{"id":6370,"date":"2020-11-05T12:45:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T19:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbccviking.com\/?p=6370"},"modified":"2020-12-16T13:33:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T20:33:49","slug":"csulb-has-yet-to-reach-settlement-regarding-the-use-of-a-native-american-sacred-ritual-site-as-construction-dumping-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/?p=6370","title":{"rendered":"CSULB has yet to reach settlement regarding the use of a Native American sacred ritual site as construction dumping ground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The historical and sacred Native American site Puvungna has been at the forefront of a lawsuit<\/a> between the Jua\u00f1eno Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation-Belardes tribe and Cal State Long Beach after the school used the site as a dumping grounds for a construction project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The California Office of Historic Preservation recently issued a letter criticizing CSULB for their treatment of the tribal land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dumping halted in fall 2019, but the debris has yet to be removed nor has a settlement been made in the legal proceedings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puvungna, a land that originally sprawled across the entirety of Cal State Long Beach is now only 22 acres, and the school used the site for the dumping of debris and construction materials for a student housing development project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want them to remove this soil. We want them to put the 22 acres in a conservation easement. We want them to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the tribal governments that are going to have an association with the site,\u201d said Patricia Martz, president of California Cultural Resource Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit that cosigned the tribe\u2019s legal complaint against CSULB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn’t want to do a lawsuit \u2026 it’s expensive, it’s tiring, it’s not a fun thing to litigate, you know, to be involved enough in a lawsuit is just like the last thing we want to have to do, but we had no choice,\u201d said Martz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first conflict that has arisen regarding CSULB\u2019s treatment of the land. In 1993, there was a lawsuit filed against the university after their attempts to build a mini-mall along with student and faculty housing. The Native American Heritage Commission got involved, and a religious freedom lawsuit was filed through the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mother actually slept on the land for two weeks,\u201d said Rebecca Robles, a member of Juane\u00f1o Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She now works to preserve sacred sites in her mother\u2019s honor, and has been vocal about Cal State Long Beach\u2019s treatment of Puvungna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the 1993 construction project was prevented, Robles said she did not feel as if the situation were truly resolved, considering the current conflict with the university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur tribal group in our community, we never really got a memorandum of understanding or written agreement saying that it wouldn’t be built on,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 10,000 year-old site is considered the birthplace of her tribe\u2019s religion, and is used by the community throughout the year for prayer and ceremony, said Robles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Puvungna, a 10,000 year-old sacred and ritual site for local Native Americans situated on the Cal State Long Beach campus, is still used as a prayer and ceremonial site. Photo courtesy of Anna Christensen.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The school has denied access to the site since the pandemic, but Robles said that no problems arose when local tribal members continued to visit the site for ceremonial and prayer purposes. She said that temperature checks were made and social distancing was ensured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robles said access to Puvungna is protected by the Native American Religious Freedom Act of 1978 (that was updated in 1993). She also said there are statutes guaranteeing that protection particularly in the state of California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

90% of archaeological sites in Orange County have been destroyed to make way for all development, Martz said, with similar damage done in the Los Angeles area, emphasizing her mission to protect Puvungna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wouldn’t be done at a Civil War battleground \u2026[or] at a Civil War cemetery. It wouldn’t be done at Bethlehem, it wouldn’t be done at Mecca,\u201d said Robles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said she considers the incident to be a continuation of the genocide against Native people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey’re working to bury one of our most important sites, and then not listening when we say this is really important. They’re not listening to the law, and they’re not listening to the communities. And so it’s really, truly hurtful,\u201d Robles said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Martz, the school has claimed to clean the debris and construction materials, although she has only noticed obvious objects removed, such as manhole covers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe mounds are pretty compact now. And there’s even vegetation on them. So, it\u2019s difficult to clean them at this point,\u201d said Martz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat land is very appealing to them. I think it\u2019s a big temptation,\u201d Martz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to CSULB Chief Communications Officer Jeffrey Cook, the area will be included in the university\u2019s \u201cbroader, inclusive planning process taking place over the next two years.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This process will supposedly include input from all community stakeholders, including members of the Native American communities, said Cook in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are hopeful this process will yield a vision for this area of our campus that is responsive both to the evolution of our university as well as the meaning that some stakeholders have ascribed to this land. We have always sought to listen to the diverse perspectives from our broader community and remain committed to ongoing dialogue,\u201d read Cook\u2019s email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robles noted the condition of Puvungna apart from the construction debris, saying that it appears uncared for in comparison to the rest of the campus, with no regular maintenance sprinkler system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s like it’s the stepchild that they’ve never cared for it, because they want it to build on it,\u201d  she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a time to really look at things in a forward way,\u201d said Robles, referencing Governor Newsom\u2019s 2019 apology<\/a> to the Native people of California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martz pointed out that while Newsom \u201cdoes have a lot to apologize for,\u201d the apology concerned her in its focus predominantly on federally recognized tribes, which excludes tribes whose land was entirely taken from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robles said, \u201cWe’re survivors, you know, like we were landless. We have remnants of our culture, most of us live scattered from each other. We have just fragments of our history and our culture. We’ve experienced a genocide, we’ve been treated unfairly. We have experienced cultural eraser, and racism. And this is a continuation of it \u2026 we need reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that this is CSULB\u2019s time to honor indigenous people, and recognize Puvungna\u2019s importance both to indigenous people, but also to the history of California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is our time to remedy the dark history of California,\u201d said Robles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robles said that the school\u2019s actions demonstrate institutionalized racism. \u201cThey\u2019re denying that we exist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robles said, \u201cI see this as a chance for healing. A chance for us as Native people continuing to fight for our sacred sites, continuing to fight for our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always say, the indigenous people are like the canary in the coal mine. Our resilience is what’s going to help society in general survive through all these changes that we’re experiencing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur connection to the land is something that is going to help all people, you know persevere and continue into the future. And I think the worldview of the Western society is that we’re apart from nature, and the worldview of the indigenous people is that they are a part of nature,\u201d said Robles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Native American ritual site Puvungna is used for prayer and ceremonies, and is considered to be the birthplace of local tribes’ religion. Photo courtesy of Anna Christensen.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The historical and sacred Native American site Puvungna has been at the forefront of a lawsuit between the Jua\u00f1eno Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation-Belardes tribe and Cal State Long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":6371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[2760,3220,1821,3221,1021,3244,3243,1917,2758,3143,3216,3146,3144,3217,3218,3145,3147,1257],"class_list":["post-6370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-acjachemen-nation-belardes","tag-anna-christensen","tag-cal-state-long-beach","tag-california-office-of-historic-preservation","tag-csulb","tag-csulb-construction","tag-csulb-lawsuit","tag-governor-gavin-newsom","tag-jbmian-belardes","tag-jeffrey-cook","tag-juaneno-band-of-mission-indians-2","tag-native-american-2","tag-patricia-martz","tag-puvunga-2","tag-puvungna","tag-rebecca-robles","tag-sacred-ritual-site","tag-tess-kazenoff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Skgy-1EK","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbccviking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/News_20201029_Puvungna_jNAXeQ0w.jpg?fit=1080%2C810&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6749,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370\/revisions\/6749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbccviking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}