Indian burial ground issue back in court

A court hearing for Puvungna, the controversial Native American land which lies under the Cal State Long Beach campus, was held Thursday at 10 a.m. in the second appellate district court of appeals in Los Angeles.

The focus of the hearing was to hear oral arguments from both sides of the case about the land, which includes the 22-acre lot on the corner of Bellflower Boulevard and State University Drive.

The debate is over CSULB's proposal to start developing the land into a mini-mall, said Raleigh Levine, lawyer for the Indian plaintiffs.

According to the Puvungna Hotline, the hearing was to concentrate on the constitutionality of state law that protects sacred Indian burial ground and sacred places on public land.

"The university says that if you go ahead and preserve this site, you violate the constitutional right of separation of church and state," Levine said. "The Native Americans are saying that the university has no right to say that."

Levine explained that in the 1970s, the university recognized that this land was a place that the Indians used for worship.

But it was not until a few years ago that the university decided to start development of the land.

No decisions were made in Thursday's hearing.

In May 1995, the History Students Association, along with La Raza and Disabled Student Services, sponsored a "teach-in" to protest the development of what they termed "sacred Native American holy and archeological sites."

For more information, the Puvungna Hotline can be reached at (310) 985-4619.