To honor and commemorate California’s Native Elders, the State Indian Museum will host the 36th Annual “Gathering of Honored Elders” on-site at the Museum on Saturday, June 8, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.   During the special event, an annual celebration of the California Indian Heritage Center Foundation and the State Indian Museum, the California Indian community Elders—the keepers of the traditions—will be honored for their role in passing down the important history and culture of Native California people.

In addition to complimentary admission for the special day, a sponsored lunch will be provided to the tribal Elders and Indian foods will be available for purchase by Museum visitors.  Native American dancers, guest speakers, community service organizations, and arts and crafts vendors will also be on hand to enrich the experience.

An official proclamation from the Governor’s office in celebration of the contributions of California’s Indian people will be shared by Cynthia Gomez, Tribal Advisor, Office of Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr.  In addition, the event will include door prize drawings of unique, native-made arts and crafts donated by local Native artisans.
The Gathering of Honored Elders event is co-sponsored by California State Parks, California Indian Heritage Center Foundation, Buena Vista Rancheria, Hutuanape Foundation, Jackson Rancheria, Native American Health Center, Shingle Springs TANF, Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk, the United Auburn Indian Community and the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.  The special “Gathering of Honored Elders” event hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the Museum is open until 5 p.m. that day.  For more, call 324-0971 or visit www.parks.ca.gov/indianmuseum .

If you go:

What: 36th Annual “Gathering of Honored Elders” Event
Where: State Indian Museum State Historic Park, 2618 K Street in Sacramento
When: Saturday, June 8. Event hours:  10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Museum hours:  10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: Free!
For information, call 324-0971 or visit www.parks.ca.gov/indianmuseum

Union Pacific – Building America for 150 Years! Event Includes:
•     Tours of the cab of legendary steam locomotive No. 844
•     An up close look of Union Pacific’s newest experimental locomotive, UP 9900
•     Board the traveling museum car to see 150 years of Union Pacific history
•     Excursion train rides
•     Entrance into the Railroad Museum and Sacramento History Museum
ROSEVILLE, Calif., September 13, 2012 – Union Pacific Railroad will continue its year-long 150TH anniversary celebration with a huge, two-day signature event in Old Sacramento September 29-30 that will include free excursion train rides and free entrance into both the California State Railroad Museum and Sacramento History Museum. The community celebration will commemorate 150 years since President Abraham Lincoln created the original Union Pacific by signing the Pacific Railway Act of July 1, 1862. In partnership with California State Parks, the Union Pacific – Building America for 150 Years! celebration will be the most elaborate event staged in the Western United States as part of Union Pacific’s sesquicentennial year to be held at the California State Railroad Museum.

“Union Pacific’s 150TH anniversary gives us a special chance to celebrate our historic past with the communities that are important to our future,” said Scott Moore, Union Pacific vice president, public affairs – Western Region. “We are proud to celebrate 150 years of innovation and building America with a signature event in Old Sacramento, which has a fascinating past rich in the history and heritage of the West.”

Saturday morning at 10 a.m., the public is invited to join Union Pacific Railroad, California State Parks and state and city officials to a special kick-off event outside the California State Railroad Museum. At the opening festivities, which are sure to delight railroad and history enthusiasts from near and far, Sacramento officials plan to honor Union Pacific’s 150th anniversary, and the railroad will proclaim the Sacramento community an official Train Town USA. The first 500 people to arrive at 9:30 in advance of the kick-off presentation will receive a limited-edition 150th Anniversary pin from Union Pacific.

In addition to live music, entertainment and period-appropriate performances happening in various locations throughout Old Sacramento State Historic Park, a variety of locomotives and other equipment will be on special display during the two-day Union Pacific – Building America for 150 Years! event in Old Sacramento, open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Event highlights will include:

