SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A San Francisco Bay Area parking lot atop a sacred tribal shell midden dating back 5,700 years has been returned to the Ohlone people by the Berkeley City Council after a settlement with the developer who owns the land. Ta.
The Berkeley City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to adopt an ordinance giving ownership of the land to the Sogorea Te Land Trust. The Sogolea Land Trust is a women-led organization in the San Francisco Bay Area that works to return land to indigenous peoples and raises the funds needed to do so. Agreement.
Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín said, “It's been a long, drawn-out effort, but it's been worth it, honestly, because what we're doing today is righting the wrongs of the past and reclaiming stolen land.” “It's about returning the land to the people who once lived there.”
The 2.2-acre parking lot is the only undeveloped portion of West Berkeley Shell Midden, a three-block area designated as a landmark by the City of Berkeley in 2000.
Before Spanish settlers arrived in the area, it was home to a village and a huge shell midden, six meters high and as long and wide as a football field, and was a site of ritual and burial. The mound was built over many years using mussels, clams, oyster shells, human remains, and artifacts, and also served as a viewing platform.
The Spaniards removed the Ohlone from their villages and forced them to work in local missions. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, British settlers seized the land and destroyed the middens to line Berkeley's roadbed with shells.
“This is a very sad and shameful piece of history,” said Berkeley City Councilor Sophie Hahn, who spearheaded the effort to return the land to the Ohlone family.
“This is the site of a thriving village at least 5,700 years ago, and we still have Oron people among us. Their connection to this place is very deep, very real, and this It’s something we honor,” she added.
The agreement with Berkeley-based Ruegg & Ellsworth LLC, which owns the parking lot, comes after the developer sued the city in 2018 after officials rejected an application to build a 260-unit apartment building. The agreement was reached after a six-year legal battle and will result in the construction of 50 apartments. Affordable housing and 27,500 feet of retail and parking space.
The settlement was reached after Loog & Ellsworth agreed to accept $27 million to resolve all outstanding claims and turn over the property to Berkeley. The Sogorea Te Land Trust contributed $25.5 million, and Berkeley Schools paid $1.5 million, officials said.
The trust will house a memorial park with a new midden and some of the pottery, jewelry, baskets and other artifacts discovered over the years and housed in the Phoebe A. Hearst College Museum of Anthropology. We are planning to build a cultural center. Berkeley, California.
Corinna Gould, co-founder of the Sogorea Te Land Trust, addressed councilors before the vote, saying their vote was the culmination of the work of thousands of people over many years.
The mound that once stood there was “the place where we said goodbye to someone for the first time.” “I’m really happy that this place will be preserved forever.”
Gould, who is also tribal chairman of the Lisjan-Ohlone Village Coalition, wiped away tears as he attended the meeting via video conference after the Berkeley City Council voted to return the land.
