IN A ENVIRONMENT OF FEAR OF THE MENDOCINO COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE IN MENDOCINO COUNTY, UDJ WRITER BEN BROWN BREAKS THE SILENCE TODAY IN HIS ARTICLE ABOUT THE LAWSUIT RECENTLY FILED BY A MENDOCINO COUNTY SHERIFF DEPUTY,

THERE DEFINITELY SEEMS TO BE A LOT OF TRUTH TO THE ALLEGATIONS AND TWO OTHER DEPUTIES HAVE ALREADY “COMMITTED SUICIDE” BOTH TIMES WITH OTHER DEPUTIES PRESENT IN THE HOME, WHATS GOING ON AT THE SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT?

HERE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE ALLEGATIONS FROM COX AS QUOTED IN THE UDJ:

“regular drunken driving episodes both on and off duty”

“inappropriate sexual overtures”

“intolerable work conditions”

“episodes” of on duty drunkenness

AMONG ALLEGATIONS OF THREATS,WIFE SWAPPING AND DRUNKENNESS ! THE PEOPLE OF ROUND VALLEY AND COVELO HAVE BEEN TELLING US ABOUT THESE BEHAVIORS FOR YEARS, DRUNKEN ABUSIVE DEPUTIES, ABUSE OF POWER, ILLEGAL SEARCH AND ENTRY, MOST LOCAL PRESS RARELY COVERS THESE STORIES HOORAY FOR BEN BROWN,

MAYBE THE WILLITS NEWS WILL BEGIN TO PICK UP AND PUT OUT SOME REAL NEWS. ITS TIME FOR LOCAL PRESS TO BREAK THE SILENCE AND STIR THE POT OF MENDOCINO CORRUPTION!

READ THE REST HERE (more…)

IN ANOTHER RECENT CASE OF ILLEGAL SEARCH AND SEIZURE, LAURA HAMBURG CONTINUES TO BE HARASSED IN MENDOCINO’S “WITCH HUNT ATMOSPHERE” THAT HAS CULMINATED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS.

FIRST HAMBURG WAS ILLEGALLY RAIDED WHEN MCSO OMMITED FACTS WHEN FILING FOR A SEARCH WARRANT AFTER SEEING HER MEDICAL MARIJUANA CROP. IT STARTED WHEN MCSO DEPUTIES CAME ON HAMBURGS PROPERTY LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WHO DID NOT LIVE AT THAT ADDRESS. THE DEPUTIES SOUGHT A WARRANT BASED ON THE VISUAL BUT DIDN’T BOTHER TO TELL THE JUDGE ABOUT HER MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARDS, WHEN THE ACSE CAME BEFORE THE JUDGE, THE JUDGE THREW THE EVIDENCE OUT SAYING THE DEPUTIES “OMMITTED EVIDENCE” WHEN FILING FOR THE WARRANT.

THE MENDOCINO COUNTY DA’S OFFICE NOW REFUSES TO RETURN EVIDENCE ILLEGALLY CONFISCATED FROM LAURA HAMBURGS RANCH UNDER THE WARRANT FILED UNDER FALSE PRETEXT. LAURA HAMBURGS RIGHTS WERE VIOLATED WHEN OFFICERS FROM THE MCSO RAIDED HER MEDICAL MARIJUANA CROP. STEALING CASH, PLANTS, AND MEDICAL MARIJUANA FROM HER ORGANIC FARM. BUT NOW WILL THE COUNTY ACT IN GOOD FAITH AND RETURN THE STOLEN ITEMS?

LETS SEE AS WE STIR THE POT OF MENDOCINO CORRUPTION!

AS WE SAID BEFORE “Laura Hamburg stood up Against the Bio-tech Giant Monsanto, helped to pass Measure G the famous Anti-GMO Bill in Mendocino County. And this is how the County of Mendocino thanks her!

And this the service we get out of the people we pay to protect us? (more…)

“In October, District Attorney Meredith Lintott announced her office would help battle truancy in the county by taking the most serious cases to court. There are now three truancy cases winding through the court system, one involving the Willits Unified School District and two in Ukiah.

