Pala Indians, Mine Owners Have a Gem of a Dispute

Indian leaders on the Pala reservation have cut visitors off at the pass in the latest confrontation between the Pala band and owners of a tourmaline mine in northeastern San Diego County.

For more than 15 years, the mine operators have run weekend tours to the diggings, charging amateur prospectors a fee to delve into the tailings at the Stewart Lithia Tourmaline Mine and keep what they glean.

Then, a month ago, as a Sunday busload of weekend miners was chugging through the reservation toward the mine entrance, cars filled with Indians suddenly blocked the path of the bus and its escape, and confronted the tour leader, Lynn Agabashian.

“It was tense,” Agabashian said. “This big Indian weighing 400 pounds--well, maybe 275--but very big and very angry, got out and started to argue. I’m not a fighter and I just backed away.”

Angry Words Exchanged

After angry words were exchanged while the tourists sat in the bus, the Indians allowed the bus to leave, Agabashian said.

The mine, which is the world’s largest producer of gem-quality pink tourmaline, is accessible only by a dirt road through the Indian reservation. The mine was operating before the reservation was established, and the Pala band had allowed commercial operations to continue without interference during a dispute over the weekend tours.

Jerry Boisclair, Pala tribal council chairman, said the trouble started about five months ago when representatives of the owner discontinued payment of weekend tour fees to the Indians. Negotiations began, and the Indians and the mine operators had reached an accord on the issue when, Boisclair said, “we realized that we were dealing with representatives of the owner and not the owner of the mine.”

Shirlyn Daddario, attorney for the Pala band, said the mine owner made a “non-judicious decision” in halting the payment of access fees to the Indian. A new agreement might have been in effect by now, but Indian representatives learned they were not dealing with the owner but with a Los Angeles-based public accounting firm representing the owner, and broke off talks, she said.

“The question is one of longstanding prerogatives,” Boisclair said. “For years there was a gentleman’s agreement with the people who ran the mine. And then there were some ownership difficulties.”

Money was not the main problem, he said, because for years the tour operators have split their fees with the Indian representatives.

Rather, the Indians objected to the behavior of some of the visitors.

“We can’t allow people to do anti-social things,” Boisclair said. “When you have large groups of people coming in, there is trash and litter and people do strange things, things we don’t want to deal with.

“The matter is now in the hands of our attorney and their attorney.”

Contract Being Forged

Daddario said a written contract is being forged to formalize the “gentlemen’s agreement” between the Indians and the mine operators.

Carol May, attorney for the mine principals, declined to comment.

Meanwhile, tourists, Indians, the mine manager, Agabashian and nearby businesses are suffering from the standoff and the loss of revenue from visitors.

“We just don’t know what will happen, but we are optimistic that we will be starting tours again by May 1,” Agabashian said.

The Saturday-Sunday busloads of visitors, which averaged 50 people a day, are recruited by word-of-mouth and through brochures distributed in Southern California hotels and motels. Visitors met at a gem shop on McGee Road and Highway 76 and paid $10 for the tour.

Most are rockhounds, intent on finding discarded gemstones left by the commercial workers, Agabashian said, but an increasing contingent of “people of a metaphysical bent” have joined the tours. The metaphysical visitors believe the tourmaline has psychic healing properties, she explained.

Johnny Springer, who conducted the tours for more than 10 years until the new owner took over, said she would never go back to her old job, “with all the trouble that has been going on.”

In the old days, Springer said, “it was a real pleasure” to drive the busloads of amateur prospectors up through the reservation to the mine. “The view was beautiful and the people really enjoyed digging through the tailings, finding the gems, pink and blue and green and black,” she said.

There have been other disputes between the Pala band and the mine operators over the trespass fees, Springer said, “but there has never been a confrontation before. It’s a shame to have this happen after all these years.”