Members of a San Francisco Bay Area tribe seeking federal recognition have been waiting at the Interior Department’s Washington headquarters for a meeting the department’s leadership has told them they won’t get.
A delegation from the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe has been on the doorstep of Interior’s headquarters this week, holding flags and livestreaming video as it demands an audience with top department leaders. Some members of the delegation traveled from San Francisco to Washington on horseback to meet with officials as they push for federal recognition of their tribe.
But Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and her team won’t meet with them following confrontations and arrests at an unpermitted demonstration on the National Mall last week, Haaland’s chief of staff told the tribe in an email.
Last week, 10 people demonstrating with the tribe were arrested in Washington, The Mercury News reported. A National Park Service spokesperson told POLITICO’s E&E News in a statement that U.S. Park Police officers arrested nine demonstrators last Tuesday, including one for assault on a police officer and eight for interfering with an agency function and disobeying a lawful order. Another person was arrested Wednesday for assaulting a police officer, disobeying a lawful order and interfering with agency operations.
