California shellmounds are massive ancient structures built by Native Americans that were used as human burial sites. The Bay Street Mall in Emeryville, California was built on the ruins of a 3500 year old Ohlone Shellmound. The construction of the shopping mall was strongly opposed by the local Native American community, who wanted the sacred site to be left undisturbed.

Despite their opposition, the mall was built in 2001. During the mall's construction, hundreds of human remains were found and visibly removed as waste in front of protesters. Since that time, the Native American community in the San Francisco Bay Area has held annual protests on Black Friday ("The biggest shopping day of the year") to ask the non-Native community to boycott the shopping center that has permanently desecrated this unique and irreplaceable sacred Ohlone site.

The number of burials found [...] still remains a mystery.

"We did find a lot of intact burials," said Oakland archeologist Sally Salzman Morgan, who was hired by Emeryville to study the site. "Its too inflammatory to say how many there were. But most (burials) were disturbed."

Rosemary Cambra, tribal chair of the Muwekma Ohlone, calls the citys new, culturally-sensitive development the legally-permitted erasing of a culture. "Were still living in the world of politics of erasure," Cambra said. "Its just an old way of racism. Nothing has really changed for tribal groups in the Bay Area."

PLEASE JOIN US THIS YEAR! 11am, Friday, November 27, 2009. Meet at Shellmound and Ohlone Way in Emeryville, CA. For more information visit:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/20/18629643.php

http://www.aimwest.info