Sometimes it is hard to understand what is going on with our Tribe. (Greed), Rightful members,
Kick them Out, Allotment’s, Distributes, Special Relations, Petitioners, They don’t know us, wrong color of skin, hair etc., DNA, Banned, sanctioned, sanctioned for 100 years, banned for life, on the wrong side of the hill, the fence and it goes on and on.
It was not this way, until the casino was standing!
Late 2002, we started taking applications for the casino. At that time there were close to 18 Tribal Members working for a company called (Cascade Entertainment), they were to see over “our tribe’s” big adventure, (ChukchansiGold) and Resort.
The times were good, and then one day, we got a check for close to $8,000.00 dollars. I remembered it well, I ran through the house screaming, I bought all of the things I thought I needed, and bought everyone that was close to nice stuff.
Then we had big parties for Christmas, Easter, even Thanksgiving. I had a nice job, I was married, had a car, even two now, and rented a condo in a gated community.
Then “we” started receiving monthly checks, they would just show up in our accounts like magic, they got bigger, and sometimes if we would meet with the tribe, they would give us more monies.
We got money for just being a direct descendent of a great, great, great grandfather, or grandmother. Our constitution said “even if we were “lineal descendant”, meaning, and forever great’s.
Today, we stand so far from one another though. I do not care if it were greed, power, and fear. Just the fact is we do not stand for much other than a tribe of fools. Do not perceive this wrong; we all want what is best for the tribe as a whole…right? In our case there are too many Chiefs and we are killing our own Indians, so we don’t even have enough Indians. Do you feel Indians today, is it when you look in the mirror and see, dark hair, dark eyes, a tattoo saying you are, bead work, a tribal card, one card from the Bureau Of Indian Affair’s, you know the ones that gave us land that they took away.
Told us where to stand and for how long.
There… now follow me; This war is not about who looks Indian, speaks Indian. No this war started the day “they stepped on our shores, and if you listen with your ears to the ground, they are here to get gold, and that they do. They have taught us many things, and most of it is of the bad world.
They taught us to love money, they taught us to colonize, become civilized, don’t use a knife to kill, use this Atomic bomb. They taught us to hate one another; they poisoned our food, our minds our animals our birds of the sky, our hearts and souls. It is just not the white man, first we fought off many, different lands other than where the white man comes from.
Our ignorance of listing to the wind, calling upon the Creator, has dissipated like dew from the tall lilies in the fields. We are no longer, we do not know who we are anymore, some say, his tongue is sick, yes this person who speaks these things does not know my heart. Then I ask you to stop and ask yourself, how does your soul feel right now? Did you really think? If you heard, I do not feel well, you are on the red road to recovering our souls back, and then the trek starts.
See you in a while, I will fix this
Cordially Yours, Bridge Walker
READ MORE ON CHUKCHANSI ABUSES:
Picayune Rancheria
Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians
68 comments:
Just where bridge walker needs to be -- right where our family is after they shoved us out of the tribe. Bridge Walker...you burned your own bridge. I have no sympathy for someone who likewise did this to their brothers and sisters.
The problem with this page is that Elena talks about 2002 they accepted application, that's all u people remember the talk of a casino and after.... You have no memories of before, you were never around before. While you greedily accepted your 8000 dollars actual LOCAL tribal members went without.... Keyword local. Its the chukchansi people from Coarsegold that go without, that take a backseat to all of you greedy foreigner's. How would you feel if you watched your mother and your grandmother fight for years for something just to have a bunch of horrible people spit in your face and tell you how evil you are and that they are ENTITLED to what your grandmother worked so hard to achieve for you. To have people you have never seen tell you they have a right to YOUR land.......... HOW WOULD YOU FEEL. Mr. Rhoan you act as if all dis enrollment is bad, but sometimes its the ones being dis enrolled who are the criminals no matter how loud they cry and scream about it. Not every tribe or tribal member come from the same situation, and dis enrollment should be addressed individually....
