To: bgnexec@usgs.gov Arlene Green in Support of the proposal for the name KONOCTI

To my knowledge, I am the only person living in Lake county who is an actual descendant of the Kelsey line.

My generation is horrified we have this in our history. The generation previous to mine was ashamed enough to caution me not to bring it up; to hide it.

So perhaps the people who decide such things should not choose to memorialize a monster with a town name. There are other, better ways, to preserve the truth of what happened.

Regards, Arlene Green

(Edited for length, with permission. The full letter is at Letters)

Arlene Green in Support of the proposal for the name KONOCTI

Hello all.

To my knowledge, I am the only person living in Lake county who is an actual descendant of the Kelsey line. I was not born here, I did not grow up here, I moved here after living everywhere from Alaska to Florida and back, finally settling in California and my husband deciding to move to Lake County because his elderly parents retired here.

Not long after we settled in my family said “Oh, by the way…” and explained to me what my relatives had done here.

I was horrified. But there is a larger point. My aunt Bethany cautioned me not to tell people I was a Kelsey. She told me a story about coming here, going to the museum and deliberately not revealing her connection.

Because she was afraid they wouldn’t like her. She was ashamed of her connection to the history here. Fascinated, but ashamed.

Perhaps it was because I was young, but a few years after buying the house here I found myself sharing a beer with a couple of guys who were doing construction work on a lot near us. My neighbor invited them to a barbecue and they accepted. Someone asked them if they were Mexican. They laughed and said no, they were Pomo.

At some point I decided to tell them who my ancestors were. One guy looked at me with wide eyes and said “No shit?!?”

I told him “No shit.”

Then we had a conversation about how weird this was and how Andrew et al. were the poster children for assholes.

My point here is that my generation is horrified we have this in our history. The generation previous to mine was ashamed enough to caution me not to bring it up; to hide it.

So perhaps the people who decide such things should not choose to memorialize a monster with a town name. There are other, better ways, to preserve the truth of what happened.

If you would like to check my bonafides, my maiden name is Blevans and my grandmother was Gladys Kelsey.

If I can help to right this wrong in some way, feel free to reach out.

Regards,

Arlene Green