Work Halts at State Park for Scrutiny of Indian Relics

Construction of a new main entrance to Malibu Creek State Park in Calabasas was halted indefinitely Thursday after an Indian group accused a Los Angeles County work crew of bulldozing a thousand-year-old Chumash village site at the park gates.

State Coastal Commission officials, who have jurisdiction over the $560,000 project, ordered work suspended until archeologists and Indian experts can determine the significance of tiny beads and chips from tools unearthed this week by the grading.

If the artifacts are found to be important links to the ancient village, a full-scale archeological excavation of the site might be ordered, officials said.

Such an effort could delay completion of the park entrance until next year, county road engineers said. The project includes the widening of busy Las Virgenes Road at the park gates and construction of turning lanes into the mountain parkland.

Thursday’s shutdown was the third in a month for the project, which covers a thousand-foot section of Las Virgenes Road south of Mulholland Highway.

Work Suspended in August

Work was suspended briefly in August because of a dispute over the county’s selection of an Indian representative required by the Coastal Commission to monitor the widening. Construction was halted again Friday and Monday after the representative discovered artifacts being unearthed by a backhoe.

But a 12-man crew was busily pouring asphalt at the graded site Thursday when Chumash tribal members and archeological experts met at the roadside to press for enforcement of controls over the construction.

“What they’re doing is destroying our past, and it hurts Indian people and non-Indian people as well,” said Charlie Cooke, 49, a Newbury Park resident who is hereditary chief of the 6,000-member Chumash tribe. “Everybody loses when these areas are destroyed.”

‘No Business Paving’

Posh Moyle, the Chumash tribal monitor for the project, said the county has “no business paving here” until artifacts are protected.

“Yesterday, I stood and watched them dig and pull out things my ancestors used 1,000 years ago. It’s not a very nice feeling,” said Moyle, 39, of Ventura. “We don’t want to permanently stop this project. We just want materials recovered and protected in another area.”

Archeologist Chester King said the site is rich in remnants from a Chumash village that probably flourished from about 900 AD to 1830. Known as Talapop, it apparently had a permanent population of about 70 and functioned as a trading center between the San Fernando Valley and Malibu.

King said the Calabasas site is “inch-for-inch richer” in artifacts than the highly publicized “Lost Village of Encino” excavated this year.

He said he headed a five-month archeological excavation in 1980 at the Talapop site that uncovered thousands of artifacts. The $100,000 exploration was jointly financed by the state and the county and staged through the University of California, Santa Barbara.

King charged that county road crews rebuffed another archeologist last week when he sought to limit grading in the area after beads, bone fragments and chips from stone tools were uncovered by the backhoe.

But that charge was denied by Joe Ferndino, county road inspector and assistant engineer for the project.

“When they show us artifacts and verify their significance, we shut down,” Ferndino said. He also said Moyle did not inform him of the discovery of any materials on Wednesday.

Ferndino’s boss, Department of Public Works engineer Robert Niemann, said the county has cooperated with Indians and Coastal Commission officials. Niemann said the relatively simple widening had been turned into “a very difficult project” by the controversy.

“I would hope that we would not be required to have archeological excavations out there. If it involves an archeological dig, we can kiss the job goodby for this winter,” he said.

Pete Xander, a Coastal Commission planner and analyst who issued Thursday’s preservation order, said his agency is considering court action against the county because of its “unwillingness” to follow provisions of the construction permit.

“The letter we delivered to them today states for the umpteenth time the permit conditions,” Xander said. “They are crystal clear: When additional archeological discoveries are made, work must be temporarily halted until they are reviewed and mitigation measures are developed.”

It was unknown whether the asphalt poured Thursday will have to be removed. Xander said the new analysis of the site’s archeological significance will determine the extent of any artifact salvage effort. The Chumash have announced plans to rebury materials that are dug up at the Calabasas site.