“Student absences cost the WUSD about $1 million in funding each year,” says WUSD Superintendent Deb Kubin.

In Mendocino County 42.3 percent of students last school year were considered truant compared to a statewide rate of 28.3 percent. WUSD had a 28.1 percent rate, comparable to the state average. The past failure by the district attorney to support county School Attendance Review Boards contributed to the county’s truancy levels according to last year’s Mendocino County Grand Jury review of the Fort Bragg and Laytonville schools.

Deputy District Attorney Matt Hubley is the prosecutor pursuing the truant parents.

“We want to see the kids go to school,” says Hubley. “Studies show that habitual truants frequently end up in the criminal justice system. Right now, we are focusing on cases involving younger students with abysmal attendance records, those who are in class less than half the time.

“In these cases parents can be charged under the education code associated with habitual truancy or with misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Once it enters the court system it proceeds like any other criminal case.”

Hubley says in the three cases now winding through the court system, one parent failed to appear in court, requiring an arrest warrant to be issued for them. While the misdemeanor charge can lead to a year in jail, it is extremely unlikely, according to Hubley since the main objective of the entire proceeding is to get the student to attend school. The court may allow the judgment to be deferred if the student remains in school and it may also impose special requirements on the family for counseling, restricting drugs and alcohol in the home or other restrictions.

Truancy is defined by the California Legislature as a student “missing 30 minutes or more of instruction without an excuse three or more times during a school year.” The parents are sent a truancy notice when this happens. School personnel will typically ask to meet with the student’s parents to find ways to prevent the problem from continuing or worsening, including further letters home when the problem worsens.

A habitual truant is defined as a student with three or more truant notifications and where school personnel have made an effort to meet with the child’s parent to fix the problem.

The schools make every effort to meet with the family and improve the student’s attendance record. Only when these efforts are not successful are parents are asked to appear before the Student Attendance Review Board. For the WUSD, the board consists of school officials, a representative from social services, a Willits police officer, a Mendocino County sheriff’s deputy and representatives from the departments of the County Probation Office and Child Protection Services.

The board’s focus is to get the child to attend school. The outcome of a meeting with the SARB is a legally binding contract, designed to address the individual needs of the student. If the contract is not followed, a citation may be issued or the case may be referred to the district attorney for prosecution.

Making sure a child attends school is considered a parent’s responsibility and failure to ensure the child attends school has lead to criminal prosecution. Last year in Eureka, a parent was jailed and CPS took her four children into custody after she failed to respond to letters seeking her cooperation and failed to appear in court.”

    SEEMS LIKE THE SIMMERING MENDOCINO POT OF CORRUPTION IS FINALLY AT A BOILING POINT WITH THE LATEST LAWSUIT FILED BY DEPUTY JASON COX OF THE MENDOCINO COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT ALLEGING  “unwelcome and unwanted sexual comments and overtures toward claimant, (Cox).” BY MENDOCINO COUNTY SHERIFF DEPUTY Sgt. Shannon Barney WHO HAS SINCE BEEN PROMOTED TO DEPUTY CORONER BY THE OTHER LAWSUIT DEFENDANT, HEAD SHERIFF TOM ALLMAN. TWO OTHER MEN INVOLVED IN THE SCANDAL  DEPUTY BRETT WHITE AND Deputy Eric Gore ARE NOW DEAD, BOTH DEPUTIES DIED IN VERY UNUSUAL “SUICIDES”,  IN BOTH INSTANCES THE SUICIDES OCCURRED WITH OTHER DEPUTIES IN THE SAME HOME WHILE THE SUICIDE TOOK PLACE. BOTH DEPUTIES WHO “COMMITED SUICIDE” AS THE OFFICIAL STORY READS HAD RECENTLY BEEN DEMOTED AND LAYED OFF WITH DEPUTY ERIC GORE GIVEN A MAJOR BLOW BY BEING DEMOTED TO CORRECTIONS AT THE COUNTY JAIL. THERE IS LOTS AND LOTS OF PEOPLE TALKING IN MENDOCINO ABOUT THIS SCANDAL BUT VERY FEW LOCAL NEWSPAPERS OR PRESS WILLING TO COVER SUCH A VOLATILE SCANDAL WITH TWO MEN ALREADY DEAD. A SPREAD OF FEAR AND SILENCE PERVADES IN THE COUNTY DUE TO THE POWER OF THE MCSO. hOPEFULLY MORE WRITERS WILL GRAB HOLD OF THIS SCANDAL AS ITS ONE OF THOSE NEXT BIG STORIES OF MENDOCINO AND HUMBOLDT COUNTY CORRUPTION AS IS THE GUNDERSON CASE IN BLUE LAKES.

