Please Help Stop Removal of NDN cemetary in Huntington Beach

[walksalone11]

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/08/241242.php

A developer is building a housing complex in Huntington Beach and is removing the remains of some 80 Indigenous people. Please write letters expressing your concerns or offense to the coastal commission.

TO:
CALIFORNIA COASTAL COMMISSION
ATT: MEG VAUGHN
SOUTH COAST AREA OFFICE
200 OCEANGATE, SUITE 1000
LONG BEACH CA 90802-4302

I have been informed that the development named "The Ridge", built by Hearthside Homes, in Bolsa Chicamesa/Huntington Beach, has attained a zone change or variance that is allowing them to dig up and remove historical human remains and historical Native American artifacts.

Basically, they are digging up an old Tongva cemetery. This happened in Playa Vista, and the upshot was that the corpses and their religious artifacts were separated, and the artifacts were delivered to museums. This is grave-robbery. It is illegal and must be stopped.

The cemeteries of the Tongva are a signficant cultural resource not only for the Tongva, and all Native Americans, but all Americans. These are the ancient people of the area, who have been here for millennia. They are the "Mission Indians".

The City of Huntington Beach has re-zoned five acres of cemetery from "Preservation" to "Development". I suggest that the Coastal Commission and the State of California try to conform to the spirit of the Federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and intervene to stop the building.

Did you know that under NAGPRA, over 30,000 human corpses have been repatriated to their tribes? That is horrifying, that our museums (and tax dollars) were used to maintain human bodies as archeological artifacts, while their descendents begged for decades to have their relatives returned home for a proper re-burial. Will the dead ever have their peace?

Now, for the worship of the dollar, we have a housing developmen company expanding their footprint, and it has led to the removal of human bodies. If these bodies (and related artifacts) end up in an institution with Federal funding, they will be required to return the bodies (and artifacts). What kind of folly are these developers undertaking? They are wasting our tax money, and probably doing something that eventually leads to a museum breaking the law. Do not allow the continued excavation. Scale back the project.

[tantricia44]

How r they able to do this? Isn't sacred ground or owned by the native americans? Who gave them permission to build on the site? I thought that there was a law that they couldn't do this? Anyway, I'm all for supporting the prevention of the destruction  of the cemetery site 

[amyrouse]

I think you might be amazed.  My hometown of Bensenville, Illinois is right on the Cook/DuPage County line in Illinois...about a ten minute drive from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago right off of Irving Park Road.  Last time I drove by the house I grew up in, I found the vast majority of the houses to be boarded up with signs on them that said "O'Hare Expansion" and I found out that the entire 'burb, including the cemetery, is being offered up to the expansion of the airport.  Now...this was in 2007, so I'm not sure if it has happened or not, but it shocked me.  If enough money exchanges hands, then who knows where the line will be drawn.

I think its sickening that they would be that disrespectful, walksalone11.  Not only are they digging up the dead, but they are giving the remains and everything buried with to museums?  I agree; this is grave robbery, and should be stopped.  I live on the other side of the country; will my writing a letter help?

[walksalone11]

Yes there are many laws and reulations in place concerning these types of things. The most notable would be what is know as NAGPRA. from http://www.nps.gov/history/nagpra/ ...."What is NAGPRA?
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is a Federal law passed in 1990. NAGPRA provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items -- human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony -- to lineal descendants, and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. NAGPRA includes provisions for unclaimed and culturally unidentifiable Native American cultural items, intentional and inadvertent discovery of Native American cultural items on Federal and tribal lands, and penalties for noncompliance and illegal trafficking. In addition, NAGPRA authorizes Federal grants to Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and museums to assist with the documentation and repatriation of Native American cultural items, and establishes the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee to monitor the NAGPRA process and facilitate the resolution of disputes that may arise concerning repatriation under NAGPRA."

What usually happens tho is that contractors who find remains or artifacts, know that disclosure will result in stop orders and lengthy delays, so they often attempt to hide evidence of such discoveries. That has happened in this case. Now that the cat is out of the bag so to speak, a lot of legal wrangling and I would suspect alot of pockets being lined with cash, the effort is to side step regulations.

Yes, each letter is very important and will help, even if we fail to halt this desecration. They still send the message that more and more people are fed up with this kind of disrespect and wll no longer remain complacent in face of it. We have andcontinue to attract many supporters and our voice is growing louder and louder....people are beginning to notice.

[FuzzyCottonsocks]

I wouldn't want to buy one of those homes.  Disturbing the resting places of the dead is a good way to stir up trouble, IMO.

[starjonez]

I think they should leave the dead people alone.