Malibu : Indian Artifact Protection

Concerned over recent allegations that a developer failed to follow proper procedures when his workers dug up a Chumash Indian burial site recently, the City Council on Tuesday directed the city attorney to draw up a law that would protect Indian artifacts from future development.

The council did not elaborate on what kinds of restrictions the ordinance might impose on developers. The law would make Malibu one of the few cities in the state to enact even stronger protection of Indian sites than state law requires.

Several Chumash Indians and a couple of actors waited for more than two hours to speak in favor of the ordinance as the council wrestled with more routine matters.

“If we don’t act now, we will find that our cultural resources are destroyed,” warned Edward Albert, actor and founder of a Malibu organization devoted to preserving such sites. Charlie Cook, a Chumash who recently “purified” the council with a sage-leaf ceremony, said: “This is still Chumash country. Everybody else is just a superficial owner.”

Chumash representatives and several city officials have complained that the remains of Indians recently dug up by workers at a construction site on Sea Level Drive were improperly handled. Cook said the developer has not allowed him or other Chumash onto the site to make sure that the remains have been property reburied.

Alan Block, the attorney for the developer, said an Indian monitor is on the site, as required by county law, and that his client has followed proper procedures. The criticism is the result of feuding between different Indian groups, he said.