Above photo: Long Beach, California protest demands return of indigenous land. Staff/Fight Back! News.
Long Beach, CA – On September 28, a crowd of about 20 people, including faculty, students and community members gathered near the Walter Pyramid at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) while the school started an event to celebrate its 75th anniversary. The protesters chanted “land back!” and made chalk art to advocate for the protection of Puvungna, a 22-acre site located on campus, sacred to the Acjachemen and Tongva peoples of California.
The university is bound by a 2021 settlement with the tribes and its representatives to return the land to indigenous custodianship by September 2023, but the administration failed to do so and refuses to make progress towards this goal.
Organized by Orange County Environmental Justice (OCEJ) and Friends of Puvungna, the protesters learned about the history of Puvungna from Michelle Castillo, an elder of Acjachemen descent. The 10,000 year old site is the setting for the Acjachemen/Tongva creation story, and is the birthplace of Chinigchinich, lawgiver and god. Villages once covered over 500 acres in the area, and the shared territory includes all of CSULB’s campus.
Many modern structures exist over archaeological sites and the school itself displaced ancestral burial remains in the 1990s. In 2019, CSULB dumped 6400 cubic yards of soil containing arsenic on the remaining 22 acres while lying to the indigenous organizations, stating that they simply wanted to build dirt berms to block out noise. When discussing the significance of the space, Castillo stated, “Puvungna is our church, and we are out here to protect it.”
Protesters marched and chanted along the border of the school’s event, demanding “Land back!” for indigenous custody of Puvungna, drawing support from people driving by and informing curious attendees who approached. Protesters wrote slogans with chalk demanding that CSULB honor their word, and emphasizing that Puvungna is sacred indigenous land.
One faculty member arrived to show their support and asked to remain anonymous to avoid the consequences being handed down by school administrators. They stated that the Chancellor’s Office of the Cal State system has been aggressively discouraging professors from taking part in activism, not only for Puvungna but across movements, including the fight to free Palestine. Some faculty have been harassed for their involvement with student-led protests, with punishments including suspension and dismissal.
The fight to protect Puvungna is part of a greater movement to restore indigenous power over indigenous lands and demand that treaties and agreements be upheld. While Palestine and Puvungna are separated by thousands of miles, both have a history of genocide and land theft but also a history of strong resistance against their oppressors. Despite the repression that protesters, professors and others face, this resistance will continue until indigenous land is returned.