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Add an EventCommittee to Protect Glen Cove Announces Major Victory!
Protection of the Sogorea Te/ Glen Cove Sacred Burial Grounds
July 20, 2011
Contact: Corrina Gould (510) 575-8408
Morning Star Gali (510) 827-6719
protectglencove [at] gmail.com
VALLEJO, CA – After 98 days and nights of a continuous prayer vigil, the Committee to Protect Glen Cove is pleased to announce a victory in the struggle to protect the sacred grounds of Sogorea Te/Glen Cove.
Yesterday, the Yocha Dehe and Cortina tribes established a cultural easement and settlement agreement with the City of Vallejo and the Greater Vallejo Recreation District (GVRD). The agreement sets a legal precedent for granting Native peoples jurisdiction over their sacred sites and ancestral lands. The cultural easement forever guarantees that the Yocha Dehe and Cortina tribes will have legal oversight in all activities taking place on the sacred burial grounds of Sogorea Te/Glen Cove. It also represents a significant step forward in enacting tribal sovereignty, as the first such easement under CA Senate Bill 18 to be negotiated at the city and recreational district levels.
The agreement’s terms include elimination of the formerly planned restroom facility and relocation of a “downsized” parking lot to an area thoroughly tested to confirm that it contains no human remains or cultural remnants.
While the specifics of the deal leave some ambiguity about how GVRD’s park development project can and cannot proceed, the Committee is hopeful that Yocha Dehe and Cortina will use their newfound influence to make sure that the resting place of the ancestors is not further disturbed or desecrated.
“The cultural easement is an important victory, however we are concerned about the lack of specific language that would prevent grading on the western portion of the site,” states Corrina Gould (Chochenyo/Karkin Ohlone.) “We will be communicating this to the tribes and we have faith that they will take all necessary measures to ensure that ancestral remains and cremations are left undisturbed.”
Gould continued, “We appreciate and are humbled by the vast support that we have received in protecting our ancestors. It is our responsibility to continue to do the work to make certain that all of our sacred sites are protected.”
The historical and cultural value of the 3,500-year old site has never been disputed and it continues to be spiritually important to California tribes. On April 14th, local Native Americans and supporters began a 24-hour prayer vigil at Sogorea Te to prevent the Greater Vallejo Recreation District from bulldozing/grading a large portion of the sacred site and constructing bathrooms and a parking lot. Sogorea Te (Glen Cove) is located near the intersection of South Regatta and Whitesides Drive in Vallejo.
For more information: http://www.protectglencove.org
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Update: This evening, Vallejo City Council unanimously voted to finalize a Cultural Easement and Settlement Agreement with the Cortina and Yocha Dehe tribes, granting them legal rights to oversee and protect the sacred grounds at Glen Cove. Charlie Wright of the Cortina Band of Wintun Indians and Marshall McKay of Yocha Dehe attended the council meeting, as did approximately 40 people from the prayer vigil at Sogorea Te.
Marshall McKay addressed the Council during the public meeting, asking them to finalize the agreement. During his speech he kindly addressed the long term resistance to the City and GVRD’s plans at Glen Cove, stating that “the resistance is born from a deep and abiding protective spirit.” A transcript of McKay’s full statement can be found below.
Transcript: Marshall McKay (Yocha Dehe Chairman) speaks to City Council
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilpeople and Staff. I’m pleased to appear before you today on behalf of Yocha Dehe, and I have with me the honorable chairman from my sister tribe, Chairman Wright from the Cortina Band of Wintun Indians, to address this matter of the park project in Glen Cove, which the City and the Recreation District have faced a lot of resistance to in the past.
As you know, the resistance is born from a deep and abiding protective spirit. Those who have raised concerns have a deep respect for and a connection to these lands. In the earlier days here, these lands were used for a place of worship, of trading, of ceremony, and communing. This is not only true for our Patwin ancestors, but for many Native Americans here. Some came specifically to visit these lands, others were simply traveling through. We stand here before you today, wanting to protect these lands.
We want to honor those who lived here before, who traded, prayed, laughed and danced here, and who are now buried there. We have worked together in our respective governments, in good faith and collaborative effort, to find a way to allow a park project to move forward while ensuring the sacred burial sites that are on these lands remain protected. Protected and free from further discovery, and free from disturbance and desecration.
The product of our governments’ collaboration, I think, is clearly precedent setting. And it formulates to come out in the cultural and conservative easement. California law empowers sovereign tribal governments now to hold in their own names these easements. These easements are allowed specifically for the protection of sacred sites and the burials on ancestral lands.
This easement would accomplish precisely that. The easement would also enable the long term park project of the Greater Vallejo Recreational District to proceed. It balances the present with the past. It enables the people of today to walk on these lands and enjoy the vistas while ensuring the spirits of those who rest on those lands remain undisturbed.
The easement and the proposed settlement that we have negotiated is a way to finally balance between the past and the present, and we ask you to support it. Thank you.
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