So true disenrollments need to be checked on an individual basis because some are meant to be disenrolled and some are because of vendetta's or political. Even tho some people do meet requirements to be enrolled why wait until the casino's opened and being enrolled meant perks. If you couldn't take the time to enroll before when the tribe had nothing those are the ones to be looked at. Also there are some tribes where people who don't belong and know it and have taken power and started kicking out tribal members who question them and their family history. Those people will do ANYTHING to stay in power because they know without it they are out. It is time for tribes to clean house and get rid of the corrupt councils! The way I see it if people grew up on the Rez or affiliated with the Rez but not have lived on it and were enrolled way before casinos are good but the Molly come lately natives I don't know what to think about you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you..... That's what it is right there... Who was proud to be tribal before it was cool. That's who the Ramirez family thinks counts, who was chukchansi when they were all growing up, the elders from back then.
it is ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE that most of those disenrolled at picayune were first enrolled in the late 1990's and early 2000's...
with the THEFT OF RECORDS by the individuals from the wyatt-ramirez faction in 1992, it became IMPOSSIBLE to prove the date of one's enrollment if that it was in fact BEFORE that date...HUNDREDS of chukchansi people enrolled between 1989 and 1994--(WELL BEFORE THE CASINO WAS DEVELOPED) have been arbitrarily and capriciously dismembered at picayune, as not even the "600 list" of the reinstituted tribal roll following the development of the constitution by CALIFORNIA INDIAN LEGAL SERVICES (NOT the tribal members themselves) has been honored...even though JANE WYATT HERSELF APPROVED THESE MEMBERS, COMPLETE WITH HER SIGNATURE ON THE LETTER TO THE BIA, she now says that she "NEVER let ANY PETITIONERS into the tribe"...
TRUE cali indians KNOW that ANY AND ALL OF US ARE FORTUNATE TO EVEN BE ALIVE AFTER THE WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER WE ENDURED AT THE HANDS OF THE COLONIZERS AND EUROPEAN SETTLERS IN CALIFORNIA AND SHOULD BE ACCEPTED AND BROUGHT HOME WITH OPEN ARMS BY OUR PEOPLE...
the hatred that is seen and propogated within the chukchansi tribe by ALL of those supporting any level of dismemberment or "class system" is a symptom of self-hatred instilled by another culture, and NOT the indian way...
even amid the destruction, you CONTINUE TO DISRESPECT OUR ANCESTORS, OUR ELDERS, AND OUR HISTORY, and seek to destroy our future generations...i do not envy your places in the spirit world when your times come to pass...CREATOR KNOWS AND SEES ALL...
!!!bring the people--ALL the people--home to picayune!!!
The original enrollment from the 80's is still around. But papers or not they know who the tribe is and was, where were you before maryan received recognition??????? Were you at the tribal gatherings, did you sweat with them, gather, baskets, anything at all?????? Did your mother/father know her or her family? Were you welcomed by her with open arms????? Because maryan loved her tribe, whole heartedly. So tell me where were you and yours in the 80,70,60,50s
just to clarify...members of the wyatt and ramirez families were the ones who chose to GIVE UP their (OUR) status as a tribe, as chukchansi, as indian even, when the federal government came to them with the plan to TERMINATE our people, WITHOUT notice to other chukchansi people which would be DIRECTLY affected by their actions--a notice which the federal government was REQUIRED to provide to ALL chukchansi but did not...most chukchansi did not even realize that our rights as indian people had been forfeited by the signatures of these people...once again, when the tribe was reinstitued, notification should have gone to ALL chukchansi, yet the wyatt-ramirez families, though in conflict about the tribe and it's constitution to be, failed to notify until it was found that more federal funds could be obtained with an increased enrollment--therefore the push by jane herself to enroll more tribal members...
if maryan loved her tribe, her people, then those relations who seek power at picayune now have not accepted her heart or her path, and dishonor her memory...they do not listen to or honor their ancestors and are self-serving in purpose, not behaving in the indian way and destroying the circle of the chukchansi people which so many of our ancestors died to preserve and honor...
