President George W. Bush surveyed the devastation by helicopter on Tuesday with Davis and Schwarzenegger, who will replace Davis on Nov. 17. They met with local officials, including some Indian leaders, allaying fears among Indian people that they would be ignored and left to their own devices.
"We've felt like we were on our own," Nelson said. "There are some hard feelings that linger around here." Lowell, the San Pasqual chairman, said that when he met with the president he would present a wish list to Bush and explain to him that most of people from his reservation who were burned out were not insured and live on trust land.
Frances Jones is one such person. At 94, she is the oldest member of the San Pasqual tribe. When she saw the fires racing up the hill toward her trailer, she grabbed her keys, purse and a sweater and drove away. In 15 minutes her uninsured home was gone. "I never thought there would be a fire like this in all my life," Jones said. "Then again, I never thought I'd live this long."
Dressed in borrowed clothes, Jones said she felt fortunate. She is staying nearby with a friend. "My daughter wants me to come to Los Angeles with her. But that's the last place I'd ever want to live," she said.
The inevitable complaining about how much could have been done or done differently has begun. Residents thank the firefighters for their efforts, but they also express criticism about the governor's slow response to the fires, nearby military equipment and personnel sitting idle and the decision to ground a sheriff's pilot due to darkness just minutes before he was to dump water on the fledgling Cedar fire.
Indian leaders also complain that too little attention is being paid to the situation of their people. "All the attention is being paid to Scripp's Ranch and those million-dollar homes," said Bobby Barrett, vice president of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, referring to a suburban neighborhood.
Audrey Toler, 76, a Pasqual Indian who stood shoeless in a burning field while the reservation burned around her, said it is better to concentrate on the positive. "I'm happy to be alive," she said. "People should think about that."
Tribal member Steven Lovett remains in a San Diego hospital, struggling with an infection and the likely loss of his ears. Lovett, a Navy corpsman who returned from Iraq in August, was severely burned after he managed to get a young woman safely to the top of a hill before he was enveloped in flames. The woman's sister died in her car just down the road.
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