A month ago, during one of her frequent drives past Lake Cuyamaca, Emily Burgueno noticed something disturbing alongside the road — three large tipis painted with images of buffalo, deer and wolves.

The structures, replicas of the traditional dwellings of Indigenous Plains communities, sit on the edge of a campground operated by Lake Cuyamaca Recreation and Park District and were recently added as a rental option.

3:12 p.m. Sept. 21, 2022 This story has been updated with a corrected date and time for the Lake Cuyamaca Recreation and Park District’s meeting.

Burgueno, a member of the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, said the tipis are out of place at the East County recreational site, which is located in an area sacred to the Kumeyaay tribe.

She and other community members are asking for them to be removed, saying using them as rentals is cultural appropriation of Native American heritage.

“They’re not trying to educate with these structures, they are profiting off these structures,” she said of the district.

Butch Paddock, general manager of the district, said he was unaware there was an issue with the tipis.

“If those women approached me, I’d be happy to sit down and talk with them about it,” he said, adding that the tipis were installed as a cheaper option to building new cabins.

“We’ve been watching the Internet and saw that they were very likable,” he said, adding that the district wanted “to rent them out as a novel thing that would be different from regular tent camping, RV camping, sleeping cabins and cabins.”

The district’s website says the three tipi campsites are available for $65-$75 per night.

In the tradition of the Lakota — one of the tribes that traditionally lived in these structures — tipis were typically erected and taken down by women in the community, according to the Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center. The circular shape represents kinship, the floor represents Uŋčí Makȟá (Grandmother Earth), the walls are a symbol for the sky and the poles connect the Earth to the sky world.

In addition to being a home that could be relocated seasonally, Harvard University reports they were also used for ceremonial purposes.

Burgueno said the campground’s operators should have spoken with members of the Lakota tribe rather than just borrowing from their culture without any understanding of its heritage, a view known as cultural appropriation.

It’s inappropriate when members of one ethnic community adopt or profit from the practices or customs of another, especially one that has been historically marginalized, Olivia Chilcote said. One common example of this is seen at Halloween with the donning of headdresses or costumes that mimic Native American regalia.

“It is detrimental to Native communities because it erases the significance of different cultural items or cultural regalia, and it also reflects these other histories of colonization and conquest,” said Chilcote, assistant professor of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University and a member of the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians.

Traditionally known as Cuyamac — Kumeyaay for “the water behind the clouds” — the lake is a sacred place for the community, Bernice Paipa said. She is the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel chairwoman, Kumeyaay Heritage Preservation Council chairwoman and Burgueno’s mother.

“There’s many creation stories that go along with that area,” Paipa said. “There’s villages all over that area up there, and the people have been displaced from that area. It’s all private land now — or forestry or parks — and none of it is ours.”

Burgueno said she has tried to contact the district via phone and social media to share the history of her people. The district’s Instagram account manager told her they had passed the message onto the general manager who would in turn share it with the board of directors, but Burgueno has not heard back.

In late August, the district posted images of the tipis announcing they were available to rent on its Facebook and Instagram accounts. Comments criticizing them as being culturally appropriative were deleted, then new comments were blocked, and later, the Instagram post was removed.

Paddock said he heard comments were left on the Instagram and Facebook posts, but that no one had contacted him directly.

In the past, Paddock said, the district has worked with local Indigenous groups, allowing the harvest of bulrush at the lake used to build traditional Kumeyaay ‘ewaa home structures in the nearby Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. He said anyone is welcome to comment about the tipis during the district’s next public meeting, which is held the fourth Monday of the month at 10. a.m. at 34560 Engineers Road in Julian.

Burgueno and two others spoke out against the tipis during a meeting earlier this month of the Helix Water District board of directors. The water district oversees water utility in parts of East County, but doesn’t have jurisdiction over Lake Cuyamaca or its campground. Still, they said they would address the concerns at their next meeting on Oct. 13.

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