After hearing additional evidence on September third, Superior Court Judge Stephen O'Neil made permanent a temporary restraining order he had issued two weeks earlier to halt development plans of CSULB administrators for the Bellflower strip of land. The order will remain in effect until the matter can be brought to trail. The ACLU, representing individual Native Americans, and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, representing the Native American Heritage Commission, had attempted to negotiate with the university, but were forced to go to court when CSULB administrators continued tactics aimed at destroying the site.
University spokespersons, including Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Keith Polakoff, still insist that they must conduct a dig on the site to determine whether or not there is cultural significance to the land despite abundant historical and archaeological proof presented them and despite the testimony of numerous Native Americans as to the sacredness of this last remnant of Puvungna. As has been pointed out time and again, no amount of digging will prove or disprove the spot to be a part of Puvungna; that evidence must come from the existing historical records and the living memories of Native Americans. Also, the sacredness of any site cannot be proven or disproven by even the best of scientific investigation.
The Coalition to Save Puvungna is still working to encourage Long Beach residents and business owners and Native Americans to protest the university's proposed mini-mall and high-density housing complex by writing the CSU Board of Trustees. University administrators are still attempting to go forward with their speculative development, spending large sums of money which should more appropriately be used for critical instructional needs. As mentioned in the last Neighbor issue, many of the trustees may not be aware of the importance of the site to Native Americans because some university spokespersons initially denied the very existence of Puvungna and now continue to deny its location and significance. Concerns should be addressed to:
California State University Board of Trustees Attention: Ms. Jackie Worm, Executive Staff Assistant Office of the Chancellor, Suite 214 400 Golden Shore Long Beach, Ca. 90802-4275
For more information on coalition activities and progress, call the Puvungna Hotline at (310) 985-4619.
We know that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many artifacts were removed from this area and taken to museums throughout Europe and the United States. We also know of specific sites in this area where Puvungna artifacts were still being recovered even from the surface of the ground up into the 1960s. However, in order to expand local historical documentation, for both educational and legal purposes, the coalition is asking Long Beach residents and others who have local Indian artifacts in their possession to let us photograph and document them. If you can provide such assistance, please call 985-4251.
July's Neighbor carried a history of the first people of this region who were subsumed under the missions, and hence called Gabrielino, Juaneno, Luiseno, Fernandeno. Below and in issues to come, sketches will be provided of the descendants who are active in the struggle to save the last remnant of Puvungna.
Lillian Robles (pictured in July's issue) has become familiar to Long Beach residents through Los Angeles Times stories and television coverage as the 77-year-old Juaneno elder who initiated and maintained the round-the-clock prayer vigil for several weeks in June at the Puvungna site. She continued a walk around the perimeter almost every evening throughout July and August. She returned to camp on the site for the duration of the two week temporary restraining order to document the university's actions there. One of the plaintiffs represented by the ACLU, Lillian has spoken at many hearings and gatherings explaining the Native American side of the issue and describing the ungracious treatment she has received from university administrators.
Lillian and her husband, Louis, live in Long Beach and raised their four children here. They always valued education very highly and all of their children are college graduates; one daughter holds an advanced degree. Their son, Louis Jr., is an alumnus of CSULB and has joined his mother in speaking at some hearings.
The Robles also provided foster care for 300 children in their home over a period of 30 years. They were recognized by the county for the important work they had done by taking youngsters with the most problems whom no one else wanted to help. After her own children were grown and she had given up her foster care license, Lillian went to work at McKinley elementary as a bilingual school-community worker. There she continued helping youngsters, encouraging them to stay in school and to study hard by using a variety of methods including "bribery" of small monetary rewards for "A"s!
In order to better communicate, especially with younger immigrant families whose children attended McKinley, she returned, at age 62, to Long Beach City College to improve her Spanish. Since her retirement she has enjoyed world travel and researching more of the history of her family. Always an involved person, Lillian said she felt the call very strongly to help save the Puvungna site. In fact, she cut short a visit with her daughter in Wyoming because she felt drawn to come back to the land and begin the prayer vigil.
At the outset of her vigil at the Bellflower site, Lillian was supported by another Juaneno descendant and Long Beach Resident, Richard Silva. He has walked the Bellflower site perimeter every evening since the prayer vigil began even though he has a long daily drive to and from work in Los Angeles.
Richard was born in Sunset Beach in 1941; his father ran a dairy on Signal Hill in the 1920s. As an adult Richard has been very active with the Capistrano Indian Council and other Juaneno functions, especially those involving craft activities and cooking for the old people whom he notes it is very important to keep together. Richard was a very active protester of the toll road in Laguna Canyon two years ago. He also shoulders the sad responsibility of helping rebury ancestors unearthed in San Juan Capistrano and at Camp Penelton. Most recently he helped rebury two persons on a five acre site designated for such use at Penelton (The Juanenos are charged annual fees for the burial area, however). One he described as a young woman whose skeleton revealed the "slave" formation--deformed bones from having to carry heavy loads; the other skeleton was that of a child. Richard said of the proposed CSULB development, "When I heard about this, with the reburial here and everything, I just had to come over and help."
Another elder, Bernie Alvitre (Gabrielino/Tongva) has attended nearly all coalition meetings, frequently offering prayers and guidance at such gatherings. He is the father of Cindi and Jim Alvitre who have worked extensively to save Puvungna and who will be featured in a subsequent issue.
Bernie's parents were both born at San Gabriel and he himself grew up in Garden Grove. He has lead a remarkably broad and interesting life. He spent ten years in service as a Marine including work with the famous WWII Navajo Code Talkers unit where he was one of only three non-Navajo members. His current retirement occupations include entertaining with a small band at retirement homes and hospitals where he sings requests like "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" and "Hello, Dolly."
Bernie's father, baptized a Catholic, nevertheless practiced the Indian way of worship, as does Bernie now. Although his father discontinued all ties with the church after a priest molested a member of his family, Bernie continues an association at St. Edwards in Corona where he enjoys singing with the choir. Most of Bernie's reminiscences about his childhood are uplifting. His father took him on trips to the mountains for fasts and told stories around campfires. He also spoke fondly of his mother's California-style enchiladas made with olives and raisins!
Other of his recollections underscore the sadness and frustration which continue to touch even today's Native Americans. As a child in Orange County, Bernie saw giant plows ripping open the ground containing Indian burials and saw people race to collect the unearthed and scattered skulls, bones, and artifacts. He spoke of how sad and angry his father was; of how much his father wanted to speak out or do something about such wrongs, but that he couldn't for very fear of his life in those days. To emphasize how much his father had to fear, Bernie also told me of his father's showing him the exact spots where two of his uncles had been hung by a group who were referred to as "The Texas Rangers."
Bernie came to the Bixby Ranch (as the old Rancho Los Alamitos had then become known) often as a child with his father and another man who picked up loads of manure there to transport back for use as fertilizer on the orchards in Orange County. He recalls that his father and his friend always talked about Puvungna on such trips, but that he was too small to pay much attention. In fact, because as a young adult he was practicing the Catholic religion, it wasn't until the 1970s when his own children began to explore their Indian religious roots that he himself started to really learn particulars. His son Art had started work as a monitor then at San Juan Capistrano which helped initiate some of the family's rediscovery of the past.
This document was posted in July 1995
eruyle@csulb.edu