Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

February 16, 2010

Prayer Vigil Glen Cove Native Burial Site

Contact: Wounded Knee DeOcampo protectglencove@gmail.com
http://www.vallejointertribalcouncil.org/#glencove

Prayer Vigil for Protection of Ancient Glen Cove Native Burial Site

When: Monday, February 22, 2010
8:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M.
Where: John Moss Federal Building
650 Capitol Mall
Sacramento, CA 95814
(File photo: Glen Cove Prayer Walk/Vallejo Intertribal Council)
We urge everybody to attend the prayer vigil in a good way and be guided by the Indigenous Vision of our ancestors as we gather to focus on protecting the Glen Cove burial site.
Following the vigil, a talking circle will take place at 9:30 A.M. at the Sol Collective Building 2574 21st Street, Sac CA 95818. We will converge at Sol Collective to gather our thoughts and formulate holistic approaches to the protection and preservation of our revered sacred sites. Bring questions, suggestions, and solutions as we develop strategies for moving forward and implementing positive change within our communities and ensuring the survival of future generations. Native peoples knowledgeable of and willing to discuss American Indian Law and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples specific to protecting sacred sites are encouraged to participate.
Protect and Defend the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
We, the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island, urgently request the assistance from any concerned citizens of this state, any non-governmental organizations and from our fellow Indigenous Peoples to unite in solidarity for the preservation and protection of all Sacred Sites: sites of gathering, sites of ceremony, sites of creation and sites of burial. The full and undeniable accesses to these sites are a basic human right of the Indigenous Peoples and must be respected by the state in which they reside.
As members of the seventh generation, we are concerned about the eminent threat of the desecration and the development of the Glen Cove burial site by the City of Vallejo and the Greater Vallejo Recreational District. For over 11 years, the Vallejo Inter-Tribal Council and concerned peoples have fought to protect the ancestral remains and the sacred items within the shell mounds. The Glen Cove site has been a gathering place for our Indigenous Ancestors to bury their relatives for thousands of years and had been used by over one hundred local California Indian tribes. The site was first documented in archaeological records in 1907 by an archaeologist from the University of California at Berkeley and, according to a 1988 report by Novato Archaeological Resource Service, is at least 3,500 years old. Many of the sacred items unearthed from the site in previous years remain illegally housed in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley.
We call upon all family clans, bands, tribes, nations and all Earth Peoples to join us on our spiritual journey and struggle to protect Indigenous Peoples sacred sites. These sites are absolutely necessary for the self-determination and cultural transmission of the Indigenous Peoples.
Our time is now; we must unite in solidarity and implement change in our communities.

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