BELOW IS BEN BROWN OF THE UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL“Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Cox has filed a lawsuit against the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Tom Allman over issues of sexual harassment while he was serving as a deputy in Covelo.

Allman said he was aware of the suit, but could not comment on ongoing litigation.

“I can’t talk about it,” he said.

Allman said he had not seen a copy of the suit Monday.

The suit comes six months after the county denied a claim of sexual harassment that Cox filed in October 2007 against his supervisor in Covelo, Sgt. Shannon Barney.

In the claim, Cox alleged Barney, “made unwelcome and unwanted sexual comments and overtures toward claimant, (Cox).”

Barney has since been moved from his post in Covelo and is now working as a deputy coroner.

According to the claim, when Cox refused to be involved in any sexual activities, and spoke out against the behavior of other sheriff’s deputies, he was moved out of his Covelo resident deputy post, to his detriment, and denied a promotion.

Cox also named Sheriff’s Deputy Brett White in his claim. Cox served in Covelo with White as well as Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Gore.

White committed suicide in his Covelo home in February of 2007. Gore killed himself in his Ukiah apartment in January.

County counsel Jeannine Nadel could not be reached for comment on the suit.”

WOW THE POT OF CORRUPTION HAS BEEN STIRRED, IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE HOW EVERYONE COVERS THEIR ASSES ON THIS ONE!  LOL

Mendocino Measure B

ANOTHER STEP IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

MENDOCINO MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS ARE WORRIED ABOUT THEIR FUTURE RIGHTS TO GROW THEIR OWN MEDICINE!

AS A SMALL, RADICAL RIGHT WING GROUP OF LOCAL PROHIBITIONISTS TRY TO END MENDOCINO’S MEDICAL GANJA CULTURE, MANY CITIZENS ARE BECOMING VOCAL IN THE FIGHT AGAINST GOING BACK TO A TIME WHERE MANY FAMILIES LOST THEIR LAND, PERSONAL PROPERTY CHILDREN, AND ULTIMATELY THEIR FAMILIES IN THE INFAMOUS MENDOCINO MARIJUANA BUSTS OF THE 1980’s and 1990’s.

DURING THAT TIME IN THE 80’s AND 90′S MANY FAMILIES WERE TORN APART BY THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATIONS “WAR ON DRUGS”! IN MENDOCINO COUNTY MANY GATES AND DOORS WERE SMASHED DOWN BY MEN IN CAMOUFLAGE LOOKING FOR THE “EVIL REEFER”. CHILDREN SUFFERED THE MOST, OFTEN TAKEN AWAY BY MENDOCINO OR HUMBOLDT CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES SIMPLY BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS GREW MARIJUANA. OFFENDERS WERE SUBJECTED TO LONG JAIL OR PRISON SENTENCES OFTEN LOCKED UP WITH VIOLENT AND MENTALLY ILL OFFENDERS, OR WORSE SUBJECTED TO MENDOCINO COUNTIES REVOLVING PROBATION SYSTEM WHICH ULTIMATELY KEPT OTHERWISE LAW ABIDING CITIZENS UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYE OF THE MENDOCINO COUNTY PROBATION DEPARTMENT. MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WERE AND CONTINUE TO BE WASTED ON ERADICATING THIS BENEFICIAL PLANT, AND INCARCERATING ITS FARMERS.

LETS NOT GO BACK TO A TIME WHERE EVERYONE HAD TO FEAR THE MIDNIGHT KNOCK OR SMASH THROUGH THE DOOR.