Just being a descendant doesn't make you native or part of a tribe. Being part of the tribe makes you part of the tribe. Spending time on the Rez growing up there whether living on the Rez or not. I moved from the Rez when I was 3 but still spend time there had family there I didn't know I was a member or what being a member was I just knew I was from there and this is where my family was. There wasnt much there back then in the 80's and 90's but we always enjoyed it and found things to do as kids play in the river, slide down the dirt hills, riding old dirt bikes. Most people didn't even know what the Rez was. It's funny every time I tell someone I'm native and they know about the money part they always say the same thing oh I think I'm Indian too how do u find out or sign up. Well even if they really were that person is not a real native because they found out they had blood and could register to get money never even spending time on the Rez or having any affiliation with the tribe or it's people. That being said for the life long enrolled members and the ones enrolled before the casinos that were still disenrolled because of hateful corrupt,greedy power hungry councils its a shame and those council members can't get away with all this for too much longer its happening on too many reservations now and the gov't is starting to get involved and then things will be set right and those same lying council members will be banished for life from the Rez for the hurt they have caused the people and the money they been taking. They have nobody to blame but themselves.
Just to clarify.... Jane moved on her own back then, against the Ramirez's which is why for so long the family was divided. Don't blame the Ramirez family for that move.
Fyi the federal government terminated the tribe, not maryan.
I must agree with Nikki Luv. All this talk about Indian way and creator just makes me sick! It is true we real Natives all know who we are and the Johnny come lately crew knows who they are too. But, there is a sickness that has creep-ed into this debate and that sickness doesn't come from the Foreigners but within the Native people themselves! A lot of the so-called Rez Natives think they are the only ones who are Native. They think because they go to a sweat, pow wow, partied, jail, rehab, or visited when they were young they are more Native then someone else who choose a different path! These very same individuals have no problem calling these other Native people "Apples or they are not tribal" when the others maybe first or second cousins. This sickness is jealousy not greed. The Rez Natives have always been jealous of the more successful Natives who choose to leave the Rez and pursue such things as education, sports, career, and yes date non-native people.
This sickness has now popped up again with the Casino Indians or as I like to call them the hang around the fort Natives. These people have accomplished nothing in life except: Going to Pow Wow, jail, rehab, welfare, and yes some of them marry their own cousins and now call that traditional. What I see going on with the Chukchansi is nothing more then the hang around the fort Natives striking back against there more successful in life cousins because they can. As one Chuk cousin has said, "These people have never been to prison, they have no warriors and this is just the beginning!" The Feds better step in and start cleaning this mess up soon at all of the Rancherias that have enrollment issues because this stuff is about to blow sky high. It will not stop until blood is flowing.
Well if you don't ask for guidence from creator then who guides you?????? Evil?
You better check your self about rez natives I am not jealous of anyone who chose to leave and not look back. I live on the rez and always have. I have an education, I have never been to jail or rehab! I have not and will not marry my cousin! Why you freaks think that about MY people just goes to show you don't know my people and we don't know you. We stayed on our allotment/rez, we didn't take homestead land because that meant cutting ties with your people. We don't look down on those who pursue an education, its those have turned away from a tribe not because they wanted better for the tribe but because the tribe wasn't good enough for them... We didn't turn our back as a people... You and yours turned your back on our people.
. why Nikki believes she has the right to tell anyone how to use the creators name after all the lies she has spread is beyond me.... And anonymous is right if your not asking the creator for guidance then your asking the wrong spirits and evil is all you will receive.
its not the path you choose to take as a native American, its the fact that many CHOSE to cut ties, anyone who is on homestead land their ancestors cut those ties, Indians were given allotments, and in order for a native to receive "homestead" land they had to prove to the government that they no longer had ties with a tribe.... It was the governments way of civilizing the natives....
It was your ancestors who laid your path.... Not mine. You don't have to live on the rez, or allotment to be accurate, to be native... But you do need a relationship with your tribe both political and social.
I don't know why Elena mentions skin color.... No one has made any complaint of how white she or anyone may be nor how black she or anyone may be. DNA is a good idea can't lie about blood.....
Just one question for all of you chukchansi people enrolled or not.... How many of you bought your enrollment from gillbert cordarro???? He was charging what 10 bucks at the time....
To the hang around the fort Native. It is you who should check yourself about Rez and homestead Natives! Your information is wrong about homesteads and allotment/Rez properties. Homestead properties came first. These were the lands of the real Natives who occupied the land. Allotment properties came second after the federal government census. The federal government bought the land for the homeless Native population because they had no place to call home. There was no selling out or cutting ties by either. Get your facts straights, again sounds more like a jealous person because homestead properties have a monetary value and allotment properties have none. On another note, how can you claim someone you don't know has turned his/her back on their people? You don't know what those people had to go through out in the world. Some people choose to live off Rez and pursue careers that take them thousands of miles away from the area. How does that make them any less Native? In fact, they my know more about Native people then you! For example, did you know the concept of Evil is not known to most Native people? It's a Christian idea and one could say any Native claiming to be a Christian has turned his/her back on the teachings of the ancestors and therefor is not a real Native!
