A San Francisco Bay Space car parking zone that sits on high of a sacred tribal shell mound relationship again 5,700 years has been returned to the Ohlone individuals by the Berkeley Metropolis Council after a settlement with builders who personal the land.
Berkeley’s Metropolis Council voted unanimously Tuesday to undertake an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Belief, a women-led, San Francisco Bay Space collective that works to return land to Indigenous individuals and that raised the funds wanted to succeed in the settlement.
“This was a long, long effort but it was honestly worth it because what we’re doing today is righting past wrongs and returning stolen land to the people who once lived on it,” stated Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin.
The two.2-acre car parking zone is the one undeveloped portion of the West Berkeley shell mound, a three-block space Berkeley designated as a landmark in 2000.
Earlier than Spanish colonizers arrived within the area, that space held a village and a large shell mound with a peak of 20 ft and the size and width of a soccer area that was a ceremonial and burial website. Constructed over years with mussel, clam and oyster shells, human stays, and artifacts, the mound additionally served as a lookout.
The Spanish eliminated the Ohlone from their villages and compelled them into labor at native missions. Within the late 1800s and early 1900s, Anglo settlers took over the land and razed the shell mound to line roadbeds in Berkeley with shells.
“It’s a very sad and shameful history,” stated Berkeley Metropolis Councilmember Sophie Hahn, who spearheaded the hassle to return the land to the Ohlone.
“This was the site of a thriving village going back at least 5,700 years and there are still Ohlone people among us and their connection to this site is very, very deep and very real, and this is what we are honoring,” she added.
The settlement with Berkeley-based Ruegg & Ellsworth LLC, which owns the car parking zone, comes after a six-year authorized battle that began in 2018 when the developer sued the town after officers denied its software to construct a 260-unit condo constructing with 50% inexpensive housing and 27,500 ft of retail and parking house.
The settlement was reached after Ruegg & Ellsworth agreed to just accept $27 million to settle all excellent claims and to show the property over to Berkeley. The Sogorea Te’ Land Belief contributed $25.5 million and Berkeley paid $1.5 million, officers stated.
The belief plans to construct a commemorative park with a brand new shell mound and a cultural heart to deal with a number of the pottery, jewellery, baskets and different artifacts discovered over time and which can be within the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology on the College of California, Berkeley.
Corrina Gould, co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Belief, addressed council members earlier than they voted, saying their vote was the end result of the work of 1000’s of individuals over a few years.
The mound that when stood there was “a place where we first said goodbye to someone,” she stated. “To have this place saved forever, I am beyond words.”
Gould, who can also be tribal chair of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Ohlone, attended the assembly by way of video convention and wiped away tears after Berkeley’s Metropolis Council voted to return the land.
