A San Francisco Bay Area parking lot that sits on top of a sacred tribal shell mound dating back 5,700 years has been returned to the Ohlone people by the Berkeley City Council after a settlement with developers who own the land.
Berkeley’s City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a women-led, San Francisco Bay Area collective that works to return land to Indigenous people and that raised the funds needed to reach the agreement.
“This was a long, long effort but it was honestly worth it because what we’re doing today is righting past wrongs and returning stolen land to the people who once lived on it,” said Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin.
The 2.2-acre parking lot is the only undeveloped portion of the West Berkeley shell mound, a three-block area Berkeley designated as a landmark in 2000.
Before Spanish colonizers arrived in the region, that area held a village and a massive shell mound with a height of 20 feet and the length and width of a football field that was a ceremonial and burial site.
Built over years with mussel, clam and oyster shells, human remains, and artifacts, the mound also served as a lookout.
Read more here from The Associated Press.