•     The chance for visitors to see the inside of the engineer’s cab of the crowd-favorite steam locomotive No. 844 known as the “Living Legend.”
•     The public’s first opportunity to see the experimental locomotive UP 9900 equipped with the very latest emissions-reducing technology that provides a glimpse into the future of railroading.
•     The popular 1960‘s vintage Promontory baggage car that has been retrofitted into a state-of-the-art traveling museum.
•     History-rich passenger cars and equipment.
•     Modern UP police and maintenance vehicles.
•     Free train rides on Union Pacific’s popular miniature train, UP 956.
•     Free weekend excursion train rides on the Sacramento Southern Railroad (based on availability). For visitors interested in a luxury train ride experience along the Sacramento River, train rides aboard the first-class El Dorado are available for $15 per person (ages five and under ride free) and can be booked online in advance at www.californiastaterailroadmuseum.org.
•     Free entrance to the California State Railroad Museum, widely recognized as North America’s most popular train museum, and access to a special exhibit launching that weekend highlighting the legacy of the transcontinental railroad.
•     Free entrance to the Sacramento History Museum, a popular destination that offers visitors a chance to explore the region’s rich history from the days before the Gold Rush to the present.
More information about Union Pacific Railroad, the series of special events or the Union Pacific – Building America for 150 Years! celebration is available at www.up150.com and www.californiastaterailroadmuseum.org.

About Union Pacific
It was 150 years ago that Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act of July 1, 1862, creating the original Union Pacific. One of America’s iconic companies, today, Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP), linking 23 states in the western two-thirds of the country by rail and providing freight solutions and logistics expertise to the global supply chain. From 2000 through 2011, Union Pacific spent more than $31 billion on its network and operations, making needed investments in America’s infrastructure and enhancing its ability to provide safe, reliable, fuel-efficient and environmentally responsible freight transportation. Union Pacific’s diversified business mix includes Agricultural Products, Automotive, Chemicals, Energy, Industrial Products and Intermodal. The railroad serves many of the fastest-growing U.S. population centers and emphasizes excellent customer service. Union Pacific operates competitive routes from all major West Coast and Gulf Coast ports to eastern gateways, connects with Canada’s rail systems and is the only railroad serving all six major Mexico gateways.

Union Pacific Railroad will continue its year-long 150th anniversary celebration with a two-day signature event in Old Sacramento Sept. 29-30.
The free event will commemorate 150 years since President Abraham Lincoln created the original Union Pacific by signing the Pacific Railway Act of July 1, 1862.
In partnership with California State Parks, the “Union Pacific – Building America for 150 Years!” celebration will be the most elaborate event staged in the Western United States as part of Union Pacific’s sesquicentennial year to be held at the California State Railroad Museum.
“Union Pacific’s 150th anniversary gives us a special chance to celebrate our historic past with the communities that are most important to our future,” said Scott Moore, Union Pacific vice president, public affairs – Western Region, in a statement. “We are proud to celebrate 150 years of innovation and building America with a signature event in Old Sacramento with its fascinating past rich in the history and heritage of the West.”
A variety of locomotives and other equipment will be on special display during the two-day event in Old Sacramento, open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
More information about Union Pacific Railroad, the series of special events or the “Union Pacific – Building America for 150 Years!” celebration is available at www.up150.com and www.californiastaterailroadmuseum.org.

Highlights of the “Union Pacific – Building America for 150 Years!” celebration will include:
- The chance for visitors to see the inside of the engineer’s cab of the legendary steam locomotive No. 844.
- The 1960s vintage Promontory baggage car that has been retrofitted into a state-of-the-art traveling museum.
- History-rich passenger cars and equipment.
- Modern UP police and maintenance vehicles.
- A recently launched UP locomotive that reduces emissions and provides a glimpse into the future of railroading.
- Train rides on Union Pacific’s popular miniature train, UP 956.
- Free weekend excursion train rides on the Sacramento Southern Railroad (based on availability).
- Complimentary entrance all weekend long to the California State Railroad Museum, widely recognized as North America’s most popular train museum.

Sitting in his office at the California State Indian Museum last week, Rob Wood spoke about the current California Indian Heritage Center project, which would eliminate the necessity of the longtime East Sacramento museum on the grounds of Sutter’s Fort.

The new center is scheduled to open in the summer of 2016, following the completion of the 50,000-square-foot first phase of the project at its selected 43-acre West Sacramento site, across from Discovery Park and overlooking the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers.

