Several members of the board of ARPPS attended a presentation by Walter Gray, Chief of the Cultural Services Division of California State Parks about the siting of the Center in the North Sacramento Area of the Parkway.
ARPPS was the only Parkway organization publicly supporting this siting and our letter to the Bee was published in October and is reposted below.
The presentation was part of the North Sacramento Chamber’s Leadership Series, of which ARPPS was one of the co-sponsors, for the event on Thursday, August 18th.
It was very informative, and given that Walter Gray was the person largely responsible for the success of the Sacramento Railroad Museum, he brings a lot of experience to the project.
It was also revealed that the new incoming chair of the Heritage Center Task Force will be current task force member Larry Myers, who as the long-time Executive Secretary of the State of California Native American Heritage Commission, will provide substantial leadership to this important project.
LETTER TO BEE
October 2, 2004
Opinion page editors
P.O. Box 15779
Sacramento, CA 95852
Re: Article, 10/2/04: Indian museum panel chooses parkway. PUBLISHED
Dear Editors:
The choice of the Parkway site by the California Indian Cultural Center and Museum Task Force (CICCM), as the location for the California Indian Heritage Center and Museum, is a wise and wonderful choice, and one all knowledgeable Parkway stakeholders should applaud and support wholeheartedly.
This is the area of at least three historic Nisenan villages, Pujune (the largest), Momol and Yamanepu, and is also a glorious, and long overdue, physical return of the Indian people to the Parkway, from which they have never been separated spiritually.
It will have a tremendous economic and cultural benefit to the entire region and particularly the North Sacramento area of the Parkway, traditionally forgotten about when resources are distributed, and currently suffering great deterioration.
It cannot be seen as a ‘development’, as some have said, in the sense that the Parkway Plan envisions, but is more appropriately compared to the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, only much larger.
If the national Indian Museum just opened in Washington D.C. is any guide, we are in for a truly beautiful Museum that will bring admiration and attention to our community and embody the founding spirit of the Parkway.
Sincerely,
signed
David H. Lukenbill, President
American River Parkway Preservation Society
Cc: ARPPS Board & Membership
Larry Myers, CICCM
