Indian village to be preserved

By Michelle Fithian, On-Line Forty-Niner

Wednesday, September 30, 1998

The Tongva Nation has won the raging five-year battle with Cal State Long Beach to preserve one of the last undeveloped parcels of sacred land once inhabited by American Indians.

For decades, a small sign on a grassy stretch near the International House proclaimed that the area was a sacred part of Puvungna, an ancient Tongva village. The sign has long since disappeared due to vandalism.

"That's why we don't publish the site location; because it is considered a sacred site to go to meditate and pray," said Lester Brown, CSULB American Indian studies director.

In its place will soon stand a 3-foot-tall, 3,600-pound piece of granite, Brown said.

Engraved on the marker will be a message similar to the one on the small sign that once stood over the grassy area. Accompanying the large carved rock will be five smaller rocks that will form a large circle. The marker will be installed in October or November, Brown said.

Most students who enter the university at State University Drive probably do not know they are on sacred ground that once was an active Tongva village. At its height, the village encompassed what is now Rancho Los Alamitos, Bixby Hills and CSULB.

In 1992, CSULB announced plans to build a shopping mall and homes on another part of Puvungna that lies across from the sacred site running along Bellflower Boulevard near the International House.

According to The Associated Press, the 22-acre site was then estimated to be worth $10 million, and was an organic garden.

However, the Tongva and the American Civil Liberties Union protested, saying the site was on the National Register of Historical Places. The two parties were in court for five years. In 1997, a state Supreme Court ruling preserved the site.