A rally took place near the sacred site of Puvungna, located on what is now the Cal State Long Beach campus, on Sunday, Sept. 26 to celebrate the agreement reached by the university and the land’s Indigenous peoples to protect the area permanently.
“We’re transitioning to an era of working with the university to clean up the land, restore it,” said Rebecca Robles, member of the Acjachemen Nation and Friends of Puvungna. “And we’re looking forward to building a very cooperative long-lasting relationship.”
A settlement was reached on Monday, Sept. 13, which requires the university to develop a restrictive covenant that would prohibit it from damaging or building on Puvungna.
The settlement also ensures the rights of local Indigenous groups to access the land.
“We’re very, very happy,” Robles said. “Like I said, we’re in an era of building, healing, social justice, and justice for the land and the ancestors.”
For generations, the 22 acres of land have served an important cultural and spiritual role for the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation – Belardes, the Gabrielino/Tongva tribe and other Native American groups in what is now Southern California.
“I know our ancestors are pleased [by] what’s happening today, there’s no way they can’t be,” said Lloyd Valenzuela, tribal elder of the Acjachemen Nation.
Over the next two years, the Cal State system will need to transfer care-taking responsibilities ofPuvungna from the university to a manager. The appointed manager must be approved by the groups that initiated the lawsuit.
The Indigenous group Friends of Puvungna wants management of the land to be transferred to them.
An individual holds two signs during a rally to advocate for the protection of the Indigenous cultural site Puvungna on Sunday, Sept. 26.(Kristen Farraah Naeem | Signal Tribune) 
People hold signs for cars to read as they drive past the CSULB campus during a rally organized by Friends of Puvungna on Sunday, Sept. 26. (Kristen Farrah Naeem | Signal Tribune)
While a manager has not been chosen yet, according to Robles the attorneys for Friends of Puvungna and the university have been in contact with each other.
“We’re doing something that hasn’t been done before here at Cal State Long Beach,” Robles told attendees at the Sept. 26 rally. “It’s coming full circle. We’ve protected a sacred site, we’ve protected a creation site. We’ve done it together, and we’re going to continue to work together as family, as friends, as relatives to protect the land, to care for the land.”
The settlement follows decades of litigation between local Indigenous groups and CSULB. The most recent lawsuit was initiated in 2019 after the university dumped 6,400 cubic yards of construction debris and dirt on Puvungna.
“It wasn’t any easy task,” Tongva elder Gloria Arellanes said. “It still isn’t going to be easy. Nothing’s going to be easy, but we already know the taste of [winning.]”
Attendees at the rally gathered in a circle as Arellanes led a prayer, giving thanks and asking for blessings.
“Creator, Grandfather, Grandmother, ancestors of the land, spirits of the land, we thank you for guiding us and being with us and making us feel that you have heard our prayers,” Arellanes said.
