Bolsa Chica Archeologist Receives Bullet With Her Name in Mail

The archeologist who unearthed what some believe to be ancient Native American bones in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands reported to police that she received a 3-inch bullet in the mail, engraved with a Native American slogan and her name.

“I was shocked,” said Nancy Whitney-Desautels, the archeologist hired by the Koll Real Estate Group to excavate a 7.4-acre site near the wetlands in preparation for a proposed housing development. “I went numb for at least half an hour. Others had to prod me to call the police.”

The bullet was engraved with the slogan “Remember Our Ancestors” and her name. It was mailed in a padded envelope and to a post office box for her research firm.

Desautels, who opened it on Friday, said she has been living in various hotel rooms ever since in fear for her life.

“I’m trying to keep a low profile,” she said from her office on Tuesday.

“Remember Our Ancestors” is the slogan of the Ti’at Society based in Long Beach, one of several Native American groups that have been critical of Desautels’ work in recent weeks.

Cindi Alvitre, the society’s director, said Tuesday that her group had nothing to do with any threat to Desautels.

“That’s not what we’re about,” she said. “We’re into maritime culture, not bullets. There would be no reason for us to do anything like that: We’re not after life; we’re after truth.”

A spokesman for the Huntington Beach Police Department said it referred the case to the FBI. Gary Morley, a special agent with the FBI in Santa Ana, said bureau policy prohibited him from saying whether the FBI was investigating.

Controversy over the excavation of the wetlands erupted last month when it was publicly revealed that Desautels and her associates had unearthed several human bone fragments believed to be 8,000-year-old Native American remains. Last Saturday, about 60 demonstrators on the steps of Huntington Beach City Hall, including Alvitre, protested the disturbance of their ancestors’ remains.

And earlier this week, the argument became even more heated with the revelation that the excavated site contained at least 20 separate bone concentrations, lending credence to Native American claims that it may have been a prehistoric Native American burial grounds.

“The greed has got to stop,” Alvitre said at Saturday’s demonstration. “Who gave them the right to rape my ancestors?”

Lucy Dunn, senior vice president of the Koll company, which proposes to build 4,286 homes near the wetlands, said Tuesday that the threat against Desautels has more to do with politics than with ancestors.

“We are appalled,” she said. “Nancy is an innocent pawn in political warfare that has nothing to do with protecting ancestors and everything to do with stopping a very positive economic and environmental project for the city.”

Desautels, meanwhile, said she has hired a private security consultant to advise her and her staff on how to protect themselves from attack and increase their security at the site of the archeological dig.

“These people play hardball,” she said. “I intend to keep a low profile and simply do my work. I will attempt to keep the outside world away from me.”

* RESPONSE TO REPORT ASSAILED

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