Question:
After you contacted the community leadership, did you call the city and let them know that you were coming in, or did you just show up and say, "Hi"?

Answer:
No, I contacted the sheriff, I didn't have to contact anybody else.

Question:
You did that prior to coming in?

Answer:
Sure, I didn't want to surprise him. And the sheriff here in California, he's the man.

Question:
Did you ever surprise any of the parties in any case?

Answer:
Well, the tribal officials, they knew I was coming. They asked that I come and I said, "Yes, I would come." I had to go find the others, the residents on the island. I had a description of where they lived or where the incident took place, that sort of thing. One or two names were known, and the others were not.

Question:
So did you just go up and start knocking on doors?

Answer:
Yes, but that's generally not a good way to go.

Question:
What would be the reasons why you would just show up, versus call?

Answer:
A crisis situation, a serious situation where we just had to drop things and go. Then you were seen to be showing up, as you put it. But we were just getting there quickly as we could and could not establish contact. That is always less desirable for us. I was mediating a Bowhead whales issues up in Port Barra, in the Arctic, and a serious incident had occurred and I took off up there and finally got in. I remember, right after I arrived, one of the Native Alaskan local leaders was coming out of the one general store that is in Barra, and I was coming in and bumped into him. I think he'd been enjoying the evening a little bit before he went into the store, let's put it that way. But he became almost irate that I had come without having contacted him. He was not the top leader.

Question:
He knew who you were?

Answer:
Oh yeah. We had done work together. I had worked with him. And I hadn't told him that I was coming this time. I didn't have a chance to. So that's a downside. You try to notify people that you're coming and will be involved, "Can I see you?"

Question:
Were there any other reasons why you wouldn't inform a party other than just time constraints?

Answer:
There might be an exception if violence is occurring and we think that we can get to the scene and help out, that's the exception.

Question:
Can you think of an instance, or an example that we could talk about a little bit?

Question:
Was each party aware you were coming on-site?

Question:
So did you call him before you went?

Question:
Did you try to do this in person on-site, or do you do this on the telephone?

Answer:
In person, on-site. Sometimes you can make an assessment through the phone, but I always found it was better to go on-site. Because it's person-to-person. You can imagine calling a community person that's not too familiar with this and you identify yourself and you say this is what you do and you try to work it out and so on and so forth. That person may well hang up and they won't show up. So it's better to do this on-site.

Question:
Did you just show up at people's doors or did you call first?

Answer:
With the agency people, I would call and say ahead of time that I'll be in the city, and I would like to talk to them. And this is who I am, this is who I work for, and so on. Most agency people naturally say "sure, come on in." Now the community people will be a little more reluctant. But you don't talk with community people until you're there. I prefer to talk to community people in person. Agency people are more astute and more aware, so you can talk to them via phone. Then, ultimately, you meet with the agency people anyway, to get a better handle on their views, and you can have more dialogue when they take you out to have a bite to eat. So you establish a good, strong rapport.

Question:
So with the community people, you found out where they were, and just went and knocked on their door?