To the editor: Thanks, Los Angeles Occasions, for the protection of Native American points (“Why an ambitious 300-mile trail in Northern California distresses some Native Americans,” Oct. 19).
The Nice Redwood Path Company promised to work collaboratively with tribes in figuring out the trail of the path. Its path would comply with the long-gone railroad that had been constructed paralleling the Eel River after the Gold Rush. There was no collaboration with tribes and the path via Wailaki land was “shov[ed] … down our throats,” as tribal member Perry Lincoln declares.
His surname of Lincoln is despairingly ironic. California’s Gold Rush made the necessity for a continental railway extra pressing. The first continental rail route was from Omaha, Neb., to San Francisco via southern Wyoming and northern Colorado.
It was President Lincoln’s well-documented actions as commander-in-chief that resulted within the genocide of Native individuals who had been within the continental railway’s path. As soon as accomplished, because of President Lincoln, a railway from Humboldt County to San Francisco could possibly be constructed.
As an apart, that is sadly paying homage to the nation shoving colonization down our Indigenous throats.
Harold Printup, Los Angeles
