Objects to article on skeletal remains

Objects to article on skeletal remains

Regarding an article in the May 11 Acorn, "Bones Found in Calabasas Might Be 400 Years Old" by John Loesing, this article briefly describes Chumash human remains having been encountered during the construction of a house in Calabasas.

The property owner called the county coroner’s office who sent out an anthropologist that determined that the bones consisted of a "leg," a jaw bone, skull, some ribs and were that of a male, "probably" Chumash adult.

The word "isolated" is used twice in this tiny article in regards to the find.

I highly doubt that this is an isolated event given the fact that the National Registry for Archaeological Sites has determined 700 significant prehistoric and historic occupation sites throughout Calabasas and the Santa Monica Mountains. The entire South coast was a densely populated region for over 10,000 years. There are bound to be a few bones.

But given the property values there, the use of the word isolation was necessary in order to alleviate any fear that the reader (more than likely an affluent resident of the Calabasas area) might be standing on an Indian burial ground or God forbid, that his house might have been built on one, like in that Poltergesit movie.

That may not be good for real estate sales.

Appallingly, the author, in less than 20 words describes the Chumash, and how 22,000 of them in 1770 (not sure where he got that number!) had decreased in 1880 to 300 and now there are about 1,500 still alive.

There are in fact over 1,100 Coastal Band members alone, not including the Reservation (another 1,000 or so), the Ventura clans and San Luis clans. We number more like 4,000. Mr. Loesing also states that European diseases are what reduced our numbers, not giving any mention to enslavement, starvation and murder.

He goes on to say "… some live on the reservation … and some still live in their traditional homeland" as if "their traditional homeland" were someplace other than here where the wealthy have built their multi-million dollar homes, highways and tanning salons.

I understand that this publication is not intended for the purpose of actually informing the residents of these neighborhoods about "news" but probably more for creating a sense of community and giving the local merchants a place to advertise.

Still, there is a responsibility as a journalist of any caliber to tell the truth and to do so in a respectful manner.

Whether anything is done about it is not my concern so much as bringing to your attention the importance of stating the facts, especially in a case of people that have been erroneously represented throughout history.

I beg you, stop perpetuating the ignorance.

Deana Dartt

Coastal Band of the

Chumash Nation

We hope you shared your venom with the Los Angeles Times since that newspaper’s coverage of the incident was essentially the same as ours.

The authorities responsible for making such decisions determined that the discovery did not involve a Native American burial site.

We reported it factually.

Perhaps your deep-seated resentment would be more appropriately placed at the doorstep of those who made the evaluation that we dutifully reported.

But you’ve chosen to blame and belittle the messenger instead of the message. Because the story did not reflect the "spin" that you prefer, you blame us.

We do take seriously our responsibilities as a community newspaper. That’s why we reported the story in the first place.

The information regarding the Chumash population, incidentally, was taken from Encarta, a computer-based encyclopedia.