Dear Amador County,
I would personally like to thank the land owners who donated the cedar tree’s to the restoration project at Chaw’se Indian Grinding Rock, State Park. Also, a big thanks to the California Department of Forestry for their donation as well. We couldn’t have come this far without your outstanding generosity and support.
My family has been hard at work this past year restoring Chaw’se. More than 100 cedar poles were needed to repair just the roof portion of the Roundhouse. All poles must first be stripped of their bark by hand, using wood knives. Needless to say, the job is labor and time intensive and takes a great deal of patience to complete. Once the poles have been debarked, they are then stacked and dried to prevent cracking and twisting.
Over one mile of split rail fence has been replaced and now spans beautifully across the entire park. All of the wood used for this project was prepared by hand, by the Rancheria’s Native work crew. The rails were first cut by chain saw, and then separated using malls and wedges. A tremendous amount of back breaking work was required to achieve these results in an effort to give Chaw’se Indian Grinding Rock the upgrade it so desperately deserves.
The old roof has been completely removed from the Roundhouse and we are waiting until next spring to begin rebuilding to allow adequate time for the poles to dry. Chaw’se is a very important place to many of us here in Amador County, as are all of the parks within our community. I encourage each of you to come by and see the many improvements made for yourselves. Once again, we thank all the workers and volunteers who helped make this project such a success.
Next, The Jackson Rancheria Band of Miwuk Indians will be moving on to the Catholic Cemetery on Jackson Gate Road as the next location to receive our restoration efforts. Many of my family members have been laid to rest here including my mother and father, along with friends and family members of our community as well. We plan to replace the perimeter fencing, repair the pavement, provide general clean up to the landscape, replace signage and much, much more.
We anticipate this project to begin on or around November 1st and continue through winter. As always we would appreciate your support, please volunteer or donate to the Amador County Park Restoration Project and help us to continue our efforts. The Jackson Rancheria Band of Miwuk Indians are proud residents of Amador County, and we will continue to do our best to be good neighbors of our community.
Call (209) 223-8405 and like us on Facebook for more information on how you can get involved today.
Adam Dalton
Tribal Chairman
Jackson Rancheria Band of Miwuk Indians
Posted by TSPN TV on 10-15-14
