Save the West Berkeley Shellmound

If you’re interested in supporting trans liberation, then figure out who is organizing against the street sweeps of homeless people living in Berkeley and join them. That’s a trans issue. Housing, access to health care, prison abolition, defending the West Berkeley Shellmound. Those are all trans issues, not only because they impact trans people, but also because trans people are there fighting back. Professor Eric Stanley, UC Berkeley

Berkeley is built on Ohlone land. The Shellmound is sacred. Our community wants to protect the Shellmound, and the Legislature agrees, Sophie Hahn said. We owe it to the Ohlone and our children to keep fighting to protect this sacred place.

The city of Berkeley is appealing an April court ruling that green-lighted a large apartment complex at 1900 Fourth Street, continuing a nearly decade-long battle over development on a property considered sacred to the Ohlone tribe.

Systemic murder, disenfranchisement, and appropriation of the property of Native peoples was official California policy at statehood, and the City of Berkeley now wishes to protect what little is left of its Ohlone heritage, the city wrote in its appeal. We believe that the judges were wrong, said Johnella LaRose, a member of the Shoshone Bannock and Carrizo tribes. I ask anyone who lives on our territories to stand with the Indigenous people on whose land they live, work and play, LaRose told The Chronicle on Friday. LaRose said she hoped East Bay residents would educate themselves about the shellmound. Once a massive heap of shells, the site served as a burial and ceremonial ground for Ohlone fishing villages dating back more than 5,700 years.

From Corrina Gould <3

* Reminder * Please gather with us from 11am to 1pm tomorrow (Memorial Day) at the West Berkeley Shellmound sacred site! 1900 4th St, Berkeley, CA. This will be our first public prayer gathering at the Shellmound since last month’s unfavorable appeals court ruling.

Dear Friends, We are gathering on Monday/Memorial Day 11-1 to Remember the losses and the resiliency of our communities this past year We will come together fo...r a short time with song, prayer, danza and speakers for all that is sacred. Let us fill the fence that surrounds our beloved West Berkeley Shellmound with love once again. Bring your art work, ribbons and good intentions for this sacred site as we connect it with the work happening around the world to end colonial violence so that we can create the world we want to see for the next seven generations. See more

We made stickers with the beautiful Save the West Berkeley Shellmound art by Vick! Get yours at our gathering Monday 11-1, 4th and Hearst, so called Berkeley. Mural and image by @creative_mudafukah ... #savetheshellmound #protectthesacred #ohlonepeople #Lisjanpeople #stillhere #artforjustice #pleasejoinus #memorialday

Save the West Berkeley Shellmound! Art By Victoira Montaño

From The Shellmounds to Sheikh Jarrah: Call to Honor Those We Have Lost to Colonialism This Memorial Day, please join us at safe distance as we gather in prayer and solidarity with all those who struggle to protect sacred land and life from colonial destruction and desecration.... We call to honor the lives of those lost to the ongoing colonial terror and devastation that is presently being suffered by those in Palestine, Columbia, India, Okinawa, and here on Ohlone lands. We invite all to come honor the ancestors and remember those who have passed by leaving messages, prayer ties, artwork, flowers, and blessings at the West Berkeley Shellmound the sacred Ohlone cultural and village site that is now fenced-off with razor-wire at ‘1900 Fourth Street’ in so-called Berkeley, CA. We further welcome and invite all to make and leave offerings, prayers, and blessings at the shellmound throughout the entire weekend (Sat & Sun May 29-30) in advance of our gathering (Mon. May 31).

This is a Sacred Site. #nodesecrationfordevelopment #savewestberkeleyshellmound #sacredsite #culturalsite #burialsite #villagesite #protectedsite #endangeredsite

Thank you to the all of the amazing artists, protectors and prayer bringers!!! #WeAreStillHere #ProtectSacredSites #protectwestberkeleyshellmound #WeAreNotDefeated

Through this recognition, we are acknowledging the legacy of our ancestors and the continued importance of this sacred site for those in this present moment and for the next seven generations, Corinna Gould, the tribal leader of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, said in a Zoom press conference. This land is an important cultural landscape and this gives us a platform to tell our story, a story that has been erased and invisibilized We must do everything we can to stop the desecration of this sacred site. https://www.berkeleyside.com//west-berkeley-ca-shellmound-

From Native News Online, "One of the tragedies of the development of the San Francisco Bay area was the destruction of the Ohlone villages, shellmonds and burial sites. The shellmounds, some as high as thirty feet and covering areas as large as football fields, were used to pave city streets. What remains of the West Berkeley Ohlone Shellmound and Village site, which is thousands of years old, and perhaps the first village on the San Francisco Bay, is under an asphalt parki...ng lot slated for commercial development, said Rep. Lee." https://nativenewsonline.net//berkeley-shellmound-named-on Want to support the Shellmound? Right now the Shellmound is being defended in the Court of Appeals and we are dangerously low on legal funds. Please learn more and make a donation at https://shellmound.org/2020/09/11most/

For more information and to make a donation to help Save the West Berkeley Shellmound, please visit https://shellmound.org/2020/09/11most/

