West

City of Berkeley votes to return sacred Native land to Ohlone

Published

9 months ago

March 17, 2024

City of Berkeley votes to return sacred Native land to Ohlone

Ohlone people celebrated on Wednesday over the return of sacred Native land in Berkeley, California.
Berkeley’s City Council unanimously voted to give title of the 2.2-acre parking lot to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.
Mayor Jesse Arreguín said the site is significant as a place for education, prayer and preservation of Ohlone history.

Ohlone people and others rejoiced Wednesday over the return of sacred Native land dating back thousands of years, saying the move rights a historic wrong and restores the people who were first on land now called Berkeley, California, to their rightful place in history.

The 2.2-acre parking lot is the only undeveloped portion of the shellmound in West Berkeley, where ancestors of today’s Ohlone people established the first human settlement on the shores of the San Francisco Bay 5,700 years ago.

Berkeley’s City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a San Francisco Bay Area collective led by women that works to return land to Indigenous people. The collective raised most of the money needed to reach the agreement with developers who own the land.

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“We want to be a place for global Indigenous leadership to come and gather in solidarity,” said Melissa Nelson, chair of the board of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, at a celebratory news conference Wednesday. “We want to educate, we want to restore and we want to heal.”

Melissa Nelson, chair of the board of directors of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, speaks at a news conference on March 13, 2024, in Berkeley, Calif. Berkeley’s City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a women-led, San Francisco Bay Area collective that works to return land to Indigenous people and that raised the funds needed to reach the agreement. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The crowd cheered as speakers talked of a movement to restore other lands to Indigenous people.

The site — a three-block area Berkeley designated as a landmark in 2000 — will be home to Native medicines and foods, an oasis for pollinators and wildlife, and a place for youth to learn about their heritage, including ancient dances and ceremonies.

“The site will be home to education, prayer and preservation, and will outlast every one of us today to continue telling the story of the Ohlone people,” Mayor Jesse Arreguín said, adding that their history is “marked not by adversity, but more importantly, by their unwavering resilience as a community.”

Before Spanish colonizers arrived in the region, the area held a village and a massive shellmound with a height of 20 feet and the length and width of a football field that was a ceremonial and burial site. Built over years with mussel, clam and oyster shells, human remains, and artifacts, the shellmound also served as a lookout.

The Spanish removed the Ohlone from their villages and forced them into labor at local missions. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Anglo settlers took over the land and razed the shellmound to line roadbeds in Berkeley with shells.

“It’s a very sad and shameful history,” said Berkeley City Councilmember Sophie Hahn, who spearheaded the effort to return the land.

The agreement with Berkeley-based Ruegg & Ellsworth LLC, which owns the parking lot, comes after a six-year legal fight that started in 2018 when the developer sued the city after officials denied its application to build a 260-unit apartment building with 50% affordable housing and 27,500 feet of retail and parking space.

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The settlement was reached after Ruegg & Ellsworth agreed to accept $27 million to settle all outstanding claims and to turn the property over to Berkeley. The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust contributed $25.5 million and Berkeley paid $1.5 million, officials said.

The trust plans to build a commemorative park with a new shellmound and a cultural center to house some of the pottery, jewelry, baskets and other artifacts found over the years and that are in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Corrina Gould, co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and tribal chair of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Ohlone, attended Tuesday’s city council meeting via video conference and wiped away tears after the council voted to return the land.

The shellmound that once stood there was “a place where we first said goodbye to someone,” she said. “To have this place saved forever, I am beyond words.”

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Wyoming

Wyoming news briefs, Dec. 10, 2024

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16 minutes ago

December 10, 2024

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West

Blue state attorney general advises state officials on how to resist ‘draconian’ Trump deportations

Published

4 hours ago

December 10, 2024

Press Room

Blue state attorney general advises state officials on how to resist ‘draconian’ Trump deportations

California Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta has joined a growing list of Democratic leaders vowing to resist President-elect Donald Trump and border czar Tom Homan’s plans for mass deportations.

Last week, Bonta issued new guidance to courthouses, healthcare facilities, universities, schools, labor agencies, public libraries and shelters, requiring state-run agencies to adopt policies to resist Trump’s “draconian” and “inhumane” immigration enforcement actions.

“My office will continue to use the full force of the law and every tool at our disposal to protect the rights of California’s immigrants – and we need staff at these critical locations to do the same,” Bonta said. “We cannot let the Trump deportation machine create a culture of fear and mistrust that prevents immigrants from accessing vital public services.”

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta (Loren Elliott/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

According to California’s AG office, the guidance lays out model policies and recommendations that “guide public institutions in complying with California law limiting state and local participation in immigration enforcement activities.”