You also talk about a relationship with the tribe. Isn't that what these people are trying to accomplish? They have made the effort to reach out to you and other Rez type people only to have you turn your back on them at best. Some have been threatened with violence by former prison inmates for voicing their concerns about the direction the tribe is taking. By the way, a tribe that was created by the federal government by placing the land in federal trust. The land is sovereign because it's owned by the sovereign people of the United States not the Native people so who really is the sellout! I stand by my comments. This is more of an issue about jealous people more then it is about greedy people. Simply because the so-called tribal people are reaching for any excuse to justify bad behavior.
I do know the difference of allotment and homestead don't tell me I am wrong! Under the homestead act of 1862 "citizens of the united states or who shall have filed his decloration to become such" received homestead. Native Americans WERE NOT considered u.s. Citizens, in 1875 & 1884 allowed Indians to use the homestead act, and quote "Indians were eligible under 1875 act if they had been born in the u.s. and were Indians WHO HAVE ABANDONED OR SHALL ABANDON TRIBAL RELATIONS.
. And as for the term evil, maybe they didn't use that word but they knew good from bad and there was a difference....english brought many words to the natives..
. These people did not have a relationship with the tribe and ONLY tried to reach out when they heard about the casino, and as far as inmates treating people that was not me or mine.... And I saw plenty of criminals on all sides on all factions.... So stop acting like your an innocent victim. Maryan did not sell out she never did, she lived on this land all her life and when the government "gave" allotments her family was still living here which is why she received THIS allotment, read the Tilly Hardwick case, her and her family were the only ones living here! That's why we are here today! The only ones who are jealous are the ones who wish they were tied to here. There were different bands of chukchansi, different languages, different villages, and they did not all get along....... Just because you say you are chukchansi does not make you from the picayune..... Get that thru your heads. There are other allotments tied with the picayune, they are "from" picayune. This tribe has not turned it back on its people, the tribe is still here and its members still reside here, even if they don't live on lands, they still visit, they still gather. They are the tribe. I am sorry if you have mistaken your history with someone else's but just because you keep telling people that's where you came from doesn't make it true. You want to know the history of picayune, want to read first hand interviews of how life was, and who was who in the zoo, there is a book in Berkley college with first hand accounts/interviews of the chukchansi people, interviews translated from chukchansi to English by a young teenage maryan for her mother. She speaks of all the local chukchansi and their ways. This book has interviews with other chukchansi people as well who corroborate her accounts of the way of life both before and after the white man. LIKE I SAID I KNOW MY HISTORY!!!!
And FYI not only did an Indian have to abandon tribal relations, they had to show proof of that abandonment to the government to receive the homestead.... Like I said your ancestors made that choice.
So if homestead lands have a money value and "rez" lands don't, wouldn't it make all these disenrolled Indians (being a land related) would be the jealous and greedy individuals rather than the tribe being the bad guy.... From what I have read here and I have done a little research to verify, these natives gave up their citizenship of their tribe and proved it to the government for land worth money, rather maintaining a tribal relationship with a tribe on land that is/was worthless, and now those ancestors are complaining that they are not included in the profits that the once worthless land aka the casino, is generating for those individuals who's ancestors did not ask for or receive land of value. I'm not tribal or native but it does sound like a greed situation, and I'm sorry but it sounds like these (land related)dis enrolled are the bad guys not the tribe.
I am a enrolled Chukchansi my mother and her sisters were enrolled in 1996 we did not grow up around the picayune but up north in Redding CA Redding Rancheria befriended us. We moved to mariposa in 1995 and my mother enrolled the family NOT KNOWING about the casino.we did not know any Chukchansi people. For the past 13 years we went to meeting and pow wows and other functions. I would just like to say that there has only been a handful of people who have accepted us none being Ramirez or Wyatt family. thanks to the Hammond family who has been so kind and welcoming us into the tribe, thanks cousins.
Mary jones family !!!!!
