EL DORADO COUNTY

PIONEER
CEMETERIES COMMISSION
(a California 501(3)(c) Non-Profit Public Benefit Corporation)

UPDATE
re:
El Dorado County Board of Supervisors
AGENDA ITEM NO. 63
Meeting of June 11, 2002

         The Board of Supervisors approved Agenda Item 63 at this morning's meeting with District IV Supervisor Penny Humphreys adding the El Dorado Cemetery to those cemeteries for which Ground Penetrating Radar should be performed under the Cemetery Work Plan.  It appears that the new El Dorado County Cemetery Advisory Committee will be tasked to review any future proposals related to cemetery matters.

            There were several speakers who made comment at today's meeting.  EDCPCC president Sue Silver, made additional comments before the supervisors regarding several inaccuracies that exist in the Staff Summary report that was submitted to the supervisors with this agenda item.  The matter of the legal public title to a number of the cemeteries was again brought up.
         Two members of the El Dorado Mewuk (Miwok) Tribe, Ramona Tripp-Verbeck and Lysa Daniels, as regards the effect and impact upon the cemeteries used by the Native American descendants as well as the need to provide protection for the prehistoric Native American cemeteries and sacred sites.  They also requested that a member of the descendant families of those persons buried in the county's historic and prehistoric cemeteries be appointed to the new Cemetery Advisory Committee.
         District II Supervisor Helen Baumann attempted to explain that the county staff and supervisors Baumann and Humphreys had discussed the matter before establishing the make-up of the new Committee, and they had decided that a nominee from the Native American organizations in the county would have a seat on the Committee.  Supervisor Baumann apparently does not understand that what these people were requesting is that the County ensure that only a descendant family member of those Native Americans (Mewuk) who are buried in the cemeteries, would be the appointed representative of them.
         People of other Native American nations and descendancy do not have a direct ancestral relationship to the Native Americans buried in the cemeteries known as the Greenstone Cemetery, the Blackwell-Tripp Cemetery, the Craig Ranch Cemetery, and the Jamison Ranch Cemetery.  Therefore, it should be incumbent upon the county to respect the wishes of those who are in direct lineage with the deceased persons buried throughout the county.
         California state policy recognizes the right of family to control the remains of the dead.  The Board should have capitulated to this reasonable request since the Mewuk descendant families hold the only true vested interested in the safety and welfare of those in the historic and prehistoric cemeteries used by El Dorado County's Native American residents.
         Sue Silver also spoke as the "owner" holding Cold Springs Cemetery in trust for the people of El Dorado County, to request she be notified of any future Board agenda items that may be scheduled in the future.
         Speaking as Sexton of the El Dorado Cemetery, Sue Silver explained to the supervisors that the El Dorado Cemetery Association had requested last year that the county assist the Association in obtaining a Ground Penetrating Radar survey to determine the location of unmarked graves, the request having been denied.  Ms. Silver noted it was unsettling that the county turned this request down since the El Dorado Cemetery is a county-owned public cemetery.  The Association only holds a deed to the front section which is sized at 27 ft deep by about 210 ft long.  The remainder of the cemetery is a public cemetery under Townsite patent law.
          Rescue resident, Francis "Carp" Carpenter spoke on behalf of those long time residents of the county (his family's been here since 1853) who have established family plots within the cemeteries throughout the county.  Mr. Carpenter suggested that the county need to get on with putting things in order so that residents, such as himself, will not have to worry about whether they will be allowed to be buried in their family plots.

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