VOTE NO ON MEASURE B - THE ANTI MEDICAL MARIJUANA MEASURE!
Measure B Proponents, Opponents Organizing By Ben Brown
http://cannabisnews.com/news/23/thread23756.s…
CN Source: Ukiah Daily Journal March 16, 2008 California

Local elected officials and commercial growers view Measure G as the mandate of the Mendocino County voters,”
- Ross Liberty,
Ukiah businessman, Yes on B coalition

“Marijuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.”
William Randolph Hearst - Newspaper Tycoon (1936)

‘NO ON MEASURE B’ PRIMARY BALLOT ARGUMENT
http://www.nomeasureb.org

Measure B is a backward step towards marijuana re-criminalization that targets small-scale, personal use growers.

Measure B is a step backward that would take law enforcement resources away from more serious crimes.

It would make anyone with more than six plants a felon,

Commercial growers do not know about or care about local marijuana laws,
Laura Hamburg,
spokeswoman for the No on B organization

past headlines/ 206×302
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/culture/med…

“Prohibition is a new form of tyranny by the old over the young. You have the adult with a cocktail in one hand and a cigarette in the other saying `you cannot’ to the child. This is untenable.”
– Anthropologist Margaret Mead, on “The Dick Cavett Show,” 1969

Ganja safer than not toking…
http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/ubbt…

Lock ‘em all up, for Crist’s sake!
http://drugwarrant.net/forum/viewtopic.php…

“I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana, I mean one that just tears the **** out of them. You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish.”
Richard M. Nixon

“You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to.”
Richard M. Nixon - Former President
(about the War on Drugs to Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman,
according to Halderman’s diaries)

420 Dysfunction Junction, Incarceration Nation
http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/ubbt…

http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/culture/med…
221×280 mmj.jpg

Why is Marijuana Illegal? DWR by Pete Guither
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/1…

“In some districts, inhabited by Latin Americans, Filipinos, Spaniards and Negroes, half the violent crimes are attributed to marijuana craze. Dr. Lee Rice of San Antonio reports that eighty per cent of all the murders committed by Mexicans are done while the killers are drugged by marijuana.”
- The Christian Century (newspaper)- 1938

“No person growing 25 plants is doing so for personal use because even the sickest person does not need that much marijuana. Measure G has created a permissive attitude in the county that encourages large scale growers to come here to grow marijuana commercially with little fear of prosecution.”
- Ross Liberty,
Ukiah businessman, Yes on B coalition

“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could”
- William F. Buckley, Jr.
http://tinyurl.com/yw5ke7

http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/culture/med…

MEASURE B TARGETS LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS INSTEAD OF CRIMINAL, COMMERICAL GROWERS

SMALL PERSONAL MEDICAL MARIJUANA GARDENS LIKE THE ONE SEEN ABOVE WOULD BE ILLEGAL, AND GROWERS WOULD BE CHARGED WITH FELONIES IF MEASURE B PASSES IN MENDOCINO COUNTY, MAKING SMALL SCALE MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWERS FELONS! VOTE NO ON MENDOCIN O COUNTY MEASURE B : THE ANTI MEDICAL MARIJUANA MEASURE!

VISIT THE NO ON MEASURE B WEBSITE :http://www.nomeasureb.org

Measure B is drawing widespread concern from Mendocino County citizens who believe it wrongly targets small-time, personal use growers instead of the large-scale, criminal operators it is supposedly meant to control.

“Measure B does nothing to stop commercial growers. Instead it makes criminals out of residents with small, personal use gardens,” said Laura Hamburg, campaign coordinator for the No On Measure B campaign. “It would make it a felony for legitimate medical marijuana patients to grow more than six plants in their own homes.”

Opponents have organized a campaign committee, No on Measure B, www.nomeasureb.org to tell the voters why “B is Bad” for Mendocino County.

Measure B, which is slated for the June ballot, would divert law enforcement resources from the real problems in the community – domestic violence and other types of violent crimes and hard drugs such as methamphetamine, Hamburg argued.

Sheriff Tom Allman has said that enforcing B would be a burden on law enforcement. He has also proposed a new program to raise funds from medical marijuana cultivation, funds that will expand enforcement efforts against those who abuse the law. “Let’s give it a chance to work,” Hamburg said.