I will say this about some modern Natives, they do know how to twist the truth and create history! Homestead property was acquired by native people by marriage also! If an Indian women was married to a non-native man she and her children may have inherited the land from him. There are many cases were this occurred and the native women did not abandon tribal relations. As a matter of fact, you can go to the North Fork Mono Museum and see a list of all the Native women who inherited their husbands homestead property as an example. As a matter of fact, my family and I still own both forms of property. Just for the record I'm 5/8 Mono Chukchansi and I'm not a member of any federally recognized tribe by choice. I don't want to be associated with the federally created tribes. Now, that doesn't mean I have turned my back on my people it simply means I don't like the organization the federal government created for my fellow native people. I don't like the bickering back and forth between cousins. Different bands of Chukchansi, really? So, what I'm hearing is this: Chukchansi Gold is for one family and everyone else get out. I can live with that. But, since that's your stance then you should support the North Fork Mono on their Casino project and any other Chukchansi's who may want to build another Casino, say on Lewis mountain over looking Oakhurst! No more talking trash about the Mono, Table Mountain, and no more opposition to a new Casino for the Chukchansi who are from this area but who are not part of your band "family". I like that plan lets get it done.
I have no problem with any other band/tribe opening a casino go for it.
my big concern is that north fork is trying to build off reservation gaming which is illegal, all tribes are to have there casino an TRIBAL LANDS. This is going to leave a gateway for all people to build a casino in California. This state will than become las Vegas. casino's for all.GOV jerry brown wants this because now the state is benefiting more than the tribes are benefiting, mono tribe it is a trick do you really think the government is for you, history repeats itself. Don,t be blinded by the money it will bite you in the ass.
you got that right pip
Well, well, so I see it's okay for the one band to have all the other Chukchansi bands come together fight, scratch, claw, and do whatever it takes to make Chukchansi Gold a reality; but, when it comes to collecting on the benefits, no! Reason, way back when according to a book, an eyewitness report, and according to a misquoted read law the one band claims those Chukchansi are not part of the tribe the federal government created. Wow, revisionist history at best. Looking at history from modern eyes is the equivalent to Monday morning quarterbacking. Banking everything on an eyewitness is reckless at best. That would be like listening to D.Temple and all his freaky stories and then use them as a bases for attacking your own people, crazy. Legal? What do you people know about legal? How many of you have ever set foot in a real law school for three years, graduated, and have a California bar card? I'm thinking not many so where do you get the idea that North Fork's plan for economic development for all the Mono is illegal? I'm thinking from the same revisionist or corrupt attorney who is manipulating the scene so he/she can continue collecting fees. The one band really needs to take a look at their core membership because there isn't a lot there. They have one guy A. Ramirez "USMC" and at best his a 4th round draft pick. Your warriors are all MoChuks who the one band claim are not part of the current real tribe and will eventually be kicked out or made to be second class citizens. The current leader of the one band old two spirits couldn't work it's way out of a paper bag, no vision. The one band will fail simple because nobody can do things alone. Heck, even the most powerful Nation in the history of the world needs a coalition to fight. Reckless leadership at best from the one band!
Didn't Chukchansi disenroll one of their language speakers?
So you are saying Ruby Cordero was not a language speaker?
Will the Chukchansi Tribe PAY BACK all the US government money they received when claiming they had all those members they cut loose?
Did Chukchansi lie about their members for financial gain?
Even in greed, there is something to be learned. The Indian Way and basic manners means more than ever now.
First of all, speaking the language doesn't make someone a Chukchansi, any more than knowing sign language makes me deaf. Second, there are various portions of California that have Chukchansi tribes. I'm American, but I can't move to Texas, call myself a Texan. No one gave a hoot about Picayune Rancheria until the Casino was built. And, now because the true members don't want everyone & their mother joining for some per capita.. they're in the wrong. How would you like it if you has worked hard, built a business, and on opening day a ton of people show up saying they are part of it and demanding money. Get real, get a job or do the footwork to get a casino for your tribe.
btw...picayune NEVER had a blood quantum...even in their constitution...so, those of you who like to tout "who is following the constitution"--you CHANGE the constitution to fit your own purposes...
and YES, eric, i agree--
the INDIAN WAY and basic manners SHOULD mean more than anything...a'ho!
and btw as well...one shouldn't have to surffer the very THEFT OF THEIR BIRTHRIGHT AS INDIAN PEOPLE BY MEMBERS OF THEIR OWN BLOOD due to the fact that their female native ancestors were RAPED AND STOLEN by europeans, spaniards, and mexicans in post-columbian history--those of you from tribes such as picayune who engage in violating the rights of their own people practice the worst type of genocide, perpetrating more generational trauma and hatred against your own people, your own blood and kin, than any who violated our land in history...your self-loathing and self-hatred is more terrifying and horrific, because it comes from within human beings that should walk the red road and treat all their relations in the indian way, as creator meant for us...
