The Winnemem Wintu Tribe of California has canceled its upcoming Coming of Age ceremony.

The tribe holds the four-day ceremony on the McCloud River in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. But recreational boaters have continually disrupted the event, which marks a girls' transition into womanhood.

"We've tried your way, we've tried to do the voluntary closure, and it turned out horrible for us," Caleen Sisk-Franco, the tribe's chief and spiritual leader, told The Redding Record-Searchlight. Her daughter's ceremony was disrupted in 2006.

Get the Story:
Winnemem Wintu tribe cancels ceremony; leader fears Lake Shasta boaters would disrupt event (The Redding Record-Searchlight 7/14)

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