As part of the Native American’s Month for the Cultural Awareness Center, Norman “Wounded Knee” DeOcampo of the Vallejo Intertribal Counsel and Mark LeBeau of the California Rural Indian Health Board came Nov. 17 to promote “Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes.”
The presentation was a student-organized event, which was supervised by the Cultural Awareness Center. The key speakers elaborated on the crimes that are occurring on their sacred land.
DeOcampo spoke about the violations against his people and their ancestors, such as the transferring of ancient human remains to lockers or constructing buildings on top of Indian burial grounds.
“A lot of our sacred sites are being desecrated by developers and bureaucrats,” DeOcampo says. “They keep desecrating our sacred places. They’re like leeches. They’re like a cancer, they keep going from one site to another site to another site.”
Many of the lands that both DeOcampo and LeBeau spoke about are being turned into parking lots, churches, public parks and housing.
“Sacred sites are disappearing at a rapid rate,” says Tamara Cheshire, an anthropology instructor at City College. “Either they are being demolished and dug up or covered with water because of dams in the name of progress or financial benefit.”
Sacred sites are important to many Native Americans.
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Chesire, who’s teaching Native American Culture and the Impact of Federal Policy, included this as part of her curriculum, which many of her students attended.
Teresa Towne, one of the organizers for sacred sites, felt that it was a good thing to promote awareness about this controversial topic.
“It felt good to hear my brothers speak on something many do not fully understand. These sites are not merely important for our indigenous people, but important for all humanity,” Towne says.
The event has opened the eyes of many students, like Gustavo Gutierrez, who realized that the sacred sites situation is worse than he thought it was.
“I always knew about it, but I didn’t realized that it wasn’t that bad,” Gutierrez says. “It makes me lose more respect for our government. How can they put a value on people’s resting grounds, by building malls and buildings for their benefit.”
Wolfin hopes that students become more aware after attending the event and learn this could affect their lives as well.
“Hopefully, students had taken that all life is sacred; all life, from the deepest roots of the tallest trees,” Wolfin says. “Also, that there are organized peoples who are still fighting for the rights of indigenous people, still fighting cultural supremacy and still resisting spiritual terrorism.”