It’s disappointing that Yuba County, Maidu couldn’t work something out

Maybe the spot at Sycamore Ranch wasn’t perfect, but we appreciated what the tribe was trying to do there

We’re sorry to see that the Tsi Akim Maidu and Yuba County are canceling a lease agreement that provided a small parcel at Sycamore Ranch to the Tribe.

It seems there were some unmet expectations or some bothersome developments on one side or the other and it appears to have gone beyond the point where something could be worked out.

Frankly, we wondered if that small plot would really work for the Maidu to fulfill their vision of recreating a fishing village – a sort of tribal cultural center. It wasn’t an ideal piece of real estate – very small, cornered in by a drive and a parking area and Highway 20. And it’s just inside Sycamore Ranch ... a trailer/camping area the county acquired some time ago, cleaned up and is now a bustling enterprise. Seems like a situation where some conflict was bound to happen.

Still, we were excited a few years ago when this partnership unfolded – we thought it was great that our county was working with area indigenous people to re-invest them with some land near a waterway that was significant to them. We liked the bark lodges they erected. We liked the ideas they had of creating a place that could give them some cultural anchorage, as well as be a point of interaction with the rest of us to learn about them. And we very much appreciated the annual Indigenous People’s Days the Maidu sponsored every year – we’ll miss the storytelling that happened at those events.

Tribal Chairman Don Ryberg made the point that they need to grow and need land that they own, not lease. Ryberg said that they had believed the Tribe could renew five-year leases and get to the point over time where the land would belong to the tribe. County officials deny that was the arrangement.

He also said that the tribe and the county were sometimes in conflict over what was happening at the site.

“So this was not a secured piece of land for the tribe,” he said. And that’s what they want – a place to call their own. Here’s hoping they find that place (and if the county or some beneficent group or individual helps them find it in our county, all the better; we take pride in the cultural diversity of Yubasutter, and it should start by welcoming native peoples).

The county and the Tsi Akim Maidu mutually agreed on terminating the lease agreement, according to a letter documenting an Aug. 13 meeting. OK, but we wish something could have been worked out more amicably.