Bolsa Chica Protest - No Building on Ancestral Burials

Bolsa Chica, located in the southern coastal region of California, is an important California Indian ancestral burial ground. It is one of the most unusual archaeological sites in California, known as CA-ORA-83, it contains evidence of an 8,000 year-old village and unique cogged-stone site.

Bolsa Chica Cogged Stones

The site has subjected, over several decades, to development pressures from Hearthside Homes, a developer seeking to build houses on the sensitive sacred burial ground.

On August 11, 2010, the Bolsa Chica Land Trust filed a petition for writ of mandate challenging the City of Huntington Beach approval of “The Ridge” housing development with the County of Orange, California.

The Bolsa Chica Land Trust believes the City Council action granting permits to the housing developer on July 6, 2010 violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The approved development would have a significantly adverse impact on the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve wetlands.

Bolsa Chica Wetlands

Additionally, the permit granted to the developer, calls for low density zoning which means that the City of Huntington Beach will be allowed to use an Environmental Impact Report dating from 2000! The project developer maintains that there is not a likelihood of finding human remains on the site. We believe there is strong evidence, even on “degraded” sites such as Bolsa Chica, that human ancestral remains will be found.

Please write a letter protesting the action taken by the City of Huntington Beach to build homes on this sensitive sacred burial, archaeological and natural area. Letters should be addressed as follows:

California Coastal Commission

South Coast Area Office

200 Oceangate, Suite 1000

Long Beach, CA  90802-4302

Attn.:  Teresa Henry, District Manager/Project Analyst

Re:  Protect sacred site at Bolsa Chica (ORA 83)

Dear Ms. Henry,

We continue to be very concerned about the desecration that has taken place at the Gabrielino/Tongva and Juaneno/Acjachemen sacred cemetery at Bolsa Chica (ORA 83).   Over 175 ancestral burials and over 100,000 crafting tools, adornments, Cogged Stones and other funerary items have been discovered and desecrated at Bolsa Chica.  We believe there remains a strong likelihood that additional ancestral burials and funerary items, including Cogged Stones, will be found on the remaining 6 acres of undeveloped land known as the Goodell property.

Archeological work since 1983, has described the sites as too disturbed to be significant since.   However, recent summaries by Nancy Anastasia Desautels Wiley verify the immense cultural significance of this sacred site.

We have seen other examples of sacred sites containing burials and artifacts after a developer and his archaeologist proclaimed the site free of burials – this was the case at the Emeryville Shellmound located in the SF Bay Area. The Shellmound was said to have been emptied of all burials years ago and yet, hundreds more remained only to dug up during construction.

Too many sacred burials and artifacts have been found with bulldozers.  We believe this constitutes purposeful destruction. Please do not let this happen again.

The California Coastal Commission has the responsibility and the authority to protect Native Californian burials from further disturbance.  Please stop the further destruction of the sacred cemetery at Bolsa Chica!

We are asking the Coastal Commission to reframe from issuing further building permits to the developer Hearthside Homes and its affiliate companies or other developers who may be interested in building on the sacred ground at Bolsa Chica.

Let us create a precedent of preservation based on respect for the past.

Sincerely,

Print Name & Affiliation

Address

Date

Nantucket Sunrise is Sacred to Wampanoag

The Wampanoag Indian Tribe of Massachusetts have spiritual practices that require them to visit sacred sites with a clear view of the rising sun when they perform special ceremonies on the solstices and upon the death of elders. The Cape Wind project would compromise the natural integrity of a sacred site for the Wampanoags by industrializing their view of the rising sun.

The Cape Wind Farm’s plan is to build 130 wind turbines, each over 400 feet tall. The project would be several miles from the Cape Cod shoreline covering a 25-square-mile section of federal land.

Action is urgently needed before February 29, 2010. Please write to Secretary Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, Department of the Interior, 1849 C St NW, Washington, DC 20240; or email Secretary Salazar at feedback@ios.doi.gov; or telephone the Department at 202-208-3100.

Please make the following points:
1. The Wampanoag, People of the First Light, require an unobstructed view of Nantucket Sound in order to view the rising sun on solstices when they perform their sacred ceremonies and upon the passing of elders.
2. Wampanoag ancestral remains are buried in the Sound and the wind turbines would dis

For more information contact: the Wampanoag.

Other resources, including an excellent photo of the sound with proposed Wind Turbines, can be found at: The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

A proposed off-shore wind farm is proposed several miles off of Nantucket Sound and the Wampanoag are protesting the proposal as interfering with tribal religion. The development project calls for 130 wind turbines, each over 400 feet in height. The Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag claim the turbines will block their view of the sunrise and interfere with their ancestral burials on Horsehoe Shoal.

The Wampanoag are hoping to get Nantucket Sound listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. Such a designation would come with new regulations preserving views of the sun rising over the Nantucket Sound horizon thus assuring the continuance of their sacred practices.

You can read more about this in the San Francisco Chronicle article “Tribes Upset Over Wind Turbines.

This project makes many assumptions that are not based on fact. Each Native American Nation and Tribe is unique, having their own identity based on centuries of oral history, based on the environments in which they live and based on their sacred ceremonies, spaces and symbols. Taking these elements out of their cultural context leaves them devoid of their fundamental meaning. Native Americans from one tribe usually do not consider using the sacred plants of another tribe to perform their ceremonies; so why do Christians believe that it is appropriate to do so?

We have spoken over the years with many Native Americans who consider cultural appropriation disrespectful and deeply hurtful. Why not design a healing garden based on western forms and western healing plants? There are many sacred forms such as the labyrinth that could form the basis of such a garden and endless choices of healing plants historically used in Western Culture.

Recommended resources: Sacred Objects and Sacred Places: Preserving Tribal Traditions by Andrew Gulliford (a benefit of Membership in Sacred Sacred International at the $50 level). We also recommend the excellent book by architect and Sacred Sites Board Member, Tony Lawlor, The Temple in the House.

We worked on an urban site that was a cemetery and ritualistic site. The Native American descendant assigned to the site decided to leave the site alone and allow a commercial development to be built on top of the burials. Considerations were as follows: it is better not to disturb ancestral burial sites; grave objects should remain with the dead and it protected the site from looting. The subject is dealt with in an excellent book, Sacred Objects and Sacred Places by Andrew Gulliford. It is a benefit of membership in Sacred Sites International at the Donor Level. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush, signed into law the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, providing sanctity for graves on public land and the return of human remains and grave goods to their tribes from any museum receiving federal funds.

The Navajo call the mountain, Tsoodzil; it as part of their creation story as one of four sacred mountains created by First Man and First Woman. It is the sacred mountain marking the southern direction. Navajo singers traditionally went to the mountain to gather medicinal herbs used in healing ceremonies.The mountain has been abused over time as it was exploited for uranium, a pursuit legal because oil, gas, mining leases are allowed regardless of a site’s cultural or spiritual significance to native people. It is sadly ironic that a place of healing is now contaminated.In addition to mining, the people of Grants, New Mexico, approved the building of a female penitentiary, which sits on a place of healing, happiness and well-being to native people. Now, with preliminary preservation status, native people must be consulted before leases are granted for the desecration of their holy mountain. We hope the mountain will be granted permanent preservation status.