Measure B would also overturn Measure G, the Personal Use of Marijuana Initiative, which was passed overwhelmingly by the voters in 2000. Measure G allows for the cultivation of 25 or fewer plants for personal use only and leaves commercial cultivation and sales illegal.

“We need to enforce Measure G, the law the voters passed,” Hamburg said, “not go backwards and criminalize our friends and neighbors.”

In response to Measure B, a coalition of residents including patients, doctors, and citizens from across the County have launched a campaign to uphold and enforce the current law. County residents who oppose B and have signed the ballot argument against the measure include: Peter Keegan, MD; Kate Magruder, cancer survivor; Keith Faulder, former Assistant District Attorney; Lynda McClure, union representative and William Courtney, MD.

“The citizens of Mendocino County deserve clarity with respect to marijuana cultivation limits and enforcement against abuses,” Hamburg said. “But Measure B is a bogus diversion that does neither.”

MEASURE B THE ANTI MEDICAL MARIJUANA INITIATIVE ON THE JUNE BALLOT IN MENDOCINO COUNTY, “would be a burden on law enforcement.” Said County Sheriff Tom Allman according to a recent Press Democrat Article. Allman is also quoted as saying his deputies “will not be able to focus on any other public safety issue.”

SEE THE ARTICLE HERE:

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080311/NEWS/803110424/1033/NEWS01

SEE MEASURE B HERE:

http://mendonews.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/mendocino-county-measure-b-the-

anti-medical-marijuana-ordnance-see-it-here/

Isn’t it great to know that Mendocino Cpounties own Sheriff realizes that Measure B would be almost impossible to enforce in the county where “homegrown” has become more valuable of a commercial crop than the local timber industry. We say the chances of Measure B - The Anti Medical Marijuana bill passing are extremely low, even with most commercial growers voting for the Initiative hoping the prices of marijuana will climb. Mendocino saw a huge drop in the prices per pound of marijuana following the passage of Proposition G , which legalized Marijuana Gardens of 25 plants or less for personal use. Measure G also made marijuana cultivation the lowest priority among law enforcement in Mendocino County, much to the despise of the Willits and Ukiah City Councils who have both been entirely out of touch with the citizens they are supposedly representing. Both councils, without public vote and little notice have, created strict guidelines in their towns for Medical Marijuana production. Both councils held special sessions to give the Board of Supervisors the support it needed to get Measure B on the June Ballot. If Measure B passes it will over ride the last 10 years of work in Mendocino County that many people have been a part of, to end the antiquated laws of Prohibition in Mendocino County.

We at the Mendocinoi Mount encourage a BIG FAT NO vote on Measure B : The anti Medical Marijuana Measure.

Measure B will only support higher prices for commercial growers at the expense of smaller “once legite” growers being busted, arrested, and incarcerated at an expensive rate to the tax payesrs of not only Mendocino County, but also California.

VOTE NO ON MEASURE B : MENDOCINOS’ ANTI MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

SEE MEASURE B HERE:

http://mendonews.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/mendocino-county-measure-b-the-anti-

medical-marijuana-ordnance-see-it-here/

Below is more information on the Bloody Island Massacre of Mount Konocti in Lake County. There are many renditions and stories about this senseless slaughter of Pomo People. This one is another great one! I hope these stories will shed light on the mistreatment of Native Americans in Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt, and Trinity Counties,. During the 1850’s and 1860’s settlers hunted and killed thousands of indians in these areas. Rape, torture and kidnapping were common occurances. Much of these stories have been covered up. The Eel River Rangers, The Humboldt Volunteers, The Trinity Volunteers as well as the US Calvary were responsible for these atrocities. Many local ranches gained considerable wealth using the indians as slaves or paying them near slave wages, usually just enough food for their work to keep starvation at bay. These pioneers families still benefit from mistreatment of indians today, such as the large ranches that have been passed down inside these families.No recourse or official apology has ever been made for these brutal mistreatments!

