Protesters are demanding that KB Homes stop development on a 9-acre site at Market Street and Isbel Drive after builders unearthed part of a skull and a necklace believed to have belonged to a young Ohlone girl. The protesters believe that the location, a knoll overlooking Branciforte Creek, was used as a burial site 6,000 years ago. The call to end construction was issued by Ann Marie Sayers, a descendant of the Ohlone Indians who lives in the village of Indian Canyon. According to the California Native American Heritage Commission, Sayers is the “most likely descendant” of the girl, whose bones were found there.
Protesters are demanding that KB Homes stop development on a 9-acre site at Market Street and Isbel Drive after builders unearthed part of a skull and a necklace believed to have belonged to a young Ohlone girl. The protesters believe that the location, a knoll overlooking Branciforte Creek, was used as a burial site 6,000 years ago. The call to end construction was issued by Ann Marie Sayers, a descendant of the Ohlone Indians who lives in the village of Indian Canyon. According to the California Native American Heritage Commission, Sayers is the “most likely descendant” of the girl, whose bones were found there.
KB Homes says that it plans to build 32 two-story residential units on the site, which has long been recognized as archeologically sensitive. Santa Cruz Planning Director Juliana Rebagliati says that “Qualified archaeologists are overseeing all work on site, a Native American observer is also overseeing the work and third-party archaeologists are also overseeing it.”
This was not satisfactory to the protesters, who marched from downtown to Grant Park on Sunday, calling for cessation of all work on the project. “No bulldozers on sacred ground,” read one of their signs, though this runs counter to current California law. The existing development policy states that if remains cannot be removed from the site, they must be buried and sealed so that any construction above them does not cause a disturbance.
The decision to allow construction on the site was made in 2007, despite opposition from local residents, environmentalists and archeologists.
Read more at KION, Santa Cruz Sentinel and Santa Cruz IMC.
