Of Sacred Lands and Strip Malls

The Battle for Puvungna

Ronald Loewe

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9780759121621
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

A twenty-two acre strip of land—known as Puvungna—lies at the edge of California State University's Long Beach campus. The land, indisputably owned by California, is also sacred to several Native American tribes. And these twenty-two acres have been the nexus for an acrimonious and costly conflict over control of the land. Of Sacred Lands and Strip Malls tells the story of Puvungna, from the region's deep history, through years of struggle between activists and campus administration, and ongoing reverberations from the conflict.

As Loewe makes clear, this is a case study with implications beyond a single controversy; at stake in the legal battle is the constitutionality of state codes meant to protect sacred sites from commercial development, and the right of individuals to participate in public hearings. The case also raises questions about the nature of contract archaeology, applied anthropology, and the relative status of ethnography and ethnohistorical research. It is a compelling snapshot of issues surrounding contemporary Native American landscapes.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: Backdrop to a Dispute
• Chapter 1: Beginnings
• Chapter 2: From Mission Historyto Mission Mania
• Chapter 3: Forty-Niner Culture and the Origin of the American Indian Studies Program
• Part II: The Puvungna Land Dispute
• Chapter 4: The Political Struggle
• Chapter 5: The Legal Conflict
• Chapter 6: The Academic Controversy
• Part III: A History of the Present Moment
• Chapter 7: Postconflict Puvungna, Repatriation, and Reburial
• Chapter 8: Moving Forward
• Postscript
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Notes
• References