Tribes find a middle ground

The parties debating the fate of thousands of Native American artifacts and more than 174 sets of human remains found on a development in the Bolsa Chica wetlands have reached an agreement for the items’ reburial.

Hearthside Homes has been developing the Brightwater site for years; it is now believed to be an ancient burial ground and village for the Juaneno and Gabrielino tribes.

Besides fighting the developer for what they perceived as a sluggish attitude toward reburying the many remains found, the two tribes also debated among themselves over what exactly needed to be buried, and when, a California Coastal Commission official said.

Now, following years of discourse with the commission, the remains and grave goods are all slated to be reburied by July 1, following the sorting and documentation of all unearthed items.

“There was already a verbal agreement, and they were supposed to send us a written confirmation on Monday,” said Theresa Henry, the commission’s South Coast Area district manager.

“That was done, so they have agreed to do the sorting of the stored remains by July 1, and to have a single reburial, as opposed to reburying the human remains first.”

Henry said there were two disagreements between the two tribes that lay claim to the site: whether the human remains should have been buried before the artifacts and grave goods, and whether all artifacts found on the site should be considered grave goods.

“We prefer to have a single reburial of everything that remains,” Henry said.

In the past, Hearthside only buried items that were found in close proximity to the remains; other items were thought to be artifacts, rather than grave goods. Now all items that have been uncovered will be reburied, regardless of where they were found on the site.

The Native American Heritage Commission also concurred with this broader definition of grave goods, Henry said.

“The tribes monitor everything, so they already know what was found,” Henry said. “The two tribes monitor on a regular basis.”