AB 168 was signed by Governor Newsom yesterday! Thanks again to everyone who called or emailed asking that AB 168 be passed and signed. This is the Governor's press release announcing the passage of AB 168 and a number of other bills related to California tribes. The actions we take today move us closer toward the goal of reckoning with our past, making space for healing and promoting equity," Newsom wrote. "I thank our partners in the Legislature and everyone who made possi...ble these important advancements, especially the tribal leaders whose persistent advocacy has compelled these changes. For more background on why AB 168 is important and relevant to protecting sacred sites like the West Berkeley Shellmound, read the blog post on shellmound.org: https://shellmound.org///ab-168-tribal-cultural-resources/

More coverage about the WB Shellmound being added to the list of 11 most endangered places in the United States. From the San Francisco Business Times, "The "shellmound" site is one of the most important and earliest known Ohlone settlements on the shores of the bay and includes a village dating back 5,700 years. According to the National Trust for Historic... Preservation, the site served as a burial and ceremonial ground, as well as a lookout and communications site, with a repository of shells, ritual objects and artifacts that formed a huge mound." https://shellmound.org//2/09/SF_Business_Times_9-24-20.pdf Want to support the Shellmound? Right now the Shellmound is being defended in the Court of Appeals and we are dangerously low on legal funds. Please learn more and make a donation at https://shellmound.org/

From The Daily Californian, The West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site was named one of the 11 most endangered historic places of 2020 in the United States by the National Trust for Historic Preservation ... The Ohlone people hope to see the lot turned into a green space and cultural park, according to an animated sequence presented at the press conference. The site would include flowing water, a memorial park at which to rebury removed ancestors and a place for reflection and ceremony. https://www.dailycal.org//west-berkeley-shellmound-and-vi/ Want to support the Shellmound? Right now the Shellmound is being defended in the Court of Appeals and we are dangerously low on legal funds. Please learn more and make a donation at https://shellmound.org/2020/09/11most/

Rassawek, a sacred village site of the Monacan Indian Nation located in Virginia, was also named one of #11most threatened historic sites in America, alongside the West Berkeley Shellmound. Learn more about Rassawek, the Monacan's ancient capital city, currently threatened by plans by the James River Water Authority to build a water pump station on top of the site: Learn more: http://www.culturalheritagepartners.com/saverassawek/... Join a sign-on letter to the county supervisors: https://support.savingplaces.org/page/22395/action/1 Donate to the tribe's Save Rassawek fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-rassawek See more

From Berkeleyside, Through this recognition, we are acknowledging the legacy of our ancestors and the continued importance of this sacred site for those in this present moment and for the next seven generations, Corinna Gould, the tribal leader of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, said in a Zoom press conference. This land is an important cultural landscape and this gives us a platform to tell our story, a story that has been erased and invisibilized We must do everything we can to stop the desecration of this sacred site. https://www.berkeleyside.com//west-berkeley-ca-shellmound- Want to support the Shellmound? Right now the Shellmound is being defended in the Court of Appeals and we are dangerously low on legal funds. Please learn more and make a donation at https://shellmound.org/2020/09/11most/

A must read article from the Earth Island Journal, "Of the 425 shellmounds that used to ring the Bay Area, Gould estimates that only four can still be seen. Everything we hold sacred has been built upon, she said. ... That’s why the 2.2 under-developed acres at the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site has become a focal point in the Ohlone peoples’ efforts to preserve and protect their homelands. But the fact that these efforts are focused on such a small portion of th...e Ohlone’s original territory is also indicative of the extent to which colonization and industrial urbanization have impacted Native American sacred sites a story familiar to indigenous peoples across the country and around the world." https://www.earthisland.org//paved-over-ohlone-shellmound- We are in desperate need of donations to support the fight to protect the West Berkeley Shellmound. Please find out more and donate by going to our website, https://shellmound.org/2020/09/11most/

From SF Gate: "The site marks the location of the first human settlement in the Bay Area. Five millennia ago, at the mouth of Strawberry Creek, the ancestors of today’s Ohlone people practiced ceremonial traditions ... The West Berkeley Shellmound, which predates the pyramids of Egypt, was about 30 feet high and covered the area of about two or three football fields."

In case you missed the statements from Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Deb Haaland at our press conference earlier, you can view them at;. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7aSpSSErLA Please support our legal fund and find out more about our addition to the list of 11 most endangered places in the United States at our website. https://shellmound.org/2020/09/11most/

In the SF Chronicle today: "We are hoping this national recognition will validate what this local group has been doing to save the site and the attention will help the developer come to their senses," Brian Turner of the National Trust for Historic Preservation said. "We would like it to remain an open space where we can talk about our history and our culture and continue to pray and have connection to our Ohlone ancestors, Corrina Gould said. So often the Ohlone are talked about in the past tense, when the truth is we still live right here in our territory and have an unbroken tie to this land going back thousands of years. Many Bay Area residents think we don’t exist any more. Please help us prepare for the next stage of the fight to preserve the Shellmound site by donating at shellmound.org/donate