Chumash Band Sues to Halt Reburial Project

A faction of Chumash Indians filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday to stop Ventura County from disturbing the remains of Chumash ancestors buried in an ancient Indian cemetery that was discovered last summer in a flood control channel near Point Mugu.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court by representatives of the Southern Council of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, calls for an immediate end to county plans to rebury the remains at another site. A hearing on the group’s request for a temporary halt to work at the site is scheduled for Dec. 18.

Says Plan Violates Beliefs

In the suit, the group asserts that the plan violates tenets of their religion that prohibit disturbing ancestral remains and is a violation of several constitutional guarantees, including freedom of religion.

The suit asks for $50 million in damages for disturbance to the remains during excavations earlier this year. Named as defendants in the suit are Ventura County and several state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was a consultant in the removal plan.

Also named are two Chumash Indian groups, the Candelaria American Indian Council and the Ventureno band, who worked with the county to develop the reburial plan.

Ventura County Counsel James McBride said the county should have no trouble defending against the suit.

“We’ve worked with state archeologists and local Chumash Indian groups for a good number of months and this plan is most acceptable to everybody,” McBride said. “As far as we have been informed, it will be acceptable to the religious beliefs of the Chumash.”

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors had voted two weeks ago to hire archeologists to remove the remains of 16 Chumash Indians from the ancient burial site and rebury them in an undisclosed location in Oakbrook Park in Thousand Oaks.

The board action came after officials had been notified that the county would lose $785,000 in federal flood control funds unless it came up with a plan to protect the human remains from being washed out to sea.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had said in a letter to officials that Ventura County would not receive the reimbursement money for county work already done in the Calleaguas Creek flood channel unless the cemetery is evacuated and the remains are reburied.

So the board in November agreed to spend $80,720 to hire archeologists from California State University, Northridge, to find out exactly how many are buried at the site and to create a reburial plan. Since beginning their work Dec. 5, archeologists have discovered the remains of an additional four Chumash Indians, said Gerald Nowak, the county’s deputy director of public works.

The archeologists are scheduled to complete their work by Dec. 27, Nowak said. “Any and all bodies found will be exhumed and reburied,” he said.

During hearings before the board in November, representatives of the Candelaria American Indian Council and the Ventureno band of the Chumash agreed to the plan. But members of the Coastal Band of the Chumash testifying at the hearing protested the removal and reburial of the remains for religious reasons.

Camarillo attorney Tom Malley, who represents the two Chumash Indian groups named as defendants in the suit, said Wednesday that he doubts the suit will be successful.

“We don’t feel that they will be able to demonstrate that there has been an infringement of religious rights,” he said.

The skeletal remains, which CSUN researchers say date to the 5th Century, were found in July as part of a routine evacuation required by federal law for flood control work there. The area is listed in the National Registry of Historical Places because Chumash Indian relics had been found previously at the site.