 

Revisiting history

Although the museum has continuously operated between its adobe walls that were built in the likeness of the fort 70 years ago, Wood, who serves as the heritage center’s project manager, said that the museum’s size has always been a problem.

“From the date (the museum) was built, it was inadequate in terms of its size,” Wood said. “This (museum) is probably about 4,000 square feet and we’re projecting that at final build-out, (the new center) will be 125,000 square feet.”

Wood added that the vastness of the museum’s off-site collections, which he endearingly, yet unofficially refers to as “tribal treasures,” is so great that only about 5 percent of the entire museum archives are currently on display in the museum, which for the most part consists of displays created in the mid-1980s under the direction of the museum’s former curator, Mike Tucker.

Further emphasizing the magnitude of the inadequate size of the museum, Wood said, “We have about 3,500 baskets (in storage) alone.”

But looking forward, Wood shared details about the future heritage center, which he has so passionately devoted his time to helping it become a reality.

“(California) State Parks has been trying to make this (center) happen probably since about the 1970s and it is part of the relationship that State Parks has with the Native American community,” Wood said. “This project is extremely exciting. It gives us an opportunity to do what we haven’t been able to do in terms of telling the story of California Indians. Mostly what’s shown here (at the museum) are things from the North Coast and there are some dabblings from some other stuff from throughout the state. The idea of this (future) facility, too, is to take a greater statewide look of what we’re able to do there.”

Wood added that it is also an important element of the project to create a place where California Native Americans can “tell their own story in their own way.”

“It’s been a big deal throughout this project through consultations with native folks to have them involved in this project, so it speaks with what we call the ‘native voice,’” Wood said. “There was an interpretive document created in consultation with Indian advisors and academic advisors to accomplish that.”

 

The new museum

Although Wood recalled seeing concepts for a new State Indian Museum in Folsom as early as 1978, it was not until this century that much progress was made on this endeavor.

With the 2002 legislation through SB 2063, the center’s task force was established for the purpose of assisting in the development of the center and seed money was acquired for preliminary planning.

From 2003 to 2007, the task force conducted a statewide site search with the Folsom Lake area being held as the backup plan for the project’s site.

During a large portion of this search, the Richards Boulevard area was considered, but the land acquisition, Wood said, “got too complicated and too expensive.”

In 2007, West Sacramento came forward with the now-selected site, which was offered as a donation.

A 20-acre parcel, which is owned by an Alaskan native corporation and located just north of the Broderick Boat Ramp, may also be incorporated into the overall project.

Additionally, the project consists of a secondary site in the Natomas area, just across from the Richards Boulevard area and near Camp Pollock, a Boy Scout camp located at 1501 Northgate Blvd.

Cathy Taylor, district superintendent of the Capital District for California State Parks, said that the (Natomas area) site was once considered as a main site for the project.

“For quite a long time, we had negotiated with the city of Sacramento about locating the facility out in (the Natomas) area,” Taylor said. “The American River Parkway, however, has a lot of restrictions about what can be built (there). There are limitations in the parkway about how large a facility can be and so we looked at the Natomas area as really more of an outdoor, interpretive space that could be used for large events. We aren’t going to do a lot of huge overnight gatherings in the West Sacramento site, where the center is itself, but we can certainly do that at the Natomas site.”

Taylor added that the parkway plan is limited to about 30,000 square feet of interpretive space and as a gathering area, it could include such amenities as an amphitheater, a stage and an outdoor, shaded interpretive programming site.

“It would be more of an outdoor type of facility than a (large) interpretive center,” Taylor said.

The center, which is projected to be paid for through one-third state funds and two-thirds private funding, is in its general plan stage for about the next 18 months and once this stage is completed, work on the project’s preliminary plans and working drawings will begin.

Taylor said that when the working drawings are completed – which may be about a two-year process – actual construction on the project can proceed.

Although it is uncertain when the project will be completed in its entirety, Taylor said that the center will be a world-class facility that will be well worth the wait.

“The California Indian Heritage Center has been a long time coming,” Taylor said. “It’s important for California Indians, but it’s also important for this community to have a project of this importance with this subject matter in the capital city. It’s a huge attraction for the city.”

 

E-mail Lance Armstrong at lance@valcomnews.com.