Tomales Point and Point Reyes, the Farallon Islands and the West Berkeley Shellmound, all in northern California’s Bay Area, are sacred places. Their entirety forms an immense ceremonial and mortuary complex for the Coast Miwok and Ohlone, indigenous to the San Francisco Bay Area. These coastal sites are evidence of early Polynesian settlement in the Americas.
The California Supreme Court is deciding whether to take on the West Berkeley Shellmound case. Project Director Toby McLeod argues that they must!
On the day the California Court of Appeal heard arguments over whether to uphold lower court protection of the West Berkeley Shellmound, landowners erected a six-foot chain link fence topped with three strands of barbed wire. It was a gut punch.
In a stunning development, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has placed the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site on their 2020 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
Help stop the Bureau of Reclamation from enlarging Shasta Dam. Please send your comment letter by October 5, a sample letter is provided in this blog. Thank you!
When Soviet forces forcibly relocated the Yaghnobi from their mountain valley in what is now Tajikistan, the Russians were unable to crush the spirit of the people. Their cultural lifeblood remained in their homeland and they returned to create the Yaghnob National Natural Park to protect their ancient cultural landscape.
On April 7, 2018, artifacts from the West Berkeley Shellmound and Emeryville Shellmound, some of them thousands of years old, were removed from storage at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum and, for the first time ever, shown to the general public at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive. More than 300 people joined the California Institute for Community Arts and Culture and friends to view these remarkable objects and hear a panel of contemporary Native California artists.
Following free online screenings of the four episodes of Standing on Sacred Ground, we discussed updates and current struggles with indigenous leaders featured in the films. Here are four YouTube videos of those interactive Zoom conversations.
Celebrate Earth Day with free online screenings of the four films in our Standing on Sacred Ground series, one per week, with discussions with indigenous leaders featured in the films.
As messenger and translator for Hopi elders since 1948, Thomas Banyacya, Sr. (1909-1999) traversed the globe trying to help people understand the warnings revealed in the Hopi Prophecy. In November 1995, the Sacred Land Film Project followed Thomas to the Whole Life Expo in Las Vegas where he made two hour-long presentations over two days. Here is Part 2 of 2.