Bloody Island

Pete Richerson and Scott Richerson

From Rodman Slough, drive about one mile further on the Nice Lucerne Cutoff to Highway 20. Turn left, toward the Blue Lakes. Soon, on the left, you will come to Reclamation Road and the Bloody Island Massacre Monument. The monument commemorates the massacre of Indians by the US Army in retaliation for the killing of the settlers Stone and Kelsey. The story follows a familiar Western theme. In the fall of 1847, Stone and Kelsey bought Salvador Vallejo’s cattle operation. Following New World Hispanic practices, Vallejo had impressed and trained local Pomo as vaqueros, but Stone and Kelsey’s treatment of the Indian community in Big Valley was more high-handed and brutal than Vallejo’s. Indian outrage peaked in the fall of 1849 when, in the grip of gold fever, Kelsey forced 50 Indian men to accompany him to the gold fields as laborers. There Kelsey sold to miners the supplies meant to feed the Indians, and only one or two men returned home alive. Stone and Kelsey remained as carelessly brutal as ever, beating, even shooting, men on drunken whims. Women were raped and enslaved. When tribal chief Augustine’s wife became the object of such attention, he launched an attack. From within, his wife poured water onto the powder charges of all the white men’s firearms, and Indians burst into the house at dawn, killing Kelsey. Stone leaped through a window and an old man soon found him and brained him with a rock.

In the spring of 1850 a US Army company commanded by a Lieutenant Stoneman came to the lake to punish the Indians. Elem Pomo were forced against their wills to furnish guides for the company. The column moved through Big Valley without catching any of Augustine’s wary band, but came upon an unknown group of Indians fishing on the island in Robinson Lake. They used boats and a cannon to assault the group. Augustine, who was not present, heard first hand reports that 16 people were killed there. The army also murdered their two Elem guides. The troops then left the Clear Lake area but shot up another village far to the northwest before returning to Sonoma. After these punitive murders, local Indian leaders negotiated with treaty agents and further violent conflict with settlers was minimal, despite the fact that the treaties were never approved

Before European conquest, about 3,000 Indians lived in the drainage basin of Clear Lake, most of whom spoke one of three mutually unintelligible Pomo languages. Small numbers of Wappo and Miwok also lived near the lake. Elem historians say that the Miwok villages near Lower Lake were settled later, under pressure from European Ranchos in the Capay Valley. Each language group was composed of a number of tribelets centered on a major village site. For example, the Southeastern Pomo were divided into three tribelets- the Koi around Anderson Marsh, the Komdot of Buckingham point, and the Elem on peninsula at the eastern end of the Oaks Arm. The peninsula is now called Rattlesnake Island, for the rattlesnakes that Elem people sold to Chinese miners living there for food around the turn of the century. Eating mainly fish, game, wild herbs, tule shoots, grass and wildflower seeds, and mashed acorns, the Indians followed a seasonal lifestyle.

Fear of bears kept the Indians from travelling much into the hills to the east of the lake, but every year treks were made to the coast to trade for shell-money. The Clear Lake Indians had many goods to offer. Having a ready and inexhaustible supply of obsidian, they were able to make many beautiful and useful tools, including arrowheads, knives, ax-heads, scraping tools and ornaments. They also made beads of locally mined magnesite, another form of money. The crowning achievement of local handicraft, however, were the Pomo baskets. Intricately designed and finely woven, these watertight baskets are among the best in the world. Good examples of obsidian tools and baskets can be seen at the Lakeport museum, and arrowheads can still be found on beaches around the lake.

Among the Southeastern Pomo, family groups controlled individual coves, and had rights to fishing, acorn gathering and hunting there. The family system was matrilineal. Newlyweds went to live with the wife’s tribe, and even men’s political offices were inherited through their mother’s families. There was relatively little conflict between tribes and families, and the wealth of the Pomo supported an elaborate ceremonial life. Subsistence was ample, practically every household had items of luxury, and communal institutions were strong.

Students of happiness across cultures find it mainly correlated with measures of the strength of communal institutions, not with measures of material wealth. The Pomo had strong communal institutions and were likely as happy if not happier than the settlers who impoverished them. Some modern European inventions no doubt increase our happiness irrespective of invidious comparisons. We are all happy that modern medicine reduces child mortality below historic levels. But when it comes to the many other ways in which we find happiness, perhaps we have something to learn from Pomo institutions.

