Block Landfill at Gregory Canyon

* The Times based its Aug. 31 editorial on a false assumption in urging a gubernatorial veto of AB 2752, enacted to give protection to the religious and spiritual value of Gregory Mountain to native people. Your editorial states, “The Palas did not raise the religious issue until late in the game.” On the contrary, Pala, Pechanga and other tribes have objected to a landfill at the base of Gregory Mountain since the late 1980s, long before either had a casino or even plans to build one. A Times article of Sept. 1, 1990, confirms this when it states that the San Diego “planning commission members said they were opposed to the Gregory Canyon site because it is considered sacred by the Pala band of Mission Indians who live nearby.”

Everyone involved in the fight to protect Gregory Mountain from being defiled has known from the beginning that it is a spiritual site of great importance. The developers ran roughshod over tribal religious values by bankrolling a local initiative campaign in 1994 to end-run the local planning and zoning process and force the placement of the waste facility in Gregory Canyon. Fortunately, the recent “political clout of California Indian tribes” that The Times denounces has helped in getting the Legislature to take a look at the proposed trashing of our religious values. We ask that your readers urge the governor to sign AB 2752.

ROBERT H. SMITH, Chairman

Pala Band of Mission Indians

Pala, Calif.