| High-resolution 180-degree pano Jamul Indian Reservation Cemetery, 2005. Open the hirez photo, click on an area to zoom in. Pinch-zoom on mobile devices. Photographed for Dee and Jane Dumas Kumeyaay genealogy project. The picture is also interesting as a period historical record for the landscape beyond the graveyard and church in its pre-casino state.
The Jamul band's original 6-acre Indian reservation was established in 1912, so this is a young, 6-generation burial site supporting the band's small population of 60-120 living band members.
Jamul is a much smaller social model than the 1769 Kumeyaay population of 16,000-25,000 tribal members that renowned anthropologist Florence Shipek, PhD estimated were living in the US-Mexico border region at the time of Colonial invasion (Kosa'aay village -- Ground Zero for the California Indian tribes).
KUMEYAAY CULTURAL REPATRIATION
The Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee (KCRC) was created in 1997 to aid the San Diego area Native American Indian Kumeyaay bands in the repatriation of their ancestors' human remains, tribal artifacts and cultural objects of a patrimony heritage.
RESEARCH STUDY GUIDES:
NATIVE AMERICAN GRAVES AND REPATRIATION ACT (PDF DOWNLOAD) the complete text document from the National Park Service, US Dept. of the Interior.
EARLY CREMATION CEREMONIES OF THE LUISENO AND DIEGUENO INDIANS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (PDF DOWNLOAD) by Edward H. Davis, New York Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation 1921 (Smithsonian Institute Library book).
Webmaster OP-ED:
The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the dust and blood of our ancestors.
- Chief Plenty Coups, Crow (1848 - 1932)
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| Mathematics puts cultural repatriation into perspective:
If thousands of Kumeyaay Aboriginals held the land in greater San Diego for 12,000 years -- as experts say -- that's some 600 generations of Kumeyaay people that are buried in the County of San Diego (their ancestral homelands).
500 YEARS (1525)
To grasp the enormity of your ancestor pool -- only the biological parents who got you here over the past 500 years:
Count YOUR FAMILY TREE back only 25 generations to about 1525.
Each one of us has exactly 33,554,432 (33.5 million) individual biological grandparents who are directly responsible for one's life.
Mathematically, the number of one's biological grandparents double every generation -- merging the birth parents' family trees.
120 CENTURIES (from 10,000 BC)
The number of Kumeyaay ancestors buried in the County of San Diego over the past 12,000 years quickly exceeds human comprehension.
But Chief Plenty Coups' quote affirms Indigenous "dust and blood" ties to Native American Indian ancestral homelands.
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21-GENERATION, 420-YEAR MODEL:
One stone block equals one grandparent.
Experts say there are some 2.3 million stone blocks in the Great Pyramid of Giza (photo above).
To visualize your ancestors -- only the biological parents who got you here over the past 420 years -- from about 1605:
If you counted only the last 21 generations of YOUR Family Tree -- you have exactly 2,097,152 maternal and paternal grandfathers and grandmothers -- nearly completing the Giza model.
I cannot think of an analogy for 600 generations... maybe the stars in our galaxy?
But the number defies human comprehension....
FACT CHECK these statistics in our TRIBAL GENEALOGY Ancestor Calculator: How many ancestors do I have?
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KUMEYAAY REPATRIATION NEWS Blog:
Kumeyaay Tribes Sue University for Human Remains
Courthouse News Service, April 17 2012
SAN DIEGO (CN) - Twelve Indian tribes [sic], known as the Kumeyaay, sued The University of California in Federal Court, seeking repatriation of 9,000-year-old human remains excavated from the school's San Diego campus in 1976
The Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee, which consists of 12 tribes in San Diego County, claims the University violated Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act by keeping the two human remains.
Named as defendants are The University of California, The Board of Regent of the University, University of California president Mark G. Yudof, Chancellor Marye Ann Fox, and Vice Chancellor Gary Matthews.
Jeffrey Gattas, a spokesman for UC San Diego, told Courthouse News that while it had not seen the lawsuit, "the campus has followed University of California procedures in seeking to address the treatment of the human remains and artifacts found on campus property in 1976."
Gattas told Courthouse News in an email: "Developed in response to federal regulations, UC's detailed procedures included review by University faculty committees at both the campus and UC system levels. We believe the University process has achieved a decision that is in accordance with both the law and our commitment to the respectful handling of human remains and associated artifacts."
But the tribes' complaint states: "In 1976 while excavating from the oceanside cliffs of La Jolla, California, two human remains were unearthed. Radiocarbon dating yields an age for the remains to be between 8,977-9,603 years old. The archaeological site from where the remains were removed is identified as CA-SDI-4669 aka W-12-76. The excavating was conducted as part of an undergraduate class that was engaged in an archaeological field research project on the University House (aka the University of California, San Diego, Chancellor's House.) The area of the excavation was well known to be rich with Native American burials and artifacts and several years ago was designated as a sanctified cemetery under California state law... COMPLETE NEWS ARTICLE courthousenews.com.
Professors sue to stop ancient bones transfer
Associated Press, April 25, 2012
SAN DIEGO -- Two skeletons that rested undisturbed on a San Diego cliff top for nearly 10,000 years are at the center of a modern court battle.
The University of California, San Diego, had intended to transfer the skeletons of a man and woman to an American Indian tribe for traditional burial. But lawsuits are complicating the plan.
The bones were discovered in 1976 during an excavation at University House, the traditional La Jolla home of the UC San Diego chancellor. The university was preparing to hand over the bones to the local Kumeyaay tribe when three UC professors filed a lawsuit Monday in Northern California to block the transfer.
Margaret Schoeninger of UC San Diego, Robert Bettinger of UC Davis and Timothy White of UC Berkeley argued that the bones were precious research objects and there was no evidence they are related to the Kumeyaay... COMPLETE NEWS ARTICLE www.utsandiego.com.
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