The Pomo believed that a “circular path” best preserves balance in and of life, and that responsibility for the environment is an important part of this balance. This belief finds manifestation in current plans for nature preserves built with casino money. The breakup and scattering of a tribe was, Southeastern Pomo believe, not simply due to European malevolence, but is indicative of a deeper upset of human balance with nature. This belief is prophetic; the settlement of Europeans profoundly altered California’s ecological systems as well as the lives of its native peoples. In the aftermath of disease and ill-treatment, the Pomo population of Lake County dropped to perhaps 450 people by the turn of the century. Recovery was slow, partly because intermarriage and loss of Indian identity was common. In the 1940s and 50s the Bureau of Indian Affairs, operated a program to terminate the rancheria system and with it any official recognition of the rancheria groups by the Federal Government. Indians were relocated to training centers in cities (many Pomo went to Oakland), and rancheria lands were assigned fee-simple to individuals. By 1955 only about 250 Indians still lived in Lake County.

Only one community, Elem, avoided termination of its rancheria and maintained significant observance of traditional culture. Elem has the only functional ceremonial round house among the Lake Pomo today. The passage of the Indian Self-determination Act in 1975 set the stage for a real recovery of Indian culture in California by setting up a mechanism for tribes to reverse termination. The use of Indian tribal sovereignty as a basis for establishing casinos is today drawing many families back to the rancherias. Of course, gambling does not automatically mean re-establishment of tribes in a social sense. Still, Indian communities are experiencing a revival in numbers and prosperity.

Following is excerpts from Pomo Bear Doctors , a book about the Native American Pomo beliefs prior to the coming of pioneers . Its a great story and we encourage your thoughts!

THE POMO BEAR DOCTORS

“Introduction
One of the most concrete and persistent convictions of the Indians
of a large part of California is the belief in the existence of persons
of magic power able to turn themselves into grizzly bears. Such
shamans are called “bear doctors” by the English-speaking Indians
and their American neighbors. The belief is obviously a locally colored
variant of the widespread were-wolf superstition, which is not yet
entirely foreign to the emotional life of civilized peoples. The California
Indians had worked out their form of this concept very definitely.
Thus Dr. Kroeber says:
1
i A. L. Kroeber,
Religion of the Indians of California,
‘ ‘
present series, IV,
331, 1907.

A special class of shamans found to a greater ‘or less extent among probably
all the Central tribes, though they are wanting both in the Northwest and the
South, are the so-called bear doctors, shamans who have received power from
grizzly bears, often by being taken into the abode of these animals which
appear there in human form, and who after their return to mankind possess
many of the qualities of the grizzly bear, especially his apparent invulnerability
to fatal attack. The bear shamans can not only assume the form of bears, as
they do in order to inflict vengeance on their enemies, but it is believed that
they can be killed an indefinite number of times when in this form and each
time return to life. In some regions, as among the Pomo and Yuki, the bear
shaman was not thought as elsewhere to actually become a bear, but to remain
a man who clothed himself in the skin of a bear to his complete disguisement,
and by his malevolence, rapidity, fierceness, and resistance to wounds to be
capable of inflicting greater injury than a true bear. Whether any bear shamans
actually attempted to disguise themselves in this way to accomplish their ends
is doubtful. It is certain that all the members of some tribes believed it to be
in their power.
beliefs differ rather fundamentally from those here summarized.
In the first place, the Pomo appear to know nothing of the
magician acquiring his power from the bears themselves. Since they
ascribe no guardian spirit to him, he is scarcely a shaman in the strict
sense of the word. The current term “doctor,” misleading as it may
seem at first sight, may therefore be conveniently retained as free from
the erroneous connotation that “shaman” would involve.
In the second place, the power of the doctor was thought to reside
wholly in his bearskin suit, or parts thereof, and apparently was
considered the result of an elaborate ceremony performed in its manufacture
and subsequent donning. This distinctly ritualistic side of
the bear doctor’s practices removes him still more clearly from the
class of the true shaman.
Thirdly, there is a detailed Porno tradition of the origin of bear
doctors. This story is cast in the mold of a myth ; in fact, its initial
portions may be taken from the current mythology of the tribe.
Other parts are, however, remarkably unmythical and matter of fact.
The resultant whole is therefore rather incongruous, and, in the form
recorded, may have been somewhat influenced by the speculations of
an individual. But the events which it describes agree so closely with
the beliefs which the Pomo at large entertain concerning the practices
of recent bear doctors that the question of the extent of the prevalence
of the myth among the group is of less importance than the insight
which the tale affords into the Pomo mind. Its many specific references
make it a suitable introduction to the presentation of the other data
secured.

