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The owners of the Log Cabin Diner opened their restaurant to dine-in service Saturday, flouting a Yurok Tribal directive closing the reservation to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Owners Sherry Scott and Ed Salsedo are also in defiance of state and county safety measures issued in March in response to the pandemic. The Log Cabin Diner is on the Yurok Reservation, which has been closed to non-residents since April 6 to protect tribal elders and others most vulnerable to the virus.

In response the owners’ actions, and to a Facebook post from District 1 Supervisor Roger Gitlin on Saturday urging people to “drive down to Klamath” to patronize the diner, the Yurok Tribal Council held an emergency meeting Sunday. Council members voiced concerns about how this could jeopardize efforts to keep the novel coronavirus from reaching the reservation and noted that other tribal and non-tribal businesses remain closed.

Scott, admitting that she and Salsedo offered dine-in service to make a statement, said she thought she’d receive more push back from Del Norte County for violating shelter-in-place orders, not the Yurok Tribe.

They complied with Governor Gavin Newsom’s March 19 stay-at-home orders, along with state and tribal orders, but with no active COVID-19 cases in Del Norte County, Scott said she wanted to “take a stand.”

“We want attention,” Scott told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Monday in between speaking with local television news crews, Yurok Tribal policemen and Del Norte County Sheriff’s deputies and waiting tables. “We want to open our businesses. We’re a small community, we depend on travel and tourism, which they’ve taken from us. It’s not a big profit for us, but it does at least pay our lights and our phone bills that keep going regardless of whether we’re open or not.”

Scott said she received warnings from the Yurok Tribal Police and the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office outlining the potential legal action she and Salsedo face by operating despite COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders.

Though it’s within the Yurok Reservation’s boundaries, Scott said the Log Cabin Diner is on private property. She and Salsedo pay county property taxes, but don’t receive any funding from the tribe to run their business. Scott said she and Salsedo also don’t pay the tribe anything.

“They don’t give us anything, it’s our business and our land here,” she said, adding that her attorney will be speaking with Tribal officials Monday afternoon. “It is in the reservation, but the reservation’s a checkerboard. They own bits and pieces in a designated area.”

Though a tribal news release issued Sunday didn’t state whether the Yurok Tribal Council will take legal action against Scott or Salsedo, violating the reservation's closure order is considered a civil offense and carries a fine of up to $2,500.

Violation of the Yurok Tribe’s closure order could also mean penalties and orders from the tribal court, such as restitution or ejection from tribal lands.

“Violation of the closure order may also lead to other charges,” the tribe stated. “The Yurok Tribal Council may exercise its authority to exclude people from the reservation if they pose a health and safety risk. The Yurok Tribe will also work closely with our county, state and federal law enforcement partners on public safety matters.”

The tribe accused Gitlin — who represents Crescent City on the Board of Supervisors, not Klamath — of disregarding its sovereignty and safety of its citizens when he urged people to visit the Log Cabin Diner.

The Yurok Tribe closed the reservation to protect its citizens, roughly 60 percent of whom are either elderly or who have underlying medical conditions, according to the tribe’s statement, which cited United Indian Health Services.

“The Tribal Council is acutely aware of the tremendous strain this public health emergency is having on local businesses,” Tribal Chairman Joseph L. James said in a written statement Sunday. “We fully support the Log Cabin’s ability to offer to-go orders, but we don't support this affront to tribal sovereignty and the health of our people. Both tribal and non-tribal businesses have had to make significant sacrifices for the safety of our community.”

In addition to closing the reservation, the tribe instituted a shelter-in-place order and a curfew. It is also delivering emergency food and supply boxes weekly to 500 of its citizens in Del Norte, Humboldt and Trinity counties.

Gitlin said he and a handful of friends had breakfast at the diner after Scott and Salsedo told him they were opening the restaurant. He said he didn’t know what the status would be, but found them open with “a number of people” inside eating.

“We asked (are) there any restrictions? They indicated, ‘No, you sit where you’re comfortable,’” Gitlin said. “There were three or four different couples there. We had a nice breakfast there and we left.”

Gitlin points out that Del Norte has no active COVID-19 cases and calls Newsom’s March 19 order, which shuttered dine-in restaurants along with bars, nightclubs, gyms and other non-essential businesses, “government overreach.”

He argued Monday that Del Norte County businesses are dying and something has to be done to help them.

When asked about the Del Norte Office of Emergency Services’ Economic Resiliency Task Force, Gitlin asked what it has done to “help keep people employed.”

“How has it helped other than being an agency, which says we’re governed by what our governor says?” He asked.

To justify her action, Scott pointed to Walmart, Home Depot, Safeway and the Dollar General, which continue to operate, though Walmart and Safeway have reduced hours. She claims there’s no social distancing going on at those stores, though their employees try. No one’s wearing masks, she says, and people crowd around dairy cases to grab a carton of milk.

“They’re not forcing people at Walmart to wear masks or anywhere in Crescent City,” Scott said. “I don’t want a double standard. Isn’t that fair, to not want a double standard? If you’re afraid to go in and they’re not wearing masks at those places, you don’t shop there.”

Scott argued that the tribe itself has a double standard in place at Pem Mey, its gas station in Klamath.

“When we go to Pem Mey to get gas, we see license plates from all over — Oregon, Washington, Texas, Utah, Colorado,” she said. “They’re purchasing gas and they’re going to the window and purchasing sodas and snacks, but they’re out of towners. Their letter states, and I have it, ‘closed to non-residents except for essential personnel…’ If it’s closed, it’s closed. Don’t let people come in and get gas.”

At an April 24 protest, Salsedo estimated that he and Scott would have made between $25,000 and $30,000 if they had been allowed to operate up until that point.

On Monday, Scott said she and Salsedo started the process of pursuing relief dollars through the Small Business Administration, but noted it's not easy.

"We want to take advantage of what's out there," she said. "But it's kind of like putting band-aids on a leg that's nearly severed. It's not doing a whole lot of good."

Gitlin said former Del Norte County Sheriff Dean Wilson will hold a second rally at noon Thursday in front of the Del Norte County Fairgrounds.

Gitlin’s Saturday Facebook post garnered more 676 comments and 198 shares. One comment came from his colleague District 5 Supervisor Bob Berkowitz, whose constituents include Klamath residents:

“There is one indisputable fact. Tribal law governs actions that take place on the Yurok Reservation. On April 6th, the Yurok Tribal Council closed the reservation to non-essential personnel. This was meant to keep tourists and others out of the area to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

For businesses to open on the reservation is a direct violation of tribal law and those businesses should be censured in some way.
I certainly can’t condone the actions of those who open their businesses in violation of tribal law and those who patronize those same businesses.”

Three Del Norte County residents have recovered from COVID-19 as of 9:16 a.m. Monday, according to the Public Health Branch. A total of 382 tests have been administered, 11 of which are pending with the remaining 368 showing negative results, according to the Public Health Branch.

The Yurok Reservation encompasses one mile on either side of a 44-mile stretch of the Klamath River in Del Norte and Humboldt counties. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tribe shuttered the Redwood Hotel and Casino, Klamath Jet Boat Tours and other non-essential businesses, according to the tribe’s news release.

Those businesses will remain closed until the Yurok Tribal Council lifts the closure order. Reservation business owners and residents are required to follow all tribal, county and federal stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines, according to the news release.

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