It’s been a little more than a year since a storm-blown tree in the Colfax Indian Cemetery fell on a neighbor’s fence – setting off a chain of events that involved a small claims lawsuit, unpermitted cutting down of other trees, and locking local Native Americans out of their burial ground.

The lawsuit was settled. The Colfax Cemetery District paid $5,000 to repair property damage caused by the fallen tree.

Meanwhile, members of the Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe cut down several other trees to avoid similar mishaps. The Colfax Cemetery District did not give them permission to do this.

Until the fallen tree incident, both the district and tribe had assumed the tribe was responsible for the cemetery grounds. The lawsuit, however, revealed the cemetery district owned the land and was therefore, liable for the damages.

Because the Colfax Cemetery District did not have insurance on the Indian burial ground and had to pay the damages out of its meager general fund, the district locked the gate to the cemetery. The tribe was told they would have buy the land if they wanted to regain access their burial ground.

The impoverished tribe took their case to the Colfax City Council in April. In an emotional meeting, the council and community expressed shock and outrage that the Native Americans had been locked out of their burial ground.

But there was nothing the city council could do, because the Colfax Indian Cemetery lies just outside the city limits and jurisdiction at the intersection of South Canyon Way and Iowa Hill Road.

Nevertheless, pressure from the community and Placer County Supervisor Jennifer Montgomery’s office persuaded the Colfax Cemetery District to buy insurance and reopen the cemetery.

This allowed members of the widely scattered and loosely organized tribe to re-enter their cemetery just before Memorial Day to clean up the overgrown grounds and repair the graves that were damaged last January by the fallen tree.

The cemetery remains open today, but the district still wants to sell the property, and the tribe still can’t afford to buy it. The current asking price is $30,000.

After months of delay, the district trustees held a 10 a.m. meeting at the Colfax Train Depot Feb. 25. They faced a full house of Native Americans and concerned citizens.

The atmosphere was tense but civil. Both sides had issues, but their intent was resolution, not confrontation.

Audience members complained that they had not been given adequate notice of the meeting and thus, had no time to prepare.

Although they gathered as many people as they could, they said the short notice and time of day prevented many people from coming to the meeting.

For their part, the trustees were upset that the tribe or a group of family members had not yet signed an insurance agreement that stipulated they would not hand-dig graves. For safety and liability reasons, the insurance company requires graves to be dug with a backhoe.

For more than an hour, the trustees, concerned citizens and Native Americans held a wide-ranging discussion of issues of concern to them, which included: the graveyard’s historical significance; who should remove the tree stumps and how; offering the tribe an affordable, five-year lease, option-to-buy agreement; whether a ceremonial 24-inch hand-digging of a grave followed by a backhoe would be acceptable.

Nothing much was resolved at the meeting other than to schedule another board meeting April 22, time and place to be determined.