These peculiarities render a comparison of Pomo bear-doctor beliefs
with those of other Californian groups desirable, but the published
data from elsewhere are unfortunately too fragmentary to make such
a study profitable at present. It has only seemed feasible to append
some comparisons with Yuki and Miwok beliefs.
It may be added that the statements which constitute the body of
this paper are the statements of native informants cited as representative
of their convictions, and not as the opinions of the author.
The degree to which the reputed practices of bear doctors were actually
practiced is far from clear, as Dr. Kroeber has stated. Whether,
however, they rest mainly, partly, or not at all on reality, they furnish
interesting psychological material.

ORIGINAL ACCOUNT
The following tradition was obtained in January, 1906, from an
old Eastern Pomo man and his wife. The husband stated that he
had himself been a bear doctor at one time in his life. In his later
years he became a noted practitioner of ordinary Indian “medicine,”
and was much in demand as a ‘ ‘
sucking doctor. ‘ ‘ His old wife proved
a very valuable informant on Pomo mythology, and it was while
relating myths that the subject of bear doctors was mentioned and the
fact developed that her husband had practiced this craft when a
younger man. The incident led to a full discussion of the entire
matter with the couple, and resulted in the recording of the following
material. This was given by the Indians more as a personal favor
than for any other reason, and was communicated only after a pledge
that their story would not be spread about as long as the two were still
alive. Both are now deceased, as is also the interpreter who aided in
recording the material, so that there is no reason for longer withholding
this information.

Out of deference to the relatives of the
three, it seems best not to name them in these pages.
Besides the myth, these two old people furnished the greater part
of the descriptive information given in the remainder of this paper,
but additional data from other informants have been included. Unless
otherwise stated, the Porno terms are in the Eastern dialect.
In the days before Indians were upon the earth, and when the birds and
mammals were human, there was a large village at dano xa. z These people were
2 This is the site of an old Eastern Pomo village and is situated in the foothills
about two miles northeast of the town of Upper Lake. It is located on the
western slope of a hill and overlooks the lake.

(more…)

Today we feature a story from “The Issue” about Medical Marijuana! We were recently contacted by the Editor so we thought we would give them the BIG UPS here on The Mendocino Mount! If you or your blog or organization would like a “BIG UPS” and be featured on the Mendocino Mount then let us know and drop us a line!

Marijuana: A Burning Issue LIBERTY FOR ALL - Randy Wilbourn, Jr. provides an excellent introduction to many aspects of the marijuana debate. Beginning with a thorough history of marijuana and its uses through the ages, Wilbourn then branches into a discussion of the trajectory of marijuana laws. He describes the chemical properties of marijuana and its physiological effects before going on to explain both pro- and anti-legalization arguments.…

The Failure of the War on Drugs BECKER-POSNER - Economist Gary Becker concludes that the US government’s war on drugs has failed, not because of a poor policy, but because the economics of the illicit drug market are not conducive to effective law enforcement. After an in-depth analysis of the economic theory and research behind his conclusion, Becker ponders whether legalizing drugs will be more economically logical and achieve the government’s goal of driving down drug consumption.…

The Prince of Pot Makes a Pitch to Conservatives REASON HIT AND RUN - Jacob Sullum reports on Canadian civil disobedient and marijuana seller Marc Emery’s arrest.and possible extradition to the United States to face charges there. Sullum describes Emery’s political philosophies and summarizes his career. He then notes that, in an unusual twist, this marijuana activist and entrepreneur is using a conservative argument to fight extradition, maintaining that a US trial would be an infringement on “Canadian sovereignty.” …

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