When you shrink the tribe down to 46 people of the same immediate family, you would have to inbreed with you cousins and siblings to perpetuate the tribe. Which is why the BIA started blood Quantum to begin with (to wipe out the Indians). On another topic, if Chukchansi was your first language, ie. Ruby Cordero etc. then yes, they are Chukchansi. More chukchansi than you or anyone else born later. They started life as Chukchansi, they were taken from their families by the gov't. And you think you deserve your heritage, but they do not?
I have a question, It is given that I do not know the marriage practi9ces of our Northern California brothers and sisters, but it sounds like Blogger Nikki Luv is saying that inter tribal marriages were something that did not occur, or if they did they were they were very uncommon. I find this hard to believe. It appears that this is part of the issue. From my own study it was common practice to seek wives for our warriors from neighboring tribes, so as to keep the tribes strong with new blood. Also I have been taught that at least in our Luiseño family that we accept others who are willing to conform to the ways and traditions of the people, and then work to become a productive member of the family. It is not logical that a tribe or family would not allow out of family marriages. Help me understand?
This talk of BQ is irrelevant in the eyes of the creator, so is the casino and the wealth of the casino. If my last statement is not liked then disregard because it is just opinion, but I am serious about the first question.
White Buffalo you are EXACTLY right and this is similar if not the same (with respect to the variations) as our tradition of INTERTRIBAL MARRYING. Thus being a PERFECT demonstration of "marrying and indian and increasing your childrens BQ ", something others know little about.. It never ceases to amaze me when We (the ppl) STAND UP FOR OUR LINEAGE AND BRING BQ out, how many ignorant no names accuse us of suggesting that one family or similar marry into ea other over and over.. Clearly SHOWING HOW FAR THEY HAVE STRAYED FROM OUR PRCTICES, showing no they have no understanding.
White Buffalo you understood without my clarification. Thank you. ... As for ANONYMOUS (no name). One time "For the record"
BQ COUNTS ALL CA INDIAN BLOOD. I dont know who MIS INFORMED YOU , neither them nor you yourself know anything about the matters I have brought up. Hopefull now you will educate your self-
iF I keeP TALKING LIKE THIS will More pEOple take me SERIOUSLY?
@4:28pm
......uh, that's the best tangent you could come up with? People are free to TYPE as they please. NikkyLuv speaks LOUD & CLEAR, to me!
nikkylove wrong marryjones.mary was born in1840 son was Jim jones.
this is why the tribes are in the situation they are in with disenrollment's. Certain people have a power trip always needing to prove themselves of a guilty conscience. There is no justification for this selfish act. California tribes do what is right and bring your people back. The elders are looking down watching. Stop the embarrassment for the living and the dead.
@4:28pm
;) i see you ndn .,, thx 4 staying tru
Nikki luv sounds more and more stupid with each comment. She has incorrect info for this blog. she is only on here to enjoy the pain of those who are dis enrolled. Don't let her stupidity get to you.
HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY, Chukchansi Gold Casino & Resort!!!!! We did IT!!!!!!!!
U.S. Supreme Court's Santa Clara Pueblo vs. Martinez decision of 1978, which held that enrollment issues are an Indian-only matter immune from outside interference.
HAPPY 10th Chukchansi Gold
6/11/13
**As reported in the Fresno Bee**
The BIA has finally interviened in the PRCI tribal council legitimacy escapade; declaring and LEGITAMIZING
Nancy Ayala as Tribal Chairwoman and reaffirming
her faction as the OFFICIAL TRIBAL COUNCIL OF PICAYUNE RANCHERIA of the CHUKCHANSI INDIANS!
no tattoos designs idea in this video
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