Ventura County to Pay for Reburial : Chumash Remains to Be Relocated

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to appropriate more than $80,000 to move the remains of 16 Chumash Indians from an ancient burial ground in a flood-control channel near Point Mugu and rebury them in Thousand Oaks.

The board acted after federal officials warned that the county would lose $785,000 in federal flood control aid unless it moved to protect the Indian bones from being washed out to sea when the runoff from seasonal rains begins flowing through the channel, officials said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a letter to the board last week that the county will not receive reimbursement for work on the Calleguas Creek flood-control channel unless the cemetery is evacuated and the remains are reburied in accordance with federal regulations on the treatment of Indian burials.

The board voted 3 to 2 to spend $80,720 to hire archeologists from California State University, Northridge, who will determine how many Indians are buried at the site.

The money will also cover the expense of reburying the skeletons of 16 Chumash Indians that were found in a routine archeological inspection of the area in July, said Supervisor Edwin A. Jones, who supported the action.

Indian Groups Agree

Representatives of the Candelaria American Indian Council and the Ventureno band of the Chumash have agreed to the county’s reburial plan. But other Indians spoke before the board Tuesday and said they oppose the plan. They identified themselves as representatives of the Coastal Band of the Chumash, and said their religion prohibits the disturbance of their ancestors’ graves.

The remains that have been found will probably be reburied at Oakbrook Park in Thousand Oaks, Jones said. The exact location of the site will not be disclosed, he said.

Such reburials have been carried out secretly by Indian groups in the past to prevent curiosity seekers from finding the graves.

Archeologists from CSUN and Indian groups complained in October that souvenir hunters, who they said have been digging up Chumash sites for many years, had found the archeological site in the flood-control channel. “Someone got down into the excavation with a shovel and disturbed the burials, scattering human bones all over the place,” an archeologist complained.

Provincial Location

Archeologists have speculated that the burials may be part of the primary cemetery of a Chumash provincial capital that flourished from the 3rd Century to the 18th Century, meaning that many other graves would be in the area.

The county supervisors have been wrestling ever since with the problem of meeting federal and state regulations applying to the treatment of Indian remains. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has charge of inland waterways, offered four plans for protecting the bones, ranging in expense up to $5 million.

Blanket of Concrete

If the archeologists find more Indian remains at the site, the county will ask the federal government for permission to cover them with a thick layer of concrete instead of carrying out more reburials, Jones said.

Supervisor Susan K. Lacey abstained from the vote to avoid a possible conflict of interest because her husband, an attorney, represents Chumash Indian groups that have been involved in the issue. Supervisor John K. Flynn also abstained because, he said, he did not have enough information to know what should be done with the bones.