“In California, we believe our public resources, like libraries, hospitals, courthouses and schools should be available for all without fear of civil immigration enforcement,” Bonta said during a press event announcing the guidance. “The model policies we’re issuing to public facilities … provide policy recommendations that may mitigate disruptions from immigration enforcement actions at public institutions.”

The guidance refers state agencies to a 2017 law called the “California Values Act” that the AG office said, “prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from assisting with immigration enforcement, with limited exceptions.”

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Migrants are processed by the U.S. Border Patrol near the Jacumba Hot Springs after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on June 13, 2024, in San Diego. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)

Bonta’s guidance includes prohibiting the “unauthorized” collection or disclosure of information that “might indicate an individual’s or family’s citizenship or immigration status,” as well as instituting a policy of always referring federal law enforcement officials to a designated person who will “have the authority to respond to immigration enforcement-related requests.”

“I want to emphasize that the California DOJ is here to protect immigrants’ safety, immigrants’ freedoms and immigrants’ rights,” said Bonta. “Let me be clear, President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda is draconian and his rhetoric, xenophobic.”

Bonta, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines with his parents at 2 months old, also said that Trump’s deportation plan is “fiscally irresponsible.” He called immigrants “the backbone of our nation.”

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Migrants are smuggled across the Tijuana-San Diego border as they climb the wall to seek asylum to the United States on June 7, 2024. (Carlos Moreno/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Kevin McCarthy, former speaker of the House and congressman from California, told Fox News that California politicians like Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom are costing California taxpayers huge sums by making the state a “magnet” for illegal immigrants.

“He’ll give them free healthcare, I mean, he denies California citizens certain things but not to those who come illegally that’s why we attract so many and it’s costing a great deal, we have a huge deficit in California,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy said that Bonta’s actions are an attempt to “make a name for himself” in Democratic politics despite concerns over illegal immigration and violent crime by illegal migrants playing a major role in Trump’s retaking of the White House in 2024.

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference on Sept. 25, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“These attorneys general should take a deep breath, listen to what the American public said and understand that immigration was one of the major reasons why Donald Trump won, and it wasn’t a Republican issue, [it was] Republican and Democrat too,” he said.

He pointed to the election of Nathan Hochman as Los Angeles County District Attorney, who he said was “overwhelmingly elected because we watched the crime go rampant.”

“As attorney general, your job is to protect your citizens. Why wouldn’t you want these gang members, I mean these are ruthless gang members and these have been running the drugs of fentanyl that have been killing your children, why wouldn’t you want them out? I would think that would be your job without having the president do it,” said McCarthy. “People want to see something else happen, especially from this attorney general.”

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

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San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee is ‘Ready’ After Injury, Surgery

Published

6 hours ago

December 10, 2024

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San Francisco Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee is ‘Ready’ After Injury, Surgery

The San Francisco Giants signed centerfielder Jung Hoo Lee to a long term deal to be their everyday leadoff hitter last offseason. Unfortunately, he suffered a season ending injury early in the season. After crashing into the outfield wall in May, he underwent labrum surgery and went on the 60-day injured list, ending his season.

After winning an MVP and five Gold Gloves in the KBO, he didn’t get much time to adjust in the Major Leagues, but got off to a pretty good start showing off what he was known best for in the KBO.

In 37 games before the injury, he hit .262 with a .641 OPS with four doubles, two home runs and two stolen bases from the leadoff spot. What was most impressive, however, was his 13 strikeouts to 10 walks.

He showed an uncanny ability to control the strikezone which is exactly what the Giants need in a leadoff hitter.

At the Winter Meetings, San Francisco provided an update on Lee going forward.

“Jung Hoo is good to go. Jung Hoo is ready,” said manager Bob Melvin.

Furthermore, Melvin said that Lee’s rehab went well and he will not have any restrictions moving forward into Spring Training.

Lee rehabbed all throughout the season, so to hear that news is good for the Giants. Not only will they get a disciplined hitter who will fill the leadoff role everyday, but they will get a solidified option in center field.

After Lee went down, San Francisco cobbled together both of those aspects of the lineup. Heliot Ramos got the most time in center with 60 games, but that was split up among all of the outfielders. As for the leadoff spot, that role went to Tyler Fitzgerald most of the time once his breakout really began and after the Jorge Soler trade.

Not only will Lee coming back be good for the stability and bolster the lineup even more with the addidtion of Willy Adames, it will be good for Lee as a player. He didn’t get much time to adjust to the new league last season and could have a breakout season the more he plays.

Without restrictions in Spring Training, he will be able to get tons of reps against big league pitching before the regular season starts. He is full go for next season, and another reason for the Giants to be excited about the 2025 lineup.

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