Puvungna case dismissed

CSULB retains control of land listed as a sacred Native American site

A judge's dismissal of a case involving a Cal State Long Beach land-use dispute will return control of the property over to university administrators in June. Part of the mostly undeveloped 22-acre site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places to represent the sacred Native American village of Puvungna.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Abby Soven dismissed the case on April 6, writing in her decision that requiring the university to preserve the site "impermissibly entangles government with religion."

Native Americans and historical sources identify the Puvungna village as the origin point of the Chungichnish religion, which spread throughout indigenous communities of Southern California.

Soven also wrote that the plaintiffs' demands for the land to remain physically undisturbed and to allow Native Americans unrestricted access to the property for religious purposes "violates the Establishment clause of the First Amendment and the California constitution."

"The decision in the court case didn't change one thing as far as my plans go," said CSULB President Robert Maxson. "I'd like to see that area remain a green area." Maxson said he is against any commercial development on campus property.

Campus land on both sides of State University Drive alongside Bellflower Boulevard was included on the National Register in 1974 after workers unearthed skeletal remains while digging a trench.

A Los Angeles County coroner's report identified the remains as those of a Native American ancestor and they were again buried on the property in 1979.

Conflict over use of the property surfaced in 1992 when administrators proposed the closure of the Organic Gardens, established on Earth Day in 1970, to create a temporary parking lot for construction vehicles. The lot was later to become part of a residential and commercial development, the West Village Center.

The gardens were closed and a chain-link fence installed in June 1993.

The American Civil Liberties Union assisted Native American plaintiffs in obtaining an injunction which halted the construction projects and further archaeological inspection of the property in August 1993. A full trial was postponed from December 1994 to June 1995 until Soven's dismissal.

Another plaintiff organization created by California's Public Resources Code, the Native American Heritage Commission, could be drastically changed by this decision, said CSULB anthropology Professor Eugene Ruyle. Ruyle is a member of a Save Puvungna coalition that formed in 1993.

The commission is specifically charged with protecting Native American sacred sites on state-owned land from damage. In 1993 the commission agreed that damage to the site will occur if building or further archaeological testing of the land is conducted.

If this ruling stands through the appeal process, it could affect religious sites nationwide, Ruyle said. He said the American Civil Liberties Union lawyers plan to appeal the decision before the 60 day stay is lifted on the dismissal.

Maxson said he wants the area cleaned up and beautified, and "no one has voiced an objection to me to the beautification of the campus."

Within the area currently are piles of construction debris, a construction staging area for the Central Plant project, several groves of trees, the surviving remains of the Organic Garden and a Native American ceremonial circle and pole. and, of course the fence.

"Presidents have to be careful that they don't reduce the options of future presidents," Maxson said. "It would not be right for me to make any agreement that would keep future administrations from using that land for educational purposes."

"It sounds as if some good might come out of this decision locally, if it facilitates meetings between the university and the community members concerning the site," Ruyle said.