Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

This isn’t the first time that Sandra J. Terrancel has had trouble with her land. She has been battling various agencies for years over a tract of property. But this time it’s more about decency and common sense.

Twenty, yes about 20 years ago, Sandra planted a row of cedar trees on the edge of her property by the road. For years she cared for them and watched as they grew tall and thickened, forming the privacy barrier she always wanted. In one morning they were gone. She thought she heard a noise that morning but didn’t think much of it until she looked out her window and her cedars were gone. Not only gone, but destroyed and the road crew left a mess.

You see it all over, towns and counties and whoever else feels like “trimming” what they think is brush, just go ahead and do it. And that’s one of the reasons Sandra is so mad. “They don’t even ask,” she said. “One of the workers who did it said they thought it was all sumac, and didn’t notice the cedars.”

When Sandra realized what happened she called Tribal Police and they referred her to another agency that referred her to another agency and somehow, after the runaround, one of the men who worked on her road stopped by her house. Sandra told me that he said he would call his boss in Malone and see what he says.

But at this point does it matter? Unless they replace the cedars at their growth, which was several feet high, it’s plain old spilled milk. Sandra summed it up in four words. “It’s just a shame.”

Town, county, tribal or council crews should have to ask before they trim your trees, or at least let you know they are going to be trimming so you can advise them what is brush and what is not.