with not a lot of machinery and
Mhmm. Traffic, but just a a place to
kinda reflect on what, you know People to
come back home to the homelands and have
a place to to gather.
That's that's huge. That's huge, Katrina.
Yeah. Yeah. We see a lot of potential
(50:59):
in it. And, I think more broadly, you
know, we wanted to come on and talk
about, please show up for this hearing or
donate or just know about the fact that
this is happening because there's not a lot
of,
you know, public involvement, which people get really
frustrated with the federal government for not having
federal, like Yeah. Public involvement. But this is
a local action that we should have a
(51:19):
say in, and I think that a lot
of people just would like to know that
this is this is on the table.
So thank you for listening to that. But
I think more broadly, you know,
we have kind of this huge task to
educate people
on
the cultural history of this area and figure
out what is a better solution
(51:39):
to heal from the past trauma and not
inflict more going forward,
which Couldn't say that any better. I think.
Right?
I'm gonna man, I wanna put that on
a t shirt.
I don't think we could assign two better
people to the task if we No. No.
No. I I don't either.
Well,
god, it's just it's so much to even
(52:02):
think about. I guess at one time, I
was thinking that this wasn't really set in
it sounds like it's set in stone right
now, and they're trying to ram it through
as fast as they can. They have approved
it. So I'm I'm not gonna pretend to
be an expert on Curry County zoning ordinance,
but I am getting up to speed very
quickly because I'm assuming this hearing will have
lawyers from the registered agent for these owners
(52:24):
who have not been doing any of this
permitting on their own. Yeah. And I don't
like to be in a place. You know,
we've been on this show a couple of
times. We don't wanna be in the place
of stopping
everything, you know, stopping all work and all
restoration.
We'd rather be in a place of collaboration
and planning together and coming up with a
positive solution. So So I don't like to
(52:44):
just be here, like, we're gonna fight you
on this forever.
But we are at this point because there
has been no public involvement.
There has been a huge effort on our
part to educate people and rally resources
on this property to date. And so we
are we are kind of at an impasse,
and a need for
a public outcry against actions like this to
(53:07):
continue to occur.
Well and on the past programs that both
of you have been on,
that is your kind of your thing, I
think, is trying to negotiate, navigate,
give a little, take a little. Mhmm. But
it sounds like well, I hope that's how
it works. I hope you are both successful
in this and,
(53:28):
because I think it's it's very important to
keep that
estuary
as what it should be. Mhmm.
Not not an RV park. I don't know.
I just don't see that as I see
that like putting up a rock or something.
RV parks there?
No. Yeah. Oh. No current. In Gold Beach.
Oh, in Gold Beach. Absolutely. Oh, gosh. Yes.
Yes. Right. I mean, your point about a
(53:49):
Superfund site, one of the the last ones
that they permitted is also on a Superfund
site. And they're to my knowledge, they're not
even allowed to have a sewer system there
because they would interrupt all of the contaminants
that currently exist there. And I don't know
to what extent they notify people staying there
that they're staying on a Superfund site. Right?
But we should know that as local people.
(54:11):
The people staying there might wanna know about
it too.
Now but refresh me again here. That is
a Superfund site where we're talking to the
RV? Know. So the the RV park with
the hearing on July 16, we,
we do not know because there's never been
an environmental assessment conducted on the property. And
there it is. That that should be one
of the first things that they that they
(54:31):
do. Or it has been done and secretively
put
away? I don't know. There's a small chance
that that has happened in past, like,
force when the property is sold in the
past, but I do not think so. I
mean, we've we've asked
the realtors we've we've talked to Okay. A
lot of people that would know.
(54:52):
So I I don't know exactly why that
hasn't occurred.
But I do know that if they do
an assessment
and they find
contaminants Yes. There is a significant impact to
the sale price
and potentially
development regulations, rightly so. All falling into place.
But it's funny. That should be maybe number
one thing that we've that somebody could find
(55:13):
out. Has there been
a Superfund
and environmental
study? I'm having trouble. Thank you, Ray. That's
why Ray is the host. An environmental study.
It should it that should be happening. Well,
I think that's that's something to bring up
at the hearing. Right? I I think we
can demand as as public citizens that,
some kind of assessment be done to know
(55:34):
that
continuing to grade this area and further use
of this embankment
is not going to further damage the estuary.
Yeah.
Boy, I can't see how
it would I mean, how it would not
damage the estuary. Yeah. Okay. Well, I hope
that that comes to that we find that
out before it all goes, if there has
been one or not. And for some reason,
(55:56):
I'm thinking there probably hasn't been. Yeah. Or
it was
penciled out. I I don't know. So I'm
I'm trying to picture the area you're talking
about. So this doesn't sound like a place
that's gonna be made more attractive by 50
RVs being parked. No. It's if you know
where the Coast Guard station in in Gold
Beach is, on on the north end, it's
the North Jetty.
(56:17):
Uh-huh. It's called Wedderburn. It's actually a separate
incorporated community. Oh, okay. And so, technically, like,
the Port Of Gold Beach is not involved
in this deal because it's not in Gold
Beach. It's technically in Wedderburn. And I don't
know the whole history between the Wedderburn and
Gold Beach Well
delineations.
But I know there is some history there
with possibly two different mailboat companies. But I
(56:39):
would just encourage you guys to join us,
July 16 if you're available in Pablo in
person in Gold Beach, 1PM
at the Annex Building.
And if you don't have time to be
there in person, totally understand there is a
comment form also online that you can send,
to the planning commission to have them,
consider your your opinion in this matter. Well
(57:01):
Yeah. I Well, I don't plan on being
there. Even though I'm in California, I don't
have to say that out loud.
Careful. And, again, we'll have all the updates
and information,
and links on our page nwaic.orgbackslashtier,t
e e r. I'm gonna put that backslash
tier. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And we,
definitely appreciate all the,
(57:23):
support we
can get from the community to join us.
Well, like I said, I certainly plan on
making the drive. Maybe I'll take Ray with
me. Yes. There.
We could take my car. It would be
a real adventure because I might not fit
in your car. Well, that's another thing, but
it's just about at the limit I have
for my electric car. Okay. Okay. Hey. I
(57:44):
we're almost to the end here. I can't
believe it. But I wanna thank you guys
again. This is just great info
and stuff that we all should be aware
of. What's going on right underneath our noses
and,
you know, people trying to cover a lot
of stuff up. Well, thank you guys very
much for allowing us the a platform to
talk to people about about
things that really matter to to us and
(58:05):
and to all of us. Matter to everybody.
Yeah. Right. We have a huge educational task,
and we appreciate you guys listening and offering
space. Again, we thank you guys for being
here. That's the purpose of this program.
You bet. Yeah. This is just exactly the
type of thing that we envisioned having. Awesome.
Yeah. It's perfect. Yeah. Thank you guys again.
So, yeah, we're down to thirty seconds.
(58:26):
Any last minute,
super things you have on your mind that
you wanna let folks know? Drive safely.
Yeah.
There's a lot of folks in there. There
is a lot of traffic out there. Right?
Alright. Cool. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thanks
for the listeners. Thanks to texter,
KCIW
LP
one hundred point seven FM
here in beautiful Brooklyn. Thank you so much.
(58:48):
Alright. Thank you, guys.
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