CALIFAS: Berkeley Protest March and Concert to Protect Sacred Sites and Human Rights -- NOV 14

URGENT ACTION ALERT----FORWARD WIDELY

Blackfire Concert and March to protect Sacred Sites and defend Human Rights!!

Wed. Nov. 14th
Concert 8pm
Protest March at 10:00PM from La Pena Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA
To Memorial Oak Grove Tree sit (near the corner of Piedmont and
Bancroft. UC Berkeley campus)


After this Blackfire show (at about 10:00PM) join a candle light
march to the UC Berkeley Tree-sit to support the efforts to protect the
Memorial Oak Grove and Native American Burial Ground!!

UC Police are preparing to extract tree sitters protecting Oak grove
and Native American Burial Ground.

UC work crews continue to construct new larger fences around the
Memorial Oak Grove in anticipation of forcibly extracting tree-sit
protesters from the grove. UC has stated that the fences are needed
for "security reasons" prior to an extraction attempt.


Meanwhile, Judge Barbara Miller is expected to return her decision any
day in the lawsuits against the stadium expansion project. UC
Berkeley officials have stated that no matter what Judge Miller
decides the University will try to end the tree-sit protest.

The Memorial Grove Tree-Sit is by far the longest ongoing URBAN
tree-sit protest in history, now approaching it's one year anniversary
on December 2nd. The Oak Grove Is a Native American burial ground


Wounded Knee Deocampo from the Vallejo Intertribal Council, said, "It
is time to put a halt to digging up sacred sites. We would never dig
up your cemeteries. These are sacred places as much as the pyramids of
Egypt."

University's environmental impact report says "there's a high
likelihood of archaeological sites within the site boundaries." A
partial skeleton and 18 Native American burials was unearthed and
removed during stadium construction in 1923.


Corrina Gould, an Ohlone Indian from Berkeley, said, "These are sacred
sites for the Ohlone. We are still living. We are not in the past."

The oak grove has not been excavated, but it's likely that an Ohlone
village was in the general area, said Malcolm Margolin, author of "The
Ohlone Way" and publisher of Heyday Books in Berkeley.

This march will also stop to demonstrate in front of the Phoebe Hearst
Museum, where the remains of over 13,000 Native Americans are stored
in basement drawers and boxes.

American Indian remains are protected by federal law, which says that
descendants and the local Native American Heritage Commission must
oversee any remains removal.

We will insist that public officials redress the longstanding
injustice that allows Museums and scientists to keep huge collections
of Native American remains and conduct research that violates tribal
religious beliefs.


More Information
www.saveoaks.com
For additional information on the Ancestral Remains/UCB NAGPRA issue,
visit http://nagpra-ucb-faq.blogspot.com and
http://nagpra-ucb.blogspot.com .


Quotes From the SF Chronicle 2/21/07

Thanks to:
Ne74