State park bill was not an open-ended gift to a tribe.

Re: California lawmakers must weigh long-term consequences before granting tribe a state park

Dan Walters warns returning Tolowa Dunes State Park to the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation sets a dangerous precedent. The bill says otherwise.

I postponed Assembly Bill 2356 to bring local tribes and community together, but I will not walk away. Yan’-daa-k’vt is the Tolowa people’s place of genesis. In 1853, settlers burned their village, killing an estimated 600 people. The federal government reserved this land for the Tolowa in 1862, then seized it six years later.

Walters asks how the state could refuse another tribe. The Legislature declared AB 2356 a special statute with findings specific to the Tolowa and their documented dispossession. Any future proposal requires its own bill, its own findings, its own votes.

He calls the restrictions “virtually impossible to enforce.” They are specified conditions on the grant, codified in state law. The bill preserves public access to trails, roads and beaches, retains fishing under California Fish and Wildlife, and prohibits commercial development. Enforceable obligations, not suggestions.

On gaming, federal law requires land be in federal trust before gaming can occur. That requires the tribe and state to work together. California has opposed trust applications, and those applications stopped. Owning land does not equal gaming.

This is precise legislation for a specific injustice. It is overdue.