Tribune/Debra Reid - Pyramid Lake Paiute tribal elder Carmen Tobey holds a pine nut collection basket at the former Pyramid Lake museum in Sutcliffe. The basket was woven at least 50 years ago by Tobey's deceased grandmother Rosabell Tobey."My thought is to loan it to the tribal museum (in Nixon)," Tobey said.
Tribune/Debra Reid - Pyramid Lake Paiute tribal members Carmen Tobey and Elwood Lowery stand in the former museum adjacent to the Pyramid Lake Store in Sutcliffe. Tribal artifacts, photographs and history displays were removed during an ongoing dispute with store manager Thomas Bobella.
Tribune/Debra Reid - Wayne Burke, a Pyramid Lake Paiute tribal member, has organized next Saturday's protest rally against what he calls disrespect by Sutcliffe businessman Thomas Bobella.
The museum is owned by the tribe and leased to High Desert Recreation, which currently runs a convenience store, RV park and boat storage near the property at the Pyramid Lake Marina.
HDR president Thomas Bobella signed the original lease back in March of 2004. As part of that same contract, Bobella is also leasing the use of the tribal museum as it is part of the main business building.
However, as several members of the tribe want their museum-featured artifacts back, many of the pieces dating back generations, Bobella is being protective.
Wayne Burke, a member of the tribe, is organizing a protest on Jan. 17 to bring the artifacts back “to tribal hands.”
“We need to rectify this for the future,” Burke said. “If we don’t stand up for this and deal with it now, they (our children) may not have anything to call home.”
In regards to the logistics of the exact wording of the signed contract, Bobella said he considers himself not only as the lessee of the museum but also as “the custodian.”
Bobella said on Feb. 6, 2004 before any contract was signed, there was an official tribal council vote, overseen by former chairman Bonnie Smith that appointed Bobella as responsible for taking care of the artifacts inside of the museum.
Smith was unavailable for comment as of press time.
Later in 2004, Bobella said the roof began to leak in the museum building, putting the artifacts in danger of damage. Efforts to get the tribe to fix the roof, which according to the contract, is the tribe’s responsibility, Bobella said were not done in a timely manner.
Tribe members have written to various tribal chair people over the years, requesting that the artifacts be returned to their rightful owners. Bobella said he also offered to return the artifacts, just as long as they go to the right people.
“HDR does not want to be responsible,” Bobella said. “What HDR wants is to be indemnified and to see that the artifacts are returned to their rightful owners. Of course the tribal government could do that, but we would want that with the appropriate assurances that they are returned to the rightful owners.”
Although the present tribal chairman, Mervin Wright, Jr. was not present for the original contract signing as it occurred under a different administration with Smith, Wright said contractual matters are being handled in litigation and the tribe made efforts to resolve the situation through mediation from April to November of last year.
The case has been filed with the Ninth Circuit United States Court of Appeals.
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