Robbins Cuts Back Plan on Museum for ‘Lost Village’ Relics

State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) said Thursday that he is drastically reducing his proposal for an $11-million museum to display thousands of Indian artifacts unearthed at the “Lost Village of Encino.”

Robbins said the state Parks and Recreation Department, which has questioned the cost of the museum and the archeological significance of the artifacts, has tentatively agreed to spend $175,000 to showcase a small fraction of the relics at Los Encinos State Park.

“I think it’s better to accept that and guarantee that some of the artifacts be displayed in Encino than to not accept it,” Robbins said. “We can’t keep fighting the Indian wars.”

Hopeful of Resolution

Barbara Rathbun, an assistant deputy director of the parks department, said she is hopeful that the dispute can be resolved, but she stopped short of saying an agreement has been reached.

A bill by Robbins earmarking $975,000 to catalogue the artifacts has been stalled in the Legislature since mid-1985. As part of the compromise, Robbins said, he plans to amend the legislation to limit the expenditure to the $175,000. The money would be used to refurbish and reconstruct the second floor of Garnier House, which is in the park, he said.

Robbins said the first floor would continue to display Western history items and the second floor would display the Indian items. They include pottery, stone tools, shell beads and animal bones dating from 5,000 BC to the late 1800s.

Robbins said his plan would keep some of the artifacts in the San Fernando Valley. In addition to the museum, which is across Ventura Boulevard from the excavation site, artifacts would be offered to California State University, Northridge, UCLA and other institutions.

Spent $400,000

Nancy A. Whitney-Desautels, the Huntington Beach archeologist credited with discovering the artifacts, has said that 12.5% of them, about 250,000 items, could be displayed. She estimates that she has invested $400,000 in labor and lab costs on the project, and has said she hoped to be reimbursed with state funds.

Bob Hayes, a Robbins aide, said he expects there will be no money in the bill to catalogue the artifacts. Rathbun said any reimbursement for cataloguing would have to come from the developer of the site where the relics were found.

Robbins proposed the museum after an estimated 2 million relics--including 7,000 arrowheads and 50,000 beads--were found in October, 1984, during excavation of a construction site along Ventura Boulevard. Archeologists said some of the items appeared to be from the Lost Village of Encino, an Indian village described two centuries ago by the first white men to reach the San Fernando Valley, in an exploration led by Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola.

Museum Drew Opposition

Robbins proposed spending $11 million to buy land at Los Encinos park to build a museum.

Along with the parks department, the state Native American Heritage Commission opposed the museum. Commission members said state financing would only encourage other developers to dig up sacred Indian grounds and then appeal to the state for money to preserve them.

Nevertheless, as a first step, Robbins succeeded in placing $50,000 in the budget to study the artifacts.

John Foster, park and recreation’s top archeologist, said in November that his preliminary finding was that the items were not worth displaying in a museum. His study is scheduled to be completed by Feb. 1.