Accord Sought on Mall at Indian Burial Site : Preservation: Wal-Mart calls for the developer to reach a compromise with native groups after a boycott was threatened over plans to level the area.

Wal-Mart and a Pasadena developer are seeking a compromise that would prevent the destruction of an ancient Indian burial site near Paso Robles but still allow a shopping mall to be built on the surrounding property.

“We are sensitive to the wishes of the Native Americans regarding the property in question,” Wal-Mart spokesman Don Shinkle said in an interview. “We’re trying to make everyone happy.”

In recent weeks, American Indians and their supporters have threatened to boycott Wal-Mart and the city of Paso Robles if plans proceed to destroy the burial site, which could be up to 5,000 years old.

A skull and some bones were found buried in the knoll near the Salinas River. Archeologists who have studied the site say there probably are additional graves.

American Indians contend that the property is a sacred place--as holy as a church or synagogue. They have proposed at the very least to preserve the burial grounds by paving over the knoll and incorporating it into the project’s parking lot.

Developer James Halferty initially insisted that the knoll be destroyed so that stores in the mall would be visible to passing motorists.

But after The Times reported on plans for the mall and American Indian groups began discussing a national boycott, Wal-Mart broke its silence and called on the developer to find a compromise.

“Clearer minds are prevailing,” Shinkle said. “We’re going to do everything we can to work out an equitable agreement with the people of Paso Robles, the Native Americans and the developer.”

Halferty said that at Wal-Mart’s request he will hire a new archeologist--his third--to search for additional graves on the property. Then he will come up with a new plan for that part of the shopping center, he said.

Pilulaw Khus, one of four American Indians suing to halt the project, said further test digs are unnecessary because Halferty’s first two archeologists have already clearly defined the site, believed to have been inhabited by the Chumash and Salinan tribes.

“To go in and start digging more holes in the area is a desecration,” said Khus, a Chumash healer and spiritual leader. “There is no need for it.”

Khus said she was pleased by the possibility of a compromise but called on the developer to begin consulting directly with the American Indians who are most closely connected to the site.

“These are our grandmas and grandpas,” she said. “If he is acting in a good faith way, he needs to be conferring with the native people. If he can do this, there is no reason the shopping mall cannot be built.”

The lawsuit brought by members of the Chumash and Salinan nations to save the burial ground will receive its first hearing Monday.