Emotions Are Heated in LA by Mishandling of Indian Remains:

Protests are Being Planned

by Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents. Discussion »

LOS ANGELES - The Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians will host protests on April 9 at a $1,000-plate dinner opening of the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes Museum and again on April 16 when the museum opens. The featured guest for the April 9 gala is “Desperate Housewives’” Eva Longoria.

“One culture is celebrating, while another culture is being destroyed.”

The planned protests are in reaction and subsequent mishandling of the unearthing of remains of ancestors of the Tribe in a garden area on the site of the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes Museum. The remains were initially discovered last October when the garden section of the property was excavated for construction.

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The LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes project is a Mexican-American culture museum in downtown Los Angeles. The total cost of the project is $24 million.

In January Tribal officials were able to determine the remains were ancestral Indian remains of Gabrieleño-Togva Indians and other tribes through burial records.

Historically, the Gabrieleño-Togva Indians occupied what is now the modern-day Los Angeles basin and off-shore islands, including the Catalina, Santa Barbara and San Clements islands.

The situation has become heated to the extent tribal officials of the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians feel as if their voices have not been properly heard either by County of Los Angeles officials, the contractors - who mishandled the remains - or museum officials.

“The County of Los Angeles has treated us just as they have in the past. This is one more example of how we do not matter,”

said Christina Swindall, the secretary of the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians. The state-recognized tribe is based in Covina, twenty minutes from the museum.

There are 695 people buried there of which 388 are Indian remains, according to Swindall.

“There is no documented evidence any of the bodies were ever moved. Prior to construction, some felt that the old Campo Santo cemetery was exhumed in 1848.”

None of the unearthed remains have been returned to the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians for proper re-interment.

“It tells me they have something to hide,”

commented archaeologist Gary Stickel, a graduate of UCLA, who has practiced for 45 years and has worked closely with American Indian tribes in the past.

“It’s a shame how they have desecrated and disturbed the graves. The remains are in Home Depot containers.”

“The Tribe needs to be treated better than this, as far as I am concerned,”

continued Stickel.

“One culture is celebrating, while another culture is being destroyed.”

The Native American Heritage Commission met this past Monday to hear from all sides. All six members of the Commission were present.

Telephone calls by the Native News Network staff to the Native American Heritage Commission and Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina were not returned.

Late last week, the National Parks Service sent a letter to Los Angeles County officials with notification it would withhold $104,000 grant funds designated for the museum until the conflict is resolved.