2008 Woodie Awards
"Justice Served Cold..." response
Joseph Giovannetti
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Forum
I am writing to respond to some very distorted comments included in your December 5, 2007 story under the title of "Justice Served Cold in Giovannetti Case," written by Terria Smith. In that story there were some pieces regarding my October 22-24, 2007 federal jury trial known as Giovannetti vs. CSU Humboldt.
You said the HSU attorney questioned me about my "personal heritage."
On the stand, the HSU attorney asked me when I had become an enrolled member of my tribe (Smith River Rancheria.) The attorney's question was a dig at the longevity of my claim to being American Indian, as if to create doubt in the minds of jurors about whether I am really Indian or just a "Johnny-Come-Lately" Indian. My legal claim of Indianness has never been in doubt. My Tolowa ancestors' genealogy has been documented by the BIA since 1887, including those generated following the California Jurisdictional Act of 1928, 1955, 1968 and the final 1972 Judgment roll. Not only am I a Tolowa, I am currently serving as a Tribal Council member of the Smith River Rancheria. My enrollment number with my tribal nation ends with the numbers "-00777." I will sign a release for HSU to ask our enrollment officer to send my enrollment status to them if HSU would like proof of my Indianness.
I have never claimed any Indianness that I do not legally possess. Records of my legal claim to Indianness are at the BIA offices in Redding, Sacramento and Phoenix. My Indianness is not based on a hunch or rumor. I was not an Indian in a former life. You can see on the 1928 application of my Tolowa grandparents names like Dre-denth-te, Long Hair Bob, Amelia Bob, Ida Bob, Joe Hostler, Lucinda Hostler, Jennie Hostler, among others, all full-blood Tolowas. Humboldt State University did not practice ethnic fraud when they hired ME full-time as a Native American Studies Lecturer in the summer of 1994. Humboldt State has never proven that it did not practice ethnic fraud with some other hires they made into the Native American Studies Department in 2003, a subtext of the HSU attorney's question about my Indian status and one of the central points of the October trial.
You said the HSU attorney questioned me about my "personal heritage."
On the stand, the HSU attorney asked me when I had become an enrolled member of my tribe (Smith River Rancheria.) The attorney's question was a dig at the longevity of my claim to being American Indian, as if to create doubt in the minds of jurors about whether I am really Indian or just a "Johnny-Come-Lately" Indian. My legal claim of Indianness has never been in doubt. My Tolowa ancestors' genealogy has been documented by the BIA since 1887, including those generated following the California Jurisdictional Act of 1928, 1955, 1968 and the final 1972 Judgment roll. Not only am I a Tolowa, I am currently serving as a Tribal Council member of the Smith River Rancheria. My enrollment number with my tribal nation ends with the numbers "-00777." I will sign a release for HSU to ask our enrollment officer to send my enrollment status to them if HSU would like proof of my Indianness.
I have never claimed any Indianness that I do not legally possess. Records of my legal claim to Indianness are at the BIA offices in Redding, Sacramento and Phoenix. My Indianness is not based on a hunch or rumor. I was not an Indian in a former life. You can see on the 1928 application of my Tolowa grandparents names like Dre-denth-te, Long Hair Bob, Amelia Bob, Ida Bob, Joe Hostler, Lucinda Hostler, Jennie Hostler, among others, all full-blood Tolowas. Humboldt State University did not practice ethnic fraud when they hired ME full-time as a Native American Studies Lecturer in the summer of 1994. Humboldt State has never proven that it did not practice ethnic fraud with some other hires they made into the Native American Studies Department in 2003, a subtext of the HSU attorney's question about my Indian status and one of the central points of the October trial.
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