KUMEYAAY PROTEST “DESECRATION” AT NAVY SEAL BASE

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By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Ozzie Monge

September 1,2016 (San Diego’s East County) –  Native Americans held a protest Wednesday outside theNavy’s new SEAL training center on Coronado over desecration of  an area  where  ancient Indian remains were found. 

The 12 tribes of the Kumeyaay Nation have asked the Navy to move the construction boundary to preserve the site where tribal members believe more remains are likely located, but so far the Navy has refused. 

“To us, the sight of those machines brutally ripping our ancestors from the ground is no different than it would be for those very same Navy personnel to watch bulldozers rip through Arlington National Cemetery, scattering the bodies of fallen soldiers carelessly under the metal treads,” Cynthia Parada, Councilwoman of the La Posta Band of Mission Indians, wrote on a Facebook page for the Save Our Ancestors from Desecration event.

Back in 2002,  7,000-year-old partial remains of a boy were found at the site south of the Silver Strand beach.  Parada says tribal representatives were told at the time by military officials that those remains “would not be disturbed for another 7,000 years.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that tribal members who visited the site in January say they saw remnants of tools and shells used by their ancestors.  They believe the site is atop an ancient village and that many more ancient people are buried there.  Native American tradition requires that the dead remain undisturbed.

But now the Navy contends that the site does not qualify for protection under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act because the area was previously disturbed, bulldozed back in 1940.  The Navy’s statement indicates it added a 100-foot buffer around eligible archaeological and environmentally sensitive sites.  The Navy also claims its request for the Kumeyaay to provide a monitor at the site during construction but that the Kumeyaay declined.

Over the last year and a half, tribal and military representatives have met several times, but the tribes’ request to protect the site was denied. 

Parada wrote on the event site that “in the end, the consultation process, like so many 19th century treaties, turned out to be a façade designed to allow the Federal Government to take what they wish, when they wish, without being hindered by technicalities like Federal Law.”

If honored, that request would reduce the size of the project footprint by about four percent, Parada said.

Ozzie Monge was among those who attended Wednesday’s protest, which included singing bird songs intended to let ancestors’ spirits know that they are not forgotten. Monge is a lecturer at San Diego State University, where his topics include the impacts of settler colonialism and his master’s thesis titled “Fail Montezuma” focused on cultural racism and misrepresentations of Native Americans in popular culture.

“I saw so much strength, pride, dignity and beauty,”Monge said of the protesters at the event, including those shown in the photo above.

Another meeting is scheduled for this Friday,  September 2.

The tribal members hope others in the community, including military personnel, veterans and their families  will support their cause. “They won’t ignore a united front of citizens who both support our nation’s bravest warriors and respect our nation’s original inhabitants.”


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Comments

Zero Credibility

So Kenny Meza is upset about "disturbing burial grounds? I guess it is ok though if burial grounds be disturbed in the name of a hideous casino that no one except about 50 people or less wanted out of an entire community? Mr. Meza you are a disgrace to Native Americans. You have time to protest on a beach but not on your own "reservation"? That's right, there is no room with that monstrosity covering all of it. Go away, you have ZERO credibility.

Very Interesting indeed!

I find this article pretty amusing and if you go to the San Diego UT article one of the interviewees a Kenny Meza of the Jamul Indian Village is quite upset with the federal government for disturbing these burial grounds. Interesting to most of the people in Jamul is that he wasn't to upset in disturbing ancestral burial grounds in order to have a casino built on Indian village land in Jamul! What a hypocrite! Disenfranchised long time members who were opposed to a casino on their village land, bull dozed their properties when they said they wouldn't, had them forcibly removed and peppered sprayed by rent a cops with guns, excavated and trucked their family funereal remains to Caltrans yard near the border to be used for future Caltrans projects. You can't pick and choose Mr Meza. Your a hypocrite and this is about greed pure and simple sir. You can't have it both ways.