Tribe in Tulare County prepares to bury slain members

PORTERVILLE — Gravediggers work the old fashioned way on the Tule River Indian Reservation, chipping away at the hard pan by hand with pickaxes and shoveling the dirt aside. They say it's a sign of respect not to use machinery, but never has the crew had to dig so many at one time.

On Monday the brothers who run the reservation cemetery were preparing to dig a grave for Alyssa Celaya, 8, who died Sunday in a rampage that also took the life of her grandmother and the grandmother's two brothers. It will be the first of five they'll dig this week, they said.

The brutal murders have shaken this peace-preaching tribe because it goes against their teachings that love for family exists above all. Law enforcement authorities said the killer was Alyssa's father, Hector Celaya, who also died Sunday after a shootout with sheriff's deputies, but they were trying to figure out why he did it. Celaya, 31, also had wounded his two other children, one who suffered life-threatening injuries.

"The community is peaceful one, and the tribe tries to teach children to be nonviolent," said Tribal Council Secretary Rhoda Hunter. "We teach our children to not even kill insects. The battle between good and evil is there. Bad is always going to be there. I tell my grandkids that. I tell them to work for good."

The Tule reservation is on 56,000 acres about 20 miles east of Porterville in the San Joaquin Valley and rises to an elevation of 7,500 in the Sierra Nevada. But to travel along the steep and winding roads takes about 40 minutes.

The Tulare County Sheriff's Department investigates serious crimes on the reservation, and Blain's four sworn officers deal with crimes committed against the tribe such as poaching and timber theft. He said his officers work on crime prevention in the tight-knit community where members recognize when a stranger is in town and usually call to report it.

The department's only serious dealing with Hector Celaya was a call in April that came in from the mother of his children who accused him of driving while intoxicated with the children in the car, an accusation Blain says was unfounded and part of a "child custody dispute."