From the Sac Bee:
Little peace for Colfax Indian Cemetery
smagagnini@sacbee.com
Published Tuesday, May. 26, 2009
When a tree falls in the Colfax Indian Cemetery, who hears it?
Kathy Keck and her dogs, cats, goats and horses did when one of the cemetery’s giant Ponderosa pines crushed part of her fence one stormy February night in 2007.
So began a controversy that closed the cemetery where local chiefs are buried and raised an outcry from area Indians who claim their religious freedom is being violated.
Keck, whose family has lived in harmony with the cemetery and the Maidu, Miwok and Nisenan who have used it since the 1800s, sued in small claims court and won $3,000 from the Colfax Cemetery District.
Until Keck’s suit, both the district and the Colfax Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe believed the Indians owned the cemetery.
Turtle Talk 