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by Jim Holman.
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Patently Unfair

INDIANS BATTLE CARDINAL OVER CATHEDRAL

By Maggie Garcia

Cardinal Roger Mahony has traveled a rocky road in his attempt to build a new cathedral for the Los Angeles archdiocese by the year 2000. First he was defeated by the Los Angeles Conservancy when he tried to raze historic Saint Vibiana's Cathedral. Later, after purchasing a lot on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, Native Americans filed a lawsuit, alleging that the site was the sacred burial grounds of their ancestors. In a series of hearings held to fulfill requirements for an Environmental Impact Report due to the possibility that human remains were buried on the site, both the archdiocese and the City of Los Angeles repeatedly tried to keep Gabrielino chief Vera Rocha off the city's Mitigation and Monitoring Committee.

Rocha did not endear herself to the archdiocese or the Community Redevelopment Agency when she repeatedly opposed the building of the cathedral at the Grand Avenue location. Frustrated with the archdiocese's tactics, Rocha filed the Native American's lawsuit against the archdiocese, the Community Redevelopment Agency and the City of Los Angeles. The lawsuit is based on two causes of action: the violation of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and violation of land use.

Another plaintiff in the action is the non-profit Spirit of the Sage Council which Rocha co-founded with Leeona Klippstein. In a telephone interview, Klippstein spoke about how some Native Americans earn a living by working for developers as mouthpieces when concerns are raised about lack of sensitivity towards Native Americans. This lawsuit is interesting because it clearly asks the court to determine who speaks on behalf of Native Americans when disputes, like the one involving the archdiocese, arise. This could have a tremendous impact on land use issues in the future.

In the meantime, the archdiocese has acquired the services of Mary Ann Moore and the Gabrielino/Tonga Tribal council, a non-profit organization, in order to appease public concerns about the cardinal's response towards Rocha's objections about the location of the cathedral. Klippstein pointed out that the Gabrielino/Tonga Tribal Council is not a tribe that is recognized by either the state or federal government. In August 1994, the California State Senate and Assembly introduced a joint resolution that recognized the Gabrielinos as the aboriginal tribe of the Los Angeles basin. The joint resolution struck down an earlier version of a resolution that held the elected tribal council of the Gabrielino/Tonga Nation was the legal and traditional governing body of the Gabrielino/Tonga people. Klippstein questions why Moore who is only one-sixteenth Gabrielino was appointed to the Mitigation and Monitoring Committee while Rocha, who is half Gabrielino, is not allowed to sit on the committee. Rocha's appointment to the committee has been repeatedly blocked by the Community Redevelopment Agency and the archdiocese.

Rocha has asked the court for an injunction to stop the activities of the Mitigation and Monitoring Committee. A hearing was scheduled for March 19 in the Los Angeles Superior Court in downtown Los Angeles. To the surprise of the Spirit of the Sage Council, on March 16, the archdiocese's archeological team begain digging into the 5.8-acre lot where the cardinal is hoping to build the new cathedral. The archeological team is trying to determine if there are "significant cultural resources" buried under the surface of the site. Upon learning of bulldozers digging up the site, Spirit of the Sage immediately sent out a press release protesting the actions of the archdiocese. The press release noted that bulldozing began without the court receiving all of the information and prior to a March 19 hearing on a possible injuction that would have postponed excavation at the site until Chief Rocha was allowed to be on the Mitigation and Monitoring Committee. Judge Richard O'Brien ruled against the injunction on March 19.

At the hearing, Judge O'Brien expressed concern about delaying the cathedral project for a short while, though a permanent injunction is a possiblity if Rocha prevails in her lawsuit against the archdiocese. Citing this concern, O'Brien denied Rocha's motion, thus allowing the archdiocese to continue with the building. Craig Sherman, Rocha's attorney, said O'Brien's ruling "was patently unfair and it is improbable that O'Brien is reading the intention of the city council with regards to the Mitigation and Monitoring Committee." Sherman expressed disappointment that the archdiocese "was given indirect permission to go ahead with the building."

In the meantime, the archdiocese's team of archeologists have uncovered the remains of several 19th-century homes. This is consistant with the fact that the proposed site of the cathedral was once a part of Bunker Hill, a fashionable, housing district in turn-of-the-century downtown.

Both sides are scheduled to return to Judge O'Brien's courtroom May 21, 1998, when the trial that will determine if the cardinal will be allowed to build his cathedral is scheduled to begin.

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