Indians Suspect Remains Damaged by Irvine Co.

The leader of a local Indian tribe said Thursday that she and others suspect that the Irvine Co. may be mishandling artifacts and ancestral remains found at a construction site near Corona del Mar.

The Gabrieleno Indians planned to take their concerns directly to the Irvine Co. today by picketing outside its headquarters here.

“We have heard it through the grapevine that they have already done a lot of damage” to archeological sites, said Gabrieleno chairwoman Vera Rocha, who lives in Baldwin Hills. “We just want to see for ourselves.”

Irvine Co. spokesman Larry Thomas said the company has taken great care to preserve the Gabrieleno remains and artifacts unearthed during construction in the rolling hills between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. The Irvine Co. is building a 2,600-home development on what it calls the Newport Coast.

“The Irvine Co. has been engaged in one of the most exhaustive and extensive efforts to recover, preserve and reinter Indian remains wherever appropriate,” Thomas said.

Company officials would welcome evidence that archeological digs have been improperly handled, he said, and would be willing to set up a Gabrieleno inspection, possibly by this afternoon.

For thousands of years, Gabrieleno Indians camped on hills and in caves of the coastal area. All along the coast, the semi-nomadic Indians buried their dead and left countless artifacts behind.

Within the 9,000-acre project alone, there are more than 50 registered archeological sites, Laguna Beach archeologist Corky Smith said.

Members of the Juaneno Indian tribe, whose ancestors populated South County, plan to participate in the protest to support its tribal neighbors, Juaneno chief David Belardes said.

Belardes said rapid Southland development threatens to destroy what is left of the heritage of all Southern California Indians.

“They are not giving us much choice,” Belardes said of developers. “It’s either that (protest) or shut up and they destroy everything.”