We are Going to Stay at Sogorea Te until They Drag Us Out

Sogorea Te Sacred Site Protest-Day 15

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

VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA - Protesters are Determined.

Sending Reinforcements

“We are not leaving until they drag us out,”

said Mark Anquoe (Kiowa), one of the protest organizers at Sogorea Te sacred burial site, commonly known as Glen Cove. “Some members of the American Indian Movement had to leave, but they are sending reinforcements.”

Anquoe made his comments as the occupation of Sogorea Te sacred burial site enters its third week.

American Indians from various tribes in the San Francisco are opposing the construction of two toilets and 15 parking spaces at Sogorea Te proposed by the Greater Vallejo Recreation District (GVRD).

On Thursday, Native Americans working to protect Glen Cove filed more complaints with the Attorney General of California in response to new and serious violations of civil rights by the Greater Vallejo Recreation District.

The organization Sacred Sites Protection & Rights of Indigenous Tribes filed an addendum to the civil rights complaint filed on April 13, 2011 with the California State Attorney General in response to Greater Vallejo Recreation District’s attempt to intimidate and limit the number of participants in the spiritual ceremony, attempts to restrict certain ceremonial practices including songs, and Greater Vallejo Recreation District’s refusal to negotiate a resolution of the dispute.

The new complaint also further documents the presence of cremations as well as burials at the site, highlighting the risk that bulldozing the hill poses to the ancient human remains.

In a major development, Greater Vallejo Recreation District has informed the United States Department of Justice that they will not sign a proposed agreement allowing the ceremony to temporarily continue without threat of arrest, and Greater Vallejo Recreation District has failed to follow through on their agreement to meet with tribal members to try to resolve the burial site dispute.

American Indians from the San Francisco Bay area gather at the 3,500-year old Sogorea Te sacred burial site, which contains ancestral human remains, several times each year to hold ceremonies and oppose any further development of the site.

The reinforcements mentioned by Anquoe are expected to arrive late Friday.